I thought this was interesting and potentially very relevant to Salcombe...we have covered this subject before when the business rates rises were talked about...did they ever happen?
Kingsbridge has a Costa and it always seems busy; I suspect tourists and some locals don't give it much thought as they just want a coffee and the continual advertising and hence front of mind presence make it very easy to walk into a "chain" shop as you know what you are going to get; and let's face it some independent coffee shops don't help themselves by serving up very poor quality coffee. Do you risk a poor coffee or just go to a chain??
The Salcombe Coffee Co serves up some very decent stuff, The Winking Prawn is pretty poor on the coffee front but the food and location make up for it, The Wardroom is passable and I haven't tried the Basham's new place as yet...
Lets hope the Salcombe planners don't take the same approach they do to granting planning permission for new builds as these national coffee companies have very deep pockets!
Thanks to BBC News for the report:
"A very British insurrection is under way over plans to bring the first branch of a major coffee chain to a small Devon town. But why are coffee chains such a battleground? At half nine on a bright morning the aroma of Arabica gently percolates through Totnes's narrow lanes and alleys. That smell of roasting beans is difficult to escape. In this settlement of fewer than 8,000 souls there are 41 different places to buy a hot cup of the stuff.
And yet plans to open just one more coffee outlet have provoked fury - opening up a dispute as bitter as the darkest espresso.
The latest addition to the town's High Street will be a branch of Costa - the first coffee chain to breach the citadel of a community fiercely proud of its independently owned outlets. So far 5,749 people - equivalent to three-quarters of the town's population - have signed an anti-Costa petition and pledged to boycott the new branch. Its approval by South Hams District Council was greeted by a 150-strong group of placard-wielding demonstrators who marched through Totnes's streets in protest.
Though they have no recourse to appeal, the campaigners stubbornly refuse to give in amid apocalyptic warnings that Totnes risks becoming a "clone town". Posters bearing the legend Clonestopping - featuring local baristas posing in the style of the film Trainspotting - adorn windows of homes and commercial premises. A glance at the Yellow Pages might have given the council warning. With names like Totnes People's Cafe, Food For Thought and The Curator Cafe, many of the coffee shops share an aesthetic of nonconformism. Totnes is not exactly typical of a small British town. Like Hebden Bridge or Glastonbury, it has long hosted incomers attracted by its eco-friendly and New Age reputation."
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