Costa Express...costalot !!

[Butts]

Following on from Traffic Lights and Fog Lights another annoyance driving about at night is trying to get a takeaway coffee (to keep you awake) at a decent price.

The eponymous Costa Express Machines seem to have popped up in Garages and other outlets in ever increasing numbers in the last few years. Strangely in Edinburgh at least they seem to be exactly the same price wherever you go - £2.10 for a regular or £2.60 for a large Latte or Cappo. I wonder if there is some sort of unofficial "price fixing" in operation. They are not much cheaper than the Costa Coffee shops themselves. If you are having three or four a night it soon mounts up. I think about £1.50 would be a fairer price.

McDonalds 24 hour are £1.59 for a regular and you get the seventh free if you save the stickers.

One Shell Garage in Dunfermline has a nescafe machine that does an albeit slightly smaller Latte or Cappo for 97p and it's just as good.If only there were more like that about.

Do other people have similar problems ?

 

[Tubeboy]

Why not make some at home and put it in a flask?

 

[Butts]

Why not make some at home and put it in a flask?

I do sometimes but it never tastes as good

 

[Tubeboy]

Haha. I know what you mean. But as to the price, not being a cynic, but they know at night there's a lot less choice out there and can whack on a premium.

 

[Butts]

Haha. I know what you mean. But as to the price, not being a cynic, but they know at night there's a lot less choice out there and can whack on a premium.

True, but it's the same price during the day when there is arguably more competition - ie Subway.

 

[EM2]

Personally, I find the coffee from the Express machines to be of much better quality than McDonalds, and would gladly pay the premium. However, I wouldn't be having more than one during a night.

 

[Butts]

Personally, I find the coffee from the Express machines to be of much better quality than McDonalds, and would gladly pay the premium. However, I wouldn't be having more than one during a night.

You might be if you were on a 12 hour shift

I don't think theres much in it between them in terms of quality.

 

[EM2]

You might be if you were on a 12 hour shift

I don't think theres much in it between them in terms of quality.

Well, it wasn't that long ago that I left Whitstable at 4pm and arrived in Cavan at 9am, and one large coffee at about 9pm got me through that.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Personally, I find the coffee from the Express machines to be of much better quality than McDonalds, and would gladly pay the premium. However, I wouldn't be having more than one during a night.

Yes, I too find the coffee from the Costa machines in particular to be very high quality. I also prefer that Costa use whole milk (or at least they do in the shops) rather than semi-skimmed.

 

[Antman]

I'm not a coffee drinker but tea is nearly as expensive, you won't get much change from £2 at London rail stations

 

[deltic1989]

A bit OT, but I have recently had cause to use the coffee machines at Queens Medical Centre. They are provided by a company called Pelican Rouge, and what I find amusing about them is, a machine inside the ward charges £1.00 for a coffee, but one outside the ward literally 30ft away from the door, charges £1.50 for the self same beverage.

Back on topic, on long night drives I tend to take a 4 pack of a popular brand of energy drink to keep me going. In the absence of that I prefer to hang on to find a 24hr McDonalds, as I'm not really a fan of the Costa machine offering.

 

[Butts]

I'm not a coffee drinker but tea is nearly as expensive, you won't get much change from £2 at London rail stations

Not many rail stations open at 2am in Edinburgh i'm afraid

Do Burger King have any drive thru's open 24 hours - wonder how much they charge for a Latte ?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Yes, I too find the coffee from the Costa machines in particular to be very high quality. I also prefer that Costa use whole milk (or at least they do in the shops) rather than semi-skimmed.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Yes, I too find the coffee from the Costa machines in particular to be very high quality. I also prefer that Costa use whole milk (or at least they do in the shops) rather than semi-skimmed.

You might not be quite so confident if you saw the inside of one ? - when I worked at Tesco Bank in Glasgow there was one in the Canteen that used to break down quite a lot . The first time the engineer required my assistance to hold a bit while he removed all the gunk was quite an eye opener. To maintain the quality they have to be properly serviced and topped up by the staff, while one in a canteen has catering professionals to do this - one in a Garage ?

 

[WestCoast]

A bit OT, but I have recently had cause to use the coffee machines at Queens Medical Centre. They are provided by a company called Pelican Rouge, and what I find amusing about them is, a machine inside the ward charges £1.00 for a coffee, but one outside the ward literally 30ft away from the door, charges £1.50 for the self same beverage. .

All the machines at my University are Pelican Rouge, the coffee is quite decent actually but the machines are always broken/out of cups/stealing money. :roll:

I've had mixed experiences with the Costa machines, the one at the local Shell garage doesn't seem as good as the one at local Spar. Amusingly, none of them beat my £37 Nescafe Dolche Gusto pod machine at home.

 

[Butts]

All the machines at my University are Pelican Rouge, the coffee is quite decent actually but the machines are always broken/out of cups/stealing money. :roll:

I've had mixed experiences with the Costa machines, the one at the local Shell garage doesn't seem as good as the one at local Spar. Amusingly, none of them beat my £37 Nescafe Dolche Gusto pod machine at home.

As a matter of interest are the prices at the Shell Garage and Spar the same ?

As I mentioned earlier it's £2.10/£2.60 in Edinburgh.

 

[WestCoast]

As a matter of interest are the prices at the Shell Garage and Spar the same ?

As I mentioned earlier it's £2.10/£2.60 in Edinburgh.

Yeah, £2.10/£2.60 at both. The one at the Spar doesn't seem well used as there is a proper Costa around the corner, I usually pop in because they have Amazon lockers.

 

[Butts]

Yeah, £2.10/£2.60 at both. The one at the Spar doesn't seem well used as there is a proper Costa around the corner, I usually pop in because they have Amazon lockers.

Hmm....highly suspicious 300 miles apart and exactly the same price ?

 

[WestCoast]

Hmm....highly suspicious 300 miles apart and exactly the same price ?

Maybe it's a standard price like a Tesco meal deal is £3.00, but could well be higher in London/at rail stations or airports etc. I'm guessing these machines are owned and operated by Costa rather than the 'venues' where they are located?

 

[Butts]

Maybe it's a standard price like a Tesco meal deal is £3.00, but could well be higher in London/at rail stations or airports etc. I'm guessing these machines are owned and operated by Costa rather than the 'venues' where they are located?

But a Tesco Meal Deal is exclusive to Tesco whereas a Meal Deal at sainsburys or the co-op could well be a different price.

The Costa Machines are sited in different premises yet seem to be the same price , perhaps Costa are leaning on everyone to charge the same price.

 

[transportphoto]

I'm fairly sure Costa Expresses are £2.10/£2.40 around these parts… May have recently changed though.

TP

 

[Clip]

But a Tesco Meal Deal is exclusive to Tesco whereas a Meal Deal at sainsburys or the co-op could well be a different price.

The Costa Machines are sited in different premises yet seem to be the same price , perhaps Costa are leaning on everyone to charge the same price.

What's wrong with uniform pricing across their business

 

[Butts]

What's wrong with uniform pricing across their business

Nothing if they were a bit lower !!!

The machine variant is almost the same price as The Barrista one in a proper Costa Venue with all it's overheads.

 

[tsr]

I am often awake at stupid o'clock going to work, and one of my local stations* is big enough to have a 24-hour Costa and a Costa Express machine which sometimes actually functions correctly. When it doesn't, you've got a bit of a problem as there's nobody to take responsibility, plus they do indeed get gunked up and I'm not really sure how good the self-cleaning programme is (like the Waitrose "free" coffee machines, which always seem to go wrong after self-cleaning!). Due to the prices being virtually the same with the modest staff discount I get at the proper Costa, if I have a spare five minutes I'll go round the corner to keep the half-asleep barista in a job, but to be honest it's much handier to use the machine if there isn't a drunk person dribbling on it.

What I do really appreciate are those locations with a 24-hour Costa Express machine where there is quite literally nothing else around. I've yet to use one in somewhere particularly remote from the beaten track, but they do exist in such things as petrol stations in rural areas round my way (as well as Tchibo ones, which I've not yet tried), and it's comforting in a strange way to know how easy it is to get a fairly nice coffee in the middle of the night. I hope they stay in all these places, as it's something which adds a fair bit of civilisation to a long drive somewhere. Whilst caffeine doesn't really perk my alertness up all that much nowadays, for me it is the liquid equivalent of comfort-eating, but in modest quantities otherwise I just go all juddery (as you do... bit embarrassing when you're checking tickets at 5am, but hey ho).

For comparison, I think a robo-Costa round my way is £2.15 for a regular cappuccino/latte etc., about £1.95 for regular tea, £2.05 for regular americano, and goodness knows what for large sizes as that's a lot of coffee in one go. Human-Costa is only 5-15p more for me unless you want something stupid with actual bits of biscuit and skinny hazelnut foam. Without a discount it'll be about 30p more.

*Those of you who are unlucky enough to often enjoy overnight travel in the South-East may know where I am talking about.

 

[Mojo]

I don't believe these Costa Express machines do tea do they? I stopped off at a services on the M4 a year and a bit ago just before 4 in the morning and I remember that I had to go to the counter (disturbing the guy who was doing the washing up) to get a tea.

 

[EM2]

I had my first Pelican Rouge at Newham hospital recently. The coffee was incredibly strong, to the point that the Americano tasted like a quadruple espresso!

 

[kelv]

Get yourself a Bialetti* 9 Cup Stovetop, I drink 2 mugs from 1 in a morning (equivalent to 9 espresso I suppose) & the chances of falling/getting to sleep in the next 15 hours are practically Zero.

*had others but the Bialetti's just seem to make it way stronger.

 

[tsr]

I don't believe these Costa Express machines do tea do they? I stopped off at a services on the M4 a year and a bit ago just before 4 in the morning and I remember that I had to go to the counter (disturbing the guy who was doing the washing up) to get a tea.

Some of the ones I've found do. Not all.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I don't believe these Costa Express machines do tea do they? I stopped off at a services on the M4 a year and a bit ago just before 4 in the morning and I remember that I had to go to the counter (disturbing the guy who was doing the washing up) to get a tea.

They do hot water, and should have a stack of tea bags in a compartment somewhere...

I'd concur with the poster who was slightly appalled by the innards of these machines, especially the ones in the shops at motorway services: I'm speaking from experience here!

 

[PaulHarding150]

They are the same set price across the country for what is the same set product.

I honestly don't know what Butts is complaining about (sorry).

It's going slightly off on a tangent but a Latte and a Vanilla Latte cost the same from the machines but are slightly different prices in store? Why, it makes it far easier for the cashier to charge the price, otherwise people would say it was a Latte when in fact they have a Vanilla Latte.

As with everything, if you don't like the product, or price, go elsewhere.

Also, if you're drinking four a night, I worry about you insides, teeth and bank balance

 

[Iskra]

I'm not really sure how good the self-cleaning programme is (like the Waitrose "free" coffee machines, which always seem to go wrong after self-cleaning!)

They don't self-clean, they are cleaned once a day by a human and will stop functioning if they haven't been cleaned by the specific time they are programmed to be cleaned at each day.

They do hot water, and should have a stack of tea bags in a compartment somewhere...

I'd concur with the poster who was slightly appalled by the innards of these machines, especially the ones in the shops at motorway services: I'm speaking from experience here!

It's all about who is cleaning them and how good a job they do. The inside of every Express machine I've ever seen has always been clean. I used to run a number of motorway sites for a Costa franchise, I can confirm that the ones on the M6 in the North West of England are all cleaned to a standard that I'd use them.

Also, on a point that a couple of posters have made: Costa Express machines all use semi-skimmed milk. It is only Costa shops that only serve whole or skimmed and not semi-skimmed.

 

[tony_mac]

Costa Express machines are still owned by Costa, who share the profits with the retailer - so it's not surprising that the prices are uniform.
(Apparently, a busy machine can earn you £35k a year)