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Costa Express...costalot !!

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tsr

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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.

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.

I'm pretty sure the machine I'm thinking of must be an experimental or just different version (it does at least look a lot different to ones you get in Co-ops, petrol stations etc.).

For a start, the prices have changed compared to other machines recently. And the Vanilla (etc.) Lattes have in the last month or two gone up in price by about 15p, but the normal ones have remained the same. I have also come across it saying "Self cleaning in progress, please wait", which means that it can't be like the ones you mention. In fact it was making quite a disconcertingly loud noise when it was doing so. It has a separate message when it has not been serviced.

The station staff often say it is a bit temperamental (Contactless sometimes doesn't work, too), so I wonder if it has been customised and nobody quite knows how it should work. It's very much Costa branded, though.
 
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ValleyLines142

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The Costa machines all use semi-skimmed milk, which is most ironic as in the main stores they use only whole skimmed!

The machines aren't too bad to be honest; however, as a Costa barista myself come to my store and I'll make you a mighty fine cup of coffee, the best you'll ever taste and worth every penny! :lol:
 

Clip

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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.

Whilst you are right in that the overheads may not seem the same as a coffee shop you still have them and they are still quite high - rent( this is the same whether people buy anything or not and stores will always have people in them over an hour), people to replenish the machines and probably 2 people to take money from them if the garage wont do it - and if they do then you would be paying for that service too then the servicing and all that stuff. All adds up.

Just drink tea from a flask and be happy :)
 

61653 HTAFC

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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)

The machines I worked with (3 different ones at Taunton Deane MSA, in 2003-5) were originally branded as Coffee Nation machines until Costa bought Coffee Nation. The machines weren't changed but had the frontages replaced with Costa branding. Each one had a self-cleaning programme which was set to operate every 12 hours, but was supposed to be given a superficial clean up by a human every couple of hours and a deep clean (also by a human) once a week. Staff were shown how to do these deep cleans by a Coffee Nation (later Costa) rep, but the demonstration was fairly vague and took about 20-30mins.

The machines may well have been upgraded since then but on my last visit to Taunton Deane in 2014 (this time as a "civilian") the machines appeared to be the same. I've seen apparently identical machines still in use within the last few months but there are variations: some are coin operated but some simply dispense the drinks and are then paid for via a human cashier.
 

thejuggler

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We had one installed in an office I worked in. The price of at least £2 for a coffee put people off straight away. The machine was constantly requiring attention by Costa engineers, so it was often offline.

Minimum sales required to keep the machine were 200 cups a week, 40 a day. For an office of 1,000 with visitors that doesn't sound a lot.

After 6 months the machine went as 10 sales a day was typical.

It was replaced for a bean to cup machine from a local supplier. It does decaf, hot chocolate, full or semi skimmed milk. Cost is £1 a cup, buy 5 get one free, staff can fix it quickly and it takes at least £100 a day.
 
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mullin

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For anyone out and about on the Motorway, download the Moto App to your smartphone. Daily offers for the shops at the Moto Services with up-to 40% off at Costa / Eat & Drink Co. / Burger King.

Costa is usually integrated with EDC so if they're mentioned on a daily deal (and Costa not) I've always got the relevant discount on my coffee from EDC
 

Busaholic

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For anyone out and about on the Motorway, download the Moto App to your smartphone. Daily offers for the shops at the Moto Services with up-to 40% off at Costa / Eat & Drink Co. / Burger King.

Costa is usually integrated with EDC so if they're mentioned on a daily deal (and Costa not) I've always got the relevant discount on my coffee from EDC

On a recent round trip to London I had a small cappucino at Costa, Exeter Services price 2.99 and the same at a M25 services from Starbucks, cost 2.69. I've always found Costa cheaper on the High Street, and better coffee too.
 

Butts

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We had one installed in an office I worked in. The price of at least £2 for a coffee put people off straight away. The machine was constantly requiring attention by Costa engineers, so it was often offline.

Minimum sales required to keep the machine were 200 cups a week, 40 a day. For an office of 1,000 with visitors that doesn't sound a lot.

After 6 months the machine went as 10 sales a day was typical.

It was replaced for a bean to cup machine from a local supplier. It does decaf, hot chocolate, full or semi skimmed milk. Cost is £1 a cup, buy 5 get one free, staff can fix it quickly and it takes at least £100 a day.

Sounds like these are a better prospect but unlikely to be turning up in any numbers anytime soon :p
 

cf111

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Costa stores have put their prices up this year, a flat white is 10p more at £2.50.

I don't use the machines because I only drink said flat whites from Costa. On another note I find McDonald's lattes to be quite nice on the rare occasion I cave in and have breakfast there before boarding a train at an hour too early to be up and about!

Edit: and this is completely unrelated, but I went into Burger King for the first time in years a few weeks back and they have a machine which appears to be able to create any drink the Coca-Cola Company has produced since the dawn of time, I was astounded! My Coke with lime was lovely too!
 
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Blamethrower

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When the machines work, they normally produce good coffee. It all depends on which machine you use too. There is one designed by Pininfarina (like the Eurostar!) and the drinks from that are ace, despite having to listen to fake coffee cup noises, well expensive though.

All depends if you want to pay for nice coffee or not. It's only an issue for me if I get the train to work. Otherwise I drive to work and get it for free coz I work at head office :)
 

Bletchleyite

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Edit: and this is completely unrelated, but I went into Burger King for the first time in years a few weeks back and they have a machine which appears to be able to create any drink the Coca-Cola Company has produced since the dawn of time, I was astounded! My Coke with lime was lovely too!

Five Guys seem to have those. The thing that surprised me was that when you see inside there is a separate syrup for each combination in a huge array of printer-ink-cartridge-a-likes - I'd expected it would have had each type of Coke then each type of flavour and mixed them!
 

St Rollox

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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 ?

Sure the "large" is £2.40 in the Glasgow area.
 

Iskra

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When the machines work, they normally produce good coffee. It all depends on which machine you use too. There is one designed by Pininfarina (like the Eurostar!) and the drinks from that are ace, despite having to listen to fake coffee cup noises, well expensive though.

All depends if you want to pay for nice coffee or not. It's only an issue for me if I get the train to work. Otherwise I drive to work and get it for free coz I work at head office :)

Out of interest what do you do at head office?

I'm an SM for Costa in West Yorks :)
 

Iskra

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Can you persuade them to reduce the machine vending prices please :p

Probably not to be honest! Unfortunately, it's about market forces and unfortunately for you, people are quite prepared to pay the current prices. I manage one as well as my store- it's within 50m of my store but still does a good trade, especially at busy times or in cold weather.
 

fowler9

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I do like Costa. The best coffee I ever had though was an espresso from a small cafe in Torino where the ex girlfriends cousin worked. When we got back to Warrington after a weeks visit we went to Cafe Nero near Golden Square and whatever it was I had tasted like the coffee had been burnt with a blow torch and had tepid water tipped over it. Vile.

Second best coffee I ever had was in a none chain cafe in Thames on New Zealands north island, I had a flat white. It was really nice.
 
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Searle

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My first reaction to those prices for a cup of Costa was that they were actually pretty good! I would expect them to be more personally. Saying that, I wouldn't buy them because I'm not a massive coffee drinker :P
 

Robertj21a

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Can you persuade them to reduce the machine vending prices please :p

I really don't see the vending prices to be a problem. It's £2.10 for a regular latte just about anywhere in the UK unless you're at a motorway services etc - that's really not too bad nowadays. Personally, I much prefer the stronger taste in Caffe Nero but Costa is ok if there's nothing else - I just wish they did semi-skimmed in the shops.
 

Butts

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I really don't see the vending prices to be a problem. It's £2.10 for a regular latte just about anywhere in the UK unless you're at a motorway services etc - that's really not too bad nowadays. Personally, I much prefer the stronger taste in Caffe Nero but Costa is ok if there's nothing else - I just wish they did semi-skimmed in the shops.

It's £1.59 at McDonalds which is more reasonable if you are on three or four per night. <D

I think these Costa Machines are the "postmix" of Coffee and must generate huge profits along the same lines.

Instead of syrup gas and water you have got coffee milk and water.
 

pemma

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While Waitrose allow cardholders to get 1 free takeaway coffee per day or 1 free coffee per day to sit down with if they purchase at least 1 other item from the cafe, I find it surprising there seems to be no price difference between their takeaway or sit down coffees if they are purchased.
 
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Bletchleyite

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While Waitrose allow cardholders to get 1 free takeaway coffee per day or 1 free coffee per day to sit down with if they purchase at least 1 other item from the cafe, I find it surprising there seems to be no price difference between their takeaway or sit down coffees if they arr purchased.

The measure was a fairly blunt one intended to prevent overcrowding of the cafe area, not one intended to discourage the consumption of coffee to drink in per-se.
 

pemma

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The measure was a fairly blunt one intended to prevent overcrowding of the cafe area, not one intended to discourage the consumption of coffee to drink in per-se.

That wasn't what I was getting at. Cafes with sit down facilities like to claim their higher costs are to provide the cafe facilities like wiping down the table, washing up, bringing what you've ordered across etc. (See http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/14/pay-for-your-lemon-tea-like-everyone-else_n_8976558.html) so by charging you the same for using a self service machine and disposable cup they are going against that reasoning.
 

Bletchleyite

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That wasn't what I was getting at. Cafes with sit down facilities like to claim their higher costs are to provide the cafe facilities like wiping down the table, washing up, bringing what you've ordered across etc. (See http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/14/pay-for-your-lemon-tea-like-everyone-else_n_8976558.html) so by charging you the same for using a self service machine and disposable cup they are going against that reasoning.

Not every business does that split - indeed more don't than do - and the ones that do are often because of VAT differences (think "pasty tax").
 

Butts

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That wasn't what I was getting at. Cafes with sit down facilities like to claim their higher costs are to provide the cafe facilities like wiping down the table, washing up, bringing what you've ordered across etc. (See http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/01/14/pay-for-your-lemon-tea-like-everyone-else_n_8976558.html) so by charging you the same for using a self service machine and disposable cup they are going against that reasoning.

Precisely my point about the cost of a takeaway, the rental of the machine does not equate to the same costs as actually running a cafe which only source of revenue is the coffee and other sundries.
 

Blamethrower

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Out of interest what do you do at head office?

I'm an SM for Costa in West Yorks :)

Premier Inn testing dogsbody, see the new site www.premierinn.com? I did that.

Don't look at it tonight though, might have a few "outage" issues as we're deploying a new release to support expansion into Germany.

It's nice that they built us all a free Costa at head office, we get all coffees, teas, slush, smoothies etc for free, but we have to pay for cakes, boo!

Nice to "meet" a fellow Costafarian, Batley too, I was in Morley for about 3 years :o
 

Iskra

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Premier Inn testing dogsbody, see the new site www.premierinn.com? I did that.

Don't look at it tonight though, might have a few "outage" issues as we're deploying a new release to support expansion into Germany.

It's nice that they built us all a free Costa at head office, we get all coffees, teas, slush, smoothies etc for free, but we have to pay for cakes, boo!

Nice to "meet" a fellow Costafarian, Batley too, I was in Morley for about 3 years :o

Looking good!

Yeah, that is good- not many employers would do that! It's only fair too as that's what we get in stores. Fairly sure I double my wage in free coffees ;)

I actually live in Birstall so very close to Morley, Westgate station Costa is my store though which is quite convenient as a rail enthusiast :)
 
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