why must every moderately successful store in the UK be immediately turned into a chain?

exactly. not that i was around then. but exactly.

lord knows how i remember this, but david fincher once said the same thing re. los angeles.

One of the best restaurants I've ever been to was a run-down Italian place in central London called the 'Centrale'. You could grab a huge plate of delicious pasta (with chilli sauce/other toppings) for about three quid.

Oh, if that's the place I think it is, I found it once by chance a long time ago, and it was lovely.

Who needs coffee when you have beer?

Who needs turnstiles when you have ennui?

You lost me there

sorry to bang on this relatively minor point but if you really think it's easier to find a starbucks in london than bleeding new york, you were actually in new jersey

I strolled the length and breadth of NYC last week, and it was certainly my impression that there were fewer Starbucks. Especially considering how many of the NYers I talked to were complaining about how bland and corporate Manhattan had become!

Yep, there are more Starbucks in Central London than Manhattan. Depressing as that is.

is the new stereo in the rennie mackintosh old daily record printworks?!

it is hard to conceive of somewhere with more starbucks than central london.

in a kantian sense.

dunkin donuts/baskin-robbins and bank branch offices have replaced starbucks as the preeminent nyc real estate scourge.

162 Starbucks within five miles of Borders Charing X!

http://www.starbucks.com/retail/locator/PrxResults.aspx?a=1&LOC=51.5146493429756%3a-0.12947326600996&CT=51.5146493429756%3a-0.129473266009966.76880352077202%3a5.07660264057902&countryID=242&FC=RETAIL&dataSource=MapPoint.EU&Radius=5&GAD2=&GAD3=+WC2H+0JR&GAD4=United+Kingdom&IC=51.5146493429756%3a-0.12947326600996%3a32%3a+WC2H+0JR

WAIT THERES A PLACE CALLED MASALA ZONE LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

yah dunkies is a rash spreading down from boston

GIMMME A BIG ONE AND A CRULLAH

i have never heard of masala zone. is that really a thing?

its a thing. you should try it. eating in zones is cool.

A while ago I walked the whole length of Oxford St from Marble Arch to Tottenham Ct Rd. It was quite bizarre because you get about three iterations of all the chainstores: Starbucks, Borders, Boots, Next, whatever, and then fifteen minutes later they all come up again. And then again. Like you're in some weird space/time loop.

sorry to bang on this relatively minor point but if you really think it's easier to find a starbucks in london than bleeding new york, you were actually in new jersey

-- ^@^, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 14:50 (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

No, we were definitely in NY, Empire State, WTC, Chrysler, Trump, Central Park Zoo, all that!

A while ago I walked the whole length of Oxford St from Marble Arch to Tottenham Ct Rd. It was quite bizarre because you get about three iterations of all the chainstores: Starbucks, Borders, Boots, Next, whatever, and then fifteen minutes later they all come up again. And then again. Like you're in some weird space/time loop.

-- Zelda Zonk, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 3:13 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

cartoon background. this is true of most of the country though. bank, mobile phone shop, pub, pound shop, indian, bank...

my oystercard doesn't cover masala zone ;_;

according to starbucks.com, there are at least 300 starbucks in manhattan alone (i think this is what the search results max out at) and 206 in all of london.

206 + costa coffees + caffe neros = ?????

plus coffee republic. And Pret, EAT, and all that.

theres two starbucks in the mall down the street

you guys dont really get to add other coffee shops to starbucks all willy nilly like that

There aren't many Starbucks outside of central London though.

There are maybe three Masala Zones in existence?

There's two in central Reading!

the number of prets is pretty amazing. ok, not 'amazing', but they came up like mushrooms, same time as starbucks mroe or less, and it wasn't that long ago.

There's a Costa in Woodley, of all things.

I think the number of pret's is reducing, there was one in Slough once anyway.

seriously question.

where should i go for ramen that's better/cheaper/faster/stronger than wagamama?

Ask Sheena Easton!

"If love is good, let's get to ramen"

is tea drinking on the wane as coffee ascends? is this one of the things complained abt in the "daily mail" too?

surely pret a manger is for food rather than coffee anyway.

it's called pret a manger

is tea drinking on the wane as coffee ascends? is this one of the things complained abt in the "daily mail" too?

-- jhøshea, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 3:33 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

lol. i think it's a myth propagated by sting that englishes don't drink coffee.

How things have changed...

http://www.kzwp.com/lyons/teashop.jpg

Pret stores are quite small though, remember, plus they're all located in heavy office/professional areas. It's not as if there's 50 of them lining, I dunno, Corby high street.

is tea drinking on the wane as coffee ascends? is this one of the things complained abt in the "daily mail" too?

-- jhøshea, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 3:33 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

lol. i think it's a myth propagated by sting that englishes don't drink coffee.

-- That one guy that hit it and quit it, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 10:36 AM (41 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

so do people drink both or do they fill different niches or what

There'll be statistics on it somewhere but I think a lot of people do both?

Because Pret is private we don’t face the same pressure to grow that a public company does. We will develop slowly, one shop at a time. There are about 150 Pret shops at the moment. Most of them are in the UK. We turn over roughly 150 million pounds a year and would like to make 9% profit but haven’t yet. One day we will.

Pret's owned by McDonalds, isn't it?

in america everyone believe the english to be tea drinkers. also americans believe tea is for fags.

but they definitely only want their toasts done on one side

mcdonald's own about a third of pret

The Irish are the crazy tea drinkers

americans do not believe the irish to be fags

i do get to add costa and cafe nero willy nilly because this thread isn't about starbucks it's about chain stores in general - the u.s. has no 2nd- and 3rd-tier coffee chains that even come close to the saturation of these two, at least that i know of - i'm surprised there aren't actually MORE costa coffees (especially if you count the "licensed" costa shops that are independent but serve costa coffees and are then required to hang a giant costa sign outside, blurring the distinction)

sorry - MORE costa coffees than starbucks is what i meant to say