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

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

there are 600 in the uk

u.s. has no 2nd- and 3rd-tier coffee chains that even come close to the saturation of these two

there are but they tend to be more regionaly clumped - dunkin donuts in new england, pete's in california, everything in the pacific nw etc.

in boston there are waaay more dunkies than starbucks

the u.s. has no 2nd- and 3rd-tier coffee chains that even come close to the saturation of these two

well in the UK it doesn't take much to jump from "regional" to "national," right?

in the upper midwest we have caribou and dunn brothers coffee places, as well as shitloads of indie places (lol twin cities)... go somewhere else and it's what, au bon pain? there are lots of starbucks competitors but none have their reach, no

xp!

Caffe Nero is actually pretty good though. Costa = meh. Starbucks = rubbish coffee. But yes, nowhere outside Zone One is anywhere near 'saturated' with them. I think Costa is only all over the place because it picked up most of the Coffee Republic places when they went bust.

There are still *a lot* of independent cafes and coffee shops in Central London, mostly catering to office workers.

yes DC that's very true abt central london

apparently there are two tea chains set to expand in the UK:

Betty's Café Tea Rooms

and

Tea

"Once we are in a position to start expanding," Spence says, "we hope to raise more finance to open 10 to 15 units in three years. We'll probably initially look at London locations such as Canary Wharf, the West End, Covent Garden, Notting Hill, St John's Wood and Richmond."

Looking further ahead, Spence says that he envisages one of three possibilities - an outright sale of all units, the setting up of a franchise business, or a brand rollout across the country financed by a launch on the Alternative Investment Market.

the u.s. has no 2nd- and 3rd-tier coffee chains that even come close to the saturation of these two

dunkin donuts!

ken, there's a place called sakura in central london that's supposed to have decent ramen. wagamama is horrible.

a wagamama was just opened in boston, by the way. i hope it bombs.

dunkin donuts is a donut shop

There are still *a lot* of independent cafes and coffee shops in Central London, mostly catering to office workers.

-- Matt DC, Tuesday, November 6, 2007 3:55 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

i was going to raise this earlier. working in w1, in the end, i tried different places, but cafe nero was basically better than the indies. sorry indies.

DD claims to be the "world's largest coffee and baked goods chain," serving 2.7 million customers per day at over 7,000 stores globally which includes approximately 5,300 Dunkin' Donuts locations in 34 states throughout the USA.[citation needed] This figure compares with the 10,800 stores of coffee chain Starbucks,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkin'_Donuts

tracer you're blowing my mind a little bit

their coffee is horrible come on

dunkin donuts is a donut shop

as someone who grew up in the greater boston metropolitan area i can unequivocally attest to the complete falsity of this statement.

There's a Wagamama in Boston AND a Wagamama in Cambridge. Both are awesome.

Also DD coffee tastes like cat ass.

their coffee is horrible come on

this is true.

people do luuuuuuuuuv it tho

my job here is done

xpost argh

maybe it's specially formulated to have a donut put in it

people love DD coffee, it's true. also, it is true that it tastes like cat ass

i'd rather drink the coffee at cumberland farms

oh wait, let's call that a "coffee shop"

cumberland farms: 1000 outlets

i like how the debate has unceremoniously changed from number in starbucks in new york vs. london to number of coffee chains in new york vs. london to number of quality, dedicated coffee chains in new york vs. london

you people are CRAZY-MAKING

hey they serve coffee at ikea too

point is dunkin dontus sells mostly coffee. might as well call starbucks a dry crumbly blueberry muffin shop.

maybe it's specially formulated to have a donut put in it

they do stock a donut known as the "dunkin donut" that has a little handle right on it for dunking

but that's a meatball shop

xpost

i like how the debate has unceremoniously changed from number in starbucks in new york vs. london to number of coffee chains in new york vs. london to number of quality, dedicated coffee chains in new york vs. london

Wait. . .do you want to have a ceremony every time the thread changes topics? Because we can do that.

i'm gonna give sakura a try i think lauren! seems to get some good reviews. a bit far for a lunchhour visit but perhaps a weeekend yummm.

Dunkin' Donuts is a doughnut shop that serves horrible, horrible coffee and awesome fake McMuffins.

http://atrp.gatech.edu/pt17-1/fptb_ribbon_cut.jpg

hope you enjoy it, ken. it was way too far from my office to be feasible.

let's have a ceremony every time mr. que is funny, that way we won't ever have to worry about it

ROFFLE ROFFLE ROFFLE

GUYS I DONT HAVE ANY STATS RIGHT HERE BUT ID BE WILLING TO BET THAT 75% OF DUNKIN DONUTS PURCHASES ARE COFFEE SO ITS A COFFEE SHOP OK - THEIR BEST ITEM IS HOWEVER MUNCHKINS BECAUSE THEY ARE CUTE AND FUN TO EAT