please empty your brain below
Isn't it easy to spot the 'rich' side of town?

diamond geezer | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 7:03 a.m. | #

I bet the number of traditional caffs in central London can be counted on one hand ... shame!

michael | 03.02.07 - 7:48 a.m. | #

just goes to show that Croydon has got good taste after all!

embo | 03.02.07 - 9:19 a.m. | #

Proud to live in E10 at last.

And we still have some decent independents at the moment too.

NiC | 03.02.07 - 10:50 a.m. | #

I tried out the non-Starbucks locator just now. It told me there were two within 4km of my postcode.

One was in North Yorkshire.

The other was in Cornwall.

I live in Cambridge.

Peter Howard | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 12:11 p.m. | #

Thank god none in E3!

Bowroaduk | 03.02.07 - 12:28 p.m. | #

Didn't I read recently that Starbucks have been awarded the Olympic Beverage Contract? Apparently this gives them branding rights to the whole neighbourhood.

drD | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 12:43 p.m. | #

still none in brussels, but the day will come ....

zoe | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 12:46 p.m. | #

Not a single one in N5 either.

Josh | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 1:08 p.m. | #

There's three in TW9, I believe.

dg writes: Oops, yes, Richmond×3
I've just added them.

Chz | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 1:31 p.m. | #

Perhaps those in the East just have more sense than money.

Kevinho | 03.02.07 - 1:52 p.m. | #

Thank you for letting me know where to avoid.

One of the saddest moments of my life was seeing one of those god-forsaken holes in Vienna.

Bob Hobbs | 03.02.07 - 2:00 p.m. | #

There's one in DA6 (Bexleyheath) but it seems that even Starbucks' store locator can't keep up with their rampant expansion. (It's been there at least a year though!)

Edith | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 2:02 p.m. | #

Also, that store locator says 'If you’re in London, for example, you shouldn’t be more than 5 minutes from one!'.

Firstly: aaaargh!
Secondly: that's just not true. *Maybe* in zone 1, but there's a whole five other zones left for them to invade...

Edith | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 2:06 p.m. | #

How depressing.

The Girl | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 3:36 p.m. | #

I can't understand what people have against starbucks. They are a business like any other, they have a good product and you can count on the quality. I personally love the style of coffee they do. You are hard pressed to go somewhere in London without being disappointed by the quality of the coffee. Especially the greasy spoon cafes.

Now, if you are talking tea, then the greasy spoons have it over starbucks in every way.

If you want pretentious coffee wars you need to go to Sydney. Some of the biggest coffee snobs I have ever met are from there, even more so when it comes to house postcodes. My wife is from Sydney and she hates the fact that Hackney is E8, not Nx. It doesn't make sense to me. I used to live in Bow, everywhere is a step up

Uncle Hunty | 03.02.07 - 5:43 p.m. | #

Pret a Manger is even more viral in the centre of London, I seem to recall. I got so sick of seeing them I've pledged to never eat there.

Another Andrew | 03.02.07 - 5:55 p.m. | #

Now this is just my kind of map!

I don't know TW's toooo well but I know that there is one on Kings Street and TWO within five minutes of each other outside Richmond station...

I also wonder if this includes those inside bookstores like the one located on the second floor of Borders in Oxford Street?

Yes, definately my kind of map!

Coffee Injection Guide | 03.02.07 - 6:25 p.m. | #

Theres a nice one in The Royal Garden Plaza in Pattaya Thailand...

Colin In Thailand | 03.02.07 - 6:41 p.m. | #

I have this evening seen one in Pattaya.

Thai Blue Witch | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 6:57 p.m. | #

Blimey... just read the comment above... maybe Colin would like to come and join us and the Mad Musicians a few miles up the coast!

Except that there's *nothing* nice in Pattaya, particulalry not Starbucks, so maybe not.

I do hope he wasn't one of the men with their tongues and [word removed in the interests of decency]s hanging out that we saw the other evening...

Thai Blue Witch | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 7:00 p.m. | #

I was about to mention the Bexleyheath one but someone beat me to it.

B/Heath, and much of the DA postcode are in the London Borough of Bexley.

The non Starbucks locator didn't work for me either.

Kat | 03.02.07 - 7:21 p.m. | #

"I can't understand what people have against starbucks."

It's the monopoly that they're creating that offends a lot of people. They move in a street/town, operate the branch at a loss to attract customers from the independent, thus forcing the independents out of business.

Here in Leeds, it's Subways that are taking over the world. We now have 14. When I moved here six years ago we had one.

Mark | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 7:54 p.m. | #

Mark, thank you for pointing out Scumfucks', sorry, Starbucks' monopolistic approach. I was about to go into a rant about that, and you saved me the hassle.

I'll just add, to Uncle Hunty's query, that another reason not to give Starbucks any money is their despicable record of not purchasing coffee beans at a fair price to the grower. With consumer pressure, they've caved in a little, and now sell one or two Fairtrade products, but by and large, the majority of their coffee's roots (quite literally) are based on exploitative deals which are mainly forced on the grower (for whom have no choice who they sell to). It's bascially the Supermarket approach - "sell to us the way we want, or go bust" - not a decent way to do business really.

Though if you like Capitalism, then I suppose you should be cheering the billions of dollars profit Starbucks make, whilst their coffee growers barely make enough to feed their families with.

Oops, looks like I did have a rant after all.

dg, perhaps you should do a street map of where all of Scumfucks' stores are, just in case there's a local demo and some spare bricks about and people need to know where to throw them.

Ahem.

The Girl | Homepage | 03.02.07 - 9:02 p.m. | #

Peter, the delocator hasn't been upgraded for the new Cambridge postcodes. Also, the space between the two parts of the postcode is critical. If I insert the space, I get the nice coffee shop up the High Street I just entered on their database. If I omit the space, or use the new Cambridge postcode, I get your neighbours in Falmouth and Yorkshire. But even with your old postcode, if you insert a space, you get zero entries within four miles. Time to update the database?

anne | 03.02.07 - 10:11 p.m. | #

If you're a stranger in a strange city, I can understand the appeal of a Scumfucks.

If you're not, then why don't you know anywhere better?

Inspector Sands | Homepage | 04.02.07 - 12:58 a.m. | #

Only two in my home borough, N8 (Crouch End) and N10 (Muswell Hill), though I suspect Wood Green won't remain starbucks-free for much longer, two of the other major coffee retailers have set up there in the last year.

Although where even KFC has given up on Tottenham High Road, I can't see that being an outpost of the coffee empire any time soon. And those few coffee places we do have around Seven Sisters are popular enough with the local latin-american cluster to weather another chain opening.

Nico | Homepage | 04.02.07 - 8:39 a.m. | #

There are seven within a 15 minute walk from my apartment here in Seoul.
But there are at least 50 not starbucks coffee shops in the same area.

Jon Allen | Homepage | 04.02.07 - 10:17 a.m. | #

Neither Reigate nor Redhill have a Starbucks, but there are plenty of other cafes both chains and independents. Huurah!

notscaredanymoreTina | 04.02.07 - 7:55 p.m. | #

Hey: does Coffee Republic still exist? Nobody made a triple-shot mocha like them! Nice with a scone first thing in the morning. But isn’t this all a little Superdrug v Boots: despair at the lack of enthusiastic indies is the root cause of this bitch-thread. I can understand it. What I don’t understand is the enthusiasm for the “caffs”. I find them (or rather their fare) scary! I guess the chains flourish in the UK due to the total lack of quality: didn’t caffs serve instant until the chains arrive? How else could you sell a mug-full for 50p?
I suspect that Scum-(what he said)-s did so well because in London initially, because they seemed to be sited near American investment banks. Kinda like sitting in a cafe in Venice and watching the American tourists exclaim with joy at finding the McDonalds. On that sub-thread, I watched a large American family (well-dressed and otherwise appearing, you know, affluent and educated) sitting at a restaurant in Rome drinking diet-cock. At 10pm. Even the grandparents... I mean, whose grandparents drink diet-cack, outside of Bow (and West Auckland)?

flashgordonnz | 05.02.07 - 12:59 a.m. | #

Starbucks flourish because the public are basically morons. They're sheep. They'll do whatever is easiest and they'll do whatever marketing tells them. The best coffee to be had in the whole of London was at the Eden Cafe near Mornington Cresecent. Almost a pint of freshly ground coffee, served by the smiling owner or her daughter, and for nearly half what Starbollocks charge. Guess what? Starbollocks opened up the road and withinh two years the Eden whas shut. You can't blame Starbollocks for wanting to make a profit - it's up to the sheep to support local businesses. Also it's a myth that the coffee in a greasy spoon is in any way inferior to Starbollocks. Italian immigrants opened up coffee shops in the 50s - bringing with them a love for real coffee, many of the surviving 'real' cafes still use the machines their grandfathers brought over. Have an espresso at Bar Italia in Soho. It's vastly superior to anything produced by a megachain - and the profits stay local. Of course you''ll get the odd place selling a cup of freeze-dried mud, but speaking as a coffee and real caff lover it's the exception rather than the rule. And good for Brussells - they've also resisted having more than two McDonalds (the last time I was there, anyway). Shopping and eating in Belgium is a delight - thanks in no small way to the fact that their high streets aren't any where near as homogenised as the UK.

Adrian Zmed | 05.02.07 - 11:10 a.m. | #

Its up to consumers to push out the likes of Starbucks if they don't want it - but I suspect they rather do like it.

As far as McDonalds go however, they recently closed their 'resturant' in Durham City, which proves that these chains can be beaten if consumers vote with their feet. I mean whoever heard of a McDonalds closing down?

Kevinho | 05.02.07 - 12:29 p.m. | #

The Starbucks store locator appears to be malfunctioning. I set it to maximum - 50 miles radius from here. It didn't pick up a single outlet. btw I live on an island in the Outer Hebrides.

John Kirriemuir | Homepage | 05.02.07 - 11:55 p.m. | #

God forbid the day Starbucks learn of coffee enemas.

I've never had one but apparently it takes 32 pints.

Imagine standing in line for one of those....and the cost. Come to think about it...it's probably the best place to stick their coffee.

ianp | 06.02.07 - 2:32 a.m. | #

We don't have a Starbucks in Cornwall (thank you God!)

We're still mourning the loss of the Golden Egg restaraunts.

ianp | 06.02.07 - 2:36 a.m. | #











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