COSTA Coffee is planning to open a new branch in Greenwich.
The chain has applied to Greenwich Council for permission to turn 44-46 Greenwich Church Street, next to the Spanish Galleon pub, into a coffee shop.
It is proposed that the new coffee shop would open between the hours of 7am and 10pm daily.
The planning application reveals that Costa’s lease inside Waterstones is shortly coming to an end and won’t be renewed.
The premises are currently vacant and were most recently occupied by “The Greenwich Boutique” clothes shop.
Awesome!
Oh yay. Another chain in the town centre.
Awful!
Poor Greenwich.
Oh come on, Costa moves across the road to a vacant shop. This is not the degredation of all we hold holy!
I wonder whether somone else will take on the lease within Waterstones
Oh yes it is!! I was hoping Krispy Kreme donuts would move into that vacant shop!
Oh, sorry, thought you said “holey”.
On a serious note, part of what makes Greenwich attractive is its broad range of quirky, independent shops. If you let it become just like every other high street, dominated by the same chain stores that you find in almost every British city and town, you lose something really special.
Moreover, chains are able and willing to pay higher rent – higher overheads and higher turnover. The more of them that come, the higher the average rental yield, the fewer indies will be able to survive.
Finally, Costa in Waterstone’s was entirely different. It was hidden from view, for a start. It was also part of the DLR parade of other chains, rather than on the Island site.
Thus, I hope it doesn’t sound spiteful to say that I sincerely hope that, once the franchisee has raked in his/her profits from the Olympics crowd, that s/he goes bust and leaves. What Greenwich needs is more independent high quality retailers, not more cut-and-paste chains.
Taken on it’s own this is no big deal-there are still plenty of independent coffee places. But it is difficult to look at this in isolation and it can only be seen as a taste of things to come. Once the market is redeveloped Costa coffee will be the least of our worries.
Still curious about what is going on inside Waterstones though.
I’ve always gone go Costa. It’s not about indies for me it’s about consistent quality… And there’s been a friendly bunch of staff in Greenwich to rivals indies.
On Waterstones- they’re just opening up their own coffee shop in the space, by the end of April 2012.
Thank god. I was upset yesterday when I went in to Waterstone’s to find a sign saying Costa has closed and Waterstone’s are opening their own cafe. I had to make do with dreadful Starbuck’s instead.
I hope this gets planning permission as Costa are always busy and they are better than Starbuck’s. I only wish Costa would return to opening a branch in Woolwich the dreadful DLR shop doesn’t even have it’s own toilets.