Sunday 13th July

It used to be that there were only a few cafes around.  There were the traditional greasy spoons, and in Soho and central London a few Italian family run cafes.  I am old enough to still remember Lyons Corner Houses with their “nippies”, but for years there really wasn’t much choice.  John Lewis had a posh coffee shop, and BHS a pretty downmarket canteen style one.  Now almost every shop has one.  Even supermarkets; Waitrose where if you have a ‘My Waitrose’ card you get a free coffee, Sainsburys where the breakfasts are excellent and Asda which is just as cheap and nasty as the rest of the shop.  But almost everywhere now has its own café, from the Range to Dunelm Mills.  And by and large they are really rather good.  The revolution that has seen standards rise all over the country in Restaurants has now spread to coffee shops.  The sophisticated machines nowadays make pretty good coffee at the touch of a button.  And we all now accept that stopping for at least one coffee while shopping is essential.  Time was when shopping was got over quickly and back home for a cup of tea.  Now, with out of town Retail Parks and Shopping centres we often lunch out too.  One wonders just how many Starbucks and Costa Coffee outlets can be squeezed into every high street, but add on to that the In Store Cafes and it is amazing just how many teas and coffees we are able to consume very day.  I used to have a coffee and croissant every morning and worked out that I was spending close to one thousand pounds a year, an amazing sum of money.  And yet our appetite seems undiminshable, now there are Wild Bean Cafes at almost every petrol station too.  We even have a Nespresso machine at home, and you would think that being able to have a perfect latte whenever we want would mean we didn’t bother when we are out, but no; we, like everyone else really enjoy stopping for a coffee, and love all these in-store cafes.