And Costa started to spread. One branch turned into three. And then ten. And now we have more than twentysomething branches of the worlds most boring coffee outlet. All serving the same overpriced nonsense. All with varying standards. All ridiculously understaffed and terribly bland.
Everywhere you go, Costa Coffee lurks ominously on a corner. Three branches (and counting) at the Seef Mall. At least another three in the airport. Adliya, Yateem Centre, Almoayyed Tower, BCC, Aali Mall, Sanad, Nwaidrat, Diplomatic Area, Riffa, Dana Mall and just about everywhere else. There are more branches of Costa bloody coffee than there are post offices. It's a plague.
The prices keep going up and the product keeps slipping, but people keep swarming to these fastfoodesque pits of coffee hell. Why? It cant possibly be because of the product. Their 'coffee' routinely tastes like warm muck and costs more than a decent meal. It's definitely not for the ambiance- most branches are kitted with horrible furniture, one newspaper, broken airconditioners and piles and piles of brochures. Ricky Martin or Spice Girls CDs play over and over again in the background, agitating everyone except the self-centered staff. Service? Not a chance.
As consumers we should demand more. Exercise choice. Not encourage the predatory behaviour that the Jawad people have learnt from western 'specialists'. They won't be happy until every other coffee outlet is dead and buried. And then the standards will slip even further, the prices will continue to climb and the staff will start cursing at every customer who dares venture through the door. Espresso will turn into Instant Coffee. Pastries will turn into chewy mud. Orange Juice will be replaced with Tang, or more likely, a Tesco's generic equivalent.
There are alternatives. Not Starbucks- you may as well hand your cash to Israel. Real alternatives. Go to La Ventana. Or even New York Coffee. Buy an espresso machine- they cost nothing and make far superior coffee. Encourage local businesses and small startups by giving them your custom. Stop shelling out for horrible overpriced goop and teach the McJawads a McLesson. Then they might McLearn.
Wow another pissed-off person at Jawad! Typical Expansionists-at-the-expense-of-quality thieves. They bought the 24-hour market and made them pop-up all over the country. Chili's is turning into shit food after it used to tase so good, again same concept as Costa's, an item tastes bloody different in different branches, hell if you go to the same branch at different times you will taste different variations of the same fucking dish, not that I go more than once to the same shithole on the same day!
ReplyDeleteI am definitely in your support. Someone who thinks like us :D Keep it up!
I totally agree
ReplyDeleteTHEY SUCK
costa, starbux etc
pure SHIT
to be honest
I hate Costa Coffee. Me and my friend were sitting in the horrible furniture when an employee came and told us to leave because apparently, you need to drink their disgusting "coffee" to sit on the rattan chairs.
ReplyDeleteany ideas where to buy a good coffee machine in Bahrain?
ReplyDeleteits not just costa its the entire mall culture that's taking over...exploit the poor, produce in sweat shops overprice it... the perceived brand image will make it fly off the racks. Its the consumers to blame who keep taking it and wanting more and more - at this rate there will be more malls than coffee shops. its time to put an end to this maddness and boycott modern day capitalistic conolianism & support local brands. As in the case of arabic perfumers who have stood up and preserved the culture a blend of the east & west i.e asgharali (visited the store or stores almost as many as costa products are rich and more value for the buck and better packaged we need to support more of them and less of overpriced, mass produced junk.
ReplyDeletei think that you guys should have a littel respect to the country you are living in even if you dont like it and especially if you have a bahrainy nationality you cant go all over the web and give bad immpresion about the country your living in and the country that your using there goods especially people from Europe they come here and start complaining about our culture (hey its our culture) and complain about everything well if you dont like it pack and leave but dont go over everywhere telling people your s**** keep your openion to yourself. u come here and you dont even pay tax so i prefer you show some maners. and iam serious eroupians started making us hate our own countery why? i guess cuase they dont like it.even if costa coffee sucks id still close my mouth and keep it to myself and id love SOME PEOPLE WHO WHERE COMENTING TO SHOW SOME RESPECT ESPECIaLLY THE BAHRAINY ONES cuase hey its ur country.
ReplyDeleteI am from Bahrain, and I am not the least bit offended by any of the posts here! nor do I find them disrespectful. On the contrary, many of the posts actually serve as constructive criticism, which apparently does not go down too well in our part of the world. Keep up the good work! Stating the obvious has nothing to do with being patriotic or loyal! I am not advocating anarchy, just a little common sense. *Smile*
ReplyDeleteRegards,
A Bahrainy One!
I don't really understand your concept of thinking. What i understood is you are demanding that starbucks, costa, calibou...etc to move out Bahrain? That is just stupidity talking, because what you are demanding is for all franchised companies to move out, am i correct? Well then how about you just move to Sakhir hunt down food and live without electricity or get off the internet and stop using your computer that is also franchised i suppose :). These franchised companies are making our country a better place, its increasing it financial status, and making it a great visitable country.
ReplyDeletePlease think about what you are going to write before writing it, because it sure as hell can backfire on you.
Thanks my regards
( A 18 year old Bahraini :D )
I stumbled upon this article while searching for Costa alternatives in Bahrain. This post speaks exactly what I had in mind. Great writeup too.
ReplyDelete-Zaheer
I think that hammering Costa or any other business in Bahrain has nothing to do with the image of Bahrain as a country but complaining about any business or services in Bahrain is a usual manner by either bahrainis or residents or tourists and I think it is for the best of Bahrain businesses to avoid bad services and improve their businesses but saying Bahrain sucks because Costa or other business sucks is not rational.
ReplyDeletei was searching for expresso machine for home in bahrain. and i found this post
ReplyDeleteyes, we all need better service, better value for our money