Since I live on the edge of the city, and I work in the centre, a working day for me means going to the city centre. I often go to town on Saturdays too, sometimes to meet up with friends for coffee, and sometimes to do some shopping. It's not the rule, but I avoid going to town on Sundays, so, in the morning it is a pleasure to drink a cappuccino, and when the weather is nice, I go to a nearby nature park.
When it is cold, I like to sit in a Costa coffee cafe in the nearest large supermarket at 10 a.m. when the cafe opens and write my blog. I also enjoy sitting in a café after work in the evening, sometimes with friends and sometimes alone. Unfortunately, most cafes in England close as early as 5pm, some work until 6 and only a few until 7. This is a big cultural difference from Croatia where cafes are open from early morning like 7 a.m. until late at night, 11 p.m. or midnight.
One evening I was so frustrated that Costa Coffee closed at my supermarket at 5pm when it was supposed to work until 6, that I decided to write to the CEO of that big chain of cafes spread all over England. I managed to find her name on the internet and a way to address her. Here is what I wrote:
Dear Jill McDonald,
I would like that Costa Coffee in my local Tesco, Milton, near Cambridge stays open longer, at least till 7 p.m. if not 9 p.m. It is frustrating that in our area there is no place where we could have cappuccino after 5 p.m. I am confident that many people would enjoy the possibility of having coffee after work, during the week or on Saturday evening. I very much like Costa Coffee, not just this one in Tesco's, but it is often frustrating that every café I know closes early.
I very much hope you will consider making changes in closing time of Costa Coffee cafes and I truly believe that everybody would benefit, your costumers as well as your company.
Your sincerely
Kristina Lang
P.S. If you cannot make a change everywhere, please make it in Milton Tesco's.
A week after I wrote to her, I had already forgotten about it, a message came from the Costa Coffee customer service:
Dear Kristina
Thank you for your recent email to Jill McDonald regarding our Costa store in Milton Tesco. Jill has passed over your details and asked us to investigate your comments and respond to you
… The rest of the message is pretty generic, so I doubt Jill really saw my message. But I remember that when I came to England 20 years ago, it was not possible to drink cappuccino or espresso at every corner as it is possible these days. Things are changing, so who knows, maybe in a while the working hours of cafes in England will be extended.
Kristina
Sunday, November 28th, 2021
Nedeljna jutra
Obzirom da živim na rubu grada, a radim u samom centru, radni dan mi znači odlazak u centar grada. Često i u subotu odem u grad, neki put da se nađem sa prijateljima na kavi, a neki put da obavim neki šoping. Nije pravilo, ali nedeljama izbjegavam odlazak u grad. Ipak, ujutro mi je zadovoljstvo popiti kapučino pa kad je lijepo vrijeme odem u obližnji park prirode, a kad je hladno sjednem u kafić Costa Coffee u najbližem velikom supermarketu vecć u 10 ujutro, kad se kafić otvara. I nakon posla navečer rado sjednem u kafić, ponekad uz prijatelje, a ponekad sama. Nažalost većina se kafića u Engleskoj zatvara već u 5 poslije podne, poneki rade do 6, a samo rijetki do 7. To je velika kulturološka razlika od Hrvatske u kojoj su kafići otvoreni od ranog jutra, kao sto je 7, do kasno u noći, 23 ili ponoć.
Jedno me večer toliko isfrustriralo što se Costa Coffee u mom supermarketu zatvorio u 5 poslijepodne, a trebao je raditi do 6, pa nisam mogla nakon posla popiti kapučino da sam odlučila pisati generalnoj direktorici tog velikog lanca kafića koji su rašireni po čitavoj Engleskoj. Uspjela sam naći njezino ime na internetu i način da joj se obratim. Evo sto sam joj napisala:
Draga Jill McDonald,
Željela bih da “Costa Coffee” u mom lokalnom Tescu, Milton, blizu Cambridgea, ostane otvoren dulje, barem do 19 sati, ako ne do 21 sat. Frustrirajuće je što u našem kraju nema mjesta gdje bismo mogli popiti kapučino nakon 17 sati. Uvjerena sam da bi mnogi ljudi uživali u mogućnosti ispijanja kave nakon posla, tijekom tjedna ili subotom navečer. Jako volim Costa Coffee kafiće, ne samo ovaj u Tescu, ali često je frustrirajuće što se svi kafići koje znam zatvaraju rano.
Jako se nadam da ćete razmisliti o promjenama u vremenu zatvaranja Costa Coffee kafića i uistinu vjerujem da bi svi imali koristi, i vaši kupci, kao i vaša tvrtka.
S poštovanjem,
Kristina Lang
p.s. Ako ne možete svugdje napraviti promjenu, učinite to u Milton Tescu.
Tjedan dana nakon što sam joj pisala već sam i zaboravila na to, došla je poruka od Costa Cofffee službe sa korisnike:
Draga Kristina,
Hvala vam na nedavnoj e-poruci Jill McDonald u vezi s našom Costa trgovinom u Milton Tesco. Jill je uočila Vašu poruku i zamolila nas da istražimo vaše komentare i odgovorimo vam.
Ostatak poruke je poprilicno generički pa sumnjam da je Jill stvarno vidjela moju poruku. No, sjećam se da kad sam došla u Englesku, pred 20 godina, nije bilo moguće popiti kapučino ili espresso na svakom koraku, kao što je to moguće ovih dana. Stvari se mijenjaju pa tko zna, možda će se za neko vrijeme produžiti radno vrijeme kafića u Engleskoj.
Kristina
Nedelja, 28. studenog 2021.
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