coffee shops are like weeds

• By Alison
• 7 September, 2008
• Comments Off on coffee shops are like weeds

Beckenham now has three major chain coffee shops. The number of coffee shops is only outstripped by the number of charity shops (which currently numbers at
about 6, and I am really not sure what that says about us…)

A year ago the independent coffee shop closed down under the pressure of the new costa coffee, and a betting shop opened in its place. That was a tragedy. But
the opening of Cafe Nero and Coffee republik is downright perplexing. Just how much of the stuff can one village-like suburb imbibe? The three cafe’s are
all the same – apart from their overall colour scheme, walking into any one of them is like walking into them all. The barista’s bar on the side is laden
with muffins and chocolate cakes, the menu behind, the white cups, the annoying fact that “small” is no longer a size option for ordering a
cappucino…

There is obviously room for more coffee shops in this sleepy suburb. After all, we don’t have a starbucks. And shops have been disappearing all over the
place because of the rental hike along the high street so there is plenty of room.

We’ve lost the flower shop, the haberdashery, two jewellers, a children’s clothing shop, the strange “bath community centre” that never
actually opened, a butcher’s shop, several mobile phone shops (but face it, they are like the plague anyway) and more recently, the Eurforia restaurant,
which bowed down to the competition of Pizza Express (next door).

The remains of Euforia is currently being turned into a Nandos – yay. That was the first take away joint I went in to on arrival in the UK. There is one in
Earl’s court that we used to hang out in. For a while after Euforia closed down I was afraid that we’d get a McDonalds, but thankfully we’ve been
spared that. After all, that would make us no better than Penge.