Category Archives: High Streets

Revisiting ‘Cafe Nation: Exploring the growth of the UK cafe industry’ – journal article made free to read until 2020

Back in March 2018 I found out that one of my articles ‘Cafe Nation: Exploring the growth of the UK cafe industry‘ in the journal Area had been identified as one of the most downloaded, and so was made free … Continue reading

Posted in Cafe Culture, Commentaries, High Streets, Journal article, Publications, UK | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A return to Portugal and specialty coffee: Coffee shops, roasters and coffee

Portugal has always had a vibrant coffee culture, with cafes playing a central role in many people’s lives, but as in many places, coffee culture is changing. When I first started to visit Portugal, you would struggle to find places … Continue reading

Posted in Cafe Culture, Coffee, coffee culture, High Streets, Portugal, Specialty Coffee, travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spaces of community: Chatty Cafes and Costa Coffee

It was announced this week that Costa Coffee would be rolling out the concept of ‘Chatter and Natter’ tables to 300 stores across the UK. As part of the ‘Chatty Café scheme’ it involves cafes having a designated table with … Continue reading

Posted in Cafe Culture, Cafe types, Coffee, coffee culture, community, Consumers, Costa Coffee, High Streets, research, UK | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Considering the Coffee Free House

Recently I’ve had some time to catch up on various coffee related reading and videos. European Coffee Trip published an interview with Jeremy Challender, who is well known for his role in Prufrock Coffee in London (and now Barista Hustle). … Continue reading

Posted in Cafe Culture, Cafe types, Coffee, coffee culture, High Streets, Roasters, Sustainability, UK, Videos | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tackling the coffee cup mountain: Will a ‘latte’ levy make a difference?

While the rapid growth of the coffee shop industry in the UK has been important for the retail economy it has had significant environmental consequences, most notably the huge amount of disposable coffee cups. It is estimated that 2.5 billion … Continue reading

Posted in Cafe Culture, circular economy, coffee culture, Consumers, Costa Coffee, Economic Impact, High Streets, Sustainability, UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Coffee shops, The Conversation and radio

There have been a few articles in the media recently about if the UK is close to reaching peak coffee shop. The BBC asked if the UK was reaching coffee shop saturation point, ITV News ran a short piece on … Continue reading

Posted in Coffee, community, Economic Impact, High Streets, UK, Urban spaces | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The battle of the coffee shops continues

This week coffee shops have been back in the UK media. A  short piece on ITV news which highlighted how the national chains continue battle with independents for their share of the £9 billion coffee shop market. It was also … Continue reading

Posted in Cafe Culture, Coffee, Consumers, Costa Coffee, High Streets, Reserve, Starbucks, UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Merging historical culture with Starbucks in Japan

Back in April I wrote a blog post about how Starbucks was trying something new in Japan, ‘Neighborhood and Coffee’ stores which had less obvious Starbucks branding, and were more focused on becoming the local neighbourhood coffee shop. Now, again … Continue reading

Posted in Cafe Culture, Cafe types, Coffee, coffee culture, High Streets, Japan, Starbucks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Co-working and the cafe

This blog post is based on a talk I prepared for a workshop at CAMEo, the Research Institute for Cultural and Media Economies at the University of Leicester on co-working dynamics in the city. “It was a pleasant cafe, warm … Continue reading

Posted in Cafe Culture, Cafe types, Consumers, Economic Impact, High Streets, Urban spaces, Use of cafe spaces | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

New competition: Coffee #1

While the coffee shop chains Costa Coffee, Starbucks and Caffe Nero dominate the market in the UK, increasingly there is growing competition from regional chains that have adopted strategies of substantial geographic expansion. One such chain is Coffee #1 which … Continue reading

Posted in Cafe Culture, Cafe types, Consumers, High Streets, UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment