Are Costa Coffee Machines in filling stations a road safety problem ?

[Frederick]

Costa Coffee I notice are putting machines to dispense their huge paper cups of coffee in more and more UK petrol stations. Having waited an age for a driver to return to a car yesterday while tying to get to the pump at a very busy filling station . The driver eventually returned to her car with two cups of coffee and I watched her drive off drinking from one of them . Apart from the annoying delays these coffee machines cause people wanting to fill up they tempt idiots to do what I witnessed and become a menace on the road.

[Théière]

I try to avoid petrol stations with food, drink and shops attached, just as you say people fill up with fuel then go off to do a weeks shop whilst a queue builds.

Infuriating how selfish some people can be.

[Gardian]

Couldn't agree more.

I've got a bit of a down on Costa Coffee.

We stopped at a motorway service station a couple of years ago when we were over for Christmas - it was in Yorkshire somewhere.

We'd been queuing for what seemed like ages, just to get a coffee. I was getting the hump and Mrs G was doing her best to restrain me!

Finally got to the counter and the young lady said "Drnkorteck?"

"I beg your pardon" said I. She repeated it. Unintelligible, but I got the "drink" bit.

"Of course I want to drink it - what do you think I want to do with it?"

Mrs G meanwhile trying to curl up in to the smallest hole she could find. It's not that I'm impatient ............

[EuroTrash]

I actually quite like Costa Coffee, I think it tastes more like coffee than most of the stuff you get in service stations.

I agree that queuing up can be a pain, but patience is a virtue and you don't have to keep queuing if you don't want the coffee enough.

As for not selling coffee in case some idiot decides to drive along drinking it, come on. Educate the idiots, don't blame the coffee. Everybody who is old enough to drive should have reached the age of reason. The rest of Europe seems to cope with takeaway coffee being sold at service stations - maybe because they respect their coffee a bit more and want to taste it, rather than just pour it down their necks - so why can't the UK?

I'm not with you on this.

[YCCMB]

Clearly, there are the selfish.....and the self-centred. People who buy things in a shop Whatever next?

It's like the people who can't wait for me to do a 3 point turn, but insist on driving past me when I'm halfway through the manoeuvre because my car is small. I am sure they must all have important jobs trying to find a cure for Ebola or something, as their time is obviously so extremely valuable that having to wait a couple of minutes for another person to complete what they're doing is anathema to them.

Yet oftentimes, they're the same people who wax lyrical about wanting to spend their holidays in a queue in the boulangerie whilst the rest of the village discuss the priest's bunions.....

[Théière]

Clearly that's not the same at all Betty and of course shops can sell goods but it's the mix, go to a pump by some juice and then saunter around the shop contemplating what to get for dinner a week on Tuesday!  Grabbing a coffee (Costa used to be owned by lovely Italian family in Purley but now it's Whitbread leisure so the quality is down to the accountants) or a snack is usually no longer than the queue anyway, that's why they have queues so you make random extra purchases. What the PIA pump blockers could do is move off the pump, the data is held on the till and the parking space is usually 10m in front.

Thankfully ASDA have the same setup as France pump fuel, pay for fuel [I]  Then visit the store for groceries.

[YCCMB]

Frankly, I've always found it faster to buy fuel in the UK than in French supermarkets. Usually, if you go to any of the ones round my way, the jobsworth in the kiosk won't release the pump to dispense your fuel until the 48 people in their cars queuing to pay have all crawled past the little kiosk and the last person to use your pump has eventually reached the front and coughed up. In that time, I could almost literally have driven across the car park to the supermarket, parked, got a trolley and done a weeks shop.

[EuroTrash]

I thought Costa was a franchise, so the quality of the product shouldn't really vary.

I don't think you're allowed to drive away from the pump before you've paid in most UK petrol stations.

The thing is that if you don't like the setup, there are plenty of petrol stations that don't have grocery shops attached. The ones that have shops tend to have cheaper petrol to lure people in to spend money in the shop. A fast throughput of customers buying cut price petrol and nothing else isn't a viable business model. It's entirely the customer's choice whether they go there or somewhere else.

Anyway what do you know about coffee, you're a teapot (insert smiley here)

[Théière]

Not like you to exaggerate so much Betty, but I use the card payment ones and get the hell out of the place unless I am going for a coffee etc.

There are ridiculous examples of both I'm sure, Tesco have a lot to own up to and locally I won't use them at all. 

ET that's the point with franchises still must buy the franchisors products and that is Whitbread,  I get Tea'd off tea'd out so a coffee is also welcome [:)]

You can move off the pumps the POS tills remember the transactions in case of drive offs so you just need the pump number.

[Thibault]

I'm with Betty here - getting through a French supermarket petrol station kiosk is slow and there is always the one driver who screeches from his (and it is always a him) pump to squeeze past you in order to get in front to pay.

My local Tesco has wide spaces around the pumps, off pump parking and a choice at every pump whether to pay in the kiosk or at the pump. It offers significant discounts on the pump price depending how much you have spent - the computer keeps track of it, so no worrying about little vouchers to submit, you are simply asked at the payment point if you want to 'spend' your discount or save it up for later. It's a good experience.

[Théière]

[quote user="Thibault"]I'm with Betty here - getting through a French supermarket petrol station kiosk is slow and there is always the one driver who screeches from his (and it is always a him) pump to squeeze past you in order to get in front to pay.

My local Tesco has wide spaces around the pumps, off pump parking and a choice at every pump whether to pay in the kiosk or at the pump. It offers significant discounts on the pump price depending how much you have spent - the computer keeps track of it, so no worrying about little vouchers to submit, you are simply asked at the payment point if you want to 'spend' your discount or save it up for later. It's a good experience.[/quote]

I agree it's a different experience, however not actually having put a clock on it I beg to differ.  consider putting fuel in the vehicle and then walking into the shop to pay and then walking back against fueling getting back in and moving forward allowing someone else to fuel behind you that sounds quicker.  OK that time stationary may feel longer compared to walking but is it?  I reckon it's similar to the time spent queuing inside the shop.

Pay at pump should be similar either side of the channel except the Tesco and Sainsburys pumps have no paper receipts available so you have to go back into the shop and queue to collect it!  getting you back inside for spurious purchase of something else.

The original point was those that fuel then go off and commence shopping holding everyone else up and at peak times forecourt rage in London is quite common.  Fortunately I have clocked as I am sure others have that Tesco or Sainsburys are not always cheaper or even competitive making your 4p off a litre actually 2p off or worse 0.  There are cheaper fuel station which still let you collect point on your tesco card so that way you get a bigger bonus and I make sure i only visit Tesco stations during quiet times to redeem any points.  My local Shell stations are usually cheaper that the supermarkets and the drivers club card recently sent offer vouchers including one that gave me £12 of free fuel!

[Thibault]

Theiere wrote:

Pay at pump should be similar either side of the channel except the Tesco and Sainsburys pumps have no paper receipts available so you have to go back into the shop and queue to collect it! getting you back inside for spurious purchase of something else.

You are mistaken in the case of Tesco - if you pay at the pump, a receipt is printed there - you do not have to go into the shop. I can't speak for Sainsbury's.

[Frederick]

Its not so much the big supermarket filling stations that are providing "coffee stops " with plenty of space to pull round the long stayers that delay people and wind them up ..

Its the roadside ones with the small convenience shop and six pumps with no space down the middle to overtake that are now putting in coffee machines Along with hot pies and sausage roll cabinets and bar stools so people can have a drink and snack. When I am on the road like many other people I have a time-table to work to

Places where I have to wait to get onto or away from a pump to fill up while a coffee and pie is consumed I will now be avoiding . If motorists want to stop to eat and drink when on the road they should pull into a place where they can park up to do it ....like at a cafe !

[Chancer]

I thought the rant was about people driving off while drinking coffee being an alleged hazard on the roads, now if they drink their coffee and eat all the pies in the café area they are also the villians, damned if you do and damned if you dont.

I managed to go throughout the whole of this summer without filling the car up so am relatively immune from pump rage, on average I fill up once every couple of months and I do it at lunch time to co-incide with food shopping that will be too heavy for my bike, at that time both the supermarkets and filling stations are empty.

In the UK last week though I needed fuel so went to Tesco's, what an eye opener that was, the place was heaving and the bloomin pumps were playing up, my one at least was and refused to accept pay at pump, maybe I was doing something wrong but a woman said they were all playing up, one look at the queue in the shop was enough to give me pump rage and as I was in poll position and could drive out I did so in the process leaving my filler cap behind.

I filled up at a BP station that had all the elements of the coffee shop, snack bar and groceries that you all mention but it was very well laid out and the pump spaces were wide enougb so there was no problem at all, I filled up at another similar one in Devon, bought a coffee and even managed to find something healthy and cheap to eat which was a real surprise, both these stations were well thought out and a good experience, the potential for pump rage had been designed out, by contrast the Tesco's that I have used are a recipe for disaster compounded by their own popularity.

I always try to avoid buying fuel in the UK on cost reasons, its only when I have to do trips like the Devon one that i do so and am seeing filling stations pretty much for the first time in 10 years, they have improved a great deal, many of them now are also parcel drop,off and collection points, Tesco's seem to ahve lagged behind and dont seem to me to be much cheaper, one thing that did surprise me was when I once had no choice but to fill up at a motorway services that the fuel was no more expensive than garages on the A roads, that never used to be the case or maybe I have got used to France.

[Thibault]

The reason that Tesco doesn't appear to be a lot cheaper nowadays is the system I explained earlier. Every time you shop in a Tesco, you are given money off a litre of fuel. You can save these up (I got 10p per litre off my last tankful (and it was only £1.22 a litre to start with) so that was a good deal), or you can spend them every time. It is all done on the computer so there are no annoying vouchers etc to worry about. That is probably why their petrol stations were busy.

[Théière]

[quote user="Thibault"]Theiere wrote:

Pay at pump should be similar either side of the channel except the Tesco and Sainsburys pumps have no paper receipts available so you have to go back into the shop and queue to collect it! getting you back inside for spurious purchase of something else.

You are mistaken in the case of Tesco - if you pay at the pump, a receipt is printed there - you do not have to go into the shop. I can't speak for Sainsbury's.[/quote]

Yes in theory but when they don't have any paper in them i.e. run out you have to go to the shop. This is a ploy as it can't happen 90%+ time

[Jonzjob]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]Frankly, I've always found it faster to buy fuel in the UK than in French supermarkets. [/quote]

I always go to our local Intermarché. It's much quicker and cheaper than going all the way the the U.K. [8-)] and it's only a pay at the pump jobbie with no shop attached. [Www][Www]

[Théière]

[quote user="Chancer"]

I thought the rant was about people driving off while drinking coffee being an alleged hazard on the roads, now if they drink their coffee and eat all the pies in the café area they are also the villians, damned if you do and damned if you dont.

[/quote]

If you leave your car on a pump whilst enjoying your coffee then yes dammed you should be [6]

[Jonzjob]

You wouldn't ever do that in Malta. Not if you have ever tasted their 'coffee' [+o(][+o(]