Win a hamper of artisan, organic coffee from the fabulous Owens Coffee
| 2 October, 2012 | Posted by notocosta under Campaign news |
…for the best image expressing the sentiment of the No to Costa campaign in Totnes and beyond.
The winner of the competition will receive a jute hamper donated by Owens Coffee — the artisan, organic coffee roasters located in the lovely town of Modbury, South Devon.
Here in Totnes, Dr Sarah Wollaston, MP is talking to Costa and they are close to agreeing a date for a meeting which we really welcome.
We welcome the opportunity to talk to them about the facts — the facts of what Costa’s outlet in Totnes will mean to our town. We’re concerned the shopfitters and the signmakers aren’t local — taking much needed revenue away from ours. We’re concerned they don’t know or care their new site is in one of Totnes’s many listed buildings. (Totnes’ high street has the most listed buildings in England.) We’re concerned the promised 12 jobs may actually mean 5-6 — while costing established local ones. We’re concerned none of their food sourcing will be done locally, again depriving local traders of business in tough times. And, finally, we’re concerned about noise and deliveries congesting our high street — and we’d like to know who to contact when such issues arise.
Mostly, we’re concerned about the impact of Costa’s stated goal of growth, growth, growth and more growth — growth that includes outlets on every corner according to Mr Harrison – on small market towns like ours that celebrate and depend upon their individuality and independence.
Being able to meet with Costa Coffee face to face means we will be able to put this case and hope that they will listen and fully understand that the days when businesses could impose themselves on communities which don’t want them without impacting their reputation and brand are long gone.
So, let’s send put our creative thinking caps on and come up with some images expressing our feelings about Costa Coffee to illustrate the main points of our campaign.
About the prize:
The winning entry will receive two packs of organic Owens Coffee in a jute hamper. You may select the blend of your choice. Owens Coffee roasts to order for optimum freshness and supplies some of the finest café’s, restaurants, pubs and retail establishments in Devon. All our coffee is roasted, blended and packaged on site from a carefully chosen, seasonal selection of the finest 100% Arabica beans to ensure a consistent high quality product. And, best of all Owens Coffee is Fairtrade and certified Organic! You’ll see the entries so far in an earlier posting below. The competition will close on October 17.
See more at http://www.owenscoffee.com/
Tweet
coffee at Costa: freddo cappuccino should not look like this!
http://twitpic.com/b1akx9
Please think a little deeper about the assumptions you are making about what is ‘bad’ when you support these campaigns. Costa has withdrawn to protect its image in the rest of the country – they’ll be ‘OK’, but your campaign seems based on some fallacies and fantasies that could damage you in the longer term.
For example, to take the issues raised above –
“We’re concerned the shopfitters and the signmakers aren’t local — taking much needed revenue away from ours.”
-I like to support local traders – but if they are good they also grow their business and get bigger contracts. Good businesses do grow – should all Devon businesses only do business in Devon, or…?
“We’re concerned they don’t know or care their new site is in one of Totnes’s many listed buildings.”
-My observations are that listed buildings are protected by planning controls and by good observance, often by larger Companies (PR and resources…). The people I know who have bulldozed and allowed listed buildings to decay have been as local as the League of Gentlemen!
“We’re concerned the promised 12 jobs may actually mean 5-6 — while costing established local ones.”
Hmmm. So how many established local ones? 12? 5? 2? 132? Actually you really have no idea do you? I remember my English ‘O’ level course illustrating this type of dishonest argument. As used in polemic in the Daily Mail or Socialist Worker.
“We’re concerned none of their food sourcing will be done locally, again depriving local traders of business in tough times.”
Well, probably wrong on two counts – first, it is good PR (as you clearly know) to promote use of local produce, so Costa may well have done this in their outlet. But there is also the breathtaking hypocrisy of a region which promotes its food all across the country (with some success) trying to put up such ‘barriers’ to (some) produce from elsewhere. Shame on you.
“…we’re concerned about noise and deliveries congesting our high street”
Oh no! – people might be buying stuff and need it delivered! What do you want – nothing but charity shops, with the gentle rustle of donated black bin bags to disturb the silence?
“Mostly, we’re concerned about the impact of Costa’s stated goal of growth, growth, growth…”
Well really. (again) How awful is ambition, growth, success… What it really means in this context is getting your coffee, ambience etc right, so that lots of people like it and come back for more.
Costa’s not perfect, but these reasons for campaigning against them just don’t stack up.