Coffee anyone?
The good news: A new family-friendly cafe has opened in Broadwater…
The not quite so good news: It’s a Starbuck’s…
Starbucks recently opened the doors of their first cafe in Worthing. It is large, with plenty of room to manoeuvre buggies and has a meeting room which can be booked in hourly slots, free of charge providing people buy coffee and don’t bring their own food and drink. I asked some Worthing parents what they thought about this.
Image courtesy of mapichai on freedigitalphotos.net
Some were concerned about Starbucks’ intentions:
“I’m pretty anti Starbucks to be honest. They started off with good intentions but then got greedy - really greedy. My sister used to work for them and apparently their aim is that you should always be able to see another Starbucks from the one that you’re sitting in. I do go in them now and then but I’d much prefer to support a local independent cafe.” – Katie
“My husband and I call them mega bucks…” – Emily
Many didn’t like their coffee much, but that wouldn’t necessarily stop them from paying an occasional visit:
“Not a mega Starbucks coffee fan but space for buggies and atmos tends to win!” – Rachael
“I love coffee and coffee shops. Not my favourite brand but I welcome it opening.” – Georgia (who visited on the opening day and reported that it was really spacious and the meeting room looked nice.)
The most commonly held view was that an independent coffee shop would have been better but parents will use the place due to a gap in the market in this part of Worthing. Eleanor summed this up really well:
“While I share concerns about Starbucks and wish it was an independent cafe opening in Broadwater, I was really pleased to see it advertised as opening simply because there isn’t a good cafe for kids in that area… As a mum of two very small children, it will be really nice to have a place to take them close by to give myself a break and where we can hang out for a bit… I’m always having to go into town to meet friends/mums for coffee and it will be very nice to have somewhere closer to suggest going to occasionally.”
I asked parents if they would be interested in using the room in this cafe for a group meet up. Interestingly, not one person said yes, despite several saying that they thought the meeting room was a good idea.
Several think Starbucks are only in it for the money, many don’t like their coffee much but most mums who responded to my questions would still go to this coffee shop in Broadwater due to the lack of a child-friendly alternative. I think there’s a good reason why Starbucks opened here, rather than Worthing town centre. The town centre already has plenty of child-friendly, independent cafes so there isn’t the same gap in the market.
Simone grew up in the Worthing area and currently lives in Angmering with her husband and young daughter. She blogs about what they’ve been doing at angmeringmummy.blogspot.co.uk.
