Commercialism with a human touch!
Leena Chandan*
* Financial Journalist, myiris.com, e-mail: leena.chandan@irisindia.net
Place: Costa Coffee Shop
Recommended for: Quality hour with close ones, ambience of a lifetime experience, to be unfolded wow-and-how factor
People reading this would feel it like any other review of a hit movie, a new dining place, a shopping complex or an exhibition. Hold on! While the place in discussion would have nothing new as compared to its peers (What we are referring to are coffee shops mainly those like Barista`s and Café Coffe Days – more affectionately called as CCD by our youth.) it still commands some penning on it - thanks to its human touch (which is rare to find) in the big bad commercial world.
This UK originated coffee shop at first stance makes you feel as if you have entered any other CCD or Barista outlets – at-least the prices on the menu card speak so….
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Offerings from the Costa Bar |
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Hot Coffees |
Rs 59-89 |
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Coffee Chiller`s |
Rs 79-99 |
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Costa Shakes |
Rs 79 |
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Refreshers |
Rs 59-79 |
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Desserts |
Rs 59-90 |
What else would be the difference one would think? Ambience??? This is surely one of the factors ! Costa Coffee shop, more particularly the one located at - Skyzone Level One, High Street Phoenix Mills speaks for its ambience comprising of soothing live piano played by Digant C. Doshi. (Plays beautifully – Definitely a helping hand in making the atmosphere soothing!)
Other thing which is peculiarly remarkable is the service. Service – What’s so special, one would think here again?
Let me explain the ‘why’….It is not only the wow factor which makes the service commendable (any coffee shop would ensure best for its coffee sippers). It is actually a combination of wow-and-how factor which makes the service an experience of lifetime feeling (rare to be found in the service industry).
Unfolding the wow-and-how factor:
You enter the shop and take a seat on a cozy couch near the escalator (if you like observing people) or a quiet place (if you want special time with your partner/friend) expecting the waiter to come and note down your order: just a coffee or a couple of snacks.
However, you are surprisingly taken aback as a funny and weird feeling creeps in you when a head waiter asks you to place the order at the billing center without giving you your deserving bill (many places now have a status – If you don’t get bill, the order is free)
Quietly you place your order at the center and re-settle at your couch with your partner(s).
As you start observing the place (couples would rare do so) waiting for your order, you would sense some peculiar movements – 10-12 waiters signaling each other in sign language, surrounding customers explaining their tit-bit orders (like water, sugar etc) in sign language (this is one thing which would make you feel eerie, since I felt the same).
If your curiosity to unravel the mystery is as severe as mine – it will lead you to the billing center like I did.
What I found out was that a combined result – the wow and how factor:
On enquiring, we (a friend of mine had accompanied along) found out that barring the head waiter and the managers (both of them spoke broken English) all the waiters serving at the coffee shop were deaf and dumb!
Felt nah?? – The wow and feeling on reading… (Wow on they are employing deaf and dumb in a coffee shop, how – are they still manage the competition on a decent level as compared to its peers).
This is not new for Costa, the brand which has over 100 outlets in India (don’t know the count) and around 12-13 in Mumbai. On our rendezvous with the manager we found out that each branch employs around 12-15 such people thus equaling over 100 in Mumbai itself!
This as far as I am concerned is a commendable cause of humanity that too in a service industry and that too in this success driven corporate world. Definitely an experience which makes you feel, Ah! A mention has to be made about the place….
Coffee shop timings: 11am - 11pm
Its always a pleasure to share such personal experiences to interact with ‘grown up special children’ (that`s my coined term). Trust me, it feels bliss to write about them…Come share and feel the same…….
URL for references:
http://www.highstreetphoenix.com/Store-Costa%20Coffee.asp/
http://www.costa.uk.in/
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