Today I walked home from work with my elder daughter who had dropped into the city to pick up a few things. On the way back we called into a branch of Costa for a drink and while I was there I picked up one of their loyalty cards. I’ve never bothered with one before because I don’t tend to go to Costa unless I am with another member of my family and since they all have loyalty cards already it hasn’t really been worth me getting one. In any case, I already have loyalty cards for Caffè Nero, Cafe W (in Waterstones bookshop), McDonalds (occasional use) and the University cafes.
Reading the blurb on the card set me thinking about which of the various coffee loyalty cards I hold is the best deal. Costa give you 5 points (worth 5 pence) for each pound you spend so that is, in effect, a 5% return. Caffè Nero and Cafe W are both ‘buy 9 coffees and get the 10th free’ which, assuming you always buy the same coffee, equates to an 11.1% return. The University cafe deal is buy 8 and get the 9th free (12.5% return) and McDonalds gives you a free coffee for six purchased, which is 16.7% return. So, McDonalds is the best deal – but also definitely the worst coffee. Thinking in more detail, Caffè Nero is probably the winner because their deal is such that you can buy 9 cheap coffees (e.g. regular Americano at £2.40) and get a free large fancy coffee (say £3 in value) which works out at around 14% return for a much better product (than McDs). The snag with this argument is that I now don’t drink milky coffee and don’t particularly want a large Americano, I can’t make full use of the deal. Anyway, all of which probably partly explains why Caffè Nero is my coffee shop of choice (with Cafe W also right up there) and Costa isn’t.
Tim O'Hare 