Waitrose free coffees

Beyond commenting that the free coffee in Waitrose doesn't taste very nice, I am not sure that anything said on this thread has been a complaint, MawBroon. Mainly puzzlement that Waitrose have gone big on a condition for the free drink that seems perfectly reasonable and that, as far as most of us has experienced, has been in place for some years.

Personally, it is not a freeby I particularly want. Generally I do not mix coffee and my weekly shop. I just bustle around, get all the shopping down and then go home and enjoy a relaxed cup of coffee at home. Out of curiosity, I did try the coffee once, didn't enjoy it and have felt no desire to repeat the experience.

No Monica the condition at Waitrose was/is one hot drink per day in the cafe on production of the "My Waitrose" card if you also buy something to eat (a banana is the cheapest option) but in store, the coffee machine will dispense free coffee to anyone who has been shopping or not, again, to get a cup to go, you have to have a card.
My slight regret is that now the café is no longer the place to leave DH with a cuppa and a bun while I fill the trolley. I would like to see them find a way round this.

Completely agree with you both Grannypiper and MawBroon! An accident waiting to happen. We don't need to have something just because it's free. Why on earth do people feel the need to wander around with a cup in their hands? Sit down, relax for five minutes and enjoy.

I know - I'm old fashioned !

Come on now, as you complete your shop is it not pleasant to get a coffee or tea and sit in the sometimes comfy settees or chairs and drink them at your leisure? Have enjoyed coffee in all its diverse forms all over the world, from Turkish in tiny cups to in Kenya from a bent little man with a charcoal burner served with a pinch of chilli, and find Waitrose's very pleasant. It is a pleasant gesture from Waitrose, accept it with good grace, appreciate their range and good ideas, just enjoy.

personally I've never bothered with the free coffee but used to go at least once a week to get the free copy of the Times or Telegraph with my shopping if I spent £5+. However now the required amount is £10 I rarely go because it's difficult to find £10 worth of things I really want which aren't too heavy to carry home, and I wouldn't spend £10 on such goods very often.

I love Waitrose and like a lot of my neighbours was very pleased when they opened a store locally a few years ago. Great choice of products, pretty good service, a free flower wrapping service, a free newspaper paper if you spend over £5 in the week and over £10 at the weekends, and up until now a free coffee whether you buy anything or not. I shop there most days and don't always have a free coffee. I sometimes meet friends in the café - you get a free coffee or tea with a purchase. Running large stores is costly - they have facilities for shoppers and for disabled and whilst they might be more expensive than Lidl or Aldi I know where I would rather shop. I also get the free coffee and cake vouchers from John Lewis sometimes - which are welcomed. I do agree that it is annoying to see people wandering around the shop holding coffee cups - even more annoying to find them dumped on the shelves when they are finished with!!

DH and I get a free drink and a cake voucher per month each from John Lewis but I do not have a loyalty card or shop there very much. I expect that will go soon as well. I proably wouldn't choose their café for a coffee stop if it weren't free their coffee is not very nice. I prefer Nero's or a small Italian independent coffee shop.

I find it extraordinary how food and drinks must now be offered to us at every conceivable opportunity. Yet we know that constant snacking contributes to ill health. It is of course all a marketing ploy aimed at making us consume more and more food. Are we really unable to resist it?

I think it's more to do with keeping shoppers in the store tbh, but agree that wandering around with a paper cup of bitter free coffee doesn't add much to the pleasure ( or pain) of shopping.Like Monica I prefer to get it all done, and home to relax, feet up, with a decent cup of coffee.

This something offered....you are free to say "no thank you."

Of course dizzygran and I do ( am sure many others do as well.)
But all these offered things are probably not gratis, as the cost may well be added into the prices, Waitrose is the most expensive supermarket , and they are marketing ploys every bit as much as vouchers/bogof bargains.
So, the least they could do is make a decent coffee.

Ours is a little Waitrose and right near the uni. It's crammed full of kids with their free coffees in the morning. There's only a little bar with stools to sit at, but I have to admire their economising when boutique cafe coffees are so expensive.

I guess buying a newspaper would qualify as a purchase?

TBH I always thought you had to make a purchase to get a free coffee anyway- I'd never dream of asking for one just because I was passing through.
I notice they have got a lot smaller though.

I think the prices in Waitrose are too high. They should be giving everyone a free coffee. Every time I have shopped in Waitrose buying more or less the same things each month, my bill has gone up. I am just about to switch to another supermarket. They are also skimpy on whether you get tokens to donate to a charity box too has anyone noticed that?

We enjoy coffee/tea in Waitrose and often see friends there to chat to. But it is a bit annoying that even if you've spent a large amount (eg £80) in the store you still have to spend a few pence IN THE CAFE eg on biscuits to get your free coffee. Also not good for the diet!

So can I ask those of you with a Waitrose café. .... what happens if you don't like any of the cakes on offer in the café and would prefer one from the patisserie counter with your coffee? Surely they couldn't stop you consuming what you have bought in the store? Or is it all to do with VAT on takeaway food?

Can we share ideas that work for that small purchase?

I am sure you'd be able to eat something in the cafe which you had bought in the store - when I wanted a gf roll with my soup they said they didn't keep gf rolls in the cafe because of the risk of cross-contamination (why, if they are wrapped?) but that I could go back into the shop to buy gf rolls to have with the soup!

I took this change to be referring to the use of the machine as you go in..at least in my local store. People would get a free cup from it and take it straight out-off to work perhaps. Worse still, carrying it around alongside a trolley meant that it was often spilt. A friend who worked there, said it was a nightmare. Never was one of their best ideas I don't think.

I am always surprised that my Waitrose bill is not any higher than anywhere else - I look for offers on things I would buy anyway and, with a Waitrose card, some things are cheaper. Added to that I had four vouchers sent to me last week each for £14 if I spend £70. I may not use them all, but one certainly came in very handy last week.

Not all of the stores have a cafe so if they are offering a free coffee and newspaper then I suppose they have to have a coffee machine in store.

Our local Waitrose cafe was always full to bursting when the free coffee offer first arrived - people would flash the card, get a coffee, sit there and read the free newspapers and keep the tables occupied in a most unprofitable way! The next change came when they said if you want a free drink in the cafe you must buy something to eat - overnight the number of people in there was drastically reduced and you could get a seat if you wanted to eat too. A machine was installed at Customer Services and you then had to show the card and be given a paper cup to fill.This has been disastrous - people are wandering about the shop, pushing a trolley with one hand, and holding a large hot drink in a busy shop. A few weeks back a man at the checkout spilt his coffee all over the conveyor belt and the floor, narrowly missing the checkout operator. Not one of their best ideas, and as they keep revising the rules perhaps they are thinking this too.

Having done a google search Waitrose is not the most expensive supermarket. There seems to be no clear list of order. It is rather that some supermarkets are good for some items and some for others.

I shop in Waitrose because it is in the town centre and is not too large so that I can do my weekly shop in under half an hour, plus do anything else I want to do in town within the 1 1/2 hours free parking in the Waitrose car park. The only alternative is a very large out of town Tesco. Time consuming and irritating, plus I then need to make a separate journey into the town centre.

I wouldn't dream of driving to my local Waitrose, finding a parking space and going in just for a free coffee! I do take up the offer when I have done a trolley/basket full of shopping though and am grateful for it. On Martin Lewis's website today he advises how to get a coffee for buying a 3p grape or other piece of fruit. I hope it was tongue in cheek as I would never sink so low!

Rosina I guess it's no worse than people jumping into tube carriages and going up escalators with their coffees. I'm surprised there aren't more accidents, but then I guess the younger generation are more nimble and more sure-footed.