Out of season trips to Dystopia
(Dystopia refers to a society that is dysfunctional and
characterized by general sufferings of the people,an opposite of utopia, or
perceived as such).
Reality
is what you make of it at any moment, and whilst reality changes, your view of
it may either remain static, or fail to keep up with it as it changes. Whilst
bus passes are a blessing, the view from the Clapham Omnibus (and who uses that
phrase any more) changes or becomes sufficiently distorted as to be tricky to
interpret.
I know
I’m older than I was. When I give my date of birth truthfully, I either feel
amazed or embarrassed. What do people see if they see me at all? Old fart or
too old to matter, or someone of no relevance? More often than not, photographs
show decayed features and the window of attractiveness for most of use just
covers the years of 20 to 40. Lucky if you still look good enough, without
major renovation, for people to give you a second glance. In my head I still
want to feel younger and some of my ideas are juvenile. I know my bodily
functions don’t agree with that. Do I want to be younger again? Not really
because I would have to engage with the necessities of a younger life, and even
knowing what I know now, I don’t know if I would get it right, but it might be
interesting to try knowing that things have changed. Nothing I am going to do
will change anything outside my four walls.
What’s
bugging me today.
COFFEE
Although
I am a buyer, I cannot believe the frequency with which the working person buys
takeaway coffee or to drink in the myriad of coffee shops (9 of them in my
local high street, but one just closed recently). I like coffee, and I like
good coffee even more. Nothing fancy: what is currently called an Americano,
but it used to be called black coffee. The going rate for a moderately big cup
is between £2.50 to £2.80 in London (the worst offenders for me are the London
museums where you can pay just under a tenner for two cups of coffee and a
shared cake), and for this you will get a takeaway paper cup and a dash of
milk/sugar if you want it. (If you take your own cup, there will be some form
of discounting in the big chains. The cost of goods is about 13p for the coffee
and about 11p for the cup, without labour and premises costs. Cost of good for
tea is even less. Yet the coffee shops can run at a loss.
Currently,
buying ground/whole beans at supermarket discounts (my favourites are Lavazza
and Aldi Columbian strength 5 beans), I reckon that without electricity costs,
I am paying about 10p per big cup.
Yes, I
know that there is the use of premises that comes into the equation, and if you
want to sit down in a central location or even worse, a motorway service
station, and have a beverage, you have to pay for it. This is the thing for me,
as a cuppa helps break the day if I am out. I like to sit down, yet many
central London coffee shops are totally full of people using the tables as free
offices or study areas (because of free wifi and acceptable ambient
temperatures in height of summer and winter) not actually consuming the shops’
products, and that is simply the way it is. You either walk away or accept that
you might not be able to sit down. If you get the chance, have a look at the
British Library café area, where most of the tables are taken by non consumers
at any moment.
So
imagine a working person buys two cups of coffee per working day at say £2.50
per cup. For a five day working week, that is £25/week, and for a 250 day
working year, that is £1250 per annum out of taxed income, and more if you pay
more or drink more.
The
question is whether you might want to do something about it? Would you BYO,
would you give up coffee, or is it a perfect storm of an overpriced product
served by low paid individuals working for companies who are finding it
difficult to make a profit.
Does it
make any sense, and what did people do before Costa and Starbucks? What kind of
society are we in that spends so much of its disposable income on something as
inconsequential as coffee, and is prepared to pay so much. Why are there so
many coffee shops? Presumably someone thinks they can make money out of it, as
it surely is not being offered as a humanitarian exercise. Have we been
brainwashed into thinking that drinking coffee on the go is a
good/cool/societally acceptable thing to do. Am I crazy by wanting to sit down
when I drink a hot drink? Should I care?
