A State of Independents

I like to ponder. I like to mull over. I like to think through. I am a fan of puzzling. I have been known to deliberate, contemplate, ruminate, speculate, cogitate and evaluate. I try to make room in my head for this to happen a few times a day. It’s important for a couple of reasons: It provides me with an opportunity to re-order and prioritise work and it gives me an opportunity to escape work, even for the briefest of moments, and consider life outside the four business walls.

It’s from these moments that, so far, the ideas for my Blips each day have come: Those thoughts that come into your head but never leave and then fester until writing or communicating them in some way finally gives them the outlet they needed. I’ve noticed that, particularly in the last few days, Blipfoto has become the outlet for these moments and today is no exception.

One of the many pleasures in life is eating out. I am fortunate that work enables and allows me the opportunity to do this regularly and am also fortunate that even when it’s not work related, I am not short of a meal out. One of the other pleasures, for me at least, a morning coffee. I have my routines and my routes for different locations but, if Im in my office, it’s always via Costa. Medium Skinny Latte, two brown sugars in when they put the milk in, stir, coffee on the top, lid and out. Occasionally, brown toast and marmite. After my first experience, never the porridge. It’s a poor excuse for a breakfast.

My love for eating out and my routine coffee this morning collided into the same world with a monumental discovery: The absolute BEST place for lunch anywhere within 50 miles at least is a beautiful little gift shop and cafe named Waterfalls. They have another shop across the Street ‘Rye bay Coffee’ and, in there, is one of the girls who used to work in Costa and she sells a rather special Porridge ‘Wolfy’s’. I had been tipped off that this stuff was good by a reliable friend, Gemma. (Disclaimer: Gemma works for the company that owns both shops!) The tip was specific too: 'My favourite is the pear and ginger’.

First of all, as soon as I saw who was serving, I knew I had to get coffee too. ‘You can take the girl out of Costa etc etc’. So i had a Latte and a Pear and Ginger Wolfy’s and I can’t tell you what a revelation this was. A fulfilling breakfast made with water and oats and a jam pot and a coffee that tasted at least on a par with my regular choice, if not better!

I can’t lie and say it was all roses: No card payments under £10 and no loyalty card or rewards system…but these things matter less when the people are awesome and the food is great. A short walk to the cash point fixes one and a change of thinking and attitude to the other corrects that.

The point is that Costa is good, a couple of the staff are superb but it’s still a chain. Starbucks, Nero. The same. But they are made to look like rank amateurs when the Independents get in and change it up again. And that’s what Waterfalls and Rye Bay Coffee are doing. They are challenging people’s perceptions of what these outlets should be. The soup, as an example at Waterfalls is staggeringly good. Exemplary. Full of flavour and just beautiful. Plus they aren’t afraid to try something different: Beetroot and Apple, to this day, is one of the best soups I’ve ever had. But the service that comes with it is breath taking. Nothing is too much trouble it’s done with a smile and it’s staffed by a team that just want to make a difference to that moment in your day. Rye Bay is the same. And what’s missing more than anything from Costa and it’s countrywide competitors isn’t just the product, its seeing the delight on the face of someone who actually made that soup or baked the cake or even selected the bean for the coffee, when you tell them it was amazing: It’s the owner who makes the effort to come and say hi, find out your name, introduce you to whoever is working and then remember it next time: That to me is worth more than any loyalty card or any free coffee.

This country was a state of independent retailers and traders. And then we weren’t. And then the high streets broke. And then people longed for the days when we had a high street and then independents started coming coming back. Waterfalls has been on this for years and I’m late to the game. Rye Bay is slightly newer. And these are only two examples.

And this was all connected, for me at least, by Wolfy’s. Yes, its great product, but what it’s done is give the likes of Rye Bay an edge in the town. A reason to not go to the chain. A reason to walk those extra 100 metres and spend an extra pound in the morning and a reason to sacrifice the loyalty points. One of my blips last week was about using an independent tyre replacement guy. Then i went to an independent shoe repair guy and blipped and today, thanks to a porridge and a moment to reflect, Costa will also see less of me… and I’m Blipping….you see the pattern?