Costa Coffee to go cashless as coronavirus spreads

Costa Coffee decided to refuse cash payments amongst its 2500 branches in the UK. Also, customers will no longer be able to sit in its shops due to the coronavirus epidemic.

The coffee house mogul is making big shifts to its business model. The response to the spread of the coronavirus is to accept no cash whatsoever and to apply for take-away only orders across the counter.

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The chain fears of spreading the Covid-19 through contaminated note handling.  All seating capacities will be either closed or removed with only toilets being still available for the customers and with just drive-thru lanes still open.

Costa coffee will also not serve drinks to reusable coffee cups, yet they will still apply a 25p discount if you use your own cup.

Costa Coffee chief executive officer Jill McDonald said: “Whilst some of these changes will feel quite disruptive we believe they are the right thing to do for our customers and store teams. We are especially mindful of the move to take away only and ask that customers dispose of and recycle their Costa Coffee packaging responsibly. “

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The company will also continue to recycle cups and enable you to drop them back into store, if possible. They assure their customers that these changes are only temporary and will be regularly reviewed.

This decision comes at a time when businesses try to come to terms with the coronavirus outbreak. So far it has killed 144 people across the UK and infected more than 3,269.

Sources: https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/coronavirus-costa-coffee-go-cashless-3962773 https://www.comunicaffe.com/costa-coffee-stores-go-cashless-and-remove-seating-areas-in-the-uk/ https://www.granthamjournal.co.uk/news/costa-closes-its-seating-areas-and-goes-cashless-9103410/