COSTA Coffee is making a major change to all of its 2,600 coffee shops from today and fans won’t be happy.
Up until today (August 1), coffee aficionados could collect eight beans through Costa’s reward scheme in order to get a free drink.
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But now, customers will have to collect 10 to qualify.
Each bean qualifies as a drink so technically shoppers will have to buy 10 drinks to get a free one.
It means diners will have to buy two more coffees at one of the chain’s 2,600 outlets before bagging a freebie.
For example, a flat white coffee might cost you £3.90, so you’d need to spend an extra £7.80 to get your free drink.
Of course, prices will vary depending on stores and their location so it’s worth working out how much you’ll need to pay at your local Costa Coffee shop.
Shoppers were left fuming after the chain made the announcement, but some are only just realising – and they’re not happy.
Taking to Twitter today, one said: “Why yous changing your eight beans = a free coffee to now 10 beans = a free coffee.”
They added: “So you have to spend like around £35 to £50 on coffee to get one free drink now!! Disgusting.”
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Another said: “Changing from eight beans to 10.. prices already ridiculous for a coffee and you make this worse.”
Meanwhile a third furious diner said: “Proper stingy now you need 10 beans rather than eight for the free coffee!!
“How much you turning over I think you’re doing all right c’mon.”
Susanah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, previously told The Sun Costa’s move was “not a surprise” due to the rising cost of labour and packaging costs for coffee roasters.
However, Marc Gander of the Consumer Action Group, added at the time: “These [reward schemes] are meant to encourage customer loyalty towards Costa Coffee.
“Costa, like most other stores, hasn’t understood that it is they who should be loyal to their customers and they probably reckon that the Costa loyalty is too costly for them but not for their customers.”
In July last year, Costa hiked its prices again, taking the the price of some drinks soaring past £6.
In April, the chain was slammed for slapping a 10p “surcharge” on the price of drinks at NHS outlets.
Costa has defended the changes to its rewards scheme.
A spokeswoman said: “We’ve made some changes to Costa Club, including how many Beans customers need to collect before they can redeem a free drink in store.
However, the coffee giant has also introduced another change to its reward scheme this week – and it might be good news for customers.
It launched a new “Treat Drop” feature as of July 30, on its Costa Club app – but shoppers will need to be quick.
Customers will see personalised discounted or free drinks or snacks land in their account.
They will then be able to claim them in a nearby Costa Coffee shop between July 31 and August 6, so you’ve only got five days left to claim it.
Because the offers are personalised, the freebies and discounts will be unique to each customer.
Anyone signing up to the app will see their treat after logging in.
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