The places we visit, the food we eat , the people we meet and the memories we make stays with us forever and due to these things we revisit those places. That is what nostalgia is – it lets you return to those places that no longer exist , except inside you. But where to when these places are changing or the places you once called home is not the same as it used to be ? one of those places with which every children and adult can connect themselves are cafes – a place where we used to meet thousands of new random people , a place where we used to once think of going when we were kids because we saw youngsters going there , a place where we used to go to do nothing but to tell our friends the next day in school that we visited a café.
Cafes were introduced in India by Britishers in the early 1930s , one of the biggest and firstly opened café was Indian Coffee House. It can be found in every state you visit , before it was a place for people to socialize themselves with different people , to talk to them , learn from them and slowly Indian Coffee House became a place for writers , journalists and other discussions too. The first thing you ask from your parents related to cafes they will always refer to Indian coffee house because they have been adapted by that taste which our generation thinks is nothing in front of Starbucks or modern café chains.
Everything need to be developed and changed with time as it is said – change is necessary , but what to do when the things are replaced with other new modern things ? Have you ever seen your parents or an adult in the age of 40s or 50s going to Blue Tokai or Starbucks or Third wave to just chill or drink coffee ? No , obviously but have you seen the same age group people going to an old café with vintage dusty walls ? where people are just sitting to talk not to just take an americano in one hand and I phone in t with a laptop on the table ? I think the answer to this is a yes.
Globalization , economy , development and the main thing our generation is changed and developed in such a way that we never saw cafes from the point of view of just simply sitting there , we never saw vintage cafes , we never went to Indian Coffee House and tasted the coffee because we have always thought that the new modern café chains which are growing their bars and franchise are the only ones.
These chains are supporting business meetings , works , places to complete your assignments more of a commercial use. They have introduced these cafes for the source which brings them earning and income which brings them and increase their budget basically a means of earning and today where everyone love the coffee culture specially Genz , supported these chains which made them the industry with higher sales and revenue. The average per revenue store of Starbucks is 2.5 – 3 crore in India. Which is far more than a normal café.
In this busy world , where everyone is running behind something , some for achieving something , some for gaining an experience and some are running for just money. If they are not running then they are working from their homes or may be from a café just like Starbucks or Third Wave or Blue Tokai , stressing over the amount of work they have and still not able to complete it within time.
So if there was a place which was introduced to just chill for sometime between your work hours to make your mind fresh , to make new friends and socialize with them , then where it all went wrong ? the main reason is Urbanisation , as the cities grow , people also grow and with this , people need places to work free minded and seeking the opportunities and chances the , global café chains opened their stores for this or to fill this gap.
It is very easy to see why everyone as slowly started shifting towards it , getting free wifi , quick services , clean spaces and a guarantee of a known brand fit perfectly into fast-paced urban life. But local cafes offered something which these chains cannot mass produce – Connections. Rare to make and see nowadays.
The disappearance of these local cafes isn’t about changing coffee preferences , it is about what it reflects from our personality. Global chains offer comfort in consistency but they often lack the warmth and individuality that once made neighbourhood cafés feel like home. But every time we choose a local café , we are also choosing connections over convenience , people over process.
Because in the end, a café was never just about coffee ,
it was about feeling like you belonged somewhere.
References :
- Wikipedia – local cafes and introduction
- Starbucks – revenue and sales
- Wikipedia – list of coffee house chains
- Global coffee report