Coffee chain capu-tulates...

Ouch. That was bad. So, it seems that in spite of yesterday's news on the benefits of an espresso or two, coffee can't make businesses forget the global economic downturn.

In the self-same newspaper which announced the "arabica annhilates Alzheimer's" story, we have the news that Coffee Republic has hit the skids.

The Independent's David Prosser likens the reluctance of consumers to wean themselves away from the daily mocha to being similar to the way in which, no matter the economic conditions, lipstick always keeps up its sales. Hardly a great analogy methinks, lipstick not generally being bought by more than 50% of the population. Though I appreciate the point he was making.

Particularly interesting for me was the fact that, having obviously mssed this story in yesterday's Guardian, I was alerted to it by the biting satire of The Daily Mash,

'Julian Cook, a 32 yea old ba***rd from Camden said

"I'll soon be forced to sit on a park bench with a flask of Maxwell House

and angle my laptop in just the right way so that people can see

what I'm doing."

Are they seriously suggesting people could get precious about coffee? Who would do such a thing...