Asante Family Remains Optimistic Despite Chandler's Ford Shop Closure

My name is Danielle Young. I used to work at Asante coffee shop in Chandler’s Ford for about three and a half years. Two of which I was manager.

I now work at The Toynbee School in Bodycoats Road as a learning support assistant for the visually impaired students.

Asante was a great place to meet your friends, chat and catch up with other Chandler’s Fordians.Such a great community where everyone just gets on! A bit like the US TV sitcom ‘Cheers’ where everybody knows your name. That’s what I will miss the most – the warm, friendly atmosphere whenever you would walk into the shop and guarantee to see a familiar face.

Asante coffee shop in Chandler's Ford: last trading day is Oct 18 Saturday 2014. — Asante coffee shop in Chandler’s Ford: last trading day on Saturday Oct 18 2014.

The Asante family: upbeat and optimistic

Asante had their closing party on Sunday 19th October and the shop was filled with happy smiley faces of staff members old and new, loyal customers and the trustees of the charity Paul and Shirley Barter. Without them the charity Citizens 4 change (c4c) would cease to exist and the poor souls of Kenya would continue to live in the rubbish dumps searching for food and shelter.

With the underlying sadness that the mother shop had closed her doors for the final time it was Costa who suppressed the morale that was once the heartbeat of the shop itself.

However, the “Asante family” still remained upbeat and optimistic for the future of the sister shop in Romsey.

Danielle Young: You can support Asante by buying a new book called The Story of Asante from the Asante coffee shop in Romsey.

My opinion is when you run a business you have to be prepared to take on the competition. There was just no competition with a big name like Costa and it’s easy to see how successful they have become over the years. I mean you only have to open you eyes to see the brand name everywhere you look.

It was just terribly unfortunate that Costa decided to set up in Chandler’s Ford especially with a small charity coffee shop just across the road trying to make a profit to educate the street children of Kisumu. And so it is, that the inevitable has come to a head so I say this…go forth! To Asante in Romsey. And to Costa? One small latte please.

See you around.