A study from Viennese coffee roaster Julius Meinl has found that more than two-thirds of survey takers missed the simple act of meeting in a café for a coffee and a chat.
The survey, created alongside OnePoll, that was taken by 4000 adults across London in the United Kingdom, Vienna in Austria, Milan in Italy, and Bucharest in Romania.
According to Julius Meinl, 13 billion of these moments were missed between March 2020 and March 2021, with 81 per cent of survey takers reporting that having a conversation with a friend or stranger positively impacted their wellbeing.
The survey reported that Londoners missed 6.3 million opportunities to meet someone new, while participants from Vienna missed 2.5 million opportunities and Milan 2.1 million moments.
Across the study it was found that COVID-19 had impacted participant openness with 36 per cent reporting they were now ‘much more’ likely to say ‘hello’ to a stranger as oppose to pre-COVID.
Only 20 per cent said they were less likely to talk to strangers due to reasons such as lack of confidence, nervousness and fear of virus spreading.
One in 10 said they were much more likely to say ‘hello’ to strangers as they felt a greater connection due to the global pandemic.
Londoners were found to be the most social with 48 per cent saying they were ‘more’ likely to say hello and 20 per cent saying they were ‘much more’ likely. Of these findings, only 12 per cent of Londoners said they would be less likely to go and interact with a stranger.
Across the survey, one in five said the most likely place they would start a new conversation, would be at a café.
With these findings pointing to a special connection found in cafés, Julius Meinl has kicked off their ‘Say Hello’ campaign from the 1 of June 2021 to support cafés, hotels and restaurants as they begin to emerge post COVID.
Coffee drinks at participating outlets will receive a complimentary coffee voucher to gift to someone as an opening to “say hello” and share a moment.
For more information click here.