I’m not here to criticize Starbucks. The only time I criticized them at all was after 9/11 when firefighters went into a Starbucks next to the World Trade Center to try and get some water and the manager and employees were so paralyzed by their rules and structure and general lack of creative reflex they couldn’t figure out how not to charge rescue workers to help people save lives.
They can basically do no wrong. Raising prices during a bad economy is brilliant – and if bean costs drop, well, that’s better for the bottom line. So if you pay 10 cents more for a small brewed coffee, I feel no pity because you are dumb enough to go to Starbucks for a small, brewed coffee. You won’t notice the difference. Starbucks says it is the first increase in two years, so customers should feel lucky.
And a financial analyst has estimated that Starbucks is going pay about half the $1.4 billion it did for coffee in 2012. But Starbucks says coffee is not its big expense, it’s only about 10% of their cost.
Which makes you an even bigger sucker for overpaying there.