For the Price of a Cup of Coffee
Posted by deCadmus on 07 Aug 2007 at 9:27 am | Category: Coffee
It’s the kind of thing you can almost set your watch by. No, not Old Faithful… but the slow-news-day, non-story that laments how much we’re spending on our (thrice) daily fix of caffeine, courtesy the corner coffee shop. This time out its ABC’s Chicago affiliate taking a whack with Coffee Crazed, a hard-hitting piece that dares to uncover… how much we’re really spending for our caffeine addiction.
Elizabeth Grandberry works in the Loop and visits her Starbucks about five times a week, spending anywhere from $3 to $5 each time.
“It used to be unheard of to spend more than a dollar for coffee,” said Grandberry.
It used to be unheard of to spend more than a nickel for a candy bar (back in the days when we could eat them without guilt) or thirteen cents for a postage stamp. It was similarly unheard of to spend thirty-nine cents on a loaf of bread, or a buck a gallon for gas. Surely, ABC, you can do better than this? Don’t you have, like, a financial expert that could put this all in perspective? Oh, why yes. Yes, you do…
Financial experts say that money spent on multiple coffee runs could turn into a small investment.
“Say you’re spending $4 a day every workday, that’s $80 a month times 12 months a year. That’s almost $1,000 a year,” said Christine Benz, Morningstar.
Why… that’d buy a couple pair of shoes for well-heeled Chicagoans. Maybe three if they’re on sale!
Really, if we’re going to talk about the opportunity cost of our caffeine fix, why don’t we think big? What could you *really* get for your coffee dollar, if you knew how to spend it?
For the price of a cup of coffee, maybe you could discover how to live for 300 years. You could mitigate mercury pollution. Or even achieve enlightenment.
What silly, caffeinated, people we are.
P.S. For a more sobering view (i.e. one that asks questions that matter) see, What’s the Hidden Cost of a £2 Latte?
Forget coffee - let’s target the big stuff. If my employer were enlightened enough to promote telecommuting for jobs (like mine) that are 100% on the computer and where I use email for communication with people ten feet away I would save $2500/year at current prices. I would happily split the difference so we both would profit.
Other ways to nickel and dime ourselves into wealth would include eliminating TV. That way we could save the money spent on hardware, drop the cable or satellite subscription, reduce electricity costs and avoid the temptation to spend caused by advertising. Best of all, we would miss inane “news” stories like this one. :=)
Nickel and diming ourselves into wealth. I like that. ;)
I’d be happy to pay for a cable subscription that only included about 3 channels… but I don’t think they’d go for it.