How much does a cup of coffee cost nowadays? I've literally been in a Starbucks 2 or 3 times. I'm guessing close to 10 bucks now?

I still have the app on my phone for when I travel. A 20oz hot coffee at the Starbucks closest to me is now $3.25 plus tax, I just checked.

For context, when my dad had his diner in the 60s-early 90s, the 1969 cost of pretty much unlimited coffee if you were dining in was 15 cents plus 1 cent of tax (and if you weren't an asshole you tipped the waitress another nickel or dime). So a factor of 21x over 55 years which comes out to 5.7% inflation per year.

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I believe I read that Starbucks spends more money on employee health care costs on an annual basis than they do on coffee beans.

Their coffee sucks. DD blows them out of the water by wide margin. Dunkin seems to get more foot traffic anyways.

Coffee is just stained hot water when you think about it.

I decided to forego my Do-rite run this morning for coffee and a donut. My cup of medium dark roast in the Sears Tower location cost $4.15.

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Those $3000 automatic coffee stations seem to be getting popular. I guess it can be justified if you buy Starbucks every morning for $10 or more.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

starbucks is a brand, not a coffee. basically like how harley davidson is a merchandise company that also sells a few motorcycles.

theyre also extremely bloated as an organization. but i dont think this stock drop is due to anything they have done. the entire market is collapsing.

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this nation didn't and doesn't really have a coffee-culture like europe. starbucks and dunkin got smart and realized if they made various coffees taste like candy or cake, americans would pay for the fancy lattes. they did..until the fancy lattes became $7.00-$8.00 each on average, for a large. i think they hit their price point ceiling with $5.50 for a large and consumers got turned off and are now buying de longhis, brevilles and rancilios - making the coffees at home. revenues down 6.5%....no surprise. we used to go almost every morning, now we go 2-3 times a week.

gotta love the old-timers in europe. 2 cafes across the street from each other - a cluster sips coffee in the shade until 1230, then, crosses the street to sip coffee in the shade at the other cafe.

I don't drink coffee, but all of the coffee snobs I know absolutely despise Starbucks.

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Yup.
The only "fast food" app that I have.

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$3K?! Dafugg. Maybe a decade or two ago, nowadays you can get decent quality espresso machines for < $200 to $600.

Starter model, but you'll quickly tire of routine/ceremony of doing it all yourself/manually:

De'Longhi ECP3420 $129 but every addict usually enjoys/gets off on some aspects of the ritual (tapping the bottom of pack of Marlboros or a vein or grinding beans etc)

If you like cow-jizz in your espresso:

Mr. Coffee Espresso and Cappuccino Machine, Programmable Coffee Maker with Automatic Milk Frother $299

Mr Coffee model usually discounts about $100 around Amazon day and Black Friday and other online sale events.

Café Affetto Automatic Espresso Machine --lists at $549, almost always on discount for around $300. Used this one daily for a year and a half and it's rock-solid. Easy to maintain and pours near perfect espresso shots every time automagically. Pour in beans/water, push brew and it'll grind/brew different types of espresso drinks, sans frothy white stuff. Buy a separate milk-frother if that's your thing. They used to sell a model with an integrated frother, might still; but I think having those be separate probably extends the life of the machine and you can get decent frothers for $30 to $50.

Reminds me of the probably entirely apocryphal factoid of General Motors spending more on dick pills for their retirees than on automotive R&D. GM did at one point, probably still does send out checks monthly to Americans (current ee's + retirees) in every zip code except 1: some unpopulated Alaskan zip code where no one actually resides full-time.

GM at this point is more a bank/finance company/health-care provider and lego builder than manufacturer, having outsourced all that work to suppliers and off-shore/Mexico.

Similar to how airlines today make more $$$ fucking around with rewards points than on actual air travel. If Congress follows through opening up the cc processing system, it'll result in Visa/Mastercard no longer being able to shake-down POS retailers for 3+ percent of all sales; and the rewards points system collapses and airlines will have to charge more than $39 (before taxes/fees) for a one-way flight half-way across the country.

Blockchain saves the world.

I do miss the old independent coffee shops that were filled with weirdos 24/7. Somehow the shops were even able to nab some prime real estate spots. If you weren't careful you'd show up during a poetry slam, Jazz trio, nihilist meeting, or something.

If I'm a nihilist, I wouldn't bother going to a meeting.

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Many of my open mics were at places like that…

I don't think those replace a true coffee shop experience though.

https://www.costco.com/jura-s8-automatic-coffee-machine%2C-piano-black.product.100664000.html

I don't have one as I'm fine with a ninja coffee maker but things like this always make those lists of "What is something that is expensive but worth every penny?" lists.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!