Why Starbucks actually helps mom and pop coffeehouses (2007)

Re:Why Starbucks actually helps mom and pop coffeehouses (2007) by bunderbunder on Friday December 04, 2015 @07:51PM (#10680248)

At a nice coffee shop, most of what you're paying for is not the coffee. You're paying for the place to sit down, the convenient access to Internet service, the atmosphere, etc.

If there were more price transparency in the whole situation, it wouldn't be a flat $3 for a basic cuppa. It'd be more like $1 for a to-go coffee and $5 for sitting in. Or maybe a flat low price for the coffee plus an hourly charge for a chair.

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Re:Why Starbucks actually helps mom and pop coffeehouses (2007) by pconner on Friday December 04, 2015 @07:57PM (#10680261)

At what I consider a "nice" coffee place, I'm paying for a better cup of coffee (preferably roasted in-house or nearby, and a few days ago rather than months ago). What you said is true, but there is some coffee that's priced with a lower relative markup for the drink you actually get.

Starbucks bulk-roasts their coffee, and they use darker roasts than most independent roasters (ensuring consistency across locations), which allows their beans to have a much lower per-unit cost.

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Re:Why Starbucks actually helps mom and pop coffeehouses (2007) by bunderbunder on Saturday December 05, 2015 @12:38PM (#10682586)

I was counting Starbucks in the group of "nice" coffee shops. Their markup on coffee might be somewhat higher (though I doubt it; they may have lower materials cost but they also charge half to 2/3 as much as the indie places I tend to frequent do for a regular cuppa), but I bet any difference is still tiny compared to the facilities and staffing costs.

I was meaning it more as opposed to places that more-or-less just serve coffee out of a window.

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