Greed Shoving Higher Coffee $$ Down Our Throats?

The WSJ’s “Why Coffee Is Getting More Expensive” so that an average cup at one of those barista places now costs $4.50 “and perhaps going higher” blames the usual overseas suspects: drought, flooding, shipping disasters. But, the article itself noted that coffee prices have steadily gone up for the last 5 years, i.e., at a 10% clip.

There’s no mention of Americans’ foolishness in spending that kind of coin every day, even if it means feeding the kids dog food. Nor does the WSJ mention home grown “barista greed” in charging outrageous prices for mediocre drinks from the get go, then, constantly upping that gouge. Ironically, judging from buying the same ground coffee from South America & Southeast Asia at my local grocer, you’d think there was a coffee GLUT: Last week, I got 5 bags of my favorite flavors for the price of two…they were giving it away?

One more consideration along that greed line of thought is that it’s maybe not limited to coffee. Grape Nuts cereal, gone from my local grocery shelves here in Falls Church since the pandemic lockdowns started, have begun to reappear only at 50% or more of the pre-pandemic price. Also now that the Covid lockdown is easing and folks are heading to local bars and restaurants, I noticed a quirky change in the pricing of booze. That is, at two favorite watering holes, the cost of a glass of beer is roughly the same as for a shot of whiskey…before Covid and “Time Stood Still”, I’d say beer was generally costing 1/3 a decent spirit. Ah, American Greed is back & tastes good, no?

Davd Soul