Ask Lemmy

Fatigue and lack of solutions. You used to be able to go to your local businessman’s house, kick down the door, and strangle him for scamming the town. Strangling Mike (the Kroger GM) isn’t going to help me, and I don’t know how to find Greg Foran.

There is a dose of "you can make coffee at home" that makes convenience pricing at Starbucks not as big a deal than if a grocery store started that shit.

People make the choice to buy overpriced coffee at places like Starbucks. The excuse "I'm too tired to make my own coffee" is just ridiculous.

I boycott things all the time. I also have friends who seem to not care at all. One of my friends considers herself really politically minded, but still eats at McDonald's, gets her daily Starbucks, orders on Amazon, shops and target and uses ChatGPT as her therapist. I've tried to point out the irony, but she gets incredibly defensive. I think some people don't care about anything but convenience. In this day and age, with social media, it made everyone the star of their own personal movie in their head. If things don't directly impact them, even if they like to talk the talk, they're not willing to walk the walk.

I don't like that it's phrased as convenience pricing. They are in the fast casual service industry, everything they do is a convenience to their customer. This is price gouging, plain and simple

I genuinely don’t understand what you mean. Are you saying that people should be outraged that coffee shops like Starbacks charge a lot more than if you brew your own coffee?

Why should anyone give a fuck? It’s not like anyone is forced to buy coffee. The alternative is to simply do it yourself so just do it.

If you appreciate the convenience of getting a coffee on the go prepared by someone then yeah, it is going to be more expensive. After all someone has to be paid to do that for you, and maintain the facilities, equipment, etc.

If people are too tired and don't have enough time to prepare stuff at home, then that's what they should be outraged about.

I just clock my 35 hours a week with 8+ weeks of paid vacation and have plenty of time left to prepare food at home and make snarky comments to Americans online about how they should book a one-way ticket already.

My favourite convenience pricing is at arenas and movie theaters. Conveniently you aren't supposed to bring in outside food

So....you are complaining eating out costs more than groceries + cooking yourself?

Because if you don't like it, you can just not pay. Being outraged over it makes no sense at all.

I live rurally (no Starbucks), but recently had to catch a train from Edinburgh for the second leg of a family holiday. It was delayed by an hour and was raining, so we went into the nearby Starbucks. 2 small hot chocolates for the kids and 1 coffee for my wife and I was down £23. I was caught in the slipstream and stressed so didn't have time to process how much this would cost. We could have got a bag of snacks and drinks for the journey for half that. Robbing bastards.

I do think it’s interesting that people keep going to Starbucks and such, even in a financial squeeze.

You’d think they’d tighten their belts?

My theory is they don’t look at the price too closely when they order. It’s not like gas, where you get reproducible sticker shock every time you fill up the tank and you notice when it changes quite easily.

I am not outraged, but I am aware of prices because I budget. Also, sometimes you just need the nearest Tylenol or caffeine or snack to stay sane. We are all kinda in this meat grinder together so it’s perfectly understandable to me. Anyway, these days I still budget, but sometimes I’ll buy myself a fun drink or whatever on a Friday. But then on Saturday it’s right back to “discounts only”. I think that’s become a source of dopamine.

I'd be mad about it applying to necessities like groceries.

I don't have a problem with luxury coffee or junk food costing more at busy times of day. Once people know the pattern, it will shorten wait times for people willing to pay, and drive price-sensitive customers to alternatives. It's the same phenomenon as the airport bar charging $20 for a beer, but applied to time instead of place.

Because a large part of that price is actually due to the convenience. Sure, there is still a large markup but it also has to pay for the rent at that convenient location, the people preparing it for you, the equipment and maintenance, the energy bill for keeping the lights on and heating, insurance, etc. etc.

None of those things apply when you make it at home. Costs for a supermarket are also much lower per item, cheaper location, less personnel needed to sell you a bag of beans and a whole cart of other stuff vs. preparing a coffee.

because you can just not

it’s shit coffee not air

Why would I be outraged at things I can easily avoid if I want to? If I wanted to complain about prices it'd be at spring events and concerts. I can typically buy a 6 pack for the cost of 1 beer.

I only get coffee from tiny local businesses who need to pay massive rents like the rest of us, if my coffee costs a little more so they can keep that business afloat then so be it. Also, they will fill my whole thermos and give me a discount for bringing in my own container.