this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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They'll keep it up as long as business is good. If people will pay 12$ for a latte and lines are out the door, and there are no regulations to stop price gouging and predatory behavior, why wouldn't they?
Oh there are definitely laws to stop price gauging but that's for small businesses and individuals who aren't rich.
Isn't a café the very definition of a small business?
Yeah Starbucks sure is tiny.
I wouldn’t really call them a café, just a chain where you can buy drinks made from burnt-to-shit coffee beans.
That's okay. The coffee beans to chocolate, whip cream , soy milk, and extra caffeine ratio is like 1:99.
You forgot the ten tablespoons of sugar that eats your insides to hide the taste of shit beans.
It's not even a matter of "why wouldn't they," do much as a matter of they must.
Absent of regulations, any company that doesn't abandon every conceivable human moral in pursuit of more profit will find itself hopelessly out-competed by the ones that do. If your every competitor is charging $12 for a latte and paying their employees starvation wages, and you charge a reasonable amount and pay your employees a decent wage, then every hour you're in business your competitors will be making more money than you, and you will always fall behind, unless something comes along to close that gap.
Libertarians might try to say that eventually the free market will close the gap, but adults know otherwise. The free market doesn't give a shit about human decency, the environment, the value of mom and pop businesses, or any of that. The free market can only ever want to make more money, every year, at a faster rate of increase, every year. Forever.
Government is the only thing that can reasonably account for how things should be. Regulations are the only reason we don't have 80 hour work weeks and children in the mines.
Is $12 for a latte even price gouging?
Like, $12 for milk and eggs? $12 for a pound of veggies or a gallon of gas or a jug of water during a hurricane? Sure.
But I can buy a bag of beans for $12 and make ten cups easy. I just don't know if I'd call it price gouging because you're willing to pay out the nose for foamed milk.
Lattes aren't essential. Charging $12 for one is neither predatory nor price gouging. It's arguably exploitatative but I don't feel it's our job to tell people they're not allowed to waste their own money.
Acting on “what the market will bear” instead of what at cost as well as labour is predatory in that it is opportunistic in the basic definition of what makes predatory behaviour predatory. It is also gouging as it is setting a price range that can be considered exclusionary. And then to also attack a customer who feels this and speaks it can be considered victim blaming as you’re enabling these behaviours by dismissing the feedback of the victim, which again is being exclusionary by enforcing their money to be taken but not allowing they can be part of the feedback or setting boundaries of what is happening to them.
When you call someone choosing to buy a $12 latte a victim it makes everything else you say impossible to take seriously.
If these people have been raised by exploitative pricing all their life, I honestly am not sure who to blame anymore.
you use ‘choice’ like $3 latte is an option. You’re bent on manipulating people so it’s hard to take you seriously.
You can get a latte at Dunkin donuts for $2.69 or McDonald's for $1. Or, and this is going to blow your mind, you can live without lattes. We're not talking about insulin ffs. How fucking entitled are you talking about a luxury item like it's a necessity lmao
I think coffee shops should 100% be allowed to price gouge. Its a product anyone can easily make at home for pennies.
It's like those multi million dollar art installations that's literally just a yellow square with a red dot in the middle.
to be fair a setup that can make espresso drinks in the same quality league as coffee shops will cost in the range of 1000-3000€ but if you drink one cup per day then you can save that amount in a year by making coffee at home
Well, in that case, I don't think anyone can make the case that espresso is a necessity, so again, gouge away.
If you can afford a 1-3K espresso setup you probably don't think about saving money on coffee
well if you got savings but low income you can afford one time costs such as that. i got a 1k espresso setup mainly so i dont have to spend 20-40% of my disposable income on coffee from cafes
Bambino is 600, if you do the math it pays itself off in like two or three months of owning one vs going to a coffee shop.
Bambino won't pull the same shots that a great independent coffee shop's equipment will.
It is if you learn how to set the temp settings and use the right bean, grind size and milk. A decent cup of coffee is the sum of parts. And if the customer who does all this is just as satisfied, that’s all that matters.
That's just not correct. Yes, a drink is the sum of the parts, but if all 4 parts are 9.9/10, and your Bambino can't get to 9.9/10 level, the drink will come out inferior.
Although I do agree with your last statement, the Bambino cannot pull a shot like a high-grade industrial machine can.
I'm going out on a limb and argue that a great cup of coffee can probably be made with some rather simple and cheap lab equipment.
Absolutely, all I'm saying is that you cannot pull the same shot with a Breville as with an industrial grade Espresso machine like great independent shops use.
🤣 lol this totally doesn’t sound like a bitter barista taking this personally. I’m gonna say yeah, in fact I can pull a better shot than any independent shop I’ve been to in years with my ‘inferior’ bambino. In fact I’ve done a great cup of coffee comparable even just using an aero press and a hand held foamer.
So Go cry about it some more. sips my home made coffee
Thanks, this made my coffee taste so much better.
i'd say with cheap-ish equipment you can get like 95-98% close to the quality that a 2k+ machine can do, but 95% of cafes at least here dont care enough to put so much effort into the coffee that the machine matters so i can get best coffee possible at home unless im willing to travel for an hour to a place that sells better coffee than i can make for 5€ more
Wow, you need to visit better shops.
I’m happy with my coffee. Deal with it. sip MMMMMMMMMYUMMM.
And so easy just grow your own beans on your acres of land, toil it, roast those beans and voila. Same with brewing your own beer, grow your hops…etc. or wine, grow your own grapes…
You could say that about any food really.
But if you say that oh, the frazzled parents and people who live in mere apartments without land to grow this stuff or people with two jobs and can’t pick their own farm land will come down on you so hard. So spoilt.
I think you know that your analogy is false
I have a hard time arguing for price controls for lattes. We aren't talking water or housing or basic staples of food here.
It is like people who continue to feed ticketmaster and the resale markets with their predatory fees and prices. Why shouldn't they keep doing it if people will keep paying their insane prices for nonessentials?
Legit not arguing but other than going to the physical box office, what alternatives are there to Ticketmaster? I would love to know so I can stop giving them money.
Absolutely. There is no real alternative for most people but at least it isn't a necessity. They have a nice monopoly going.
Just go to venues where you buy direct.
I try when possible but time and distance, and some lack box offices, don't always make this an option. I can't afford the overpriced shows anyway.
Go to venues that you deal with them direct. Is it really important that you see the most popular musician at the best venue or is it more important that you heard some fun music with your friends? Make a decision and live with the decision