Posted on 07/23/2007 2:06:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin
ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp. (NasdaqGS:SBUX - News) will raise U.S. prices on coffee, lattes and other drinks by about 9 cents a cup next week to help offset soaring costs on commodities such as milk and energy, a spokesman said on Monday.
The move marks Starbucks' second price increase in less than a year and comes a month after the coffee shop chain's chief financial officer warned that it would be "very challenging" for Starbucks to meet the high end of its 2007 earnings forecast, due in part to rising dairy prices.
The higher costs have also been a concern for investors, who have sent Starbucks' shares down more than 20 percent this year.
"We're always looking at the business costs, and given the rising cost environment in which we operate we think this is an appropriate time," spokesman Brandon Borrman said.
Starbucks' last price hike of about 5 cents per drink went into effect in October.
The latest increase affects drinks made behind the counter and is effective July 31 at Starbucks' 6,300 company-owned stores in the United States, Borrman said. Licensed stores control their own prices but are expected to follow the move, he added. There are about 3,500 licensed Starbucks stores in the United States.
Prices on bottled drinks, whole bean coffee and food are unaffected.
“Women and Small Children Greatly Affected” ../Not
First rule of life, son: you don’t get espresso at a chain store!
I had my first Starbucks coffee a few weeks ago at a New York State Thruway rest area. I was not impressed and it was quite expensive.
Pay more for that faggy frothy crap -— SUCKERS!!! There’s a sucker born every minute.
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public
Buying Starbuck’s coffee is God’s way of telling people they have too much money.
Dunkin Donuts tastes like crap.
I buy Starbucks coffee of the day ... which is just plain coffee. It’s cheap compared to the DD swill.
It’s really only 13 oz. My grandparents were Democrats, sorry, but I had an ancestral flashback.
Use to, when someone gave you a useless opinion, you could tell them, “That and a dime will get you a cup of coffee.” Boy! Is that saying past it’s prime.
luv Dr Pepper ( dislocated Texan here)
especially the dunkin kind
what kinda coffee ? you weird..............hehe
What does that tell you about the bottled water market? ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabica
I knew that, just wanted to play Archie Bunker for a second............we’ll be right back after these messages
Aren’t they already high enough. Jeez, what’s a little hot water, with some coffee and flavoring suppose to cost?
Once again... a Starbucks moment with Jackie Mason
Jackie Mason’s take on Starbucks.....
You want coffee in a coffee shop, that’s 60 cents. But at Starbucks, if it’s Cafe Latte: $3.50. Cafe Creamier: $4.50. Caffe Suisse: $9.50. For each French word, another four dollars. Why does a little cream in coffee make it worth $3.50?
Go into any coffee shop; they’ll give you all the cream you want until you’re blue in the face. Forty million people are walking around in coffee shops with jars of cream: “Here’s all the cream you want!” And it’s still 60 cents. You know why? Because it’s called “coffee.”
You want cinnamon in your coffee? Ask for cinnamon in a coffee shop; they’ll give you all the cinnamon you want. Do they ask you for more money because it’s cinnamon? It’s the same price for cinnamon in your coffee as for coffee without cinnamon - 60 cents, that’s it.
But not in Starbucks. Over there, it’s Cinnamonnier - $9.50. You want a refill in a regular coffee shop, they’ll give you all the refills you want until you drop dead. You can come in when you’re 27 and keep drinking coffee until you’re 98. And they’ll start begging you: “Here, you want more coffee, you want more, you want more?”
Do you know that you can’t get a refill at Starbucks? A refill is a dollar fifty. two refills, $4.50. Three refills, $19.50 So, for four cups of coffee - $35.00. And it’s burnt coffee. It’s burnt coffee at Starbucks, let’s be honest about it. If you get burnt coffee in a coffee shop, you call a cop. You say, “It’s the bottom of the pot. I don’t drink from the bottom of the pot. But when it’s burnt at Starbucks, they say, “Oh, it’s a blend. It’s a special bean from Argentina.....” The bean is in your head.
And there’re no chairs in those Starbucks. Instead, they have these high stools. You ever see these stools? You haven’t been on a chair that high since you were two. Seventy-three year old Jews are climbing and climbing to get to the top of the chair. And when they get to the top, they can’t even drink the coffee because there are 12 people around one little table, and everybody’s saying, “Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.....” Then they can’t get off the chair. Old Jews are begging Gentiles, “Mister, could you get me off this?”
Do you remember what a cafeteria was? In poor neighborhoods all over this country, they went to a cafeteria because there were no waiters and no service. And so poor people could save money on a tip. Cafeterias didn’t have regular tables or chairs either. They gave coffee to you in a cardboard cup. So because of that you paid less for the coffee. You got less, so you paid less.
It’s all the same at Starbucks - no chairs, no service, a cardboard cup for your coffee - except in Starbucks, the less you get, the more it costs. By the time they give you nothing, it’s worth four times much.
Am I exaggerating? Did you ever try to buy a cookie in Starbucks? Buy a cookie in a regular coffee shop. You can tear down a building with that cookie. And the whole cookie is 60 cents. At Starbucks, you’re going to have to hire a detective to find that cookie, and it’s $9.50. And you can’t put butter on it because they want extra. Do you know that if you buy a bagel, you pay extra for cream cheese in Starbucks?
Cream cheese, another 60 Cents. A knife to put it on, 32 cents. If it reaches the bagel, 48 cents. That bagel costs you $312.
And they don’t give you the butter or the cream cheese. They don’t give it to you. They tell you where it is. “Oh, you want butter? It’s over there. Cream cheese? Over here. Sugar? Sugar is here.” Now you become your own waiter. You walk around with a tray. “I’ll take the cookie. Where’s the butter? The butter’s here. Where’s the cream cheese?
The cream cheese is there.” You walked around for an hour and a half selecting items, and then the guy at the cash register has a glass in front of him that says “Tips.”
You’re waiting on tables for an hour, and you owe him money? Then there’s a sign that says please clean it up when you’re finished.
They don’t give you a waiter or a busboy. Now you’ve become the janitor. Now you have to start cleaning up the place. Old Jews are walking around cleaning up Starbucks. “Oh, he’s got dirt too? Wait, I’ll clean this up.” They clean up the place for an hour and a half.
If I said to you, “I have a great idea for a business. I’ll open a whole new type of a coffee shop. A whole new type. Instead of 60 cents for coffee I’ll charge $2.50, $3.50, $4.50, and $5.50. Not only that, I’ll have no tables, no chairs, no water, no busboy, and you’ll clean it up for 20 minutes after you’re finished.” Would you say to me, “That’s the greatest idea for a business I ever heard! We can open a chain of these all over the world!” No, you would put me right into a sanitarium.
Starbucks can only get away with it because they have French titles for everything, bastard sons-of-a-bitches. And I say this with the highest respect, because I don’t like to talk about people.
“Pay more for that faggy frothy crap -— SUCKERS!!! There’s a sucker born every minute.”
I see them at work with mile long lines. No thanks. Besides, I am one of those people that so far doesn’t like coffee.
I know coworkers who drink 2-3 cups a day spending more than 10$/day on coffee! I would think the left wing founder of starbucks wouldnt need to raise prices as he is a billionaire already.
The advantage of doing so is obvious. You walk into Starbucks, you wait in line for 30 minutes, you order your Non-Fat Latte and pay with one of your stack of $tarbucks and 10 minutes or so later you have your coffee. Wham, bam, thank you m'am. No time waiting for change or digging in the wallet or purse for that quarter. It would be a real time saver.
I'm going to take this up with the Secretary of the Treasury and Bush the next time we have dinner together.
A perfect example of the scam of "core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices".
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