Take on Big Coffee

Our entry earlier this week on the exorbitant cost of iced coffee
relative to it's hot brethren has elicited quite some response and
touched quite a few nerves.
Apparently, we as a nation are ok with Big Coffee running the show
because only TOR is willing to point it out and because I am stuck in
endless traffic because of some accident on the GWB and I haven't had
coffee, I am particularly cranky

Anyway, I was sent a link to an article in the Atlantic
(http://m.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/why-is-iced-coffee-so-expensive/254945/)
which laid out many legitimate reasons for the higher price if iced
coffee. Then again it was entirely based on an interview with one guy
who owns a coffee shop. Anyway, this "investigative" report came back
with four reasons why this dude justifies his higher cost

- the cost of plastic cups are higher than paper ones
- the coffee shops are forced to buy expensive new seasonal machines
- there is more coffee grind used
- it takes the same markup as other higher prices items
- people are stupid

Let's take these on one at a time

- the cost for a paper cup vs. a plastic cup is probably about $0.01
when bought in bulk. As pointed out by one of the comments to the
article, Fast Food restaurants sell soda in same "high quality"
plastic cups for less money and do just fine. In fact my most
estimates those sodas offer the biggest profit margin at a fast good
place.

- these "expensive seasonal machines" are called ice makers. Some how
I am not convinced that an ice maker will put a restaurant our of
business being that nobody charges you extra for ice water

- As for the more expensive grind, Starbucks sells about 5 different
brewed coffees at the same price and most places just dump the same
coffee over ice. Plus a 16 ounce warm coffee is actually suppose to
be 16 ounces while a 16 ounce iced coffee is probably 8 ounces of ice.
So the higher price gets you less coffee but be sure it was a better
bean

- they need to make the same markup for other high-prices items is a
completely worthless argument since we are comparing it to their least
expensive offering.

- the people are stupid is a pretty good argument on the other hand.
If somebody will happily pay nearly I double for some ice cubes and a
plastic cup, I guess there is really no argument left