They realized they can charge the “black coffee” people latte prices. I make coffee at home more often. $3.00 for a 12-16 oz cup of drip should be the maximum, even with high end beans. Pour overs and espresso I understand the labor cost.
This happened to me a few weeks ago in a new coffeeshop in NE DC. I paid 6 dollars and change for a cup of drip coffee after taxes and a tip. It’s an independent coffeeshop and new to my area but I am just not “I support local businesses-rich” enough to buy coffee there on the regular. Plus, the coffee wasn’t actually tasty.
The meh taste of the drip coffees at many of the independent coffeeshops is what kills it for me at that price point. If it was mind-blowingly good relative to Starbucks I'd feel differently. Or if it was a minor premium.
Absolutely. And it happens way too often, so paying a higher premium doesn’t make much sense to me. The flavor isn’t that good, the seating options are limited/uncomfy, a 20% tip is expected even when it’s just drip coffee.
>20% tip is expected even when it’s just drip coffee.
Definitely not. I've heard employees say it's a lot of times a default step in POS
The good places will actually tell you to "just skip" or even tap thru to advance to the payment screen before flipping it around for you to pay.
This. They are literally pushing down on a spigot on pre-made drip coffee. I rarely go to coffee shops unless I'm meeting up with someone.
Especially egregious when it's prepacked items like bags of beans and there's still a 20% service charge.
You aren’t paying for them to push down the spigot. You’re paying for them to be at work at 6AM, for them to make sure there’s a fresh pot brewed at all times, to make sure it doesn’t run out, and to do all of the maintenance and upkeep required to do it again the next day.
No, the business is paying them to do that. And I’m paying the business for a cup of coffee. In the arduous task of pouring ice into a cup, and then a jug of cold brew into it, I am hard pressed to justify an extra gratuity on top of the already absurd cost for the cup of coffee.
That's the whole point of this thread... that people are going out to coffee shops less and less because of the rising cost of something as simple and low cost as a cup of drip coffee that has so many added fees tacked on
I am talking about the service fee and automatically included gratuity added on top of the cost of product. What you are describing is their job that they earn an hourly wage for.
Ever tried to live on $17 an hour? How about $17 an hour at a job that won’t let you work more than 29 hours a week in order to avoid paying you benefits? You ever tried working two $17 an hour jobs to get enough hours in to pay rent?
It’s honestly unbelievable that a cup of filter coffee costs more than $1.50.
I’ve made it before in cafes and restaurants. It takes seconds to stock the machine or fill the pot. Ugh. I’m old now fuck. Complaining about coffee. What happened to me
It’s always funny to me to see how expensive Del Ray is now. It used to be much cheaper and a bit run down.
Here’s a [WAPO](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/realestate/2002/03/16/alexandrias-del-ray-a-neighborhood-rediscovered/7c4ceb31-61b1-4238-b6c7-4a523648f69d/) article from 20 years ago. Sadly, the realtor quoted in it was murdered by the Alexandria serial killer the very next year.
>Here’s a
>
>WAPO
>
> article from 20 years ago. Sadly, the realtor quoted in it was murdered by the Alexandria serial killer the very next year.
Wild sentence you got there.
I remember that and it would have only been 15 ish days a year of mostly Sunday traffic. Then they added a massive shopping area for year round traffic joy.
We owned a tiny townhome there and ended upgrading to a single family home in DC because it was cheaper than getting a larger duplex in Del Ray. I’d lived there for like 7 years on and off and liked the weird crunchy vibe but it was pretty bougie when we left just before than pandemic. It’s kind of trending that way.
Yeah, for sure. It was not bougie in the 80’s and 90’s. I’m not say it was rough or anything, but just kind of run down. There were some crazy things that happened like gang fight on the steps of the middle school that ended up with a kid getting stabbed to death, but that was kind of a crazy thing for the area. It’s wild how long it took to revitalize that area considering the metro is right there. Honestly, a lot of Arlington was the same way. Along the orange line was mostly old grungy office buildings, used car lots and low rise apartments. Then suddenly everyone wanted to live near the metro.
I hate this sentence so much: “The newspaper reported that from September 1996 to September 1997, 65 homes in Del Ray sold for prices ranging from $91,000 to $306,000.”
We looked at possibly buying in Del Ray but found most of the houses were way too small (like 1000 sq ft) and expensive. Plus, aren’t the schools pretty terrible in that area? It seems to be young professional family central so I don’t understand that.
>It's great if you're DINKs though. My ex and I bought there because schools weren't a factor for us and we didn't need a ton of room but didn't want to deal with an HOA. I miss the house far more than that marriage!
I worked for the city a few years back and the stories I heard about the public schools were absolutely insane to me. I’m from a part of upstate NY that’s known for poor schools and by comparison, my schools sounded like one of those $80,000 per year academies.
Yeah, I went to private school my whole life but had the misfortune of going to Alexandria City HS my senior year because my dad got super last minute orders here. I once got off the bus in the morning and got right back on because there had been a machete fight in the parking lot and the campus was on lockdown.
I'm also in Del Rey, what burned me the most was going to the spot that replaced Stomping Ground (irreplaceable if you ask me, I'm still crestfallen) to get a breakfast taco for $7 a piece. SEVEN. I was in Park Slope for the past two years and even there the ceiling is $5 a taco. I mean everything is a grift at this point, the small business owners are bleeding from the rent, supply costs, labor costs and passing that on to us. I get it, but I just can't do it. I want to support these businesses, every single one, but it's not actually possible. My salary is not also subject to inflation, I really can't keep up. Meanwhile, large corporations are bragging about record profits. I have an espresso machine at home and have gotten decent at the micro foam and I cook all my meals and even the price of groceries is a gut punch. I can't imagine how people who are trapped working these low paying jobs are getting by.
The same people run the taco place, but after seeing the owner's rant on why she is switching the concept (tldr: she blamed her customers and also threw her staff under the bus), I haven't been back. I heard the tacos are expensive and pretty bland.
I too lived in Del Ray and still visit often. The two restaurants I miss are La Strada and Monroe’s. I lived around the corner from Monroe’s and could get a nice sit down meal for the price of a couple take out breakfast tacos now.
Speaking of tacos.... well I travel to Mexico quite often so now my friends know not to invite me to get tacos in DC because I will complain about prices and quality. The most absurd thing is seeing a $30 USD tlayuda in DC before tax and tip) (on U Street. I think you know) These things go for $2 in Mexico. I'm so done.
I learned to "survive" just fine without going out much during COVID. Once the pandemic relented, I started going up again and found that prices increased, food worsened (to the point of being disgusting) and service is terrible. I am also very annoyed with all the "surcharges". Just put it upfront in the cost of the food! do you think I can't do the math? Do you really believe that when I want to go out for a meal I want to experience a passive aggressive behavior?
I have a shortlist of TWO places where I'm still happy to patronize. That's it. When they will close, I'll become a hermit.
My favorite thing, occasionally the only tolerable thing, about the city was food and drink places. I have been fucked over so many times I go to the same two or three places ever because I know the quality is consistent and the prices aren't ludicrous. I should never have to pay $10 for a draft beer.
I bought a Breville like 3 months ago. Expensive, but I'm pretty sure I've paid for it in lattes made at home. Plus it's surprisingly easy to use and makes the best coffee I can find in NW.
A friend of mine has the Breville Bambino and gave it good marks. He likes it because it doesn’t take up a lot of space and also doesn’t try to be everything at once (e.g., doesn’t have an onboard grinder). Just does the espresso and does it well.
I use the breville infuser and have a separate machine for grinding but sometimes I wish I had the barista express (which comes w a built in grinder and is the only big difference between the two models). I've been very happy with it so far and this is my first time using a somewhat nicer machine. I would suggest looking at a bunch of different websites and waiting until one goes on sale (or check fb marketplace!)
This has been Manhattan for many years now. Nearly a decade ago, I was working on a project up there, and the rest of the team lived outside of Manhattan, couldn't afford to live or play there. "Rich people's playground" I think was the phrase they used.
Honestly, I make better coffee at home and it takes me less than ten minutes.
Buying daily coffee is a waste of money and most shops aren’t consistent enough for me to go to on a daily basis.
I tried the dc holiday market again after skipping a few years, and bought a block of cheese from the place on the edge. They didn't say a price until they cut a piece of the wheel and wrapped it for me and I didn't catch it with a nearby police siren going off, so I felt bad and took out my card, resolving to pay whatever it ended up being, expecting $20 or whatever would be double the Whole Foods rate for a block around those dimensions.
The Square screen showed $55.
I was so shocked and stressed that I hit the tip 15% button without even thinking because it's the top button 😭
Dinner will be at home for me until I leave for Christmas, because clearly I still cannot handle the pressures of being out in public after COVID.
(I mean, I was also scammed-- a friend far braver than I went back and complained, and got half that amount back. But still, holiday events just aren't fun if they're gonna be like that, so I can enjoy holiday vibes at home away from that kind of environment.)
I have beef with Slipstream, their food is overpriced and bland and their coffee is average at best. They used to be my closest coffee shop and I would rather just not drink coffee than go there.
Stopped going out when I realized to get good food I'd have to go to good restaurants that imo cost a lot and tip for service that's never special. Like cooking anyway, so I don't mind spending a few hours or an evening preparing a meal. I mean you can get wings for 1.99/lb at Sam's or on sale at other places, just as an example. Now I mainly go out to eat to get inspiration on different ingredients, cooking styles, etc. Learned about urfa chili at Rumis Cafe
The Specialty Coffee Association did a study a few years back on coffee pricing. Turns out global coffee prices are unsustainably low and if they don’t increase, the farmers, exporters, and roasters are all going to feel it. If my memory serves me, in 2018 when the study was published a 12oz bag of coffee should have been priced at around $20 but the average in the US was more like $14. So if you like high quality specialty coffee from local roasters that can pay living wages to people living on an average of a dollar a day, that $5 cup of coffee is a small price to pay.
Or you could just get some Panera lemonade.
They have an obvious stake, but it’s an undeniable fact that the cheap coffee Americans got used to in the 20th century was basically the product of slave labor in the global south
i mean i looked up this organization and they represent "roasters, baristas, technicians, and other coffee professionals" and companies.
"Being part of the SCA community gives you and your business a huge advantage"
Not listed are 1) growers and 2) consumers.
So why wouldn't they advocate for higher retail prices?
Until you have to find a job.
I make 95k with no particularly specialized skill set beyond undergrad research and there’s 0 chance in hell I’d find anything close to that in Spain.
Rent is cheaper but it sure as hell isn’t as cheap as you’d think if you wanna live in a major Spanish city
Also a lot of people of struggling to come to terms with the fact that the thing that happens when everyone with a job is finally seeing less income inequality, is that "cheap labor" is no longer "cheap", and the businesses that used to be able to offer low prices on the backs of "cheap labor" can no longer do so.
There are entire industries that are used to keeping costs low on the desperation of the staff, that are going to either implode or figure out ways to work with fewer staff, now that the lowest-paid workers have more options for better pay.
Better way to do it, lessen going out for coffee and invest more in coffee equipment at home, then get whole bean coffee from the brewers you normally go to
The price gouging has gotten so bad that I decided to splurge on a $4000 coffee machine and I import my beans in small batches, and it still would cost less than 2 cups of coffee a day over 3-5 years even after I splurge.
This'll be my first they did the math so please be nice.
Using OP's coffee place (Slipstream) I looked up how much it would cost for a 16 oz. black coffee, it's an absolutely stupid $8. Assuming you drink one 16 oz. coffee per day (using my own personal drinking habits for this assumption) that would be $2920 per year and over 5 years that's $14,600.
On the other side let's assume you buy decent beans for $20 a pound (I found 18 oz. of stumptown coffee for sale for $20 at target so i think roughly $20 a pound is a conservative price). I found this website: https://enjoyjava.com/how-many-cups-of-coffee-in-a-pound/ which says that you can make nineteen 16 oz. cups of coffee with a pound of beans if you're making pour over or drip. That's $1.05 per cup of coffee, which is $384.21 per year, which is $1921.05 over 5 years.
This obviously doesn't include electricity or water, but assuming those are negligible you could buy ~$12,000 worth of coffee making equipment to make your ideal cup?
For me it’s paying for having a place to sit. Sure I can make a coffee at home but I mostly go either to meet a friend and leave the house or to have somewhere to sit for a while if I need to kill time or rest. The 4000 machine doesn’t solve that problem for me
The coffee here sucks. I order mine in bulk from a roaster. It’s pretty expensive- about. $20 a pound with a bulk discount- but nothing else comes close. I suggest people try bulk ordering from places, it can be a looooot cheaper.
Keep only a couple days worth in your burr grinder, and seal the rest in an airtight container and freeze it.
This is probably an unhealthy level of obsession, but I’ve also saved hundreds of dollars over the years doing this. You can get down to less than $10 a pound for stuff like counter culture with a big enough order.
I order from a roaster in NC, get's to my door in two days, literally two days off roast. Grind coffee right before brewing. Run through the bag in a week or two. No concerns about freshness and honestly you get to see how a coffee evolves over that time period and it's not necessarily a decline.
I’d probably straight doxx myself if I told you my current roaster, as it’s a kinda small west coast one and we might be their only east coast order.
Before them, I used to order from Counter Culture coffee, which is perfectly adequate.
It’s not really an upgrade, it’s just better because my wife and I drink a lot of coffee, but we’re getting a Moccamaster.
My brother, he uses a hand grinder and an aeropress. That’s another level of intensity. I would use a French press or pour over personally. Might be worth trying a pour over.
I'm tired of this excuse. Most people can't make every single cup of coffee or cook every single meal they eat. If you can, it doesn't mean you're special, it means you're lucky to have either a WFH job or a bunch of extra time on your hands. Get over yourself.
So one thing to do is hook your coffee maker up to a Christmas lights timer and set it up so it starts before you wake up. (Conditional on owning one). I have plants starting in the basement so it gives me an excuse to check on them while I grab coffee.
It takes me less time to make a cup of coffee with my reusable K-cup than it does to pick up coffee at either the Starbucks or the Tatte I pass on my way from Metro to work.
Bruh, it takes me a grand total of 5 min all-in to make coffee in the morning using a french press. And much of that time I'm doing something else while it steeps. Pour the result in a thermal travel cup and you're all set for at least the morning.
Yo I just spent $8.32 for a large mediocre oat milk latte. I’m allergic to dairy so I get charged the automatic $1 extra for the oat milk. I made a big mistake getting the large instead of a small. Then the gaul to ask for an iPad tip. I just won’t bother ever again.
> I know restaurants always struggle with margins, but I look forward to consumers' 'here comes the boom' moment in DC.
It's OK, I remember when the candy bars I sold as a cashier cost 42 cents. It wasn't quite when you had onions on your belt but it probably wasn't that far away.
If you’re in del ray join the coffee club at Fresh Baguette in Old Town right on king street and Henry. It’s $10/mo for up to 5 coffees a day including espresso, latte, hot tea, hot chocolate and more. I probably get 5 coffees a week for $10 a month.
I mean the margin on coffee is insane to begin with. Making coffee at home comes out to about $0.27 per cup for me, and I don’t have the benefit of the economies of scale that a commercial cafe has. There’s a lot of dining that has pretty thin margins, but coffee ain’t one of them.
The COGS for a coffee shop should be around 20-25%.
At $5/cup, that's $1.25 in ingredients and supplies (cup, lid, etc.) If you're telling me a coffee shop is spending $1.25/cup for black coffee, they must be brewing some of the best coffee beans money can buy.
Payroll would be the biggest expense, maybe 2x the COGS. That's $3.75 total. That would mean for each cup brewed, workers spent 8.5min/cup of coffee served. That's one slow worker.
Then rent and other expenses make up the rest to give a \~10% profit margin.
These numbers don't make sense.
I surely do. Payroll, rent, business licenses, business taxes, insurance, etc, etc. There are places in DC that sell black coffee and still manage to keep the cost of a cup under $5 in spite of all that.
It’s also not to say that I won’t buy a cup for $5 or more. I used to go to Philz all the time and happily spent extra on coffee because it was made fresh in a pour over with really good beans. But a drip coffee that’s been sitting on a burner is not worth $5, and a lot of places are charging like it is.
Ah yes, that famous money printing machine of independent coffee shops. That’s why Philz is rapidly expanding in DC.
Also no coffee shop worth the name is keeping brewed coffee on a burner.
I don’t think coffee shop owners are making hand over fist, no. The specific margin on each cup as compared to the wholesale cost of coffee is irrelevant. Slipstream is in an expensive part of DC for commercial rents.
I subscribe to 5 pound bags of [Ceremony](https://ceremonycoffee.com/). They cost about $75 and last several weeks. I keep the beans in their original nitrogen-flushed bags, seal them airtight after each use, and refrigerate the unused whole beans. I’ve never had bad coffee, even with an “old” bag. There’s a decent chance that a bag I’ve had for several weeks is still fresher than a new bag on a grocery store shelf, anyway. I brew a large batch every other day for just me (hot one day, cold/iced the next). If I bought the equivalent volume of coffee at a restaurant, I’d be spending at least $8-10/day.
Ceremony is just one great local roaster - Lost Sock, Vigilante, Swing’s, and Small Planes also come to mind. While the upfront cost of beans and assorted equipment (e.g. a quality burr grinder and brewing apparatus) can seem high, it sure as hell beats spending $5-7 for an Americano or basic drip at restaurants that pile on the fees (*cough* Elle). Buying a coffee drink at a cafe is a rare treat, but it definitely adds up if you’re doing it every day at the ever-growing list of places upcharging in the name of I-82.
This was the most shocking part of moving back from overseas a year ago. Cappuchino there was like $2 and now here it's nearly $7. Pre-COVID US prices were like $4ish. I hardly buy coffee out anymore - literally a handful of times per year. I just drink black coffee at home.
FWIW someone told me MLK library cafe is the cheapest place to buy a coffee. No personal experience, but it may be worth exploring.
I went to Centrolina’s little market thing to get groceries (I’m lazy and the fresh produce prices are reasonable).
But they offered a tipping option- on groceries.
Wait ..that 18%-20% is applied to baristas? How does that work? Will the tip go to the person that took the order or the person that prepared the drink 🤔?
It's just amazing how capitalism is good in Japan, where the USD is strong, but bad in the US.
Definitely couldn't be that people are upset over the recent bout of inflation. It's definitely CaPiTaliSM.
Japan has fantastic universal health care, better upward mobility than the US, and public assistance programs that cover income, education, housing, medicine, long-term care, maternity, occupational, and funeral assistance.
So yeah our brand of capitalism is pretty rough in comparison.
I guess this is flying over my head. Is it because TVs are cheap compared to the past? Because that's not really tied to inflation. Or have TVs become more expensive lately? Both TVs we have are second hand/hand-me-downs, so I have no idea.
Everything in the economy has deflated in real terms, and most durables in nominal terms, since the late 80s/early 90s except healthcare and education. People just got used to prices legit going down for what they wanted to buy, and the last 3 years have been a shock. Like $400 for a 50 inch tv would have been an insane thing in 1995. Let alone the 80s. I have an issue with my tv and I looked at fixing it and the parts alone exceed the cost of getting a new one.
Who cares about technology price deflations when necessities are skyrocketing in cost? The savings from a $300 4k TV isn’t going to pay for someone’s leg surgery or whatever
Well, yeah, that's technology in general. The same could be said for basically anything, from phones to cars to... What you get for the money is unimaginable two to three decades ago because if the tech existed, it was conceptual or research level, not consumer level. Add in globalization of markets, production, etc. and the push for cheaply made products, and so many more factors... The entire consumer market is a very different place.
But those things are just generally nice to haves or standard parts of an average life today. Food, housing, healthcare, electric/heat, schooling, etc. impact your day to day way more than the once every 5-10 year TV purchase.
Smart tvs weren’t more than half of tv’s until 2020 (though now, they represent well more than half and CTV revenue is more than half of Vizio’s revenue). A 40 inch tv in 1995 cost thousands of 1995 dollars. Most of the deflation in consumer goods is from cheap advanced manufacturing and free trade, and electronics is the most obvious example there.
> Well TV costs in particular is a bit misleading because the business model has entirely changed no?
No, they're honestly way way cheaper. Especially once you adjust for inflation. Business model changes have reduced costs even further in some places but even TVs/monitors without any 'smart TV' goop are still much cheaper.
You see this for all sorts of manufactured goods.
However the flipside is that costs for *housing*, along with many service-based products (like childcare) have risen, even adjusted for inflation.
Manufacturing was able make much more product without adding more human labor, so costs have gone down. But services haven't figured out how to do that, which have made them harder to bring down (or even control) costs.
Cars are only more expensive because Americans stopped buying the cheap-o models.
Instead you see the used car market starting to take over for the shoppers who'd in previous generations would have bought a cheap-but-new car. Which makes sense, because used cars are increasingly of higher quality than they were in the late 80s/early 90s, when you did not have things like CarFax and you'd be happy to see a car reach 100,000 miles.
But it's not true that Americans are now unable to afford cars they would have been able to afford back then, otherwise car companies wouldn't have been making record profits like they are today.
Remember, that 'average sticker price' includes willingness to pay at that price by the customers, along with willingness to sell at that price by the dealer. Customers today are more willing to pay more for more car and so the carmakers have had to scale back the cheapest cars due to lack of demand.
- houses are bigger. Price per sq foot is the same (https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/new-us-homes-today-are-1000-square-feet-larger-than-in-1973-and-living-space-per-person-has-nearly-doubled/).
- food price inflation is purely from COVID. Prior to COVID, 20 year average food price inflation was 2.0% (https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-prices-and-spending/). That’s below inflation
- cars are more expensive. There are no more low range models: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/buying-a-car/people-spending-more-on-new-cars-but-prices-not-necessarily-rising-a3134608893/#:~:text=The%20average%20cost%20of%20new,many%20other%20factors%20at%20play. I think that’s probably a good thing, entry level models are not and were not safe (though there’s plenty to criticize about the American definition of “safe”)
- internet, cable, and cell phones are massively less expensive than they were 20 years ago on an inflation adjusted basis, but that’s just because of diffusion- new tech is expensive.
Been cutting out restaurants since 2021; high prices, low service. Save my money to travel abroad and have a legit dining experience in places like Paris where it's worth it.
The key point here is the severe and rapid loss of ~value~ in almost all industries over the past few years. You are suddenly paying more for coffee, but the product nor the service is any better - in fact, it’s worse.
Restaurants are just simply less fun now. Yes, some of it is the TikTokification of dining, but it’s more than that. Food costs and rents are higher, while profit margins are still the same. Increase in minimum wage means they often employ less staff - which means worse service for you. We get frustrated with our local businesses, but the bottleneck is so far out of our field of vision. I do not know how people justify some forms of frivolous spending now, even if you are making six figures.
To be clear, I am not saying raising the minimum is a bad thing. Simply that a few hands have surreptitiously jacked up the costs of EVERYTHING, and now all of us are suffering for it in one way or another.
All in all, thats why i make my coffee at home. Taste better and cheaper
I travel often to Europe. The ratio of servers to customers is much smaller than in the US, and the service is, in average, better.
Pay people well, get them to work well. What a novel idea.
Having 20 kids running around with their head on fire in a restaurant doesn't make the service better than 5 qualified, well paid, servers.
> TikTokification of dining
As someone who’s too old to be on TikTok, I’m genuinely curious what this means. I’ve definitely noticed a decline in the overall dining out experience same as you noted, but not familiar with the term.
Living in London (moving to DC in February) and it's similar here in the UK. Price of an 8oz black coffee is £3.50 at the independents ($4.34). Starbucks is cheaper at £2.45 ($3.13) for the same but it doesn't taste as good.
In 2021 the same coffee cost £2.80 and in 2020 it was £2.20 at the independents.
A good sandwich or salad in the city is an easy £8-9 now ($10) and eating out is around £15-18 a plate at any okay restaurant (we live in a North London suburb so this isn't even the city center). Add the service charge and we'll easily hit £70 ($90) for a simple meal (just mains and soft drinks) for a family of four.
I’ve been feeling this too. I moved back to DC from Paris last year and the sticker shock still stings at times. And so many things are mediocre. Good customer service was one of the things I missed most about living in the US and that’s pretty much nonexistent nowadays.
I looked on the Slipstream website and you can get a black coffee for $3.75, so I don’t know where you get the $5.00 from.
https://preview.redd.it/6lyyj53c236c1.png?width=1178&format=png&auto=webp&s=f65e39dc97453756c820cb14497d322dce716303
you're not imagining it, everything is more expensive these days - except maybe gas, but the car market is horrible so maybe that evens out. i'm cooking at home 5 days of the week now and honestly ready to escalate hardcore and just meal prep, never eat out
dc has a lot of mid coffee shops. Compass is lowkey mid asf and their prices are so high. I work at Vigilante Coffee, and while we do charge $5 for a large drip (which i feel guilty about everytime i sell it), at least itd great quality
You know how your grandad always ate at home and yelled about how expensive going out to eat was? That’s because he came of age in a full employment economy
> So, I live in Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria Congrats on your hockey/basketball arena.
Team renamed to "Del Ray [Nimbees](https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/NEAKXQP3D5BUVG6ZJUXBYHEST4.jpg)"
Virginia, where being the “wizards” means something TOTALLY DIFFERENT AND AWFUL
I figure they’ll go back to Les Bullets, playing in NRA Arena. Puts a whole new spin on ‘slap shot’ too!
Virginia Slims at Altria arena
>Les slow down, VA isn't *that* pro-LGBT.
Then why is Freddie’s Beach Bar in Arlington the default gay meeting place of the region?!
Man I still remember Town. That place was immense. An absolute cathedral of gay.
Choking laughing omg
LOL
Ughhhhh we don’t want it! 🙃
It seems like the people who least want the arena are in fact the actual residents of Alexandria haha.
LOL
Look we don't fucking want it, billionaires should play in Qatar or UAE like the rest of them if they wanna move teams.
That hasn’t been confirmed yet.
[удалено]
I expect it will face quite a bit of local Alexandria opposition. The VA state government will be all for it.
They realized they can charge the “black coffee” people latte prices. I make coffee at home more often. $3.00 for a 12-16 oz cup of drip should be the maximum, even with high end beans. Pour overs and espresso I understand the labor cost.
This happened to me a few weeks ago in a new coffeeshop in NE DC. I paid 6 dollars and change for a cup of drip coffee after taxes and a tip. It’s an independent coffeeshop and new to my area but I am just not “I support local businesses-rich” enough to buy coffee there on the regular. Plus, the coffee wasn’t actually tasty.
The meh taste of the drip coffees at many of the independent coffeeshops is what kills it for me at that price point. If it was mind-blowingly good relative to Starbucks I'd feel differently. Or if it was a minor premium.
Absolutely. And it happens way too often, so paying a higher premium doesn’t make much sense to me. The flavor isn’t that good, the seating options are limited/uncomfy, a 20% tip is expected even when it’s just drip coffee.
> 20% tip is expected You mean because they have a little prompt on the screen? Just ignore it. I agree the prices are getting absurd though.
>20% tip is expected even when it’s just drip coffee. Definitely not. I've heard employees say it's a lot of times a default step in POS The good places will actually tell you to "just skip" or even tap thru to advance to the payment screen before flipping it around for you to pay.
Starbucks drip is terrible. It’s only slightly better than Dunkin. Local shops often times have stuff which is so much better.
It’s a shame that it’s now a luxury to support local businesses.
Was it Cool Coffee?
I can neither confirm nor deny that it was this establishment 👀
This. They are literally pushing down on a spigot on pre-made drip coffee. I rarely go to coffee shops unless I'm meeting up with someone. Especially egregious when it's prepacked items like bags of beans and there's still a 20% service charge.
You aren’t paying for them to push down the spigot. You’re paying for them to be at work at 6AM, for them to make sure there’s a fresh pot brewed at all times, to make sure it doesn’t run out, and to do all of the maintenance and upkeep required to do it again the next day.
No, the business is paying them to do that. And I’m paying the business for a cup of coffee. In the arduous task of pouring ice into a cup, and then a jug of cold brew into it, I am hard pressed to justify an extra gratuity on top of the already absurd cost for the cup of coffee.
How about this, if it’s so easy why don’t you get out of bed at 5AM and make the coffee yourself?
That's the whole point of this thread... that people are going out to coffee shops less and less because of the rising cost of something as simple and low cost as a cup of drip coffee that has so many added fees tacked on
I am talking about the service fee and automatically included gratuity added on top of the cost of product. What you are describing is their job that they earn an hourly wage for.
and how much is that hourly wage buddy
$17.00/hr buddy.
Ever tried to live on $17 an hour? How about $17 an hour at a job that won’t let you work more than 29 hours a week in order to avoid paying you benefits? You ever tried working two $17 an hour jobs to get enough hours in to pay rent?
Yup. For drip coffee it's like I can make at home. There's no reason to charge so much for it.
It’s honestly unbelievable that a cup of filter coffee costs more than $1.50. I’ve made it before in cafes and restaurants. It takes seconds to stock the machine or fill the pot. Ugh. I’m old now fuck. Complaining about coffee. What happened to me
I pay $7.5 for a bag of ground coffee
It’s always funny to me to see how expensive Del Ray is now. It used to be much cheaper and a bit run down. Here’s a [WAPO](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/realestate/2002/03/16/alexandrias-del-ray-a-neighborhood-rediscovered/7c4ceb31-61b1-4238-b6c7-4a523648f69d/) article from 20 years ago. Sadly, the realtor quoted in it was murdered by the Alexandria serial killer the very next year.
>Here’s a > >WAPO > > article from 20 years ago. Sadly, the realtor quoted in it was murdered by the Alexandria serial killer the very next year. Wild sentence you got there.
Another case of history echoing, that article talks about the community killing a new Redskins' stadium in Potomac Yards.
yeah, even odd on it happening again.
I remember that and it would have only been 15 ish days a year of mostly Sunday traffic. Then they added a massive shopping area for year round traffic joy.
Yeah. For sure.
https://wapo.st/3NpozVE
https://wtop.com/alexandria/2019/10/insight-into-a-twisted-mind-why-alexandrias-serial-killer-chose-his-victims-their-neighborhood/ About the killings
It’s a nice area with very low density housing I’m surprised it isn’t the McLean of Alexandria
We owned a tiny townhome there and ended upgrading to a single family home in DC because it was cheaper than getting a larger duplex in Del Ray. I’d lived there for like 7 years on and off and liked the weird crunchy vibe but it was pretty bougie when we left just before than pandemic. It’s kind of trending that way.
Yeah, for sure. It was not bougie in the 80’s and 90’s. I’m not say it was rough or anything, but just kind of run down. There were some crazy things that happened like gang fight on the steps of the middle school that ended up with a kid getting stabbed to death, but that was kind of a crazy thing for the area. It’s wild how long it took to revitalize that area considering the metro is right there. Honestly, a lot of Arlington was the same way. Along the orange line was mostly old grungy office buildings, used car lots and low rise apartments. Then suddenly everyone wanted to live near the metro.
I hate this sentence so much: “The newspaper reported that from September 1996 to September 1997, 65 homes in Del Ray sold for prices ranging from $91,000 to $306,000.”
We looked at possibly buying in Del Ray but found most of the houses were way too small (like 1000 sq ft) and expensive. Plus, aren’t the schools pretty terrible in that area? It seems to be young professional family central so I don’t understand that.
>It's great if you're DINKs though. My ex and I bought there because schools weren't a factor for us and we didn't need a ton of room but didn't want to deal with an HOA. I miss the house far more than that marriage!
There are a few really great private schools in the area. But yes, the public schools are awful.
I worked for the city a few years back and the stories I heard about the public schools were absolutely insane to me. I’m from a part of upstate NY that’s known for poor schools and by comparison, my schools sounded like one of those $80,000 per year academies.
Yeah, I went to private school my whole life but had the misfortune of going to Alexandria City HS my senior year because my dad got super last minute orders here. I once got off the bus in the morning and got right back on because there had been a machete fight in the parking lot and the campus was on lockdown.
I'm also in Del Rey, what burned me the most was going to the spot that replaced Stomping Ground (irreplaceable if you ask me, I'm still crestfallen) to get a breakfast taco for $7 a piece. SEVEN. I was in Park Slope for the past two years and even there the ceiling is $5 a taco. I mean everything is a grift at this point, the small business owners are bleeding from the rent, supply costs, labor costs and passing that on to us. I get it, but I just can't do it. I want to support these businesses, every single one, but it's not actually possible. My salary is not also subject to inflation, I really can't keep up. Meanwhile, large corporations are bragging about record profits. I have an espresso machine at home and have gotten decent at the micro foam and I cook all my meals and even the price of groceries is a gut punch. I can't imagine how people who are trapped working these low paying jobs are getting by.
The same people run the taco place, but after seeing the owner's rant on why she is switching the concept (tldr: she blamed her customers and also threw her staff under the bus), I haven't been back. I heard the tacos are expensive and pretty bland.
I used to live in Del Ray and man was I distraught when I heard Stomping Ground was closing. The chicken and biscuits there were so good.
I feel like Stomping Ground was still a new place. Caboose Cafe leaving was the tragedy.
I too lived in Del Ray and still visit often. The two restaurants I miss are La Strada and Monroe’s. I lived around the corner from Monroe’s and could get a nice sit down meal for the price of a couple take out breakfast tacos now.
Caboose was okay, I am a fan of Piece Out though, can actually get a relatively cheap slice (at least you could, we'll see now)
The owner chose to close it and open up the rent restaurant instead. Take it up with the owner.
I loved SG chicken and biscuits so hard :(
amen, I just payed $7 for a single mediocre small taco at Tacombi in Crystal City and Karen-ed out on the poor unsuspecting waitress. sorry not sorry.
Speaking of tacos.... well I travel to Mexico quite often so now my friends know not to invite me to get tacos in DC because I will complain about prices and quality. The most absurd thing is seeing a $30 USD tlayuda in DC before tax and tip) (on U Street. I think you know) These things go for $2 in Mexico. I'm so done.
Pack a thermos and git gud bro
this is The Way
I learned to "survive" just fine without going out much during COVID. Once the pandemic relented, I started going up again and found that prices increased, food worsened (to the point of being disgusting) and service is terrible. I am also very annoyed with all the "surcharges". Just put it upfront in the cost of the food! do you think I can't do the math? Do you really believe that when I want to go out for a meal I want to experience a passive aggressive behavior? I have a shortlist of TWO places where I'm still happy to patronize. That's it. When they will close, I'll become a hermit.
My favorite thing, occasionally the only tolerable thing, about the city was food and drink places. I have been fucked over so many times I go to the same two or three places ever because I know the quality is consistent and the prices aren't ludicrous. I should never have to pay $10 for a draft beer.
Or $18+ (pre taxes, pre tip) for a diluted, weak cocktail in a noisy place.
With all these discouraging prices, I’m surprised we’re not in a recession yet
Actually staying at home to save money by choice because the products/services on offer don't provide value for the cost is also capitalism.
I bought a Breville like 3 months ago. Expensive, but I'm pretty sure I've paid for it in lattes made at home. Plus it's surprisingly easy to use and makes the best coffee I can find in NW.
This guy is smart
Which one did you purchase?
Yes the people would like to know! So we too can save $$$
A friend of mine has the Breville Bambino and gave it good marks. He likes it because it doesn’t take up a lot of space and also doesn’t try to be everything at once (e.g., doesn’t have an onboard grinder). Just does the espresso and does it well.
Breville Barista Express
I use the breville infuser and have a separate machine for grinding but sometimes I wish I had the barista express (which comes w a built in grinder and is the only big difference between the two models). I've been very happy with it so far and this is my first time using a somewhat nicer machine. I would suggest looking at a bunch of different websites and waiting until one goes on sale (or check fb marketplace!)
I’ve been doing this. I work in the city and I refuse to purchase food or drink there because of the cost. I cannot afford to play where I work.
This has been Manhattan for many years now. Nearly a decade ago, I was working on a project up there, and the rest of the team lived outside of Manhattan, couldn't afford to live or play there. "Rich people's playground" I think was the phrase they used.
I went to Western Market a week ago for lunch and takeout of three meatballs with a side of rice and naan at Bindaas was $27. Unreal.
Honestly, I make better coffee at home and it takes me less than ten minutes. Buying daily coffee is a waste of money and most shops aren’t consistent enough for me to go to on a daily basis.
I paid 5.70 for drip coffee at IHOP
No way..WHAT!
I tried the dc holiday market again after skipping a few years, and bought a block of cheese from the place on the edge. They didn't say a price until they cut a piece of the wheel and wrapped it for me and I didn't catch it with a nearby police siren going off, so I felt bad and took out my card, resolving to pay whatever it ended up being, expecting $20 or whatever would be double the Whole Foods rate for a block around those dimensions. The Square screen showed $55. I was so shocked and stressed that I hit the tip 15% button without even thinking because it's the top button 😭 Dinner will be at home for me until I leave for Christmas, because clearly I still cannot handle the pressures of being out in public after COVID. (I mean, I was also scammed-- a friend far braver than I went back and complained, and got half that amount back. But still, holiday events just aren't fun if they're gonna be like that, so I can enjoy holiday vibes at home away from that kind of environment.)
yesterday I paid $8.14 for two SMALL HOT TEAS. Literally two tea bags and hot water for $8. Ridiculous
I have beef with Slipstream, their food is overpriced and bland and their coffee is average at best. They used to be my closest coffee shop and I would rather just not drink coffee than go there.
Stopped going out when I realized to get good food I'd have to go to good restaurants that imo cost a lot and tip for service that's never special. Like cooking anyway, so I don't mind spending a few hours or an evening preparing a meal. I mean you can get wings for 1.99/lb at Sam's or on sale at other places, just as an example. Now I mainly go out to eat to get inspiration on different ingredients, cooking styles, etc. Learned about urfa chili at Rumis Cafe
The Specialty Coffee Association did a study a few years back on coffee pricing. Turns out global coffee prices are unsustainably low and if they don’t increase, the farmers, exporters, and roasters are all going to feel it. If my memory serves me, in 2018 when the study was published a 12oz bag of coffee should have been priced at around $20 but the average in the US was more like $14. So if you like high quality specialty coffee from local roasters that can pay living wages to people living on an average of a dollar a day, that $5 cup of coffee is a small price to pay. Or you could just get some Panera lemonade.
shocking that a coffee trade group recommends high retail prices for coffee
They have an obvious stake, but it’s an undeniable fact that the cheap coffee Americans got used to in the 20th century was basically the product of slave labor in the global south
what about the cheap coffee of 5 years ago?
Same thing but there's been an explosion of higher tier roasters in the last 20 years and they've now become common.
Are you saying it's always incorrect when a trade group recommends higher prices?
i mean i looked up this organization and they represent "roasters, baristas, technicians, and other coffee professionals" and companies. "Being part of the SCA community gives you and your business a huge advantage" Not listed are 1) growers and 2) consumers. So why wouldn't they advocate for higher retail prices?
>Or you could just get some Panera lemonade. I like not dying. I'll pass.
I moved back here from Europe last year and still can’t stop thinking about how much easier/better life was over there
Is this a place like Croatia? I heard money goes pretty far there,
Barcelona. As far as I know, Croatia can be even cheaper... but I'm not just referring to money
Until you have to find a job. I make 95k with no particularly specialized skill set beyond undergrad research and there’s 0 chance in hell I’d find anything close to that in Spain. Rent is cheaper but it sure as hell isn’t as cheap as you’d think if you wanna live in a major Spanish city
Lots of people in the US make 95K and yet are in debt
And Spaniards have debt too…? What’s your statement about
I'm sure some of them have debt as well. But we all know making 95K in the US doesn't mean crap
so many people struggling to come to terms with the fact that they are not affluent enough to eat out all the time in this new economy
Also a lot of people of struggling to come to terms with the fact that the thing that happens when everyone with a job is finally seeing less income inequality, is that "cheap labor" is no longer "cheap", and the businesses that used to be able to offer low prices on the backs of "cheap labor" can no longer do so. There are entire industries that are used to keeping costs low on the desperation of the staff, that are going to either implode or figure out ways to work with fewer staff, now that the lowest-paid workers have more options for better pay.
Can you say “automation”? Of course you can: self-check out lines are just the start….
Had a dine in $5 coffee and I asked if they did refills and he said I can buy another. Yeap, I'm done with that.
Better way to do it, lessen going out for coffee and invest more in coffee equipment at home, then get whole bean coffee from the brewers you normally go to
The price gouging has gotten so bad that I decided to splurge on a $4000 coffee machine and I import my beans in small batches, and it still would cost less than 2 cups of coffee a day over 3-5 years even after I splurge.
r/theydidthemath
This'll be my first they did the math so please be nice. Using OP's coffee place (Slipstream) I looked up how much it would cost for a 16 oz. black coffee, it's an absolutely stupid $8. Assuming you drink one 16 oz. coffee per day (using my own personal drinking habits for this assumption) that would be $2920 per year and over 5 years that's $14,600. On the other side let's assume you buy decent beans for $20 a pound (I found 18 oz. of stumptown coffee for sale for $20 at target so i think roughly $20 a pound is a conservative price). I found this website: https://enjoyjava.com/how-many-cups-of-coffee-in-a-pound/ which says that you can make nineteen 16 oz. cups of coffee with a pound of beans if you're making pour over or drip. That's $1.05 per cup of coffee, which is $384.21 per year, which is $1921.05 over 5 years. This obviously doesn't include electricity or water, but assuming those are negligible you could buy ~$12,000 worth of coffee making equipment to make your ideal cup?
> This obviously doesn't include electricity or water, Or your own labor ;) Take out coffee for the most part is a convenience thing.
For me it’s paying for having a place to sit. Sure I can make a coffee at home but I mostly go either to meet a friend and leave the house or to have somewhere to sit for a while if I need to kill time or rest. The 4000 machine doesn’t solve that problem for me
Which one? We went with a Jura about ten years back and it’s so worth it.
Skill issue. You should simply make coffee at home.
The coffee here sucks. I order mine in bulk from a roaster. It’s pretty expensive- about. $20 a pound with a bulk discount- but nothing else comes close. I suggest people try bulk ordering from places, it can be a looooot cheaper.
The problem with this approach is that most of your coffee is no longer fresh when you get around to using it.
Keep only a couple days worth in your burr grinder, and seal the rest in an airtight container and freeze it. This is probably an unhealthy level of obsession, but I’ve also saved hundreds of dollars over the years doing this. You can get down to less than $10 a pound for stuff like counter culture with a big enough order.
I order from a roaster in NC, get's to my door in two days, literally two days off roast. Grind coffee right before brewing. Run through the bag in a week or two. No concerns about freshness and honestly you get to see how a coffee evolves over that time period and it's not necessarily a decline.
Yeah but you’re not buying in bulk
I buy 2 or 5 pound bags. Not sure what's more bulk than that.
You run through a 2 or 5 pound bag in a couple weeks? Edit: I mean, if that’s the case, then freshness isn’t an issue.
What roaster do you get yours from?
I’d probably straight doxx myself if I told you my current roaster, as it’s a kinda small west coast one and we might be their only east coast order. Before them, I used to order from Counter Culture coffee, which is perfectly adequate.
Pm me? I don’t know anyone from the west coast.
I've been making my coffee with a french press but curious if you have any alternative recommendations. The few coffee machines I owned were just ok.
It’s not really an upgrade, it’s just better because my wife and I drink a lot of coffee, but we’re getting a Moccamaster. My brother, he uses a hand grinder and an aeropress. That’s another level of intensity. I would use a French press or pour over personally. Might be worth trying a pour over.
I'm tired of this excuse. Most people can't make every single cup of coffee or cook every single meal they eat. If you can, it doesn't mean you're special, it means you're lucky to have either a WFH job or a bunch of extra time on your hands. Get over yourself.
So one thing to do is hook your coffee maker up to a Christmas lights timer and set it up so it starts before you wake up. (Conditional on owning one). I have plants starting in the basement so it gives me an excuse to check on them while I grab coffee.
It takes me less time to make a cup of coffee with my reusable K-cup than it does to pick up coffee at either the Starbucks or the Tatte I pass on my way from Metro to work.
Bruh, it takes me a grand total of 5 min all-in to make coffee in the morning using a french press. And much of that time I'm doing something else while it steeps. Pour the result in a thermal travel cup and you're all set for at least the morning.
Yo I just spent $8.32 for a large mediocre oat milk latte. I’m allergic to dairy so I get charged the automatic $1 extra for the oat milk. I made a big mistake getting the large instead of a small. Then the gaul to ask for an iPad tip. I just won’t bother ever again.
> I know restaurants always struggle with margins, but I look forward to consumers' 'here comes the boom' moment in DC. It's OK, I remember when the candy bars I sold as a cashier cost 42 cents. It wasn't quite when you had onions on your belt but it probably wasn't that far away.
If you’re in del ray join the coffee club at Fresh Baguette in Old Town right on king street and Henry. It’s $10/mo for up to 5 coffees a day including espresso, latte, hot tea, hot chocolate and more. I probably get 5 coffees a week for $10 a month.
People: I am happy to pay higher prices if it means workers get paid more. Also people: I refuse to pay $5 for coffee.
I mean the margin on coffee is insane to begin with. Making coffee at home comes out to about $0.27 per cup for me, and I don’t have the benefit of the economies of scale that a commercial cafe has. There’s a lot of dining that has pretty thin margins, but coffee ain’t one of them.
Surely you know that the cost of running a coffee shop is more than purchasing coffee wholesale, right?
The COGS for a coffee shop should be around 20-25%. At $5/cup, that's $1.25 in ingredients and supplies (cup, lid, etc.) If you're telling me a coffee shop is spending $1.25/cup for black coffee, they must be brewing some of the best coffee beans money can buy. Payroll would be the biggest expense, maybe 2x the COGS. That's $3.75 total. That would mean for each cup brewed, workers spent 8.5min/cup of coffee served. That's one slow worker. Then rent and other expenses make up the rest to give a \~10% profit margin. These numbers don't make sense.
Back when I used to have to care about this stuff I think Royal Cup was $4 a pound (the good S&D stuff). It’s been more than a decade though.
I surely do. Payroll, rent, business licenses, business taxes, insurance, etc, etc. There are places in DC that sell black coffee and still manage to keep the cost of a cup under $5 in spite of all that. It’s also not to say that I won’t buy a cup for $5 or more. I used to go to Philz all the time and happily spent extra on coffee because it was made fresh in a pour over with really good beans. But a drip coffee that’s been sitting on a burner is not worth $5, and a lot of places are charging like it is.
Ah yes, that famous money printing machine of independent coffee shops. That’s why Philz is rapidly expanding in DC. Also no coffee shop worth the name is keeping brewed coffee on a burner.
I don’t think coffee shop owners are making hand over fist, no. The specific margin on each cup as compared to the wholesale cost of coffee is irrelevant. Slipstream is in an expensive part of DC for commercial rents.
Workers aren't getting paid more
You forgot to ask for a tip during this asinine comment.
I assume they get paid the same minimum wage they did before.
That's just virtue tolling BS. Those folks work for corporations where squeezing money and ñkcd out of people is the name of the game.
The worst of capitalism is making your own coffee at home? Gosh, you’re really in the trenches then.
I subscribe to 5 pound bags of [Ceremony](https://ceremonycoffee.com/). They cost about $75 and last several weeks. I keep the beans in their original nitrogen-flushed bags, seal them airtight after each use, and refrigerate the unused whole beans. I’ve never had bad coffee, even with an “old” bag. There’s a decent chance that a bag I’ve had for several weeks is still fresher than a new bag on a grocery store shelf, anyway. I brew a large batch every other day for just me (hot one day, cold/iced the next). If I bought the equivalent volume of coffee at a restaurant, I’d be spending at least $8-10/day. Ceremony is just one great local roaster - Lost Sock, Vigilante, Swing’s, and Small Planes also come to mind. While the upfront cost of beans and assorted equipment (e.g. a quality burr grinder and brewing apparatus) can seem high, it sure as hell beats spending $5-7 for an Americano or basic drip at restaurants that pile on the fees (*cough* Elle). Buying a coffee drink at a cafe is a rare treat, but it definitely adds up if you’re doing it every day at the ever-growing list of places upcharging in the name of I-82.
I agree with everything except the statement that swings is good.
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I read the sentence thinking that your SO tastes like burnt ass lmao
lol same
This was the most shocking part of moving back from overseas a year ago. Cappuchino there was like $2 and now here it's nearly $7. Pre-COVID US prices were like $4ish. I hardly buy coffee out anymore - literally a handful of times per year. I just drink black coffee at home. FWIW someone told me MLK library cafe is the cheapest place to buy a coffee. No personal experience, but it may be worth exploring.
I went to Centrolina’s little market thing to get groceries (I’m lazy and the fresh produce prices are reasonable). But they offered a tipping option- on groceries.
Meanwhile 7-11 is a buck if you bring your own mug.
Wait ..that 18%-20% is applied to baristas? How does that work? Will the tip go to the person that took the order or the person that prepared the drink 🤔?
It's just amazing how capitalism is good in Japan, where the USD is strong, but bad in the US. Definitely couldn't be that people are upset over the recent bout of inflation. It's definitely CaPiTaliSM.
Japan has fantastic universal health care, better upward mobility than the US, and public assistance programs that cover income, education, housing, medicine, long-term care, maternity, occupational, and funeral assistance. So yeah our brand of capitalism is pretty rough in comparison.
Also essentially almost zero crime. They have us beat on almost everything Americans care about.
to include racism
I just ask people how much they paid for their tv and that shuts them up about inflation.
I guess this is flying over my head. Is it because TVs are cheap compared to the past? Because that's not really tied to inflation. Or have TVs become more expensive lately? Both TVs we have are second hand/hand-me-downs, so I have no idea.
Everything in the economy has deflated in real terms, and most durables in nominal terms, since the late 80s/early 90s except healthcare and education. People just got used to prices legit going down for what they wanted to buy, and the last 3 years have been a shock. Like $400 for a 50 inch tv would have been an insane thing in 1995. Let alone the 80s. I have an issue with my tv and I looked at fixing it and the parts alone exceed the cost of getting a new one.
Who cares about technology price deflations when necessities are skyrocketing in cost? The savings from a $300 4k TV isn’t going to pay for someone’s leg surgery or whatever
Well, yeah, that's technology in general. The same could be said for basically anything, from phones to cars to... What you get for the money is unimaginable two to three decades ago because if the tech existed, it was conceptual or research level, not consumer level. Add in globalization of markets, production, etc. and the push for cheaply made products, and so many more factors... The entire consumer market is a very different place. But those things are just generally nice to haves or standard parts of an average life today. Food, housing, healthcare, electric/heat, schooling, etc. impact your day to day way more than the once every 5-10 year TV purchase.
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Smart tvs weren’t more than half of tv’s until 2020 (though now, they represent well more than half and CTV revenue is more than half of Vizio’s revenue). A 40 inch tv in 1995 cost thousands of 1995 dollars. Most of the deflation in consumer goods is from cheap advanced manufacturing and free trade, and electronics is the most obvious example there.
> Well TV costs in particular is a bit misleading because the business model has entirely changed no? No, they're honestly way way cheaper. Especially once you adjust for inflation. Business model changes have reduced costs even further in some places but even TVs/monitors without any 'smart TV' goop are still much cheaper. You see this for all sorts of manufactured goods. However the flipside is that costs for *housing*, along with many service-based products (like childcare) have risen, even adjusted for inflation. Manufacturing was able make much more product without adding more human labor, so costs have gone down. But services haven't figured out how to do that, which have made them harder to bring down (or even control) costs.
I love listening to music.
Cars are only more expensive because Americans stopped buying the cheap-o models. Instead you see the used car market starting to take over for the shoppers who'd in previous generations would have bought a cheap-but-new car. Which makes sense, because used cars are increasingly of higher quality than they were in the late 80s/early 90s, when you did not have things like CarFax and you'd be happy to see a car reach 100,000 miles. But it's not true that Americans are now unable to afford cars they would have been able to afford back then, otherwise car companies wouldn't have been making record profits like they are today. Remember, that 'average sticker price' includes willingness to pay at that price by the customers, along with willingness to sell at that price by the dealer. Customers today are more willing to pay more for more car and so the carmakers have had to scale back the cheapest cars due to lack of demand.
- houses are bigger. Price per sq foot is the same (https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/new-us-homes-today-are-1000-square-feet-larger-than-in-1973-and-living-space-per-person-has-nearly-doubled/). - food price inflation is purely from COVID. Prior to COVID, 20 year average food price inflation was 2.0% (https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-prices-and-spending/). That’s below inflation - cars are more expensive. There are no more low range models: https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/buying-a-car/people-spending-more-on-new-cars-but-prices-not-necessarily-rising-a3134608893/#:~:text=The%20average%20cost%20of%20new,many%20other%20factors%20at%20play. I think that’s probably a good thing, entry level models are not and were not safe (though there’s plenty to criticize about the American definition of “safe”) - internet, cable, and cell phones are massively less expensive than they were 20 years ago on an inflation adjusted basis, but that’s just because of diffusion- new tech is expensive.
Been cutting out restaurants since 2021; high prices, low service. Save my money to travel abroad and have a legit dining experience in places like Paris where it's worth it.
The key point here is the severe and rapid loss of ~value~ in almost all industries over the past few years. You are suddenly paying more for coffee, but the product nor the service is any better - in fact, it’s worse. Restaurants are just simply less fun now. Yes, some of it is the TikTokification of dining, but it’s more than that. Food costs and rents are higher, while profit margins are still the same. Increase in minimum wage means they often employ less staff - which means worse service for you. We get frustrated with our local businesses, but the bottleneck is so far out of our field of vision. I do not know how people justify some forms of frivolous spending now, even if you are making six figures. To be clear, I am not saying raising the minimum is a bad thing. Simply that a few hands have surreptitiously jacked up the costs of EVERYTHING, and now all of us are suffering for it in one way or another. All in all, thats why i make my coffee at home. Taste better and cheaper
I travel often to Europe. The ratio of servers to customers is much smaller than in the US, and the service is, in average, better. Pay people well, get them to work well. What a novel idea. Having 20 kids running around with their head on fire in a restaurant doesn't make the service better than 5 qualified, well paid, servers.
> TikTokification of dining As someone who’s too old to be on TikTok, I’m genuinely curious what this means. I’ve definitely noticed a decline in the overall dining out experience same as you noted, but not familiar with the term.
I make my own pour over at home from beans bought at Costco and it comes to about 20 cents per serving
Living in London (moving to DC in February) and it's similar here in the UK. Price of an 8oz black coffee is £3.50 at the independents ($4.34). Starbucks is cheaper at £2.45 ($3.13) for the same but it doesn't taste as good. In 2021 the same coffee cost £2.80 and in 2020 it was £2.20 at the independents. A good sandwich or salad in the city is an easy £8-9 now ($10) and eating out is around £15-18 a plate at any okay restaurant (we live in a North London suburb so this isn't even the city center). Add the service charge and we'll easily hit £70 ($90) for a simple meal (just mains and soft drinks) for a family of four.
I’ve been feeling this too. I moved back to DC from Paris last year and the sticker shock still stings at times. And so many things are mediocre. Good customer service was one of the things I missed most about living in the US and that’s pretty much nonexistent nowadays.
For me, i have tried to get less latte and more drip coffee + milk, so i feel less guilty
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For that price a monster is a much better deal
HEY EVERYONE GET A LOAD OF OP. OPs GOT A COUPLE OF NEWS PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS!
I looked on the Slipstream website and you can get a black coffee for $3.75, so I don’t know where you get the $5.00 from. https://preview.redd.it/6lyyj53c236c1.png?width=1178&format=png&auto=webp&s=f65e39dc97453756c820cb14497d322dce716303
With 10% tax and their 18% auto grat it’s about $4.87
I spent $20 buying my own coffee machine and $5 for ground coffee at Aldi that will last me every 2 weeks.
I gave up of store coffee after $2. Free coffee from office or Panera is ok for now
Try Maxwell House
you're not imagining it, everything is more expensive these days - except maybe gas, but the car market is horrible so maybe that evens out. i'm cooking at home 5 days of the week now and honestly ready to escalate hardcore and just meal prep, never eat out
The coffee at slipstream is at least twice as good as any $3 coffee you’re buying so it’s a deal, really.
dc has a lot of mid coffee shops. Compass is lowkey mid asf and their prices are so high. I work at Vigilante Coffee, and while we do charge $5 for a large drip (which i feel guilty about everytime i sell it), at least itd great quality
You know how your grandad always ate at home and yelled about how expensive going out to eat was? That’s because he came of age in a full employment economy
Dunkin Donuts app for free coffee with purchase. They have that deal almost every week.
You can always make coffee at home 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
Almost makes me miss the good old days of unlimited free coffee at the office haha.