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The Starbucks Index - Coffee Price Parity
Despite Abe's protestations, it would appear - from WSJ's index of Starbucks coffee prices around the world - that Japan's currency 'value' is similar to the US while it is Mr. Hollande (in France) that has more reason to hope for a currency devaluation in his country. With India and Mexico showing the lowest price for a grande latte (suggesting undervalued currencies), it appears Europeans (from Madrid to Paris to Athens) pay significantly more for a latte than even the New Yorkers. Forget the Big Mac Index, forget Purchasing Power Parity - the Scandinavians are suffering from over-priced currencies and significant divergence from Coffee Price Parity.
Source: WSJ
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Too bad they don't have how much is robusta and how much is arabica component.
All their coffee tastes burnt - good arabica beans are wasted on Starbucks.
Hence the need for syrups and surgars to flavor away the burn.
We have hundreds of Yaupon Holly bushes on our property, and the surrounding countryside filled with the stuff. I don't have to pay for my caffeine, I get it for free.
With cream from our grass-fed cow, the cost of my Chai Latte is, was, and will be close to $0.00 regardless of quantitative easing.
Fuck you, Bernanke!
http://news.ufl.edu/2009/06/25/yaupon-drink/
http://news.ufl.edu/2009/06/25/new-healthy-tea/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/science/ancient-caffeinated-8216black-drink8217-was-made-with-holly-analysis-finds.html?_r=0
Starbucks/Bigmac index are so pointless.
In Germany/France you can go to a family owned cafe and get better and CHEAPER coffee than Starbux. In Asia, Starbucks is generally "luxury".
What impressed me was the highest prices were in the very socialized scandanavian countries.
(Where we're headed)
I would posit there that everything is paid for, and SBux feels it can get a larger share of discretionary money. Not sure if this is true...
Was about to say the same - 1st, I didn't even knew we had them here in Portugal; 2nd, 4$ for a coffee? Are you f* kidding me? It costs less than 1 € at a coffee shop anywhere (actually, it's closer to .5/6€ on most places), and just over 0,3 € at home, in capsules (which are a whopping 5x more expensive than grinded/bean packs: ~10 €/Kg), so why would anyone care?
Thank christ for Tim Hortons.
I tried their coffee and donuts at one of the places they put in Erie, PA. Really good!
And it's rrrrrol up the rrrrrim time!
Yes, the secret of global fast food chains is uniformity, and burnt coffee all tastes the same.
Rolllllll up the rim, to lose.lol
.
I'm 1/5 for rollup.
Best buy on the board is Istanbul. Turkish coffee is "chewy".
Upvoted for the Star Wars reference.
Well played. His best line, IMHO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm1OaKO_fzw
I was surprised how easy it was to roast coffee at home.
sweetmarias.com and I roast it at home.
I used to, but issues with getting a reliable roaster... (went through 3 of them)
I just use a stainless steel pot and shake the beans as I heat them. But I don't really claim to have a sophisticated palate when it comes to ...well anything really.
Probaly the approach that I should have taken, the consumer roasting machines tend to not be very reliable!
Hot air popcorn maker works perfectly.
All you need is good beans and a Rancilio Silvia.
Vegas (Excalibur): $4.50 venti coffee (bold-pike-blonde)
Yes, yes. I go there for the foods and coffee or when travelling and need reliabile location and place to get simple eats in the cities.
Ever since the 'new Starbucks' and Pike...allll their in-store brewed coffee tastes burnt....it costs more for fresh brewed and Starbucks gotta profit (with the new/old management). I still like their simple Breakfast and House, and I still have my SB card...so am a SB fan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnMaroAlfvI
Dr Evil!
Starbucks is going to be an interesting play as deflation ramps up.
Starbucks layoffs have already begun.
deflation? People still believe in that stuff?
A fucking $9.83 for a Starbucks in Oslo? I bet a fucking Royale with cheese costs even more than $6.38 that the Swiss pay.
Helsinki is in Switzerland????? Wow, learn something new every day here.......
Put one more question mark after your ADDisorder question one more God damn time. I dare you, I double dare you.
What country you from? What? WHAT COUNTRY ARE YOU FROM? They don't have a fucking ROYALE WITH CHEESE in WHAT? If you DID, you'd know that a motherfucking ROYALE WITH CHEESE is not listed on the motherfucking list.
Xanax Wars. Cool. :D
Tyler has it backwards: When the price of a good is low compared on an index, then the purchasing power of a currency is strong. Since S.F., Detroit, and N.Y. are low on the grand scale of things - especially considering the cost of living in S.F. and N.Y. - this means that the dollar buying the coffee has high purchasing power.
So since this is true, is it also true that inflation is low? Yes, this is correct. This means that the Fed has more room to increase its purchase program, because we will need to increase exports, via Starbucks coffee and other goods.
Leave it to a 'PhD' to lay a foundation on a single, high std. deviation data point. Tenure, like the welfare/warfare state, means you aren't required to live in reality..
I didn't. Tyler did. I just put it in the correct perspective.
The premise of the chart is that weak currency = cheap coffeee, strong currency = expensive coffee. I do not see any proof of this looking at that chart.
Tokyo has more expensive Star Bucks than New York, but the Yen is much weaker than the Dollar. Moscow has some of the most expensive coffee, but the Ruble is a weak currency. Even if they are trying to use this chart to show whether a currency is under- or over-valued relative to the others, there are disparities within the Euro and Dollar.
The chart seems to track living expenses and amount of disposable income of the people in the particular city. Expensive city with high wages and cost of living = expensive coffee. Affordable city with low wages = less expensive coffee.
"So since this is true, is it also true that inflation is low? Yes, this is correct. "
I take it you don't go to a "normal grocery" store to go shopping?
If you get out of your ivory tower and go where shopping where everyone else hops you'll notice how much items have gone up in the last couple of years!
Notice the price of coke, coffee, meat have all increased substantially.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/15/the-incredible-shrinkin...
Also notice the average price of gasoline has also increased.
Yeah, I know about ex-food and energy, but people have to eat and drive and use transportation. So it's inflation we have to deal with. Real inflation, not a pick and choose inflation like the government does. The government does it because they have obligations based on the CPI.
Just like real unemployment vs adjusted unemployment.
Bernanke and the Fed bankers want inflation and their getting it. Not in wages because there is an over supply of labor world wide.
Bernanke and the fed will get a lot more inflation as they continue devaluing the US dollar. It will just squeeze people that much more. They will have even less money to spend.
Around me the public transportation just raised their riding fees by 87% along with taxes and fees. That's inflation.
I suggest you look around and smell the roses rather than just take the government line.
Oh my did you botch that logic, PK. Funny, tho.
You don't suppose there might be a link between coffee prices snd socialism, where the barristas get jacked up minimum wages, free health care, and shorter work weeks?
Why is Starbucks so "cheap" in San Francisco?
Its in a different country than detroit is..
The argument that the prices reflect currency strength, while listing 3 different data points (detroit, san fran, new york) for the same currency is just bad math. Cost of living indexs tied back to the amount of gold need in that currency.
Really makes one wonder, especially compared to Detroit...
It's a known scientific fact that the presence of fags makes brewed coffee cheaper.
In Detroit they have to pay protection to armed gangbangers wielding AK47s.
Wrong conclusion. It costs more in Norway, where they pay employees a decent wage, than in India where they pay slave wages and use poisoned water. I'll pay up for the Norway coffee if I have a choice.
They are fucking pulling espresso shots. A retarded monkey can be trained to do that better than your average Starbucks employee. Anybody who knows anything about coffee knows how shitty Starbucks espresso is. They get paid commensurate with the value of the service they provide-- which is, not much. The only reason they get paid more in Norway is because Norway is awash in oil.
As soon as someone brings the 14 oz. 'Grande' to market we'll know the coffee wars are really picking up steam.
Dunkin Donuts reduced their medium coffee from 16oz to 14oz at some point in the last few years. Sneaky fuckers.
The not-so-stealthy inflation creep.. Bought some Breyers ice cream the other day, a rare treat in our house. The rectangular container has a narrower width and tapers down to a false bottom to offer 4 fewer ounces at the same, or higher, price. This is happening with everything. The grocery store does not have a paper COMEX market that can hide true inflation. Neither does the minimum wage trend - another establishment 'confession' of inflation in the disquise as a gift.
Sneaky fuckers, indeed.
This is like comparing the prices of an NFL football. Of course Americans will pay stupid-high prices for Starbucks more than tea-centric England. Where's the Dunkin' Donuts Index? Better still a necessity like gasoline/petrol.
gallons of gas per hour of minimum wage index
HA HA HA
Rex, Aegelis, "gas per hour of minimum wage index",would be quite telling,"brilliant!" idea there. Guess too we'd need to know subsidized info, workers per household avg, avg "petrol" consumption, etc.(no sarc, I know we're a tough crowd)
Nothing significant is ever simple, is it?
Indeed, Rex. I believe we'll see $6 gas in the USA soon, but carpools, tele commute options will be an in-con-venient, but necessary solution initially.
Price of gas in pre-1965 quarters or dimes. Simple.
A Home Depot employee I know was moved from 8-hour shifts to 4-hour shifts, effectively doubling commuting costs. Now gas costs are a meaningful fraction of their take-home pay.
more than twice as much tea than coffee per day in the UK, 165 million cups of tea a day v 70 million cups of coffee...compared to 63 million people in britain
http://www.tea.co.uk/page.php?id=237
the US drinks 350 million cups of coffee a day..for 313 million people
http://www.realcoffee.co.uk/Coffee-Encyclopedia/Trivia/Consumption-Facts/
i'd say coffee cnsumption per head was identical, but the brits also drink two cups of tea! (can't find tea stats for the US..ok i lost interest..heh)
Fuck Starbucks. Home of the liberal fucking assholes who will pay $5 fucking dollars for a coffee and sit around and fucking talk about how fucking great a job Obama is doing and how we need to feed the fucking poor. Fucking clueless fucking pricks. I hope Starbucks is putting dry roasted fucking dog shit in their fucking acrid fucking piss. Fuckers.
Fuckin' A right! What he said.
Alcohol addicts have AA.
Narcotica addicts have NA.
Gambling addicts have GA.
Sex addicts have Fucking A.
So Soup, how do you *really* feel about Starbucks?
Switch to decaf brother. After many cups of Starbucks, I've yet been compelled to vote democrat or withdrawl my charitable donations.
12 out of 54 (words).
Excellent!
Too bad I can’t give it a +12 instead of just a +1
Junk beans are always burned
Complete nonsense. Prices in Europe are higher due to higher taxes, VAT primarily, not overvalued currencies.
i fucking hate coffee and i hope starbucks goes broke. i know it will not happen, but starbucks fucking sucks.
fuck u starbucks.
Athens? really?
some societies rely on external stimulants more than others and so price accordingly. France might want to consider gov subsidies for RedBull, as that might be their last chance at a "productive" recovery.
Starbucks in Oslo? I have never seen one, but then again i'm not looking for one either.
1.) Apparently people get very emotional over coffee/Starbucks, especially if they don't drink it. 2.) I think the people who make these infographics just like to poke us with a stick to see how quickly we snap over all the fallacies.
The London / UK price is £2.50, which is still a pound more than I think reasonable for a coffee.
I won't drink the stuff because Starbucks is the only coffee I need to put sugar in it is so bitter.
Also, for not much more than £3 I can buy a 20 fl oz pint of beer, so oz for oz I'd rather get drunk.
I was a young man living in Seattle when Starbucks was a single coffee shop, and it was hardly the best or most popular one in town. The quality didn't improve over the last several decades, either.
McDonald's hamburgers suck, too.
Marketing is EVERYTHING because people are usually both vain and stupid.
There is no Italian city in the list. In fact, here in Italy an expresso typically costs 80 cents/1 Euro, and a cappuccino 20% more. A thing like the "Grande Latte" (btw, it is pseudo-Italian and means "Big Milk") would cost 40-50 cents more for the bigger amount of milk, but still much less than 4$, not to say 5-6, or even 9$!
Ah, and we have very few Starbuck shops, just in the big cities, frequented by foreigners and by Italians wishing to act as a foreigner...
And you forgot to mention how much better the coffee tastes in Italy. Because they use better beans, and the person standing at the machine actually knows how to properly maintain the machine, and how to properly pull an espresso shot.
And, 1 Euro is expensive. Back when they still used the lira, I remember getting espresso shots for 1200 lire at your typical corner bar, which was about 60 cents at the time.
I junked you because of the assumption that because it's Italy, they use better beans and people know what they're doing. Seeing as though the beans Italians use most likely come from the same places cafes in Australia get their beans (Ethiopia, Columbia, Guatemala, PNG etc), there's no advantage just because they're (the baristas) Italian. A trained monkey could learn how to pull a shot and maintain a machine. (No offence to Italians though).
same with the cuban section of miami airport...and its good too
As far as I know, the only Starbucks in Stockholm is at Arlanda airport. Like at most airports, everything there is far more expensive than elsewhere in the city. If similar skewing factors exist for other places on the list, then this is probably a very poor index, that doesn't really tell us anything useful.
IN "STANDARD" (GLOBALIZED SHOULD I SAY?) COUNTRIES, THEY ARE SIMPLY EVERYWHERE... EVEN IN FRANCE WHICH WAS USED TO BE KNOWN FOR ITS COFFEE CULTURE...
Good coffee = good beans and a french press...cheap and easy to do (of course if you are too lazy go to starbucks ;))
STARBUCKS COFFEE = 90% MARGIN (30% SUGAR...)
Seems to me that this sort of analysis is interesting but incomplete. Don't you have to adjust for the all in cost of a barrista?
A more interesting index would factor in the coffee at the local delivered price and the labor cost component at the local delivered price.
Just shows to go ya that ignorance is pandemic.
Ten bucks in Norway, wow! Many years ago a beer in a bar in Norway was $10. Wonder what it is now.
Is everybody else getting these damn blinking eyes ads? I train my eye to igore the ads so I have no idea what they are advertising , but they sure are anoying. Tyler, I hope you charge more for annoying ads. I prefer the ads for gold. They make me smile. And remind me to do more stacking.
Starbucks is a good first step from waiting room coffee machine.
I am a big fan of the Big Mac index, also like the Mercer index and the one from the Economist intelligence unit. Very interesting about which cities in the world are expensive and the ones that are cheap. Luanda in Angola is very, very expensive, lately Australian cities are among the most expensive in the world. UBS, the Swiss bank has a good index called prices and wages around the world.
I feel sure the price in São Paulo is wrong unless it's referring to downtown, not airport prices. I'll check in two weeks. I pay about R$12 (probably R$15 in two weeks) for a standard coffee in an airport coffee shop in São Paulo airport, I cannot believe that a Starbuck's cup would be 40% cheaper.
Twenty five years ago I had a $5 cup of coffee in an SAS hotel. It was worth it.
Comparing the costs of this crap is honestly retarded. Be it big macs or starbucks. Different markets get different marketing agendas, not a "one size fits all", and along with that goes pricing.
and only 5% of the corporate taxes paid in any of the countries it sells coffee in, but 100% of the tax rate in Luxembourg...
http://www.mondaq.com/x/215958/Corporate+Tax/Starbucks+And+Amazon+Face+T...