I received a Keurig Coffee maker for Christmas. The single serving coffee maker works great. You get a sampler packet in the box offering a variety of flavors which to try. Once those are consumed ,and you need to go to the store by new ‘K-cups,’ as they are called, sticker shock sets in. I paid $12.00 for a box of 18 cups of coffee. That is 91-cents a cup!
Of course I am seduced by the ease of popping the K-cup into the coffee maker and having a great cup O’Joe in a minute. The incredible selection of flavors on my kitchen counter defeats any rational analysis of my new coffee addiction After a few weeks reality begins to creep in as I order a a refillable brew basket which I can fill with any coffee.
Still I hang with the K-cup. Then it happened. The New York Times figures out we are paying $50 per pound for Folgers in K-cups. That is about $40 more than I am paying for Folgers at the Big Y Supermarket! Since my head snapped back into place I’ve filled the brew basket with my supermarket Folgers.
Interestingly enough in the New York Times article I learned than I had fallen into the mental trap of comparing the price of the K-cup to the price of a cup bought at a coffee shop. That is really dumb thinking. I can’t say the makers of single serving coffee makers reframed our thinking, but certainly they and the makers of ground coffee were in position to grab our wallets.
At The Mic 