One of the many interesting parts of Howard Shultz's book is how he saw that if he changed the palate of coffee drinkers to a richer and darker roast that once people were bitten, they could not go back. The real "experience" is not the place but the taste.
I am one of those that can hardly drink any other kind of coffee now. In effect I am an addict. What is the cost though of this habit? I am staying again with my sister Diana in Toronto and the first thing I noticed was her new expensive espresso machine. Why with a new Starbucks across the street had she bought this I asked. The answer was because of the new easy to reach outlet. She and her daughter Astrid had stepped up their purchases to about 6 a day. Everyday! That is about $80 a week. $336 a month. And $4,000 a year. On coffee!!!!!
A $300 machine and buying beans enables Diana and Astrid to keep their addiction at a cost that they can afford.
So what is the cost of these simple habits like coffee, smoking and even the loto?
So what do folks on PEI spend on Tims? 4 cups of Tims a day would be $5. That is $1,700 a year. A pack of smokes would be $3,376 a year. Coffee and smokes would be over $5,000 a year. What if I bought a loto ticket every week?
There is something important in this idea of lots of small purchases. They slip by us but what else would we spend so much money on? On PEI the mean wage is less than $20,000 a year.
Now if I then went to the Racino..........
