Paying $3.90 for a cup of coffee in 2021


A couple of days ago, as I was out pedaling around Peoria, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, and marveling at the wonderful weather, I decided to stop at a place where I'd seen cars waiting in line to get a cup of coffee. Specifically, it was February of 2021.

I walked up to the window and asked the young man there for a cup of coffee. He started talking about a bunch of stuff that I really didn't want, but I waited patiently for him to stop, and I repeated that I wanted an ordinary cup of coffee. I'm not really sure what they call it there, but he assured me that there was a special language (yes, he really said that), and since he could tell it was a language that I didn't speak, he was kind enough to place the order for me, and I got an ordinary cup of coffee. I'm not sure if it was 12 ounces or 16 ounces, but since 8 ounces is technically a cup (the size of coffee cups my grandma had), to be fair, I really had about two cups of coffee. It cost me $3.90. I think that there was supposed to be a tip, but I really don't know?

It really was good coffee, much better than the coffee that I usually get at McDonald's, and since then I've been pondering the price of things in general, and coffee at coffee shops in particular. No, I'm not going to compare it to the price of making your own coffee at home - I'm going to compare it to going somewhere and having it served to you, with a friendly smile. Well, I could hear the friendly smile behind the mask!

Speaking for myself, I didn't start drinking coffee until my mid-twenties, and I have no recollection of what I paid back then, which was the 1980s. When I did drink coffee, it was usually at a Denny's, and the price of the breakfast that I always got, called a "Grand Slam" was $1.99 - I remember that. So what do you think? Fifty cents for the coffee? It sure couldn't have been over a buck! And come to think of it, I really don't know what a cup of coffee at Denny's is nowadays - probably between two and three dollars?

I have a bias against buying stuff on site, as opposed to getting it at a grocery store, and preparing it yourself, going back to the days when my brother and I would sneak candy into the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis. We would stuff our pockets with candy, and it was great! I really had no idea what the candy and popcorn cost at a theater, but according to my parents it was outrageous.

So, like I say, it was an exceptionally nice day that day, and I was far from home. I had a feeling as if I were on vacation, and everyone knows when you're on vacation you splurge at bit. I didn't look at the menu or the prices at all at the coffee place, I just braced myself and tried to imagine what an ordinary cup of coffee would cost. To me, it was like ordering a drink at a bar, where the prices are never posted. You just hope that it's not too expensive, and if it's more than you thought you limit yourself to one drink. It wasn't the place with the mermaid logo, but I'd heard the expression "Four Bucks" often enough to have some idea.

And as a history adventurer, I get a kick out of thinking that maybe someone will read this blog post in the future and marvel at how cheap a cup of coffee was back in 2021! That, and a nickel, will get me a cup of coffee!
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