Yesterday when I went to Starbucks with a co-worker to get a $1.87 coffee I overheard a customer say to the gentleman making her drink - "You guys are my closest family and friends. You Jim, Nancy.." She goes on to name off all the people working behind the counter and all the people that work on the second shift.

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous!! If you know one of the cashiers names, then fine...but when you know everyone that works there by first name, then you have a problem.

To me this relates a lot to the "Latte Factor" David Bach preaches so much about. I can't imagine what this lady's latte factor looks like if she knows all their name.

Anyhow, I admit that this is her choice to go there everyday, but I on the other hand choose to go only once every three weeks or so. I don't want Starbucks getting rich off me! NO THANKS, STARBUCKS!! Starbucks Your are NOT my family!!

Yeah, that is kind of ridiculous... but then again, it might just be that she's a lonely person and Starbucks is a place where she feels comfortable initiating conversation and 'getting to know' people... especially people with name tags.

I do agree that it does highlight one's own frugality to realize 'wow, I could be buying five coffees every day... phew', but I think that there might be multiple levels to why she acted that way.

Similar to when people go to bars and know everyone's name and the bar gossip. It's where they feel that they belong.

Maybe the lesson is to feel grateful that you have frugal ways of feeling that same sense of belonging? I feel that at my workplace and at my bustling home with great roommates. But the neighborhood coffee shop is nice too.

everyone has their own sense of community, so i'm not sure of the bridge here. are service industry people so beneath the normal person that one cannot have a community with them? of course i'm sure you didn't mean this, but the post somehow seemed that we should shun those who get whatever value simply because they know people's names and made a comment (perhaps based off of how friendly or interesting the employees) to workers at a starbucks. why? because starbucks has expensive coffee, which a shockingly high number of people like? don't get it one bit. i've whetted away many hours in a coffee shop over a $4 coffee, and have had many rewarding moments. now i can't think of a more frugal way to while away a day than to have interesting conversation that cost me only $4, of course the caramel machiatto helps too.

here's something grotesquely odd in our society: a person who has such a warped notion of frugality that she actually has a sense about what community means, that she took the time to actually care about the people on the other side of the counter by simply knowing their names, or making statements that probably gave at least one of the employees some feelings of self worth. i'm sorry, but if being frugal means that one has to be an ass and ignore people simply because they serve $4 coffee all day long to millions of people, I'm not sure being frugal is really worth it at the end of the day then. perhaps she too gets the $1.87 coffee vice the $4 latte, and perhaps she too goes once in a while, perhaps she goes on splurge days and because of this she is an amenable person and learns people's names. ok, i'm sure that she probably goes more often than once in a while.

so you are frugal and go once every three weeks or so, and in all your frugalness do you know any of the employees' names? i got your point, but i'm not agreeing with the bridge between knowing people's names and the woman's comments and being frugal.

I think it's sweet that she knew everyone's name. I know the names of some of my grocery store clerks, but not all of them. I try to pay attention to the people in my community. But it's rare to know people by name.

I get my groceries delivered. I must make a note to ask the delivery guy his name. We always call him Grocery Man, like he's an action figure. But we should really know his name.

I work to learn the names of people that I purchase things from regularly, but I'm not very good at it. There's Maria the woman at the lunch deli I hit up once a week, Chad the coffee guy at BWI, John the cook/owner of the wonderful hole-in-the-wall Chinese place I like and Kentifyr the DJ at the club I go to. Unfortunately, that's where it ends. I never remember the name of John's wife and kids, my bike mechanic, the counter guy at the groecery co-op, the counter woman at the hotel I stay at (I've been on the road way too much for work this year) or any of the other people I regularly buy things from.

Don't forget, that person could be working there all day long, every day. It happens all the time in my neighborhood...

Your Starbucks is doing a great job. If you think about it, no one in their right mind would pay for a product you can make at home for a tenth of the cost. Knowing this fact, how does Starbucks get you to pay so much for their coffee? They sell you an image and experience. Obviously, the woman was there for the experience. If I was near her then I would have asked if she knew how much less it would cost for her to have those same Starbucks baristas over for coffee.

My coffee shop charges $1.50 for coffee, if I bring my own cup. $1.75 if I don't.

A pound of good coffee is $15. It makes about 35 cups. A medium coffee is 1.5 cups. That's about 65c a cup. But you might need to add sugar and cream. 2 tsp of cream is about 12c. How much for sugar? 2c, perhaps? So that's about 80c for a cup of coffee. And they do all the dishes for you. Plus you aren't throwing out any coffee or anything like that. So, given wastage from leftover coffee and cream, perhaps it works out to 90c to make your own cup of coffee.

But...when I go to the store...I get to read a newspaper for free. That would cost another $1. So I'm actually ahead by going to a coffee shop, if I read a paper. I always try to read two.

The put up the only coffee shop within a three mile radius of my office.

Is your coffee shop is selling the same quality "good" coffee for $1.50/cup?



Hey, whatever you have to tell yourself to let you sleep at night is your business.

I think it's obvious that he was implying that



He did the math, and he proved he's getting ahead by bundling his newspaper with the coffee. Why would he lose sleep by saving money?

Kombat, ok, i drink plenty of starbucks, and really it isn't very good coffee so i always get the foofoo coffee to hide this fact, so there are plenty of $1.50/cups out there that are just as "good". the beans are pretty bitter and not fresh for what you pay for (yeah, ok, call me a bit of a coffee snob). i miss indie coffee shops who roast their own beans. also, starbucks misleads people in their coffees. for example, the starbucks Arabian Mocha Sanani only contains 10% coffee beans from Yemen, despite being sold as beans from the coffee region around Sanaa, Yemen. 10% ladies and gentlemen, and it isn't even the best beans Yemen has to offer (Kaboos company is Starbucks distributor). On top of that, there are no coffee beans grown around the Sanaa area, the coffee regions are pretty far away. so when starbucks says "Geography is a flavor You can tell a lot about a coffee if you know where it’s from," it really doesn't mean it, since they are obviously talking crap. this basically applies to many of the more exotic coffees, since it would cost an arm and a leg or some sort of real investment in these countries to get 100% of the beans from them.

i wish there was a mccafe or dunkin donuts near, b/c i've heard that they have good coffee. have i mentioned that i miss indie coffee shops who roast their own beans? well, there is always costco and buying an espresso machine for home.

I don't need to tell myself stories to sleep at night. I'm right. As soon as I read the newspaper, I'm ahead. Even if I only read the newspaper some days, I break even.

(and I'm a woman, btw -- male is not the default. )

You forgot the filter and/or coffee maker depreciation. We use a cheap plastic holder, and coffee filters that cost about 5c each. Ok.. it probably isn't fair to count the cost of the holder - it was probably under $2, and it's lived through at least 100 cups of coffee (and going strong, I might add..) I calculated it all out once to try to explain to my husband why I wanted him to make coffee at home. He didn't think that it was worth 60c to stay home for his coffee. Unless I was the one that made it. He doesn't complain about the quality of the Trader Joe's fair trade organic (that I get for <$9 a pound), either.

Me? I stopped drinking coffee. Bad for my blood sugar anyway.

And to be fair, we DO have at least two different coffee shops that roast their own beans around here... I figure that if he buys (pre-made) coffee from them occasionally, I can feel a little less guilty about buying TJ's coffee beans!

Maybe it's a regional thing, but around here, we have several free newspapers. They are literally free. You open the box and take one. There is no coin slot. They sit next to "pay" newspapers, but the choice is there, and the news is the same. You just might miss out on the pithy sarcasm of your favorite sports commentator, or have to forego the daily lewd photo of a "Sunshine Girl," but one doesn't need to pay any money to get the news. Is that not the case where you are?

So if you go to Starbucks instead of brewing your own and reading a free newspaper, you are indeed quite a bit behind on a daily basis, not ahead, no?