\nThe following is by my understanding.<\/p>\n
\nI drink a lot of coffee – black, in case anyone’s wondering. You can be pretty sure that, any post of mine you read, I was drinking coffee as I wrote it. So, if you’re also drinking coffee right now, you might say we’re having coffee together. Cheers:)<\/p>\n
\nI nearly always buy bean coffee rather than ground. Typically it’s fair trade and organic. Over the decades I’ve watched the choices on the shelves evolve.<\/p>\n
\nI like good coffee, but I’m not rich. I can’t justify spending whatever an asking price might be for a bag of coffee. Therefore, when looking at coffee, I’m paying attention to the price per unit.<\/p>\n
\nI mention, back in my post from May 3, 2022,<\/a> that I remember from the 70s the “smaller package” trick: a product looks like it’s got a surprisingly low price, until one realizes it’s actually a smaller package than was there last time. This can be done quite deftly, so the consumer might not even notice until they get home.<\/p>\n \nPerhaps five years ago I started noticing the “smaller package” trick with coffee. There were a few extra complications which made the situation interesting albeit annoying. Here’s what happened, as I get it:<\/p>\n \nOne of the brand leaders in quality bean coffee was local here in BC. When I was buying coffee, starting from around 2002, I would always look at that brand on the shelf as an option. I didn’t always buy it, but often did. Back then, its bags were always a pound (454g). Its coffee was often the best. To my knowledge this was the reality on the shelf for around two decades.<\/p>\n \nUnbeknownst to me until a few weeks back, said company was purchased, at least mostly, about ten years ago by a foreign company. Perhaps not at first, but within a few years, they started putting smaller bags of beans on the shelves where their one-pound bags had been. <\/p>\nA pound is 16oz and also 454g. I started seeing bags of coffee 340g (about 12 ounces) and even 284g (about ten ounces). To my knowledge, said company, acquired by the foreign one, was a leader in this new sizing. Yet, they were also a leader on the coffee bean shelves. Therefore, their experimental pricing skewed the wider consumer market for coffee beans, at least around here. <\/p>\n \nAt the same time, some stores always have coffee at more reasonable prices, while some usually charge more for the same coffee.<\/p>\n \nWith the inflation due to COVID, etc, the “good” market price for quality coffee beans seems settled at around 1kg (908g) for around twenty four dollars, or around 12 dollars a pound. At that rate, 340g, which is about 3\/4 of a pound, should be about nine dollars. So, 340g of quality beans for ten dollars, at a store where they always charge more for it anyway, might be a deal one can live with now and again, especially if one particularly loves that coffee.<\/p>\nJack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane,<\/a> Campbell River, BC.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Self-tutoring about shelf prices of coffee: the tutor mentions some ideas. The following is by my …<\/p>\n