Regular vs Premium

Their 4 cups is your 1 month.

“Bleh! Too good to be true.” That’s what I thought when I saw the signpost for the first time. I was holding my $6.45 Starbucks coffee and wondering how four cups of coffee from a brand would be the equivalent of a month’s worth of coffee from another brand. The way I saw it, it’s either someone is overrrrcharging or someone else is losing a ton of money. There is no middle ground here.

I saw the signpost again the next day and the day after, both times holding another cup of Starbucks coffee. On the fourth consecutive day, I took another path. Didn’t want to see the signpost the day I’d have blown a month’s worth of coffee on only four cups of coffee. You see, the thing about NYC is that you cannot run away from certain brands. They are on every avenue and every other street. Sipping away my $6.45 Starbucks coffee and listening to whatever I was listening to that day, I ran into that signpost again.

“Darn, busted!” This time, I stopped in front of the signpost to think about it. And I realized, “OMG, that’s like $1.6 per cup if someone had to go to the office 15 days a month.” Then I thought, “Coffee at $1.6? It cannot be good coffee. Would probably take like a cigarette.” (Don't ask me how I know the taste of cigarette). Curious me, I decided to check their website because when brands market products “starting at” x price, then the price will most likely get higher the more variety you add to your selection. I think it’s called up-selling or something like that.

Turns out that I was right! Only that this brand had just two varieties. One was a classic plan at $24.99 a month and the other was a premium plan at $34.99 a month. I’ve always wondered why brands do the whole .99 thing as though people don’t see right through it and just round up already. In some conversation I had some years back, I think someone said it was some psychology thing. And it really is! See how earlier, I said the coffee was for $24? I completely missed out the .99 part of it each time I saw the signpost. 

Back to the monthly coffee plans, the premium plans had more variety, as one would expect. I’m not a huge coffee person so I can’t say why Expresso-based drinks were on the premium plans but organic coffee blends only stayed with the regulars. What was interesting was subscribers to either plan could enjoy up to 5 drinks a day with 30 minutes between redemptions. If I were a freelancer working out of their coffee shop every weekday, I could potentially have 20 x 5 = 100 cups of coffee or tea a month for just $25. That’s about 25 cents per cup. And the cup could be any size, regular or large. That’s insane! My Starbucks suddenly started tasting like a cigarette butt.

The next day, I decided to take the long-needed break from my Starbucks relationship, which was drilling holes in my pocket faster than I could stitch up, and honestly, I couldn’t afford to keep up with it. I walked into this new coffee shop and happily ordered a chai latte, regular milk, and a regular-sized cup. I wasn’t ready to be a subscriber yet because I needed to try it first. If you’ve ever been to Balogun market in Lagos you’ll know that you shouldn’t be fooled by the sexiness of the outfit on the mannequin. Remove the peg and see things fall apart. For some reason, I didn’t bother to check for the peg at this shop. I didn’t look up to see the individual coffee prices before ordering. When I was about to tap my phone to pay, I saw the screen read “$6.25” and I didn’t realize when I said “Ahh!”. What happened to the 25 cents I was budgeting? Or realistically, I thought it wouldn’t be more than $4.

“Oh dang! This hole in my pocket would be really big,” I thought as I saw the “Approved” green check on the payment device. That $6.25 got me thinking about the subscription-based business model and how food retail companies profit from that rather than having their customers pay per service. Anyways, I’ll keep those thoughts in for now, I just wanted to share that I am no longer a coffee drinker. My wallet made me a convert!

PS: Don’t convert the dollar prices to Naira. Everything seems quite expensive when you convert to Naira. Maybe someday, I’ll explain why. It basically has to do with the difference in the cost of living and minimum wage (or that’s how I think about it).

Another PS: The chai latte I got from the subscription store was realllllllly good. Loved it. Would be going back for more when I reconvert. 🙈

Unveiling the brand! Pret A Manger all the way from London! Good stuff ✅