I am not a big Starbucks fan but today afternoon I was a little bored and I thought I would go for a walk and have a coffee at Starbucks on the way. I had a Chai Tea Latte and including the tip the total came around to $4. I found it a little bit difficult to digest that a cup of tea can cost so much and that quite a lot of people doesn’t seem to mind. From where I come from (India), $4 will buy you about 40 cups of tea (yeah, I know it is not a fair comparison).

Starbucks is not the only place where I find that people are overpaying without complaint. Just drive by any wealthy neighborhood and we find shops and boutiques waiting for their wealthy preys. When I find myself in such circumstances (i.e. goods being sold at a price seemingly more than what it deserves) I usually get a little stressed and angry at the system – “Let us boycott this and teach them a lesson”. But when I thought more about it today (sitting at Starbucks and drinking their latte) I think I was being totally stupid. Nobody should lose any sleep over this.  Such a system can thrive only when a reasonable number of people are willing to buy from them. Otherwise they will have to close down. The simple fact that Starbucks is thriving means that many people think that the coffee (and the environment) is worth the price. Why somebody would pay $4 for coffee is something that I might never understand but I felt a lot more comfortable, a lot more Zen, when it dawned on me that the system is self balancing. No war is required !

P.S. I hate it that Starbucks have a “Small” size but they never advertise it on their menu, I think it is a sleazy tactic.