Thursday, June 19, 2008

I fell upon the Starbuck's "Short" today

Today, after dumping my son off at grandpa and grandmas, I visited the local Starbucks. I typically go to a local spot, Coffee Break USA, but Starbucks was right on my way so what the hell.

Being I was sick of lattes (I had two of them yesterday) I decided to order coffee. Decaffeinated so as not to rattle me.

Startbuck's sizes have always confused me. A "Tall" means large to me. "Tall" means small to Starbucks. Or at least it did. Today, I noticed that they have a "Short" size. The "Short," eight ounce glass confused me. So much so that I ordered one by mistake.

Mac: "Small coffee please. Decaffeinated if you could be so kind."
Barista: "You mean a 'Short?'"
Mac: "Sure do!" thinking I just ordered a "Tall."

Apparently the "Short" is a size that the well informed could order for some time. Just recently Starbucks has decided to make the rest of us privy. My guess is, the choice was based on simple economics. That is, they charged me $1.40 for a "Short" while a "Tall" was only ten to twenty cents more. Their margins are better with the Short. They must have just figured that out and given their slumping stock, decided to market less coffee for more. Pure genius!

3 comments:

Scooter said...

It's decaf...did it really make a difference?

Anonymous said...

Just like the $5.00 foot long at Subway. Make a couple of foot long subs $5.00 and raise your prices on all the others. Another genius marketing move.

Mac Noland said...

Scooter, just because your heart doesn't flutter when you have too much caffeine, doesn't mean you can make fun of those who's does.

Anonymous, yes I'd guess that Subway is also very smart in that respect.