now we have to start asking the coffee industry how they correctly predicted that so many people would be willing to pay $2 a cup for something delivered in a recipient destined for a landfill site, even when it can can be brewed at home for less than 30 cents and without producing any non-compostable garbage?
Ecologists recommend buying products with the least amount of packaging per serving - if this means buying a single box of 1000 coffee filters and the occasional 1kg can of ground fair-trade coffee, both containers being completely recyclable, then that's the type of product for me.
I think that the starbucks marketing lady hit the nail right on the head when she said "it gives [these morons] an ego-boost". How about if people treated each other nice for a change, we wouldn't need our cup of instant ego-saving environment-destroying liquid safety blanket!
Thanks Vu for the opportunity to rant on this!
Second Cup clears up size issue
PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen
DATE: 2006.05.31
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Business
PAGE: D1 / Front
In the movie You've Got Mail, Tom Hanks memorably describes the modern cafe environment as being designed "for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee."
But now, Second Cup has read the writing on the mochaccino-coloured wall and is changing its cup sizes to include just small, medium and large. In an industry characterized by unnecessary complexity, the Canadian coffee franchise's directive seems nothing short of revolutionary.
"For the longest time, we've had four sizes in the marketplace -- small, medium, large and jumbo," says Rachel Douglas, spokeswoman for Second Cup. "It made ordering confusing because some people would want small and say medium, or want medium and say large."
Under the new system, a small hot drink holds 12 ounces and a small cold drink holds 16. A medium hot contains 16 ounces, but a medium cold has 20. Finally, a large hot drink contains 20 ounces and a large cold drink holds 24.
So depending on whether or not a customer's fix contains ice, a small could really be a medium, a medium could be a large, and a large could be extra-large. That's as complicated as it gets.
Starbucks, on the other hand, champions complex coffee-talk. The venerable Seattle coffee company utilizes Italian cup sizes, which some say engage customers with the brand by making them feel they're in the know.
"Stores understand what is meant by small, medium and large, but those terms are so generic and out-dated," says Suzanne Brown, an international coffee-marketing expert based in Atlanta.
"When customers are able to order specific sizes and beverage preferences in a brand's lingo, it gives them a kind of ego boost ..."
In 2004, Starbucks even issued a pamphlet acquainting patrons with a long list of insider terms. In addition to choosing between tall (12 ounces), grande (16 ounces) and venti (20 ounces hot, 24 ounces iced), Canadians were suddenly empowered to request their drinks come "unleaded" (decaf), "dry" (more foam, less milk), "with legs" (to go), or any other term in the 20-page lexicon.
Sandy McAlpine, president of the Coffee Association of Canada, suggests Second Cup may find a competitive edge through its simpler system, if only by standing out from the widely imitated Starbucks model.
"Having been in the coffee business for 25 years, it's quite startling how much of this new or novel coffee lingo is used," he says.
Over at Tim Hortons, the company vernacular is just as important as cup hierarchy: The term "double double" -- two creams and two sugars -- is so ubiquitous among Canadian coffee-drinkers it was included in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary in 2004.
At Timothy's World Coffee, brand knowledge is demonstrated through awareness of the four-tiered cup system: small, regular, medium and large.
"What's really funny is when a customer goes into a shop and orders in the coffee lingo of another store," says Ms. Brown.
"They may be purposely trying to trip up the barista, often chuckling when the barista doesn't have a clue what the same version (of another cafe's drink) might be."
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