Last week, I attended a chamber event. The featured speaker owns a local coffee roasting company. He told us that until three months ago he had resisted going into the so-called “K-Cup” market. K-Cups are the containers that fit into the one-cup coffee brewers made by the Keurig company. He said, “Some of my customers were balking at paying $12-14 per pound. Why would they pay so much more for a fad like that?” But then he discovered that fifty percent of the coffee in today’s supermarkets is being sold in this format. He said, “Now I am selling my coffee in K-Cups at the equivalent of $35 a pound. Who knew?”
If supermarkets were forced to post the price per pound over the coffee in their stores, K-Cup sales might drop through the floor. But the average person doesn’t stop for a minute to calculate the real cost of most things before making a decision. So how much is convenience worth? That depends. There are certainly times when paying more for convenience reflects thoughtful decision making. At other times, the choice of convenience is the result of impatience, inattentiveness or, dare I say, laziness.
So here’s an easy experiment: Make a list of ten conveniences you pay extra for regularly. These might include Starbucks in the morning, weekly lawn mowing, premium car-washing at the gas station and so on. Then choose three and put a pencil to their real cost and benefit. Why? Two reasons: 1) You might discover a convenience that started as a one-time impulse is now costing several hundred dollars per year. 2) With will the “life-saving” conveniences being pressed on us through daily advertising, it’s just good practice to take a step back periodically to re-evaluate priorities.