America may be in love with the Keurig coffee maker due to its simplicity and ease, but the K Cup prices add a bitter taste that’s hard to swallow for many coffee lovers. But are even Starbucks prices lower in comparison over the long run?
In a related report by the Inquisitr , John Sylvan , the inventor of Keurig’s hugely popular K Cup coffee pods, recently admitted he feels K Cup regret since the current K Cup design is bad for the environment because they are not disposable or recyclable. When Sylvan approached Keurig about the issue, he “told them how to improve it, but they don’t want to listen, there’s a much better way of doing it.” The good news is that Keurig claims it will replace the current design with a recyclable version by 2020.
Sylvan also dropped a bombshell in regards to the K Cup prices.
“I feel bad sometimes that I ever did it. It’s like a cigarette for coffee, a single-serve delivery mechanism for an addictive substance… I don’t have one. They’re kind of expensive to use,” Sylvan said, according to Time . “Plus, it’s not like drip coffee is tough to make.”
Just how bad are the K Cup prices in comparison to other alternatives? Marketing professor Eric Anderson at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management points out how in 2002, the average price of a coffee maker was about $35. Nowadays, a Keurig coffee maker can easily go for around $100, although there are cheaper knockoffs from competitors like Nespresso.
Regardless, the K Cup price is significantly more profitable per cup than a can of Folgers, or even Starbucks coffee. In previous reports, the Atlantic estimated that the amount of actual coffee in each K Cup ends up costing the equivalent of $40 per pound. As a comparison, you can purchase whole bean French roast Starbucks coffee at their own website for $11.95 per pound.
Websites like Coffeehouse Express have done a K Cup price comparison in order to determine it’s value. They used a regular blend of Caribou coffee and claimed the lowest cost option was 28 cents per cup. If you purchase Caribou K Cup coffee in a 24 pack for $15.75, the total cost is 66 cents per cup. Extrapolating this over a year time period, for one cup of coffee per day the annual cost is $102.20 (this doesn’t include the cost of filters). The K Cup price quickly adds up to $240.9 per year for essentially the same product. Still, nothing is more expensive than buying coffee from a local Caribou store, which is $1.50 for that service with a smile.
Do you think Keurig coffee makers are worth paying for expensive K Cups?
