If you drink coffee for your morning caffeine kick, you probably need extra cash in your wallet. Over the past two years, prices have increased by nearly 39% overall.
One local coffee shop owner said that while this makes it harder to lower prices, customers can find ways to compensate for higher coffee prices.
Wanny Wong, owner of Intrinsic Café in Newark, said:
Wong’s coffee shops are located near two university campuses, meaning they serve a student population with limited cash available for consumption. So while rising coffee prices have forced her to raise her prices, she’s making personal sacrifices to keep her prices up for now.
“I cut my salary so that I spend more time alone,” Wong says. “We bake almost everything ourselves, completely in house.”
She says that if coffee-loving customers don’t want to feel the heat of rising coffee prices, there are ways to make sacrifices.
“Obviously it’s cheaper to make at home, but most people come here for the environment,” says Wong. “You can be here all day. Literally you can be here all day.”
But if you can give up the luxury café experience, it’s cheaper to make coffee at home. Makes 22 servings. Compare that to his one shot at a tall Starbucks on the $2.95 menu. So the same 22 cup is $64.90 for him, saving you nearly $54.
Another money saver? Ditch oat, soy, or almond milk alternatives and stick to good old-fashioned cheap whole milk.
“It’s 75 cents cheaper,” says Wong. “If you don’t have a milk allergy, don’t use milk replacer.”
Café customers say the best money-saving decision they’ve made, especially during times like this, is to ditch the big chain coffee shops altogether and give their money to smaller local coffee shops instead. increase.
Wong is grateful because the big coffee chains can accept price increases much more easily than she can.
“I really feel like a small place like this could be the first place we go,” says Wong. “Because we don’t have the support of big companies that can weather the storm.
The key to saving on coffee is to remember that it’s usually cheaper to buy locally.
You can also find great deals. McDonald’s now lets you buy any size coffee for 99 cents using the app.
Great deals are everywhere on September 29th, National Coffee Day. You can also join our rewards program and earn points for free coffee at both chain and local stores. When it comes to home roasting, the price of supermarket ground coffee has also gone up.