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Cost of Convenience
Posted on: 2015-01-23 12:00 AM We received a Keuring coffee maker as a gift. We are big recyclers and try to be as environmentally friendly as possible without going to extremes. My wife still shaves her legs and we haven't switched to Electric Vehicles yet but we buy very few processed foods and always look at the packaging to product ratios. I have even forgone products to more expensive versions because I thought the packaging was excessive. So I am far from a tree hugger, but come on. While everyone is trying to reduce waste, make more efficient packaging, etc... Keurig ADDS unnecessary waste to the process of coffee making.
Each one produces about 8 oz of coffee. The plastic/payoff ratio is a little beyond belief. We have five young adults whom live at home at least 1/2 of the time. (another story) We make a pot of coffee every day. Typically 8 cups. I have one at home and one to go. So does my wife. The rest of the coffee is gone when get home and since we haven't noticed elf droppings anywhere we can assume that it was consumed by one of the others living in our home. In single serve versions that would conservatively be 50-60 packages at week 2500-3000 per year and a pile of garbage that would be by my estimate 5 feet tall.
Let's talk cost. We buy good coffee.
We typically pay $10 a pound for fresh roast from our local coffee and it typically makes 50 cups of coffee as we go through 2 lbs a week.
Pound of coffee:
K-cups:
For the sake of comparison, I will be using Starbucks House blend
BOTTOM LINE
Regular coffee is 20 cents a cup, while keurig coffee is .93 cents a cup.
Almost five times as expensive. If we bought a 5 lb. jar of coffee at the grocery store for $15 it would end up costing about 15 times more.
I think everyone assumed that you would pay a premium for Keurig convenience but here are the numbers. In the end it would cost us about $3,000 a year to use a Keurig. I think I'll go to Jamaica instead.
3-6 BILLION of these are sold a year
BILLION.
Each one produces about 8 oz of coffee. The plastic/payoff ratio is a little beyond belief. We have five young adults whom live at home at least 1/2 of the time. (another story) We make a pot of coffee every day. Typically 8 cups. I have one at home and one to go. So does my wife. The rest of the coffee is gone when get home and since we haven't noticed elf droppings anywhere we can assume that it was consumed by one of the others living in our home. In single serve versions that would conservatively be 50-60 packages at week 2500-3000 per year and a pile of garbage that would be by my estimate 5 feet tall.
Let's talk cost. We buy good coffee.
We typically pay $10 a pound for fresh roast from our local coffee and it typically makes 50 cups of coffee as we go through 2 lbs a week.
Pound of coffee:
- Price: About $10.
- # of cups: 50
- Price per cup: $.20
K-cups:
For the sake of comparison, I will be using Starbucks House blend
- Price: About $50
- # of cups: 54
- Price per cup: $.93
BOTTOM LINE
Regular coffee is 20 cents a cup, while keurig coffee is .93 cents a cup.
Almost five times as expensive. If we bought a 5 lb. jar of coffee at the grocery store for $15 it would end up costing about 15 times more.
I think everyone assumed that you would pay a premium for Keurig convenience but here are the numbers. In the end it would cost us about $3,000 a year to use a Keurig. I think I'll go to Jamaica instead.
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