I prefer Peet’s Coffee to Starbucks. I usually end up buying at least one cup of coffee a day at Starbucks because of how close it is to where I work. Peet’s would be too much of a drive.

Starbucks raised the price of coffee today. For a small cup of coffee it is now $1.55. This was particularly embarrassing for me today because I walked in to Starbucks with only 6 quarters in my pocket. They had a cup of dimes sitting next to the register and used that to pay the missing 5¢. Although that was nice of them it was fairly embarrassing to me.

Let’s compare that experience to the way that Peet’s raised their prices a few months ago to $1.60. For the 2 weeks leading up to the price change they had a note sitting next to the register alerting customers that the prices would increase. The few days immediately before the increase the employees would gently remind the customers that the drink they just purchased would cost an extra 10¢ on the specified date. Then the day of the change, if you forgot/didn’t know about the price increase they just discounted the price of your drink.

I personally think that Peet’s had the right idea on their price change. The letter explained why they were raising the price and apologized for any inconvenience this would cause. Starbucks just put up a new sign one night and surprised everyone. At lease they had the courtesy to pay the difference when I went in there with only $1.50.