Dumb Starbucks

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/02/10/dumb-starbucks-parody-free-coffee/5357597/

Someone has way too much time and money.

Everything -- the store logo, menu, cups -- has the word "dumb" in front of it, and they are giving away free coffee.

They are claiming that it isn't a trademark infringement, because it is parody.

I can't imagine Starbucks is too annoyed. It's pretty much free advertising and as long as Starbucks keeps a sense of humor about it, it doesn't really look bad.

 

Sort of related, the cost of coffee has been shooting through the roof. The futures and spot prices are both up more than 25 percent this year (actually 95 percent of that has been in the last week and a half or so). Doesn't seem like an easy time to open up a performance art store that gives away coffee.

 

Ah. I had no clue what accounts for the cost of a cup of coffee.

I just know that I sat on my hands for a week and a half and watched as just one itty bitty coffee futures contract (so you would have needed about $4,400 to buy and maintain your position) would have (woulda coulda shoulda) earned $11062.50 between Wednesday two weeks ago and Wednesday of last week.

 

Not as a trading proposition, but as a long-term investment. ...

Even with the little run up, the price of coffee is around 55 percent of where it peaked. I'd guess it is a fantastic investment right now, if you can afford to wait for however long it takes for the equity markets to lose their froth, so money can rotate back to tangible assets. The prices must have driven farmers out of the market, and if that is true, the market would be working off its excess. Coffee is so beaten up that you'd have to guess there is some decent long-term upside, with mitigated downside risk.

I haven't done that, and I am not going to, but I did invest a little in sugar last year, and I will just hold on for however long it takes for the exact same reason. It was about 65 percent off its highs. Jim Rogers was buying sugar last year, and in just about every interview he gave he'd do the folksy voice and say something like, "If you go to a restaurant tonight and there’s sugar on the table, put it in your pocket, because it’s free!" I saw one interview where he said, "I am not kidding," and he pulled 25 or 30 sugar packets out of his jacket pocket.