Dumb Starbucks

[The Big Ragu]

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.

 

[LongTimeListener]

It looks to me like some kind of performance art and that Starbucks may even be in on the joke.

 

[The Big Ragu]

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.

 

[YankeeFan]

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.

This isn't the most sophisticated piece, but it gets into it a little bit:

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/murphys-law-economics

Basically, the commodity price of coffee isn't a huge percentage of the cost of your cup of coffee.

The roasting, transportation, and labor costs make up a bigger percentage, and are largely fixed. Plus, in a fancy drink like a latte, the milk is going to cost as much or more than the coffee.

 

[The Big Ragu]

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.

 

[YankeeFan]

I lost so much money trading coffee years ago. I rarely look at the price now. Just upsets me.

I remember when it couldn't hold $1.00 per pound.

It is still well off of its highs of a couple years ago though.

On a practical level too, I know the coffee roasters I work with have a hard time simply passing along price increases to their retail customers. But, those retail customers do come to them looking for price reductions when the see the commodity price fall.

Roasters have to do a good job of education their customers on the quality, price, and value of the beans they are selling vs. simple commodity coffee.

 

[The Big Ragu]

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.

 

[LongTimeListener]

The owner is Nathan Fielder of Comedy Central's "Nathan For You" docu-reality series. The show is known for setting up real-life gags.

http://www.deadline.com/2014/02/dumb-starbucks-parody-coffee-shop-tim-eric/

 

[lcjjdnh]

Just started watching this show after hearing Fielder on the Bill Simmons podcast. It's brilliant. The episode with Dumb Starbuck--like all of them--is hilarious.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

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.

Rogers' investment advice can be iffy, but he's a master showman.

 

[Vombatus]

YF and Ragu,

I imagine there was a huge demand spike and thus market price spike when Keurig became popular and those pods had to be manufactured in vast quantities.

Did supply overshoot demand after that, and the market corrected accordingly?