Starbucks too expensive? Who knew!

Did it really take a survey of consumers for us to know that coffee costs too much at Starbucks? I think not. Let's just be honest with ourselves and admit that Starbucks coffee is overpriced. We know it, and we still buy it... because we want to. There is no shame in that.

But some genius at Rasmussen Reports decided that we ought to confirm that Starbucks charges too much for its coffee and did a survey. 73% of participants in the survey said the coffee is overpriced, while 21% said they didn't know if the coffee was too expensive, and 6% said it is not overpriced. (No, I don't think the 6% were honest in their answers. It's impossible to believe that anyone in the world believes that the coffee at Starbucks is worth what they charge for it!)

I'm not the world's biggest Starbucks fan, but I do stop there on occasion. At least when I go there, I know exactly what I'll get. And they're easy to find in just about any American city. Another interesting finding in this survey was that only 20% of survey respondents say they stay at Starbucks to drink their coffee. With 80% of people getting their coffee to go, that surely affects the size of stores corporate puts up.

I'd really be interested to know how many people participating in this survey actually go to Starbucks on a regular basis. It would nice to know how many of those 73% who think the coffee is too expensive still buy it regularly.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.