Starbucks to raise the price of a cup of coffee

Just a handful of days removed from J.M. Smucker’s announcement that they would be dropping the price of a cup of coffee, Starbucks has made their move. Unfortunately, despite seeing the cost of a coffee from the likes of Dunkin’ Donuts fall, Starbucks have moved in the opposite direction and hiked up their prices.

As of writing, the drinks that will be impacted by this directive aren’t know, but it is believed that, for the first time in two years, the majority of beverages will see their prices go upwards.

Now before the pitchforks are brought out and the mob assembled, this move isn’t an attempt to ‘gentrify the brand’, nor is it a reaction to escalating wholesale prices. Instead, the company have stated that they’ve had to raises prices to offset wage increases and the escalating rental costs.

In their own words, Starbucks needs to “balance the need to run our business profitably while continuing to provide value to our loyal customers and to attract new customers.”

According to estimates, the rise will be roughly 1% – so we aren’t talking about a monumental increase here.  

Last year Starbucks raised prices by a similar amount, but back then the commodity markets were all kinds of crazy and coffee’s value was beginning to skyrocket. Remember, at one point the company even stopped buying coffee in a bid to protect itself from taking an unnecessary financial hit.

The new prices will only affect brewed coffees in store, not pre-bagged packs that are primed for retail.

However despite going public with their reasoning, not everybody is ready to believe. Jeff Macke, commentating on this move for Yahoo! Finance, launched a scathing attack on the coffee giant.

“Starbucks isn’t raising prices because they have to,” he said. “If that were the case the hikes would be coming across the board…Starbucks isn’t raising prices because it has to. It’s raising prices because it can.

“It’s not pleasant but it’s the price of prosperity. When you can’t find cheap coffee anywhere it’ll be inflation. For now think of this as a luxury tax!”