I am coffee drinker. And I love various types of coffee; be it the Chennai strong filter coffee or the medium-blend of Starbucks, I just love to sip a cupfull every morning.
Since I love coffee so much I thought why not share a little secret about coffee buying with you all.
Assuming you buy a small cup of coffee at Starbucks for $1.60, here is how you can save 25 cents everytime you buy coffee:
Bring your own cup Most of us anyway have a cup at our office desks, so just bring it to the starbucks counter and get your coffee in it. Your coffee will be 10 cents cheaper.
Ask for coffee TO GO Do you know that in most states you will not be charged sales tax on food items if you dont consume it in the seller’s premises (ie saying TO GO). That is right. So, by saying “coffee to go” you can save the sales tax on your cup, which is usually between 6 to 9% of the price, around 15 cents.
Do know any tips to save money on your favorite purchases?
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PS: as noted the sales tax exemption applies to most states in US and not just limited to Starbucks coffee but to most fast food retailers
9 Responses
Thats an interesting information. Never knew about that…Cool…
This post wasted at least $0.15 of my life.
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Also, instead of asking for an iced latte request a couple of espresso shots over ice – use your own cup to get additional discount. When you’re done paying, top the cup up with the Infinite Free Milk on the counter (the stuff they leave out for customers to add to their drip brew coffee). Take a straw and stir it up.
Where do I find out about this tax and consuming on premises vs TO GO and state applicability? Every time I go through the drive through they charge me tax.
@Sam… that is a good one…
@Mike… welcome to PHD. You can check this wikipedia page.. it is not in a tabular format or anything.. but provides lots of info… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States
First time visitor to your blog, and it’s very interesting.
You could start saving $$$ by not having that cup of joe at SBUX. Did I hear you say you are in Seattle? You must be crazy not to indulge in local brew; SBUX started there for a reason 🙂
Seriously though, all through my caffeine stained college days, the friendly neighborhood hippie-style Kiva Han gave me more free coffees than I can count. Not to mention that the coffee was better and cheaper than the SBUX opposite.
I still occasionally duck into an SBUX because they are so annoyingly so-all-over-the-place.
The wikipedia article you linked to was a blast from the past – I made a ton of edits to it in its earliest days, and even took some pictures for the article.
@Cheeni : Welcome to PHD 🙂 and thanks for comments.
that is interesting to know. I haven’t really tried many local coffee shops. I have been going to sbux since they have one in the office (because they are so annoyingly so-all-over-the-place…) What shops do you recommend around the downtown area? I want to check out a few 😀
It is good to know that you are the one behind the wiki article… 🙂
@Chandoo I am not a Seattle resident and Kiva Han is in Pittsburgh (kivahan.com), so I wouldn’t know for sure. But I’ve had excellent coffee in the Wash U. area, and in Pike Place market which also has the original starbucks store #1 – which you must visit for the ambience and the crowd of tourists. Universities are traditional places for artisan coffee shops to open up 🙂
I’ve heard good things about Zoka Coffee Roaster (http://www.zokacoffee.com/) – I intend to check them out next time I am in SEA.