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Comment by mynameishere | Hacker News Reader

You have that exactly backwards. All the money is in coffee, which is so cheap it might as well be free. It's just like a restaurant which makes all its money on diluted caramel-colored sugar syrup. Or 12 dollar mixed drinks.

(Of course, the real money is in laundering.)

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I can’t recall the last time I saw $2 coffee. I don’t drink drip except my own, probably not for decades, and the last time I remember looking it was more like $2.50, and in towns with lower standard of living. If you’re charging $2 for coffee today you should probably raise the prices if you can’t work out how to make a profit. Fifty cents on two dollars is a 25% profit margin.

Edit: I just looked up the local 50’s diner. $2.79 for what is probably bottomless but burned drip coffee. That definitely makes them money. But That’s 39% more than $2.

To reiterate: if someone tells me they’re planning to sell coffee for $2 I believe them. And then ask where they think they’re making their money because it’s not going to be on the coffee.

> If you’re charging $2 for coffee today you should probably raise the prices [..]

Just for everyone's interest, (and based on 2022 pricing) you can get an espresso in an Italian bar for $1.33 (Trento) all way way down to $0.96 (Naples).

Having tried the US and the Italian versions, I'd take the latter every single day of the week and twice on Sundays over the US version.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/717413/average-price-of-...

I’ve been watching that British coffee critic whose name I can’t recall looking at different coffee making means.

I’ve watched just enough of his stuff for him to sell me on the idea that maybe manual espresso presses produce a more consistent cup with just a little practice. Also they seem to be cheaper. Is that what they were using in Italy?

> Is that what they were using in Italy?

They're using the big industrial-looking espresso machines, since throughput is everything.

You pay at the (separate) till first, then take your paper receipt to the bar, hand it over, and 90s later you're handed your drink.

I've ordered a lot of coffee in Italy and have never ever heard a discussion about drink size, flavours, soy, or skim milk. That stuff is apparently irrelevant.

If you are being paid to launder money, isn't the fee about 20%? My source on that is the Netflix series Ozark. Assuming that 20% is within the realm of reality, I assume that the margin on drip-coffee is substantially higher. Maybe 60% margin on coffee?

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