Everything but the Coffee Read Online Free PDF Page B

had done the math,” she confessed. “On the other hand, I would be a very crabby person without my comfort latte.” 32 Like others, Daniels made a rational— for her—determination. Credit card purchases spent on feeling better outweighed the need to save money for a rainy day. Clearly for her, self-gifting had value. Even at three dollars a pop plus interest, it was an indispensable and affordable way to get a little daily solace.
    SUPERSIZED STARBUCKS
    Starbucks inflates everything. The drinks cost a fair amount. In fact, they can cost more than some meals at McDonald’s and KFC. And you don’t get much functional worth for your money at Starbucks except perhaps for the caffeine buzz. The
Wall Street Journal
, in fact, reported that Starbucks sold the most highly caffeinated coffee out there. 33 When it comes to utility, though, there is no good reason to pay $3.75 for a venti Vanilla Latte. It doesn’t have much nutritional value; you can’treally substitute it for a meal, although some try. (More on that later.) Starbucks’ lack of functionality is, in fact, why it stands out as a target for Oprah’s narrowly rational debt doctors. The stern warnings of stodgy financial advisers probably made venti lattes more valuable as showy, slightly illicit items. But Starbucks’ excess also explained why it worked not just for flashy purchases but also as retail therapy.
    If the point of some buying is to give comfort or confer value or enjoy an occasional forbidden pleasure, then the product or service needs to be good, or at least appear to be good. Shorthand for “good” in the postneed economy is expensive. But good, especially in America, is also about things that are big and then bigger still. Starbucks delivers on that front as well.
    Starbucks supersizes everything from language to calorie counts. Tall is the smallest drink on the menu board. 34 The drinks themselves are usually laden with copious amounts of caffeine, milk, sugar, syrup, whipped cream, and fat. 35 Fern Berke, remember, celebrated her paydays with a venti Mint Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino. This twenty-ounce beverage topped with whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate contains 650 calories and 25 grams of fat. Fellow University of Georgia student Ana Garcia got the nonfat Vanilla Latte—230 calories and no fat—when she felt like being healthy, but her splurge drink—a Peppermint Mocha Twist Latte—came in at 450 calories weighed down by 13 grams of fat. That venti mocha that Louisiana housewife Meredith Lemmon ordered on the worst of her “bad days” carries with it 490 calories and 15 grams of fat. If things got even worse for her, she could go with a venti Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino that Starbucks advertises as an indulgent treat and has more than 700 calories and 30 grams of fat. By comparison, a Boston Kreme Donut at Dunkin’ Donuts contains what seems like a rather modest 240 calories and 9 grams of fat. A Big Mac comes in at 560 calories and 30 grams of fat. A Burger King Whopper contains even more calories, but not as many as that Strawberries & Crème Frappuccino.
    Without knowing it, a friend of a blogger named “LegWarmer” went on an “accidental Starbucks diet.” At the time, she hadn’t heard any ofthose reports on the calorie and fat content of Starbucks Frappuccinos or lattes. She was, instead, trying to save money. When she started her fiscal belt-tightening regime, she had a serious Starbucks habit. She went twice a day for grande-sized milky, whipped-cream-topped concoctions (which contain about five hundred calories each). But she kicked the habit to take pressure off her bank account. After only two months, she saved a hundred dollars and lost—unintentionally, at first—eight pounds. 36
    England’s Aileen McGloin thought she faced a clear choice: “Starbucks or Big Butts.” Keeping trim didn’t mean giving up coffee, she explained, just getting rid of the extras: the sugar, milk, whipped cream, and