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Illinois Lattes

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Clarissa

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I went to a café to work this morning. Asked for a latte. I didn’t inquire about the price of the latte in advance because we aren’t London or New York, so how much can it be, right?

$9,26, is how much. As in over nine dollars.

We’re in Illinois, so the quality of the coffee is atrocious. In Spain, I could get four excellent coffees with four small, excellent cookies for this amount. Of course, the salaries are lower in Spain, but I swear I have no idea how much you’re supposed to be earning in the U.S. to consider a $9 latte in a small town in southern Illinois normal.

3 responses to “Illinois Lattes”

  1. bluebird of bitterness Avatar
    bluebird of bitterness

    That’s bizarre. How do they stay in business?

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  2. Ann Avatar
    Ann

    I would have said nevermind and left. Which is sadly what I find myself doing more and more often. I was visiting my parents a couple of weeks ago in Cape Cod, and my mother and I took my kids to a pumpkin patch on a farm for some fun activities. We’ve been going to this event for several years. In past years they provided small pumpkins for the kids to paint and it was included in the cost of the event ($10 per car to park). This year we have to buy the pumpkins. They were almost $3/lb and every pumpkin was huge. I was going to spend $60+ on three pumpkins just so my kids could paint and draw on them using the craft supplies the farm provided. This was in addition to the fee for entry, which had also changed to per person rather than per car. Well, we left and I bought three small pumpkins from the grocery store and $7 paint set from the office supply store instead. We painted the pumpkins at home. Sad, but this is the reality of so many families now. We can’t even do humble, wholesome events for the kids anymore because we are priced out of them!

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      That’s insane for the kids’ activity. And I know exactly what you mean. I stopped going to the farmers market with my daughter because the outing all of a sudden became an extravagance. Her entire life, we’ve been going to the farmers market every Saturday in the summer months and participating in everything there. And now, all of a sudden, it’s this mega-expensive thing, and that sucked all the joy out of it.

      I should have totally walked out of the coffee shop, but it was early in the morning, and I was still not fully awake, so I kind of got clobbered into compliance by the surprise of the whole situation.

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