Coffee stickier than Property

In Sydney recently and it's surprising how cheap everything is. How can a coffee in a trendy area be $3.50 on average in Sydney while in Darwin it's $4.50 and Brisbane $4.30. Perth locals will have to chime in with their experience but coffee in the West is probably similar to Darwin prices. These prices differentials are similar for food and beer.
How can this be possible? The mining boom is over. Darwin house prices are down $100k, Perth will be similar. Property is illiquid and therefore is slow to rise and fall in price. I can't think of anything more liquid than coffee and it's price is far too high in the resource states.
Logically a premium has to be paid for living in Sydney, then Melbourne, then the rest of the capitals.

 

Its about $5 in Adelaide and $5.50 in Perth in my experience

 

Yep around $5 usually. Still worth it though!

 

simply because of competition. I get mine for $3.00 from a very nice cafe because there were another 10 cafes immediately around it.

 

I quit coffee so I am not 100% sure but Country Road Café was doing take away for $3 but it might have gone up to $3.50.

 

A lot of the cafes are still paying boom time rents...as their leases come up for renegotiation, the price of coffee is going down.

You can find coffee all over Darwin now for $4. $3.50 is possible if you know where to look.

3 years ago $5 was the cheapest coffee going...

None of this explains why Sydney is so cheap though!

 

They will charge whatever the market will tolerate. It's around four dollars on the Gold Coast with some discounting at a few places if it's a straight espresso so saving on milk.

In Sydney I have found that there a few cafes in Pitt Street that are around 3.50 and then they discount another 50 cents for take away. Nowhere on the coast will they discount for take away. Make sense that they should. Freeing up labour, using cups/saucers and cleanup, etc.

 

Lots of things are cheaper in Sydney, its mostly due to the huge number of competitors all undercutting each other to the bottom.

 

IMHO the main reason is the point of import and distribution. Sydney is usually the main import base of distributors of overseas foodstuffs like the coffee beans and almost any other grocery product. The goods are then shipped up to Brisbane. If you check the labels, the distributor is almost always based in NSW/Sydney.

In Brisbane at least prices of almost all foodstuff and simple things like coffee always seem to be at least 10% dearer.

 

The price of coffee in Perth has been stagnant for about 4 years.

4.50 for a large latte
4 for a standard
5 for a mega cup

Some are coming in at 3.50 for a standard. You will need to know where to look and it will be in a built up area - coffee carts, home in the wall etc

 

we need cheap codde as it means there are lots of underpaid baristas to keep paying top $ to rent

and coffee is only $2!,

not sure which fancy places you all go to

 

I paid $5 for a regular coffee at Zarraffa's near Loganholme while on a visit up north. I had thought it was reflection of the disposable income in the area.

Compared to the $0.75 nespresso pods at my house, my place must be infinitely poorer!

 

How on earth did you pull that off, do tell. I'd love to do same

 

I don't remember when but probably second week or third week of December I decided to stop drinking coffee and I have not had a caffeinated drink since (I didn't cheat by switching to red bull ). Most mornings I have a mug of green tea. It's nasty but reminds me I am alive!

It's wasn't that difficult. The only time it hurts is when I climb into the lift in the morning and 4 or 5 people are holding fresh coffees. I quit alcohol at the same time. Way easier than coffee!

 

I dont drink coffee, but the cafe in my building in Adelaide charges $5 for a medium hot choc. I'm guessing similar for coffee.

 

you are probably not aware but green tea contains quite a bit of caffeine as well...And a can of red bull has just as much caffeine as a cup of coffee.

Mythbusting: Green tea and the effect of caffeine
[You may not reach peak alertness as quickly as you do with coffee but tea will keep you on a plateau of stimulation for longer.]

 

Actually, I am aware that green tea has a small amount of caffeine. If you want to be pedantic, so does chocolate.

green tea contains anywhere from 30 to 50mg of caffeine, while a latte or cappuccino has anywhere from 113-282mg for the same volume. An espresso shot contains 107mg. I was drinking a long macc topped up, which is a latte with an extra shot 220 - 389mg. That's a lot! Since I wasn't drinking coffee on the weekend, I would quite often have a severe headache by Sunday afternoon/evening. Sometimes so bad I could not actually sleep.

Since switching to 1 green tea a day I have not had a headache. It really is a fraction of the amount of caffeine that I was consuming. Not really much more than a chocolate bar.

 

Sydney CBD and surrounds is cheap, but if you go out to the suburbs it's usually anywhere from $0.50-$1 more.

 

I pay $1.60 at Gloria Jean's, $0.80 at Shell, $2.00 at BP (most of the time free tho).
Refuse to pay any more than $2.00 when I find Moconna more than adequate.

 

SYD cbd pricing is determined by competition ( high) and sales volume ( very high). When you have largely fixed overheads and low variable inputs (beans /milk) you can sell at a lower unit price on the back of high sales volume. The shop I go to in an arcade on Castlereagh is tiny, and always busy. Like at least 5+ people waiting at most times of the day.

You don't get that in the burbs.