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Forget the Price of Gas, THIS is Ridiculous!

Posted on | April 14, 2008 |

Forget the Price of Gas, This is Ridiculous- coffee and bagelMy wife, two kids and I went to the in-laws for the weekend. Since the in-laws live about 2 hours away and the kids are 2 and 4, we make a stop at Dunkin Donuts part of the ritual. The kids like to munch on a bagel during the ride, and their dad usually needs the coffee to wake up. It’s an all around win for all parties involved.

There’s a Starbucks in town that’s on our way too, but I’m more of a Dunkin’ kind of guy. They’re cheaper and less pretentious than Starbucks, right? Well… maybe.

This past trip was a little different than our others because I had a coupon for a free medium coffee. I figured this would be a great little treat. Imagine my shock when I received the bill and it was still $9.65!

$9.65! They must not have accepted the coupon… no, let me see:

“1 Medium hazelnut coffee -$2.48″

Hmmm… well, then what went wrong?

On my way out to the car, I examined the receipt more closely and spied the problem immediately:

1 Hot chocolate : $2.48
1 bagel : $0.99
1 cream cheese : $1.40
1 bagel : $0.99
1 cream cheese : $1.40
1 bagel : $0.99
1 cream cheese : $1.40

That’s $4.20 in cream cheese alone!

And no, it wasn’t some extravagant form of cream cheese with flecks of gold embedded for some decadent thrill. This is Dunkin’s for crying out loud - it was PLAIN cream cheese!

Insane!

I’m not sure, but I think I could get about 30 oz. tub of cream cheese at a grocery store for that price!!

Next time, we’re bringing our own cream cheese and we’ll spread it in the car!

I guess I’m most upset with myself since I never noticed or even thought about it until this. I just assumed it was the coffee and hot chocolate that were so costly.

Let this be a lesson, cost conscious consumer - examine the bill closely to make sure you know what you’re paying for each item.

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Comments

3 Responses to “Forget the Price of Gas, THIS is Ridiculous!”

  1. FFB
    April 14th, 2008 @ 11:14 am

    Was this a highway stop? I live in NYC and that sounds expensive! Seems everything’s gone up nowadays. Still cheaper than Starbucks though. Every time I go in there with my wife it’s gonna cost us at least ten bucks.

  2. Joe
    April 14th, 2008 @ 1:01 pm

    FFB,

    Now that you mention it, it is about 3 miles from an interstate exit. That probably explains some of it, but I wonder how much of it is the psychology of the “price point” as well. Many people don’t think twice if it’s under $10 for a drink and croissant breakfast sandwich, so they’ll pad what they have to for the simple saps like me who are just getting the basics…

    The worst part is that we’ll still go to this D&D because the only other one in town has lousy service! I guess we’ll pay for convenience if not better service ;)

  3. Mark Krusen
    April 14th, 2008 @ 9:52 pm

    Ok I’ll join in on national beat up Dunkin Donuts day.I like the coffee there better also.

    Have you ever noticed certain times of the day.(late in afternoon and on) where they run out of a lot of the donuts. When I’ve gone through the drive thru my favorite thing to ask them after I’ve gone down a list of 5 donuts that they don’t have any more of is. “This is Dunkin Donuts right?” :)It gets them everytime. Gotta have fun sometimes ya know!

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