Hi there!

Well, you know from my last newsletter that I am really bothered by having to raise prices on the coffee...yep, it got me goin' again. I gave in to the urge to look at all the coffee prices per oz to make sure I was not over charging or anything. So I decided to do a research project of sorts...you know get out the ol' note pad and start studying! That led me to our local BiLo and to the coffee aisle. You see our BiLo has a number of differing brands and not only that, it breaks the costs down on each coffee brand by the ounce. So with that trusty help I came up with the following...after a look at differing coffee roaster offerings on internet:

Starbucks on the shelf at ol' BiLo is priced at $9.98 for their 12 oz offerings, or a per ounce cost of 83.2 cents.  .

Dunkin' Donut on the shelf is priced at $9.99 for their 12 oz original blend, or a per ounce cost of 83.3 cents per ounce.

New England Coffee sells for $7.49 at the store...at first that sounds really good...until you realize that it is packaged in a 10 ounce bag.  This makes the per ounce cost come to 74.9 cents....still not as high as the first two.

Folgers is a brand that many folks buy and it sells for $5.59 for a 10.3 ounce bag...or 54.3 cents per ounce at BiLo.

Maxwell House is a household name and sells at BiLo for $5.79 for an 11.5 ounce bag, or 50.3 cents per ounce.

Well, that pretty much takes care of the coffee I found at BiLo...there were others, but I got weary looking at this group of coffees that had been sitting on the shelf for no telling how long.  I once looked at a Starbucks coffee in Sam's Club and found that they can hold onto the coffee for around a year and still sell.  Do not know if that is the case at BiLo, however.

Now on to the internet...

Starbucks: 

If you look at their web site you can get a variety of coffees at around $11.95 for a 16 ounce bag or 74.7 cents per ounce.  This is their low end price by and large.

Now there is a neat coffee roasting/retail coffee shop in Painted Post, NY...Judy and I stopped there on our way to a wedding recently...yep, just happened to be in the neighborhood.  They had good coffee and great muffins! Their internet price for a 16 ounce bag of coffee is $14.03, or 87.7 cents per ounce.

Jittery Joe's is without a doubt some of the best coffee you can get.  Roasted to perfection by an extremely talented master roaster and offered fresh for the buying.  You can get, on the internet, a 12 ounce bag of their offerings for $11.99, or 99.9 cents per ounce.

Well...that gets us to The Alpaca Bean and its costs...The Bean sells for $8.75 for a 12 ounce bag or 72.9 cents per ounce.  It also sells for $9.75 for a 16 ounce bag...that is 60.9 cents per ounce. 

What does all of this say?  Well, it says that there are many differing options for you the consumer to consider (and I only looked at a limited number!).  It also tells me that I really should not have worried about having to raise the price of our coffee on the one hand, and maybe...just maybe...if we raised the prices more some folks might take notice and send in an order or some such...what do you think?  Just kidding for heaven's sake!  :o)

Really there are a bunch of hard working, talented roasters out there.  This is one industry that takes a raw product from another land, brings it to the U.S.A. and then takes it to the finished product level.  We hope you continue to enjoy The Alpaca Bean Coffee and will pass the word along that The Bean is a really good coffee at a good price.  You never know...maybe someday you will walk into a BiLo and there will be, The Bean, just sitting there waiting for you to take it home to enjoy...maybe, but probably not...so if you want this great tasting coffee you will just have to order by going onto our web site http://www.thealpacabean.com or emailing us at bestcoffee@thealpacabean.biz.  If you would like to wholesale our coffee then you will need to contact us by email so we can get to know what you need. 

'Til next time... 

On A Personal Note:

Here I am telling you I am sorry before I even write one word of this personal note...why? Well, this is really personal and it may not set too well with some and for that I am sorry...but, it is something that has been on my heart and mind for a while, so I decided who else could I share it with other than my coffee buds.

To begin with I really was touched (some say I have always been "touched") by something that happened in our early church service the other week. You see our church holds communion each first Sunday of the month...well this started off as your typical first Sunday service with the exception that our pastor, Rev. Mac, asked me to assist him with the communion service itself. I was honored to be asked and took my place next to him...he handed me the cup with the grape juice (being Methodists we use grape juice - not hard juice like some). Well, everything went really well and all, Rev Mac led us in this most meaningful of services...we passed the bread and folks then dipped their bread into the juice...then Rev Mac placed a portion of bread into the hands of a very cute curly haired little one...you know this may have been the first communion service he had ever been a part of ... well, the lit' fella' looked at the bread, he looked at me and he watched the adults dip their bread into the juice...it was his turn and he plunged his whole portion of bread, hand and all, right into the juice. The adults let out a subdued gasp, he placed the well soaked bread into his mouth and got the most satisfied look upon his face...it was great! Rev Mac musta missed this or he would surely have let out a strong, "Praise the Lord," 'cause this little guy had covered himself up with the Spirit! :o) What has this got to do with not setting well with folks...well, you might understand in a short while as we get on with this piece.

Clemson University hired a new football coach a couple of years ago...when he took over in mid-season, he declared that all his players were going to have to be, "ALL IN" for them to be successful. By saying this he was declaring that they would only receive as much as they were willing to put into the team...if they did not give an outstanding effort, well the results would not be very good. For a while it looked like this was just so much talk...then the team came together, supported each other and began to win. Still not fittin' together...well hopefully it will soon!

On the other side of the coin, a number of years ago the wealthiest county in South Carolina elected a group of folks that campaigned that they were going to do away with taxes or at least not raise them. This worked great for a number of years, with each election placing another individual onto the governing body with the same mind set...each year the costs for the county increased and the revenue remained stagnant...each year the cash reserve covered the increase. Then one year the reserve ran out, the tax base was just not there to pay for the services everyone received...the time to pay the bills was at hand...the county almost went into a tailspin...the richest county in South Carolina... Now we as a country are faced with a problem that is quite similar to this county's but with perhaps a different overtone...where the county in question had a number of strong industrial partners in place that could and wanted to help...well, our country's strong corporate partners really may not be partners at all...you see a study recently completed shows that the multinational companies located in the United States of America have been focused overseas for a number of years now. In the years since 2000, they have added 2.4 million jobs in foreign countries while cutting 2.9 million jobs in the United States (this comes from the Commerce Department data). When you cut that many jobs...well, it does not take too much to realize that might be a factor in our ongoing recession...and the jobless rate increase.

Why am I on this so hard? Well, Jude and I went on a vacation of sorts at the end of June to attend the wedding of a special nephew in New York. We decided to drive and make it a relaxing adventure for us as well. We were on a toll road in NY State where they had "stations" set up along the way...you know, they had a place to get gas, a place to eat and a tourist shop run by New York State...or at least it appeared to be. Judy and I decided to go into the shop and look for something from New York to take home...they had everything from native art to Yankee baseball caps. Then we started to notice that everything was stamped, "Made in China". We could not find anything that did not have this on the bottom...even the dream catchers!

Now do not get me wrong, I think the Chinese folks are great...but to be honest I think the U.S. folks are a bit better...I believe that there are Native American folks that know WHY dream catchers were first made that could have made those things and stamped U.S.A as the location they were made.

That gets me back to the little curly haired guy and the Clemson Coach and being, "ALL IN"...if we do not totally engage as the little guy did or if we do not realize that we will not gain without putting out effort...that we cannot simply seek to make the most profit or seek instant gains...well, we will continue to send "relief" checks to China and then watch that country buy our debt because we do not, or cannot see that our tax system is broken. No I am not saying that we need to do away with the taxes we have...I am saying that we need to quit saying that if we fair tax our multi-millionaires we will cut jobs...folks jobs have already been cut and given to other countries for the sake of profit...at the rate we are now going we will have the strongest of the strong multinational firms but we may not have the United States of America that so many have fought for over time...remember we were instructed to, "Give Caesar what is due Caesar...and give the Lord what is due to the Lord." (Forgive my paraphrasing!) If we do this then we will begin to see our direction...don't you think?

Look around, find products made in the U.S., or at least in North America, support good startup companies that are building good products...support yourselves and your kids...and their kids.

Peace,

The Coffeeman

P.S.: Hope it all started to make some sense...you know I worked for, or along with, governmental folks most of my "real" professional career...that is before I got freed to work for you and all the other coffee nuts in the good ol' U.S.A...boy am I glad! No most folks in government are good folks indeed and they need our support (and sometimes our good advice as well). 

Drop Us A Line Anytime 

   
Want to Shop??? Look Here!
Find Out a Little More About us

466 Stone Lane

Canon, Georgia 30520