Friday, February 10, 2006

Yikes, It Really IS the Peanut Butter!

Sometimes I get a bagel for breakfast. Usually I just get it toasted and buttered. But sometimes I ask them to put peanut butter on it, which is what I did this morning. The deli where I get breakfast raised some of their prices a few months ago, so I guess it hadn't really dawned on me how expensive the peanut butter is, but today I started mulling it over:

Cost of large coffee on its own: $1.57
Cost of large coffee and buttered bagel: $2.60
Therefore, cost of bagel is $1.03
Signboard says bagel is $0.85 so something is wacky already as tax should not be $0.18, or 21%!

Cost of large coffee and bagel with peanut butter: $4.55
Therefore, cost of peanut butter is $1.95

$1.95 for less than an ounce of peanut butter??

I know it wasn't just an error because I have paid that exact amount for the same breakfast on other occasions. I need to go back and ask them about this. Or else just buy my own damn jar of peanut butter.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

stop wasting your money and make it at home for so much cheaper...

Anonymous said...

these delis are NOTORIOUS for robbing patrons on "tax", et. al. most people blindly pay. the breakfast shop downstairs charge dme $5.50 for two scrambled eggs on a roll!!! Suffice to say, I have not gone back since. Now, I just eat at the bldg cafetieria and drink free water for lunch and wait to order dinner on the client so my daily nut hovers around $5-$6 for food.

Anonymous said...

Cafe 39 @ 39th and 6 ave is where i get a large coffee and bagel with butter and jelly for $1.35!!

Caitlin said...

I'd bet that a bagel is probably .85 but BUTTER is probably around .10 ... topped with tax should be around 1.03 (?) And I bet they are TOTALLY charging 1.95 (or thereabouts) for PB. BYOPB?

James L said...

That $1.95 could have gotten you a slice of pizza for lunch! heh.

Madame X said...

Actually I plan to redirect my peanut butter money to buying a Hummer.

Adam Nash said...

You are making the typical mistake when trying to figure out how much the peanut butter costs. The question is, how much are people willing to pay for peanut butter on their bagel.

The answer is clearly a lot ($1.95). Who knows, maybe they should be charging more. Maybe the manager has learned that the same number of people order the bagel with peanut butter regardless of the price. You'd do the same.

optioned unarmed said...

I think part of the price difference must be the additional labor. It is harder to spread peanut butter than to spread butter. Also, washing the knife takes more water and more effort.