This article is pretty amazing. It seems that coffee house retailers/owners are refusing to acknowledge that expensive coffee (lattes, expresso, etc.) is a highly discretionary item, and not a dire need.

"Unfortunately for us coffeehouses, this is the first thing you cut out," said Jim Butt, owner of Grab a Java in Grosse Pointe Park. "When the economy first tightens, people get nervous and start to save money."

Quite obvious.

Coffee industry representatives said their beverage is unfairly targeted as a symbol of excess, and that for most, foregoing coffee for a 401k isn't practical.

Isn't practical to whom? Lest we forget that an individual's spending and the ensuing level of practicality is subjective to them.

"For people who drink coffee on a daily basis, it's not an optional thing," said Ric Rhinehart, executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America. "You don't suddenly quit coffee because the economy is bad. Coffee is one of those wonderful pleasures in life that's relatively inexpensive and guilt-free."

You don't quit $5 coffees because of inflation, lower real wages, higher taxes, a foreclosure and/or bankruptcy, and less cash flow? That guy must own stock in Mastercard. Lastly, this clown invokes the labor theory of value to remind us that we really just don't get it.

Some coffee purveyors say the drink is a relative bargain.

..."If one looks at the amount of labor and the amount of hands who handle it every step of the way, coffee is one of the great values in the market right now," said Allen Leibowitz, president of Zingerman's Coffee Co., a wholesale roaster based in Ann Arbor. "I still can't believe coffee is as inexpensive as it is."

I can't believe someone said that.