BrandsAmongMany

We’re all for the little guy. You’ve seen our Wal-Mart post. We’re fans of the farmer’s markets. I opted to hold off on the purchase of a sorely needed new belt this weekend in favor of the guys at Tanner in Portland.

On that note, the local coffee shop, Think, that opened around the corner from the POKE office has been a regular stop for those moments where a quick jolt is a desperate necessity. Case in point: on a slow Monday morning, the need for a sip of iced, caffeinated goodness crept up and just wouldn’t go away.

sidebar: why IS iced coffee always more expensive than hot coffee??

I learned a while back, before my personal boycott, that Starbucks is nice enough to pour my medium iced coffee into a large cup on request. That works out perfectly for me because I can dump a bunch of milk in without feeling like I’m missing out on something. It also avoids the coffee-to-milk-ratio dilemma that inevitably ends with a very full cup followed by a puddle of coffee when I go to secure the lid.

Realizing that I always end up struggling to get the mix just-so, I asked the crew at Think this morning to do the same thing…only to find that they refused. I could have a medium coffee with “room for milk” or a large coffee with the same, but that was as far as they were willing to go. HUH?

Yeah, one could argue I was cutting into their margins by 10 cents or so…a couple for the extra cup size and a few more in milk. But really? Can any local coffee shop these days afford to alienate their customers? I just didn’t want to pour out 1/4 cup of coffee to add the milk.

As I’ve stewed about this during the day, it’s brought to light a couple of questions about little guy vs. big guy. Where should we, or do we, draw the line in support of the underdog? They tend to cost a little more, but that cost usually comes at the benefit of some added value. More service, better product, or even just a cordial smile and a “hey, how’s your day going?” Take any or all of that away, and you’re left with a more expensive version of exactly what it was you were trying not to support in the first place.

I’m not about to rush back to Starbucks because of this morning’s discovery. But I’m also not sure I’m going to rush back to Think either. Might be time to find a new coffee shop close to work. Or suck it up and drink the never-quite-satisfying cartridge coffee that we have in the kitchen.