>I understand why rare forms of coffee
>are expensive, but we're talking about the commodified crap
>purveyed by Maxwell House and Folgers. In theory, competition
>should drive down the price.
For what it's worth, according to the CPI, coffee prices have been falling over the last year, lagged overall inflation in the 1960s and 1980s, and exceeded it by a hair in the 1990s and a lot during the 1970s.
Doug
----
AVERAGE ANNUAL INFLATION overall CPI & coffee
coffee
---------------------------
all all roasted instant 1960s +2.6% +1.3% 1970s +7.5% +14.7% +15.2% +12.8% 1980s +5.0% +0.1% -0.5% +0.9% 1990s +2.9% +3.1% +3.6% +3.2% 2000s +3.3% -5.9% -8.8% +2.1%