i saw this over at Bloomingdale (for now):
On Saturday, December 6, four local, non-profit bike programs are joining forces to bring more bikes to DC streets. The programs, Phoenix Bikes, Renaissance Community Youth Bike Project, The Mount Rainier Bike Coop, and the Rockville Youth Bike Project, use bikes to help young people get active, have fun learning, and serve their communities. There’ll be 20 - 30 road, hybrid, single-speed, kids, and mountain bikes, refurbished by youth, volunteer, and staff mechanics. Best of all, proceeds go to keeping these programs and their cyclists moving. Come by the Bike Sale, running from 10am – 3 pm at Big Bear Café to find a new ride for 2009!
Do you people still go to Big Bear? They only offer one size for your drinks now and they only offer whole milk or soy milk. And their prices are unbelieveable. Windows offers more for less. Shoot, I even go to Starbucks now becuase this place is way to expensive for a latte.
ReplyDeleteHello Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you feel that way. The reason for our prices is because our food costs are so high. We use superior coffee from sustainable sources that is then micro-roasted by skilled craftsmen at Counter Culture in Durham, NC. We also have a rigorous coffee training program to make sure that your barista is delivering you a beautifully prepared beverage.
The other direct cost affecting our coffee drink price is the milk, which comes from naturally raised, grass fed and pastured dairy cows in PA and is delivered to us weekly in glass bottles. This is high-quality, sweet-tasting milk from local, hormone free cows. This milk costs us a lot to buy wholesale, but we believe that we are selling you a healthy, safe product that you can feel good about drinking.
All of those costs add up, but we feel that it is more important to serve and support sustainable products than contribute to the corporate food giants like Sysco.
Fundamentally, we believe in simplicity and craft in product. Which is why we offer traditionally-sized beverages, with milk-to-coffee ratios based on flavors and taste. Which is also the reason we only offer whole or soy milk -- taste.
Understandably, people have different tastes and will place different values on our products or the products we use; if you don't like the taste of our products or think our prices are too expensive, you have the choice to go somewhere else, and we respect that. However, I hope that this comment will let you in on the reasons for our pricing -- this is not customer gouging, this is the cost reality of quality products. If I had access to less expensive ingredients that didn't compromise quality I would definitely pass the discount on to the customer.
Again, I'm sorry that we have disappointed you at the Big Bear. I hope you will give us another chance.
-Lana Labermeier,
owner, Big Bear Cafe
Thanks for the post, Lana. You sure wouldn't get this quality & sustainability at Starbucks. It's worth a few extra quarters if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteIt isnt' quarters. I bought a medium size iced latta with SKIM for $3.68 at Starbucks. I went to Big Bear and paid $4.75ish for an iced latte with soy (because they don't offer skim). Sorry, I would love to buy local but I work hard for my change. Oh, and don't get me started on not accepting credit cards unless you spend 5 bucks. I hate to break it to you but we live an unsafe part of town so I don't carry money on myself; I only carry credit.
ReplyDeleteits pretty simple to me. Big Bear makes the best cappucino in the city.
ReplyDelete