A Cup of Coffee or a Gallon of Gas?

              Any student coffee drinkers might notice themselves having to break the bank for their morning cup of Joe on campus. The Blinn Café (aka: “Block and Barrel” or “Clux Delux”) charges its customers $1.25 for a 12 ounce cup of coffee and $2 for a 20 ounce—making Starbucks seem reasonable! Not to mention, if you want a cappuccino flavored coffee it’s an extra quarter. But the price alone isn’t the only issue with the Blinn Student Center’s coffee, refills are an even bigger problem.

             Every morning on my way to class I stop at the Shell station and fill my 16 ounce coffee thermos with regular coffee for fifty cents (total of $0.64 with tax). I sit in my first class and drink my coffee, against “Blinn policy”, and head down to the student center for a refill during my ten minute break before the next class. This is where the mind games begin. You’d think that anywhere that sells coffee would understand that the regular caffeine-dependant morning coffee drinker is going to prefer to enjoy their coffee out of a thermos while they attend, or give a morning lecture. Paper cups are just hot on the hands and don’t keep the coffee warm for very long. Well, the Clux Delux and Block and Barrel don’t seem to plan for this convenience.

           As the semester started, my thermos refills would usually be $1.25 (the price of a small coffee) from the same lady almost every morning. Then one day I had someone new greet me at the Block and Barrel. She told me “Sorry, we don’t take those” as I handed her my thermos and asked for a refill. Ever since then there has been problems. She asked someone named Chis (I assumed he was her supervisor) and he instructed her to use the cups they sell to measure how much went into my container, and charge me accordingly. Okay- so that’s reasonable. Quite frugal, but still reasonable. Then she handed me my ¾ full coffee thermos and said, “Would you like me to fill it up? It’s gonna be an extra twenty-five cents”. I looked down at my dollar bill and a quarter, what my coffee had cost me every morning before, and just told her, “That’ll do”. As I walked away I wondered when coffee became so precious. From then on, as I would come every morning, I got varying responses. From $1.25 directly into my mug (the old fashioned way), to $1.50 cup-to-mug, to an even $2 (I didn’t bother to ask about that one… I just grinned handed over my debit card). I always used the exact same thermos, it never changed sizes. Sometimes I do comment “It’s usually $1.25” but the responses I get always remind me that I’m talking to the wrong folks, so I usually blow it off.

 I decided to go back to the student center one afternoon and see if I could get some answers. I asked for the in-charge person and the employees retrieved a gentleman named Wes for me. I told him the story and got an assuring response from Wes. He replied saying “As expensive as coffee is here, I think a refill ought to be free.” I walked away feeling confident. The next day I got an e-mail from Chris, the assistant manager, that read as follows:

Thank you very much for your letter.  We are very sorry for any inconvenience and such with this problem.    We do not give refills. Our customers can buy a 12 oz cup of coffee for $1.25 or a 20oz cup for $2.00.  What they do with that cup is their business.  We have had this policy in effect for 2 years.  All of our employees have been reminded of this policy.  Again I’m sorry for any confusion and distress this has called you.

Chris

Assistant manager

            After this I decided it was in my best interest to break my coffee-drinking habit on campus. There are a group of fellow students who I would regularly walk to the student center with after our 7:45am class and we would always compare our coffee prices to get a little humor in the mornings. After this, we decided to seek other options for coffee, because falling asleep in class wasn’t a good idea.

            There is a simple, convenient, solution—the bookstore on campus. Little did I know that the bookstore (right next to the student center in fact) sells a variety of coffee flavors with a self-serve system similar to convenient stores. Any of the eight flavors coffee or the three cappuccino flavors at the bookstore is $1.40 for a small and $1.60 for a large. The best part is refills are $1. No matter what the container may be, a coffee thermos or milk jug, it’s a dollar.

            After a brief survey I learned that the Block and Barrel is selling about 2-3 pots of coffee daily, Clux Delux is selling about 1-2 pots, and the bookstore refills their coffee 8-10 times a day. It’s good to know I’m not the only one who’s discovered the better deal!