Starbucks - Around the Globe!

Coffee - it was discovered in a remote village in the Arab region but has took over the world with its powers. Every country has its own speciality brands and flavours of coffee. Over the years I have also got used to coffee in India and in US. Few weeks back I was travelling to India via Brussels. The plane landed in Brussels at an odd time as per EST. So to keep my mind working I needed coffee. After all the security checks and formalities I had more than an hour to kill until the flight boarding. I saw a cup of starbucks on a table next to me. Suddenly I got a feeling to drink caffee latte, wondering where is the starbucks shop I wandered around the airport trying to locate it. The green lady logo of starbucks, visible at a distance brigtened my mind. I walked biskly towards it, the smell of coffee increasing with every step.

I joined the queue, dreaming all about the foaming latte, I even made up my mind not to add sugar to it and was thinking about where to sit and read my book with this coffee, the corner plush couch was so welcoming (rather Wilkomen). The much awaited moment came and I asked for my cup of latte, the lady at the counter smiled and said 3.90. Fumbling with my wallet to take the card I noticed the person at the next counter handing over some unfamilar coins. Oh Darn it! I am not in the US. The lazy mind was trying to speed up the brain somewhere in the middle of the night to find out what is the currency and it occured to me it is Euro and I am in Europe. I had no Euros. I put up a vague smile and asked the lady if she will take dollars. With the nod she took the $20 bill I had and read out from the system that the amount is around $6.00 and gave me the change in Euros. With a reeling speed my mind woke up and screamed "What!!!", thankfully not loud enough.

With that coffee in my hand for which I no longer had the appetite I gave way to my Mind again. In the plush couch I was wondering why was it $6.00... should it not be the equivalent of $3.90 instead it was €3.90, hmmm the business world. Point being should the amount not be the same across the globe? I was grasping on the real world scenario of the Economics and the cost of living playing. All these days I never thought about it this much,until I saw the same exact brand and product being sold at different prices at two different places. Yeah the Indian stuff in US was costly but then it was because those products are exported as final products, but this is coffee.. it is made there. The Bording call was announced for my plane and on the way I was saying to myself I should have bought a local brand coffee and it must have been cheaper and I would have got a chance for a different taste too. Sometimes, Love of  Food has its Price!