Eating Out vs Eating In

Eating out is the new eating in, or so claims this feature on MSN Money, and lists two peoples opinions to substantiate the purported fact that eating out actually comes out pretty even on dollar terms to eating in (also known as cooking at home).

That is as fallacious as can get in terms of substantiating an argument - take two premises, make comparisons on essentially uneven terms, without establishing common ground, come to conclusions on those uneven terms, and then proclaim one argument as the winner over the other...and the media companies wonder why people are skeptical of their reporting?

Take the first example of a person who would get off with spending $17 plus tips on dining out on hand-stuffed ravioli slathered with puttanesca sauce as opposed to about $30 for cooking at home (you know, driving to the farmers market, buying organic veggies, spending an hour cooking etc). Another dude goes as far as counting his hourly rate to the cooking time and opines that taking out his family to eat would essentially come out to the same...

Crunching numbers, this is supposed to prove that eating out is cheaper. Count me as one of the skeptics to this theory, and also to the veracity of this feature. For one, both the examples are set on uneven terms. Hey, the second dude factors his wages for cooking at home, but not for his waiting at a restaurant for his food to arrive etc...and the first dude prefers organic veggies for home cooking, but would rather eat cholesterol-laden ravioli made from non-organic stuff at a restaurant...comparison indeed.

Heck, the simplest logic demands that eating out be more expensive than dining at home. Just the simple fact that eating out is a convenience, and any convenience costs money. That's why a cup of coffee that otherwise costs about $0.10 sells for at least $0.99 at your local gas-station. Do the math...and enjoy dining out, because that is indeed an occasion to indulge the senses...

Coffee. Healthy. No Kidding.

Far from being unhealthy, coffee offers perks.
(Forbes.com, via MSNBC online)

Whodathunk it?

Un-flippin-believable.

Coffee in moderation is good. Yay!

Now, I don't have to feel too guilty about swigging a cup o' South Indian-ishtyle filter kaapi or a Starbucks latte or a Circle K or AMPM java every work-day morning!

Tall Decaf Cappuccino

It's 8.45 am and you are on your way to work. You stop by your favorite kiosk to pick up a local newspaper (which is alright as long as it is not an ass-wipe rag like the NY Post or the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. But then, I digress..)

Then comes the ritual of the day..paying what has become to millions of people, a homage to their favorite Starbucks store. Ritual, because Starbucks is perhaps the most glamorous seller of the world's most effective addictive/stimulant, the wonderbean called Coffee. Ritual because you are programmed (almost to a fault, you start to resemble a clock-work robot) to pick up that coffee at that point in time every working day.

More importantly a ritual because, you have formed that invisible bond with that barista who knows your order even before you have ordered it.

Reviled, ridiculed and otherwise made fun of in movies and in the press (remember Tom Hanks, You've Got Mail! - "The whole purpose of a place like Starbucks is for a man with no decision making abilities whatsoever, to have to make six decisions just to by a $2.95 cup of coffee...dark/light lowfat/nonfat caf/decaf...."). I dont care to remember the entire sequence of dialog, but it has me in side-splitting laughter whenever I see that sequence in that movie and then see that nerdy-looking guy order a "Tall decaf cappuccino" for himself :). Yet another instance of recent harmless fun was in Shrek2, when the crowd runs from one Starbucks to another, right across the street.

Which brings us to another of Starbucks quirks - the seemingly endless intent to have its franchises poach on each others customers. Case-in-point, in the neighborhood where I live, there are 8 Starbucks stores (6 of them full-fledged nothing-held-back stores). Of course its a densely populated urban area, yet having three stores in a mile-long strech makes me wonder..are they out for global domination or are they trying to make us all lazy?

Ok, so Starbucks is that giant corporation which probably rakes in millions in profits every year and maybe is from big bad Seattle. But some of my best customer service experiences in this country have been at Starbucks. And now look at the oodles of free publicity they are getting. :)

What do I order at Starbucks? Depending on my mood, a Grande Drip Coffee (especially if they have the breakfast-blend or the lightnote blend on the brew) or a Grande Latte (Hot), or a Venti Coffee Frappucino..

And yet, for all the lavishness of my praise toward Starbucks it is my second favorite coffee. Nothing can replace my special "South-Indian" filter coffee with its jolt of taste and stimulation. So much for Starbucks' promotions :)