Coffee Prices: How Are They Not Included In CPI Anymore?

According to our government the CPI includes: The CPI represents changes in prices of all goods and services purchased for consumption by urban households.

User fees (such as water and sewer service) and sales and excise taxes paid by the consumer are also included.

Income taxes and investment items (like stocks, bonds, and life insurance) are not included.

So What Happened To Coffee?

If you drink coffee at home or purchase it at Starbucks or a Dunkin Donuts you know the coffee prices have been going up.

Even if you can’t remember what you paid a few years ago you probably can remember that it was way cheaper to purchase coffee back a few short years or even months ago.

When the consumer price index rises the typical family spending has gone up as well.

So why did they exclude coffee from the latest numbers? Why not soda or energy drinks?

Will People Drink Less Coffee?

According to Axios, 67% of all Americans drink coffee daily. However, the younger generations do not drink as much coffee as those in the baby boomer generation.

Is this higher price of coffee stopping anyone from drinking it? Or are more people making their own coffee at home?

From various sources it appears more are making their own coffee at home.

What Other Expenses Are Not Included In The CPI?

• Income Taxes
• Life Insurance
• Investments
• Spending by those living in farm households
• Spending by those living in military bases

What Does The CPI Cover?

The consumer price index is published every month and is an indictator of inflation. It includes things like food, (minus the coffee now) clothing, housing costs, healthcare and recreational items.

In additional I’ve read from Investopedia that it focuses on urban consumers and not so much on rural areas.

Are The Numbers Real?

It makes you wonder why the numbers do not include those on farms or rural areas and why they dropped the coffee from the CPI.

It would be interesting to know these numbers with those included especially the coffee.

Do you pay attention to the inflation numbers? Some say we may be headed into stagflation or hyperinflation in the United States.

The difference is with hyperinflation the rates keep going up fast and with stagflation they remain high with high unemployment.

Time will tell who is right and how it will end. Let’s hope it’s neither and we bounce back quick from the high inflation we’ve experienced this past several years.