And yet coffee shops that claim to be organic, eco conscious and fair trade still penalize you for opting for a milk alternative (by charging extra, like up to $1).
As a badly lactose intolerant person, I get that oatmilk is 2x the cost. But please, you are putting in 15 cents of oatmilk, and charging 0.75 to 1.00 extra for it.
A small cup of black coffee with oatmilk for $3.50. Please.
The markup makes sense for lattes -- 12 ounces of whole milk may be $.36 at retail milk prices, but 12oz of oat milk is closer to $1.50 (see my other comment for the price comparison).
There's still a rather significant cost difference between the two. In my local market, a one gallon container of whole milk is $3.89 retail, while the barista-blend of Califa Oat Milk is $4.39 for a one quart container (or $4.99 for a half gal of Oatly).
Not really super surprising— the volumes are way lower and there's less subsidizing going on. On a grocery store shelf here in Ontario, you can get 4L of 2% regular milk for $5. But the Earth's Own products, which include oat and soy milk? Those are more like $6 for a single litre.
As a parent of young kids, we easily do 1L+ of milk per day, even when we drink water as our meal beverage. It goes on cereal in the mornings + a glass before bed + it's an ingredient for certain meals (think baking, cheese sauces, that kind of thing).
I used to make yogurt and cheese as well, but it wasn't really cost/labour effective to do so, even with milk being as cheap as it is.
Beyond the cost from the supplier, perhaps because there is a greater overhead associated with supplying that milk to a minority of customers. If everyone was drinking oat milk by default I don't think there would be a $1 upcharge.
The amount of oat you have to feed a cow to get a single litre is not even close to the literal handful you need for an oat-based milk - let alone the time and how of work that went into caring for the cows, handling the mess, etc.
It should not even be close. We simply industrialized the whole diary thing, and consider it essential.
And I say this as someone who cannot live without cheese. It should just be way more expensive and reflect the cost it has on the environment/society.
This charge was finally removed a few months ago at their UK locations, so it seems more or less inevitable in the US given that the UK is often a vegan/plant-based testbed for many US chains: https://plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/food/starbucks-ends-veg...