Shock probably should not have been my first reaction to a $5 cup of coffee bought on one of the local main streets. But I was shocked. It was not even particularly good coffee.
We get it — we live in a tourist area where everything from morning joe to lawn mowing is priced as high as it can be. And we all have heard the explanation before: “It’s a short season, so they need to make money when they can.” I don’t buy it.
For one thing, regular gas in Amagansett was about $1.25 more per gallon than in Riverhead the other day. With straight faces, gas station operators claim that fuel companies tack on a fee to truck it to the South Fork. The thing is, the increase is just pennies per gallon, not 40 percent and more. I know; I asked the truckers. Nor is gas as much on the North Fork, where stations are about the same distance as here from the UpIsland supply terminals.
Face it: We live in one big clip joint. It is like being in a nightclub where the dance floor is great but the drinks are exorbitant. Three thousand dollars here is the starting point to get a builder’s attention. But a $5 street coffee? That seems another thing altogether, more like a mugging than a pick-me-up.
Even ordering our coffees was a challenge. A big lunk of a 20-something slurped on the end of his iced drink as he lingered between us and the baristas, pretty clearly hoping for a romantic connection. I mumbled something about love at first sight, but he just turned his large, beefy back and kept chatting up the young women at the counter. It wasn’t until paying that the price became clear.
Welcome to the Hamptons. As they say, if you have to ask . . .