Designer Coffee

Image Credit: Ryan Bovy © 2012

Coffee: a cornerstone to the mornings of the diligent academic, and even more imperative to the evenings of the procrastinating scholar. Not everyone prefers coffee to the brightly colored energy drinks of our day, but it remains nonetheless, a classic.

I purchased this bag of coffee grounds at a local large box store for a relatively low price. Now, the low price is not what drew me to this particular bag of beans. Rather, the branding of the coffee told me that this coffee would be pleasing to consume.

In the store, I stood with two bags of coffee in hand: one Millstone brand coffee, and the other was the Starbucks bag seen above. What ultimately drove my decision, since the two bags were similarly priced, was the Starbucks logo. A genius little picture that said to me, "this coffee is better than that coffee."

Also, there's a surprise on the bottom that makes this coffee extra worth your purchase.

Cheap Pizza

Image credit: Ryan Bovy © 2012

It is a well documented fact that college students love pizza; they provide access to large amounts of calories for very little cost. What is even better is when pizza places offer deals that make pizza almost free. I bought these two pizzas (with a Campus Special coupon) for only $1.98. In my opinion, I might as well have stolen them for that price. It is just too bad that I didn't have more coupons to stock up on delicious pizza for an absurd price. As far as consumer behavior, this one is pretty simple, more food for less creates more business from those on a budget (like most college students).