Somehow, McD's knew they were losing my coffee biz to Wawa...

 The ‘Coffee Wars’ are raging on. The commercial giants continue to do battle for my hotly-contested coffee dollars. Lucky-assed me.

McDonalds is once again selling all sizes of their hot coffee at just 69-cents. Of course, this deal is for a ‘limited time’ (as the commercial absolutely loves to rub in), so we must hurry lest we miss it.

Damn their marketing genius.
How'd the folks at The Golden Arches know?

For those who don’t know, Wawa is one of those ‘gas stations turned convenience store’ chains that are popping up like weeds on every abandoned street corner and busy intersection… at least here in the mid-Atlantic. (Perhaps only CVS drugstores challenge them as far as growth.) Of course, these aren’t mom-and-pop gas stations; they have as many as 20 pumps at some of them and inside they’re more like oversized mini-marts wishing they were supermarkets.

After one of my workmates introduced me to Wawa's better blend of coffee earlier this month, I was getting rather used to their superior, tasty vanilla-flavored version and had abandoned my daily McD drive-thru. (I'm salivating now. TMI?) 

My coffee-drinking habits are fine-tuned over years of trial and error... and careful testing. I get up at 4-4:30 each morning and within 30 minutes, I am on the road bound for work some 50 miles away. Perhaps you can see how coffee is NOT an option but an absolute necessity. Hell, I’d take it in an I.V. drip if I could, but, while that would certainly give me the desired caffeine buzz more quickly, it would also eliminate the taste, which I enjoy. Taste, my friends, is half the pleasure. My decision-making was rather simple; I used the ever-popular process of elimination. Making coffee at home before leaving for work: Not a chance. Drinking the tepid swill they call coffee at work: Definitely not. Going through the Starbucks window for a large coffee: Hell no. (I’d need to fill out a loan application.) And thus, I came to realize McD’s was my java-juice distributor of choice; especially when they were selling it to me for a buck.

At 69-cents, it almost feels like stealing. (Almost.) That’s close to a 50% savings of my coffee dollars right there… which means, more coffee for me. Plus, I can use the drive-thru! You see, the downside to getting my java fix at Wawa is a big one: I must go into the store and get it myself. (I know, I know. I'm such a lazy ass.) Now, with the McD large priced at 69-cents, and so very easy to get via the 'fitness slacker's' drive-thru, McD is pulling me back into their coffee vortex.

Damn them all to hell.

Of course, it's probably costing me 25-cents extra in gas to wait in line.
I buy my gas at Wawa. McD doesn’t have a pump – yet.

Okay, Starbucks… It’s your move.

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Copyright © 2009 Landen Michaels / STRESSEDwriter

An unedited excerpt from my book "LOBOTOMY WITH A SIDE OF FRIES" found in the chapter "COFFEE AND OTHER ADDICTIONS THAT (TYPICALLY) WON'T GET YOU ARRESTED".