Where to Buy Zeke's Coffee

If you want good coffee beans in Baltimore, Zeke's Coffee is the primary roaster (or at least the only one I've discovered). They have lots of different types of beans from all over the world; many are shade-grown, organic, fair-trade or free range. It's no Zoka Coffee of Seattle, but it is still very good.

Until now, I have bought their coffee at the Saturday morning Waverly Market. Zeke's coffee has a booth there where the owner (or, this weekend, his nephew) sells their coffee and will grind it for you. Ironically, you cannot buy actual cups of Zeke's coffee from this booth. However, another booth sells cups of coffee and they use Zeke's beans. (According to the owner of Zeke's, the person selling cups of coffee at the market pre-dated him and he didn't want to run her out of business by competing directly; he did get her to start using his beans instead of Folgers or something similar so I guess he gets free advertising. Why they don't put their booths next to each other I have no idea.)

In response to a recent post about The Wine Source, an anonymous commenter noted that you can get Zeke's coffee at The Wine Source for $9/lb and at Eddie's Market in Roland Park for $10/lb. The price for beans at Zeke's booth in Waverly Market is $11/lb. It is odd that you pay more for buying directly from the producer (Zeke's) than for going through a middle-man (Wine Source, Eddies).

What extra services to you get by buying directly from Zeke's at the Waverly Market? They grind the beans for you. (Wine Source has a grinder you can use yourself, but perhaps this is mis-calibrated or scares some people.) More importantly, Zeke's booth provides recommendations in case you don't have a specific bean in mind.

Why wouldn't cutting out a middle-man lead to lower prices? For one thing, the cost of running the booth just to sell coffee probably exceeds the cost of having a little area to sell coffee in a store that would be open anyway. My guess is that the more important factor is demand elasticity. The kind of people who come to farmer's markets come to the market for special and local products like coffee. These are the kind of people who care a lot about which coffee they buy and would buy Zeke's even if it was very expensive. The kind of people who buy Zeke's coffee at the Wine Source come there to buy alcohol and just stumble upon Zeke's coffee; they figure they will buy some coffee while they are there. Since they may not care about the Zeke's brand and almost certainly didn't make the trip just to buy Zeke's coffee, these folks are more price sensitive. The optimal price for a good is higher when demand is more inelastic (as it is at the booth in Waverly market) than when it is more elastic (as it is at the Wine Source).

If you would otherwise only shop at one place that sells Zeke's coffee, it's not worth it to make the trip to save $2. However, if you frequent both Waverly Market and the Wine Source, the optimal thing to do is seek coffee recommendations at the Waverly Market but buy your beans at the Wine Source.

The Wine Source

The Wine Source
3601 Elm Ave. (at 36th)
Hampden, Baltimore
410-467-7777
liquor store
www.the-wine-source.com
Date of visit: Tuesday September 11th, 2007
National Price-Quality Frontier: On It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: Extends It

Yesterday, I went to The Wine Source to buy alcohol. They have an extensive selection of hard alcohol, beer, and wine. To give you an idea of their selection, I was able to choose from a few types of pear brandy. They have a section where you can buy obscure brands of beer by the bottle and not just the six-pack. I find this mix-and-match approach very appealing when exploring unusual beers to figure out what I want to buy more of. The wine selection is extensive as well. They also have a small section of gourmet foods where you can get fancy potato chips, Zeke's coffee, jams, etc.

The store is clean and upmarket. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly. Prices are reasonable. In short, one would be hard-pressed to do much better than The Wine Source anywhere in the U.S. (Of course, there are warehouse-style places that have slightly lower prices and specialty wine stores with a bit deeper wine selection and probably better advice.)

As an economist, the surprise to me is that the liquor store 50 feet down the hill on 36th can stay in business. (I believe it is called Keller's Liquors at 865 W. 36th St. but its negligible web presence makes this hard to determine.) This store has higher prices, a much smaller selection, and less appealing decor. It is just a corner store where you can buy beer, a few types of vodka, lottery tickets, and cheap wine. Not that I'm judging this per se, it is just that these same items (perhaps except the lottery tickets) are available at The Wine Source.

Organics @ Waverly Market

I just came back from my usual Saturday morning shopping trip to Waverly Market. The vibe there is great.

Why are there so few (only one) organic produce seller at the Waverly market? It seems like the whole point of going to a farmer's market is so you can get local and organic fruits and vegetables. These sellers are local (and I'm guessing what they sell is mostly from their own farms) but generally not organic.

Generally, folks who favor eating happy free-range lettuce and such (I count myself in this group) like organic food because it is healthier and better for the environment. Buying locally is allegedly better for the environment because you don't have to use as much energy in shipping. However, the latter rationale was recently undercut in a recent article by James McWilliams in the New York Times. So why do Baltimore consumers value local produce but not the organic stuff? Why don't these farmers find it worthwhile to farm organically and pass the increased cost on to consumers? That's what farmers who sell to farmer's markets do in most other big cities.

From the look of it, the Waverly market crowd is exactly who you would expect to buy organic food. We bring our own re-used plastic bags and carry our purchases in re-usable totes bearing NPR or Whole Foods logos. In short, they look just like shoppers at other farmer's markets, who demand and get organic produce. Maybe the marginal purchaser of these local producers' produce is not farmer's market customers at all. Perhaps in Seattle these growers can sell overstock to crunchy local markets. In Baltimore, such places don't exist or exist in fewer numbers (I think Whole Foods is the only game in town, and I believe they buy organics mostly from industrial, non-local organic farms), so these farmers have to sell to producers who don't value organics. So even if farmer's markets have similar clientele the world over, they are still left with different products.