We pay a big price for convenience. Take this box of chocolate chip muffins that sat on my kitchen table yesterday. There were six muffins in the box, and the marked price for the box was $2.59, or $.43 per muffin. I don’t know about you, but $.43 for a small prepackaged muffin that I can make myself is pretty expensive. I could scout out an elementary school bake sale, buy a homemade muffin for $.50 or less, and feel good that I’m helping fund someone’s educational pursuit. I could get my box of muffin mix out of the cabinet (I have some blueberry mix at the moment) and make fresh homemade muffins. Total cost after adding other ingredients: around a dollar. I could knock the price down further and make my own. Scratch ingredients are really inexpensive, and once you learn the basics, baking basic sweets isn’t that hard.
But we live in a to-go world where a lot of people are willing to pay the price. Are you?
(In case you’re wondering, I didn’t buy the muffins myself. I did have to grab one before everyone else in the house did, though.)