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Coffee shopping · 1 min readWhen to buy coffee on offer (and when to ignore it)
A discount on a coffee you would not otherwise buy is not a saving. Here is the test that separates the two.
An offer is only an offer if it beats the format, not the sticker. Coffee promotions are frequent, predictable and mostly designed to shift a specific product rather than to save you money. That does not make them worthless. It makes them worth judging against a fixed standard you set, rather than against a price the retailer chose to cross out.
The only test that matters
Convert the offer price to price per cup or price per kilo, then compare it with the typical price for that format rather than with its own previous price. Beat the format and it is a good buy. Beat only itself and it is a marketing exercise.
"Was £12, now £9" tells you nothing if the mid-point for that format is £7. "£9 for 1kg" tells you everything.
Promotions worth taking
- Multibuys on large packs of coffee you already drink. The pack size does the work; the promotion is a bonus.
- Subscription discounts from a roaster whose coffee you have already tried at full price.
- Genuine clearance on beans with a recent roast date, which are usually being moved for stock reasons rather than quality ones.
Promotions to ignore
- Discounts on small packs. A cheap 200g bag is still expensive per kilo.
- Bundles padded out with something you did not want: cups, syrups, a second flavour you will not drink.
- Machine-brand capsule offers that still land above the compatible-capsule price.
- Anything that requires you to buy more coffee than you can drink in six weeks, unless you will freeze it properly.
How much to stock up
Work out your weekly consumption in grams, multiply by six, and treat that as your ceiling for beans and ground. Instant and sealed capsules are far more forgiving: they are stable for months, so a genuinely good price on either is worth taking in volume.
Current value, judged against the format
Everything here is priced below the middle of its own format.
Prices are the last we fetched and can move. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. It never changes the order, which is always cheapest per cup first.
See what is genuinely good value