Coffee Grounds

A study of what happened when the lid came off the coffee pot may be prophetic of what will happen when the lid comes off everything. The Wall Street Journal found:

> Coffee sales dropped from 10-50%; i.e., people hoard when things look scarce, stop buying and consume their hoards when supplies look plentiful again. Added evidence: tea and cocoa (still on a quota basis, and allegedly scarce) are still in as much demand as ever, though in the U.S. as a whole they are traditionally second-best substitutes for coffee.

>Sales of ersatz coffee and “extenders,” which boomed during rationing, dropped to almost nothing—probably an advance tip on what will happen to things like rayon stockings when war ends and silk and nylon are available again.

>But people still buy higher-priced coffee, which they learned to like in the one-cup days. Perhaps the most significant trend of the lot for the long term, this indicates that, so long as the national income stays high, war has taught the average consumer to go for quality.