From the "Remarks by President Biden During Tour of Nowhere Coffee Co. | Emmaus, PA," January 12, 2024:
THE PRESIDENT: ...By the way, anybody want a coffee? It's on me. (Laughter.) All right?
Q I'll take a smoothie.
THE PRESIDENT: You'll take a smoothie? Well, they're six bucks, but I'll do it anyway. (Laughter.)
Seriously, if anybody here wants anything, I'll pay for it. Okay?
MR. VARGAS: That's very generous of you.
(The tour of Nowhere Coffee Co. continues.)
If Biden thinks a six dollar smoothie is pricey, he hasn't seen the $9.99 ones at Playa Bowls or the $14.50 ones at Pure Cold Press or the $22 ones at Erewhon Market in Los Angeles. Relatedly, public radio's Marketplace program has a piece on dynamic pricing—rapidly changing digital prices—in the restaurant industry, even ones that allow targeting so that two customers in the same store at the same time may be paying different prices, like passengers on the same airplane.
If Biden loses the presidential election in November, smoothie prices will be part of the reason. Biden's somewhat wowed reaction to the soaring prices—"well, they're six bucks"—is one that is widely shared by voters of a certain age and tax bracket. Whether voters see the president's policies as the cause of the price increases or view him as a regular guy who can connect with and care about their annoyance over the prices may help determine the contest's outcome.
