by WizardfromOz » Sun Feb 17, 2013 11:02 pm
It is consumer snobbishness. Starbucks do you use a better class of beans, but the average drinker can't tell the difference. Those that can tell the difference are not normally going to buy Starbucks to begin with. Similar results where found with beer tests. There they used a price incentive. Budget beers were sold at premium prices and visa versa. Consumers asked to drink the beers universally graded them according to price. The upshot was most people could not tell the difference in quality, but assumed price referenced quality.