As someone who runs a retail (eCommerce) business for a living, I think it's also worth pointing out that people get far more "rational" about their purchases w

As someone who runs a retail (eCommerce) business for a living, I think it's also worth pointing out that people get far more "rational" about their purchases when you ask them to spend a large chunk of money at once. The same person who would think "do I really need this?" when faced with spending $1200 on a high-end automatic espresso machine wouldn't even think about spending $5 a day on a takeaway latte (which ends up being an order of magnitude per expensive once you amortise the cost of the machine over the number of cups produced).