6 ms·

Does Keurig actually sell their coffee makers at a loss? I've always thought they were overpriced to begin with.

• pcthrowaway 12y ago
  Probably if it factors in how much R&D went into the DRM, the production price per unit increases. Nothing else about it is terribly complicated.
  • nirvdrum 12y ago
    The Boston Globe Magazine had a pretty good piece on them a few years back. It was far easier to read in print, but I think this the article: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/2011/0807/ http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/2011/0807/ Most of the R&D went into the cups themselves. Simple as they seem, it appears the company went through a lot of iterations to get the right gas mixture and volume right to have fresh coffee with long shelf-life.
    • rancur 12y ago
      if by right gas mixture you mean 100% nitrogen, it's inert, and is used in tires and bags of chips. When the bags of chips are opened, however, the other special ingredient 'crisp' that they put in escapes
      • nirvdrum 12y ago
        That's not what I meant.
        • rancur 12y ago
          what else would they use? it's perfectly inert, there's nothing to engineer. Traditionally coffee is vacuum packed, but nitrogen works fine too
          • rancur 12y ago
            IE, you got marketed to. That's fine, I'm just saying, I don't think they did something new
    • annnnd 12y ago
      Direct link: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/08/07/the_inside_story_of_keurigs_rise_to_a_billion_dollar_coffee_empire/?page=full http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/08/07/the_insid... EDIT: single page.
      • nirvdrum 12y ago
        Thanks for the direct link. I probably should have discovered that was an option.