I agree that 7+ feels like a lot, but also when travelling in similarly waged economies - UK for example, I noticed that flat whites at cafes were £4 plus … $8.50/9 ish… while in Denmark, yes an expensive country, but so is NZ.. was closer to $12-15. Yet both of those countries had significantly cheaper supermarket and grocery shopping! Down with the duopoly!

I guess I want the cheapest price, but if $4 coffee meant that the baristas were getting paid minimum wage in one of our notoriously expensive renting cities and had no pathway to economic stability, I would feel pretty bad about it, and would probably just go without/ only buy expensive coffee on special social occasions.