Muffins worth their weight in gold? The problem with urban-chic food

I was in an artsy kind of bakery in Victoria, BC, today to meet someone. I have been having a bit of a cold lately, so I walked up to the counter in a haze of cough medicine and sniffles. I wanted breakfast and a latte - something to fill me up for the next 3 to 4 hours. Then I looked at the prices of the muffins. CAD$3. Per muffin. Not huge muffins. Not muffins made of gold. Just your standard muffin. Three freaking dollars. So I paid the three dollars to have a banana hazelnut muffin that was good, but frankly, not worth $3. All this got me thinking of price inflation on things considered urban-chic. Good Lord.

I'm not against having artsy bakeries that sell vegan-friendly food that is oh-so-wholesome and good for you. But if you think that adding a few seeds to your bread, or that having something freshly-baked justifies a twice-the-price increase - then this is when it becomes problematic.

Think about it, though: bakeries are meant to sell freshly baked bread. And seeds are not that expensive. Neither is going whole-wheat. Gluten-free might need a slight price increase, but in my experience, people tend to triple the price for gluten-free products. So why are we surrounded by baked goods that cost five times what they should? Why are we paying for lattes that are triple the price of what they should be? And the answer, my friends, is the fad about what food or drinks are considered urban-chic.

Let me demonstrate:
Buying an apple from the grocery store costs you maybe $1, usually less. Now let's take that apple, slice it up, cover it in sugar and cinnamon (which are both very cheap) and bake it with some crumble on top (again, crumble is quite cheap, being a mixture of even parts of flour, butter, oats and sugar). Now, how much does this baked dessert cost you in a bakery? $6, at least. I know you need to factor in labour and energy gone into producing this baked treat, but the fact remains that it is way overpriced. Now, put that baked treat in a fancy window inside a rustic-looking bakery with wood furniture and a fancy glass water dispenser, and the dessert might actually cost closer to $8. The question is: how did we let this happen? How have people everywhere conspired to pay way too much for their creature comforts? I think it's because the price somehow indicates prestige to us. We see a hefty price for a baked good, and suddenly we think that that will be THE best baked good we've ever had. The most wholesome, healthy, and fresh baked good. The best-quality roasted espresso and the most expensive damned milk on the market. We aren't just buying ourselves something to eat, we are buying something urban-chic that will prove to others that we care about our bodies and that we are not afraid to spend in order to take care of it.

But all that fancy food will go through our system the same way everything else does. It all gets turned into poop. And yes, it might have been marginally better for your health. But at its most basic, you are still eating carbs. Whole-wheat carbs, gluten-free carbs, seven-grain carbs...still carbs.

So, the next time you go to buy your FAVOURITE muffin at your FAVOURITE bakery, think about what exactly you are buying: are you buying something that is worth what it costs, or are you buying prestige?