When you order a medium, you expect it to be bigger than a small. That's just how sizing works whether it's for an outfit, an order of french fries, or a beverage.
In some cases, like with clothing, pricing does not change between sizes. A pair of jeans with a 32-inch waist may not cost more than one that has a 36-inch waist because even though it takes slightly more material to make it, the markup is so high, there's no reason to charge more.
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That's generally not the case when it comes to beverages. You might see a chain offer a promotion where all sizes cost the same amount for a limited time. You never see one where a small costs more than a medium or a large. That is, of course, because people rarely willingly pay more for less.
Starbucks (SBUX) -), however, appears to have figured out a way to get customers to pay more for the same, although they don't know they're doing that. TikTok influencer westgeorge11, who posts as "Parallel Society" shared a video that showed something that, if true, Starbucks would not want its customers to know.
See the video
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TikTok Video Shows Starbucks Sizes
In the video, a man is seen pouring the liquid from a Starbucks grande (medium) cup into a tall (small) cup. He then does the same into a venti (large) hot coffee cup from the chain. In both cases, the liquid fully filled the cup.
"I can tell it's going to overflow," said an offscreen voice as the full venti cup is poured into the grande cup is poured into the tall cup.
"It's not, it's the exact same size," said the man doing the pouring.
The liquid does appear to fill all three cups equally.
"This is how they put the bucks into Starbucks," said the man doing the pouring to close the video. "That's the big lesson that you have learned today, 'get the small.'"
That's certainly what the video shows, but it's not exactly right.
That's Not How Starbucks Sizes Work
A number of news outlets have covered this issue in the past in response to social media videos. Many included quotes from baristas pointing out that the chain does not fill its cups to the brim.
When Says.com duplicated the experiment using a "realistic" amount of liquid poured into each cup, the results were different.
"Most beverage companies rarely fill their drinks to the brim. So, if we were to fill a more realistic amount into the grande cup, then the difference is more noticeable," the site shared.
Starbucks did not respond to an immediate request for comment but did issue the following statement to Says.com in 2019.
"This video was not produced by Starbucks and is not representative of the approach our highly skilled baristas take to prepare and serve handcrafted beverages for our customers. Starbucks offers beverage sizes and guidelines, which are regularly communicated to our store partners, to ensure a consistent customer experience."
Starbucks sizes, at least for coffee, also determine how many espresso shots and pumps of flavoring a drink has. Tall espresso-based drinks usually have one shot, while grande drinks have two, and venti ones have three. Extra shots can be added (for an extra cost) and the drink does not end up going in a larger cup (although if you add enough it would eventually have to).
