Maybe at a more expensive convenience store, or he’s like many idiots that shop somewhere like Whole Foods and because they’re used to seeing some $70/bag organic free-range non-GMO gluten-free coffee grown in the Himalayas by a small sect of previously uncontacted monks, the “cheap stuff” is the $20 bag of stuff that’s similarly overpriced.
The most I’ve ever paid for coffee in the US was $20/lb at a local artisan roaster, where they’re blended and roasted right in the store. Usually my normal coffee is about $3-5/lb
The guy is from an immigrant family, and his parents until recently worked minimum wage. It is just that the cost of living in Washington D.C. got this outrageous.
Then sadly, knowing how a lot of my friends shopped when they were broke, I bet that it is something like a convenience store. Not saying that DC isn’t expensive, I was literally just there visiting a friend who lives there, but I also live in an area with a CoL well above the national average and coffee still isn’t $20 for cheap pre-ground stuff
