Here at the Transit Café we love our coffee, so it natural for us to filter this week’s news that Starbucks will close 600 underperforming US stores (of 7,200 stores America-wide), and cut up to 12,000 full- and part-time positions, as it copes with an economic downturn and increasing competition.

In our neck of the woods, where lounging around on the Cappuccino Strip sipping latte is a way of life for some, the local newspapers like to hold a coffee bean poll during state and federal elections to gauge the mood of the electorate.

Coffee drinkers, it appears, reflect the mood – and voting intentions – of a nation.

Starbucks – the world’s largest coffee shop chain - has been told by its coffee-drinking customers that times are skinny for the economy, and it's time to cut back on the double espressos.

The Starbucks down-sizing was carried by newspapers and TV channels around the world but here at the Café we especially liked the coverage given to the story by the Independent in the UK.

The newspaper revealed that the cheapest cup of coffee on the Starbucks menu costs about three times what you would pay around the corner in McDonald's. But curiously, you can pay less at Starbucks, if you know what to ask for – only they don't want too many people to know.

Starbucks, said the Independent devised a brilliant solution to the classic retailers' dilemma – those who undercharge lose money, while those who overcharge lose customers.

It is called the Starbucks "Short".

The "Short" is an eight-ounce cup – quite enough for most people, but only two-thirds the volume of the cheapest item on the menu, the 12oz Starbucks "Tall", and correspondingly cheaper. When someone orders it, the staff don't shout out the order, as normal, but pass on the message quietly so that other people do not start asking what a "Short" is.

This secret item is not only cheaper, but is said to be stronger and tastier than anything on the printed menu. It keeps the knowing customers coming back, while the casual visitors who automatically ask for the cheapest item on the menu are served the more expensive "Tall".

Read the complete lowdown on Starbucks here.