The BBC is running an article by Tim Harford (the ‘undercover economist’) about how comapnies ’sabotage’ certain of their products in order to create artificial differentiation. Used to your benefit, this practice can be an excellent way to save quite a bit of money.
Computer firms are notorious for creating fake ‘versions’ of chips that run slower by breaking the solder on one bit, something that is easily fixable if you know what they did, and in the past has gotten me a much faster CPU than I paid for. Starbucks has a ’short cappuccino’ that, if you know to order it, is the best deal going there - but they won’t tell you it exists.
Tags: economics, starbucks, Tim Harford
These are the ramblings of 
The best off list Starbucks order I’ve come up with is a quad espresso over a venti cup of ice. Then go to the self service bar and fill it with milk. It’s the best tasting ice latte out there. If you order a regular venti ice latte, all you can taste is watered down milk…yuck!