The Great Suburban Coffee Wars

Driving through a small community near me, something jumped up and snapped me awake like the first jolt of a hot cup of morning coffee. 

Boom. Then another boom. 

Two mom and pop coffee shops with a steady stream of cars pulling in and out. Each customer walking out with a medium to large cup of coffee. Two big time coffee titans: Starbucks with over 40,000 stores worldwide and $37 billion revenue, and Dunkin’, with more than 14,000 locations. Add a Sheetz Convenience store — a Pennsylvania staple, that heavily promotes its self-serve drip blends alongside a full made-to-order espresso bar with lattes, cold brew, and nitro. 

All within a mile. All battling for the exact same dollars. 

Let’s Get Ready To Rumble

Push it out another mile and the brawl expands: a Wawa, another prominent convenience store; a second Dunkin’; McDonald’s and its McCafé coffee; and two diners, all pushing their own brews. On one side of the road, serene cornfields; on the other, a business park fronted by the usual trappings of suburbia: Sonic, Taco Bell, and Walmart.

Right in the middle, you’ve got a fist fight going on for coffee market share. The upstarts against upstarts. Locals against titans. All in one sleepy little community. Most people drive right past the fisticuffs, oblivious to the corporate bigwigs and local underdogs throwing roundhouse punches over morning caffeine. 

The Fighting Gets Real

Fall doesn’t officially start until late September, but in the coffee world, autumn comes early. Starbucks rolled out its Pumpkin Spice Latte nationwide today. Dunkin beat them to the punch, going live with theirs on August 19. And yes, those two local joints this weekend were both pushing their own seasonal recipes right alongside the behemoths.  

In a few weeks, I imagine teenage workers positioned with placards along this stretch of road. A Miracle Mile of sorts. At one end, one sign will read: “Get your Pumpkin Spice Latte here!” A quarter mile down the road, another kid will hold up a sign saying, “No, get your real Pumpkin Spice Latte here!”

Who’s Gonna Blink First

It’s easy to see why the stakes are high. Coffee is big business. Americans drink roughly 185 billion cups of coffee each year — averaging roughly three cups per day for regular drinkers. Canadians are equally heavy coffee drinkers. 

Oh, this crazy world we live in. It’s a wild world when a single stretch of road turns into a full-scale war over coffee beans. I love a good morning brew as much as anybody, but on this day, I just took a swig from my water bottle and kept on driving. 

Not today, boys. If I want more coffee, I’ll make it at home.

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Okay, two questions:

Who gets your vote in the local coffee wars: the corporate titan with your saved order app, or the neighborhood mom-and-pop? Let me know your go-to spot in the comments below!

And then where do you stand in the all-important Fall question? Are you team ‘Pumpkin Spice in August’ or do you hold out for sweater weather?

Let me say upfront: I’ve lost this battle in my house. My wife—and, in turn, I—are all-in for autumn, even though it’s still 80°F (about 27°C) and still looking a heckuva lot like July. Let me know where you stand!

Images from Pexels.