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.

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.

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55 thoughts on “The Great Suburban Coffee Wars”

  1. I am always going to choose the local coffee shop over the chain if that option is there. And we are a divided house on Pumkin Spice drinks (me against, my wife for). I will sometimes add cream to my coffee, but once you go beyond that is it really coffee any more?

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  3. I’m all for whichever coffee house on my route has a drive-thru. I’d prefer mom-and-pop, but all of those around me don’t have drive-thrus. And the pumpkin spice? When the weather turns, thank you very much. But ultimately? My own kitchen, in my jammies, under a blanket on the sofa with a good book…. or blog😉

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  4. Oh my goodness, the pumpkin spice posts have started! 😂 I will say that I don’t drink coffee out much but I do enjoy a Starbucks as an occasional treat. I do love the pumpkin spice at least once a season – it’s tradition and something warm and comforting about it. Ditto the hot chocolates during the Christmas season!

    Good luck to your wife with her first week back at school! We’re lucky that we don’t go back until 2 weeks from this morning. 🙏

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  7. I can’t do caffeine so coffee is out for me, but I’m a bi sucker of chai tea and herbal teas, and the neighborhood mom-and-pop wins, no contest! And I drink hot fall/winter flavors year-round. Sweater weather and 120 temps aren’t totally incompatible… 🤪

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  8. I used to be a huge Starbucks fan growing up near Seattle. I remember when my parents bought beans from the only Starbucks store in the nation. But I’m over it and prefer a half a cup of coffee in the morning from my Kuerig or pour over. I remember my husband’s boss at Merrill saying Starbucks was never going to amount to anything 30 years ago. That there was no market for a chain coffee store like that.

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      1. My husband’s boss was so wrong. It’s funny to look back. My kids got me a whole pour over Chemex Coffee carafe plus scale, grinder, filters, etc. I enjoy doing that once in awhile but it takes me forever to make my cup of coffee.

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  12. Ok, local shop is always the first choice. Wawa always if I am in Philly, then Dunkin and only Starbucks if I have to. And yes, I will be drinking a PSL but I wait until the actual first day of Fall.

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  15. When the foo-foo coffee fad first landed in my town, I was a loyal visitor to our local Moxie Java. I even have a t-shirt from the store, and I’m not one for t-shirts. I used to stop every morning on my way to work and order a 20 oz 😲almond mocha, which would last the entire 2+ hours it took for me to get the mail prepped for my route. (No wonder my hips ballooned.) Then the store franchised, then ownership changed, the brand changed. I became more of a free agent coffee grabber. Then I retired. Now I very rarely order coffee to go, but when I do, I avoid Starbucks and try to find the local outfits.

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  16. I’m a Seattlite who drinks tea so I’m not qualified to vote here. But I have to say that I’m partial to Starbucks because I love their double-smoked bacon breakfast sandwich.

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  17. I gave up coffee for six months because I was having some digestive issues and read somewhere that my beverage of choice could be the culprit. Things definitely improved, but it’s starting to slip back into my diet, though I’m keeping it a maoderate consumption rate thus far. I’m much more of a “put a pod in my Keurig kind of guy.”

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  18. I love supporting local mom and pop coffee shops on the weekends when I plan to sit and get some work done. But during that weekday rush, the big giants take the cake — I love the convenience of pre-ordering and my coffee is ready to go when I get there.

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  19. I live in the UK so most coffee is disappointing. I genuinely prefer making my own with a stovetop or aeropress. But if I’m buying out I either support the little guy or whichever of the big guys is closest/cheapest because it’s all largely the same and less good than my much cheaper home setup.

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  20. I would love to support my local mom-and-pop shop. The only problem? They’re still closed when I drive by on my way to work at 6:45 a.m. Dunkin’ is open, so they get my business. Their coffee is better than Starbucks, IMO, and they’re kind of a novelty to me–I lived most of my adult life in a place where Dunkin’ doesn’t exist.

    Also, I will treat myself to one PSL every year…but good as they are, I can’t justify that much sugar!

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  21. I think we may need to acknowledge the real mystery here: how did coffee go from something people drank with breakfast to something requiring its own vocabulary, wardrobe, season, and apparently territorial boundaries? There was a time when ordering coffee consisted of saying, “Coffee, please.” Now you need to specify the roast, size, milk, temperature, number of pumps, foam situation, and enough other particulars to qualify as a minor legal document. As for pumpkin spice in August, I must respectfully object on behalf of the calendar. August is still out there doing its level best to melt the pavement, and somebody has already put autumn in a paper cup. “To every thing there is a season” (Ecclesiastes 3:1), and I am fairly certain pumpkin spice was intended to arrive sometime after we stop sticking to the car seat. But between the corporate giants and the little neighborhood shop, I would probably root for the mom-and-pop place. There is something rather nice about buying a cup of coffee from someone who might actually notice if you stopped coming in. Although, if they start serving peppermint mocha before Thanksgiving, all alliances are off. :-))

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  22. I’m biased because in my house, we only drink Puerto Rican coffee (the best in the world 😀), which we order online. When I’m on the road, gas station coffee is my go-to lately, Kwik Trip or Kwik Star Kona Dark Roast. Their automated bean-to-cup touch-screen machines are fantastic. As a bonus, I accumulate points for gas discounts. So, a win-win in my book. 😉

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Tough one. They’re hard to find unless there’s a large Puerto Rican community and the local stores carry them. We found a store in Chicago that sells them. Online is the only place where I can order them and keep my stash going. My family sends us some from the island once in a while, but I’m a heavy drinker, so they don’t last long. 😀

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