Operations
Dutch Bros gains, Starbucks holds top spot
Despite the rapid growth of smaller coffee chains, Starbucks continues to dominate the coffee category, receiving over half of the combined visits to Starbucks, Dunkin', Dutch Bros, Scooter's Coffee and 7 Brew Coffee.
April 29, 2025 by Shira Petrack — Content Manager, Placer.ai
Despite minor dips for Starbucks and Dunkin', overall coffee chain visits are up thanks to the growth of smaller chains, including Dutch Bros, indicating the resilience of affordable luxuries in the current economic climate. Smaller coffee chains are experiencing significant visit growth, potentially driven by consumer preference for indulgent and unique treats in times of limited discretionary consumption.
Starbucks, which releases its latest earnings report later today, continues to be the dominant player in the coffee category, capturing the majority of visits and demonstrating strong customer loyalty, even among patrons of competitor chains.
We dove into the visit data to see how Starbucks, Dunkin,' and Dutch Bros are faring in Q1 2025.
Coffee consumers seeking indulgence
Affordable luxuries like coffee tend to do well in times of rising prices and heightened budget-consciousness. So it should come as no surprise that visits to coffee chains have been on the rise recently, with overall traffic to the category up 1.8% year-over-year (YoY) in Q1 2025. Much of the increase can be attributed to the aggressive expansions of small and medium coffee chains such as Dutch Bros (13.4% YoY increase in visits in Q1 2025), Scooter's Coffee (+15.3% YoY) and 7 Brew Coffee (+87.3%).
Meanwhile, visits to coffee leaders Starbucks and Dunkin' remained relatively stable, falling by just 0.9% and 1.6%, respectively, in line with the wider QSR Q1 2025 YoY visit gap of 1.6%. Contrasting the growth of smaller coffee chains with Starbucks and Dunkin's minor traffic dips may suggest that consumers prefer to spend their limited discretionary funds on unique or decadent treats instead of on classic drinks and pastries.
Starbucks continues to lead
But despite the rapid growth of smaller coffee chains, Starbucks continues to dominate the coffee category, receiving over half of combined visits to Starbucks, Dunkin', Dutch Bros, Scooter's Coffee, and 7 Brew Coffee. At the same time, though, Starbucks' stronghold on the category may be loosening slightly – the Seattle-based coffee giant's relative visit share fell from 55.8% in Q1 2024 to 51.2% in Q1 2025 as smaller chains continued growing and expanding.
The cross-visitation data also highlights Starbucks' dominance. In Q1 2025, the majority of visitors to most other coffee chains (51.3% of Dunkin' visitors, 65.7% of Dutch Bros, and 58.4% of 7 Brew visitors) also visited a Starbucks in the same period. Meanwhile, only 27.4% of Starbucks consumers went to Dunkin' and 16.4% went to Dutch Bros during the analyzed period, with even smaller shares going to Scooter's and 7 Brew. So while the smaller chains are making inroads into the coffee market, Starbucks still commands a strong central position, attracting a majority of coffee-goers and enjoying significant loyalty.
This is republished with permission from Placer.ai and the original article can be found here.
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