While the overall dining business took a beating from COVID-19, leading coffee brands have proven resilience in the face of the pandemic. Indeed, foot traffic data for the coffee space shows that visits returned to pre-COVID levels in April 2021, and have consistently outpaced 2019 numbers since May 2021, according to a new white paper from Placer Labs.
The report says coffee vendors posted year-over-year growth of 8.4 percent in November and 7.5 percent in December, while overall dining experienced a decline in visits of 6.4 percent and 1.8 percent compared to 2019 —showing that the demand for coffee stands apart from the wider demand for dining.
“This reveals that the demand for coffee can remain robust in the face of widespread disruptions to routines,” a report summary reads.
Though Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts are usually the first brands that come to mind when the conversation turns to national coffee chains, there are several other national coffee