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Coffee Shop Segment Continues to Percolate Sales

The number of coffee shop locations increased by 2,900 over the past 5 years, NPD Group reports.

 

There are 33,129 gourmet coffee shops in the U.S., a 2 percent increase in units from last year, based on a restaurant census conducted by The NPD Group. These figures do not include restaurants and other foodservice operations that serve coffee, too.

Chain coffee shop units increased by 5.9 percent in the census period to a total of 18,445 units, NPD reports. In contrast, the number of independent coffee shop locations declined by 2.2 percent for a total of 14,684 units. 

Taking a longer view, total coffee shops grew by 2,990 units over the past 5 years, according to NPD’s Spring 2017 ReCount restaurant census.

In terms of market popularity, the NPD report looks at the number of coffee shops per capita or the number of coffee shops for every million people. Among metro areas Juneau, Alaska, ranks the highest in density with 22 coffee shops serving the city’s population of 32,519, according to NPD. Alaskan sibling city Anchorage is second with 170 coffee shops for a population of 431,231. In rank order, Bend, Ore.; Seattle; and Portland, Ore.; follow with the most coffee shops per capita.

Consumer demand for foodservice coffee appears to be in line with their access. There were 8.3 billion servings of coffee ordered at U.S. restaurants and foodservice outlets in the year ending August 2017, up 2.3 percent from the same period last year, according to NPD. Regular or traditional coffee remains still the most popular type of coffee with 4.4 billion servings ordered in the period but specialty coffee is not far behind with 4 billion servings ordered.