Love a morning coffee run to Starbucks? Turns out, you may be hitting the chain during its lull.
In late May, the coffee giant shared in a blog post that while for many customers, a “Starbucks run has long been part of their morning routine," its shops are more often seeing visitors in the afternoon.
"We are seeing more customers stop in later in the day—whether it’s for a refreshing beverage on the go, or a chance to relax in a comfortable chair or in the shade of a green patio umbrella with one of our delicious new food items. And that is beginning to show up in our business in a meaningful way," Starbucks shared.
Specifically, across the U.S., it's seeing shops get filled up with customers in the afternoons and early evenings, with "total visits increasing after 2 p.m." and the biggest gains "between 3 and 5 p.m., where traffic growth is outpacing the rest of the afternoon."
However, while caffeinated beverages like coffee, matcha, and chai remain popular, these afternoon slots are seeing many more requests for drinks like the chain's Refreshers line. "Starbucks Refreshers have become one of the company’s top-selling beverage platforms (second only to espresso) and drive strong performance in the afternoon," Starbucks said.
It added that those who do want a little pick-me-up will often go for the newer Energy Refreshers line, which comes with a little hit of caffeine and B vitamins. It's also seeing a big spike in customers ordering the brand-new Tropical Butterfly Refresher, which launched on May 12 as part of the summer menu.
And really, this all kind of makes sense when you look at the emerging statistics on Americans' coffee consumption.
According to the National Coffee Association (NCA), preparing and drinking coffee at home in the morning remains "by far" the most popular choice, with "82% of past-day coffee drinkers having coffee prepared at home." And, while 86% of past-day drinkers said they had coffee "first thing" in the morning, 38% said they had it at another time in the morning, 22% in the afternoon, and 11% in the evening.
Perhaps more telling is that while traditional coffee popularity has remained unchanged since 2022, specialty coffee (i.e., higher-end beans like those served at Starbucks) has increased by 9.4% over the same period, with 58% of American adults reporting drinking specialty coffee in the past week.
The NCA isn't the only one to reach this finding, either. Ipsos, a market research company, found in its own poll that half of Americans said they "need" coffee to help them get through their afternoons. It's a trend experts also say is unlikely to change any time soon, so be prepared to wait longer in line at Starbucks at 3 p.m. than you may expect.
“Coffee has long been a touchstone in Americans’ daily lives and a powerhouse in our economy, adapting to fit different tastes, trends, budgets, and routines over time," Bill Murray, the president and CEO of the NCA, said. "We expect that to continue for many decades to come.”
