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Mapping Dunkin' vs. Starbucks
By adamg on Mon, 06/03/2013 - 9:25am
The Globe maps every last outlet of each chain and tries to figure out what it means (Dunk's dominates in Massachusetts - surprised?) - all on a page with some interesting scrolling.
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Comments
Typical Globe Link Bait
Seems like the Globe does this map or versions of it every year or two when they want a quick spike in traffic to their Website (sort of like Boston.com's recycling of its 10 Best Boston Burgers list). Okay, I'll admit it's interesting but how many times can you do it before it stops being newsworthy?
Let's turn the Northeast GREEN
It's so interesting to me that in the liberal Northeast we have not managed to insist that DD cut it out with the styrofoam already.
The only way to get a paper cup at DD is to order a small, which of course, then doesn't come with a decent drinking lid - only the old fashioned kind you have to tear and fold back. Also, they stick your plastic iced coffee inside a styrofoam cup??? What IS that? I took one off the other day and handed it back and said it was ridiculous. Because it is.
Starbucks from here on out for me. Let's turn the Northeast GREEN.
Styrafoam tastes bad, too
I stay away from it for that reason alone.
Do all dunks drinkers smoke or something? How can you not taste the nasty?
Greening up coffee...
...does Dunkies let you bring in your own mug for coffee? (The nearest-by cuppa to my workspace comes from an independent convenience store that permits BYO mugs.) Paper's greener than styrofoam, of course, but reusable's even better...
Yes, they do
And they will wash it out before refilling. Some even offer a discount if you bring in a mug.
MORE STYROFOAM!!!
Pretty sure we could do better to save the earth than force DD to lose the styrofoam.
Those cups are ingenious. They insulate my cool drink from the warm summer air, keeping it from melting so quickly, and just as important, it keeps my hands dry from condensation, which might cause me to clumsily drop the slippery plastic cup.
That would be wasteful in its own right. There are starving children in Africa, and there's no way I'm letting my iced coffee tragically slip out of my hands, only to trickle down urine-laden Winter Street. I shudder just thinking about it.
Thank you DD, for such a phenomenal innovation.
Bravo!
I'll second that! (With my styrofoam cup, of course!)
How about we all get used to
How about we all get used to carrying around reusable mugs instead? If you already have a bag with you, is it really that hard?
Ya
maybe with your liberal agenda, we can start handing out government issued mugs at birth.
Too selfish and lazy to carry
Too selfish and lazy to carry your own mug around? Liberals educate themselves and take common sense action, that's a good thing.
by educate
are you referring to all the finger painting classes you took in College?
Proper use of language, much?
Forget college, punctuation and capitalization are something you should have learned in HIGH SCHOOL.
Let me guess: you were too busy ripping the sleeves off your shirts and cutting class because you thought that was cool. Here's a tip: the real grownups at your high school reunion laughed at your stupidity then and are still laughing at you now.
Anon fight! Anon fight!
Anon fight! Anon fight!
How did I miss this epic
How did I miss this epic display of butt-heading?
Its a blog
not my thesis!
Water, soap, and dish towel too
I'd carry around a reusable mug in my bag more often if I had a way to rinse, clean, and dry it at all times as well. Otherwise, I have to carry around a dirty, empty mug or I have to put it back in my bag and pray it doesn't drip out onto anything.
I don't know about DD, but I do know that Starbucks is willing to rinse and even pre-heat your reusable cups before filling it with fresh coffee. So, keep that in mind. It doesn't solve all of my problems, but it's a start.
not too hard...
Eh, just wrap the mug in a small towel or somesuch to catch any drips after/until washing. The dish towel can then go in the laundry for reuse. If you're very paranoid about drips, just keep the mug + towel in a plastic bag and replace that as needed.
So
now you increasing the amount of water, detergent (Sulfate(s) & Phosphate(s), electricity (coal)and plastic you emit into the environment. If i was a liberal/hipster i conclude your argument make perfect scenes.
Oh dear, popcorn time already?
An extra dish towel or two does not require any extra detergent or electricity for the load of laundry into which it goes, and there are plenty of phosphate-free laundry soaps these days. Plastic bags can be reused and are frequently recyclable these days (plus you just wind up with them a lot of the time, so why not put them to good reuse?). I'd have to look into how much water it takes to rinse a mug versus to produce a paper cup, but either way it's better than styrofoam production for the environment. But, hey, why not just do nothing instead? That makes perfect 'scenes'.
Lets turn the Northeast indepedent.
Lets turn the Northeast independent. We have lots of independent coffee shops, support them, not corporate chains like Starbucks or Dunkin. Life is a lot more interesting, and neighborhoods a lot more economically strong, when you spend money at independent businesses.
Gotta agree.. Boston.com does
Gotta agree.. Boston.com does this quite often. this isn't news.. really. They do it every year.
I did find the scrolling to be very.. odd. I had to scroll a few times to make sure I wasn't half away yet (it was pre coffee)
Are we really surprised the highest concentration of Dunks is in New England?
It would be nice to add
It would be nice to add additional data point to this map-- obesity rate.
Other regional chains besides Dunkin?
California has a lot of Starbucks, but it also has a lot of Winchell's Donuts, a chain not found east of Nebraska. If you added that in, and other similar regional chains in other areas, what would the map look like?
McDonalds is better. Dunkin's
McDonalds is better.
Dunkin's is too weak. You have to order a "turbo shot" to get anything beyond slightly coffee-flavored water--that is if you can manage to find someone capable of understanding you. Starbucks is a little better, provided you don't mind the flavor of charcoal.
McDonald's sells more coffee than anyone to boot
As the article points out, Starbucks has more stores and higher sales, but it doesn't mention that Dunkin Donuts sells more hot coffee than Starbucks. However they both lose out to McDonald's, who is the #1 seller of hot brewed coffee in the US, yet we only hear about coffee as if it is exclusively a Dunkins/Starbucks dichotomy.
1. McDonald's
2. Dunkin Donuts
3. Starbucks
4. 7-Eleven
Decline in Dunkin Donuts coffee
Maybe it's my imagination, but I am almost certain there was a time when Dunkin Donuts coffee was better than it is now. I trace it back to the early 90's (or maybe the late 80's) when there was a sharp decline in quality of the coffee. Around the same time, though not at Dunkin Donuts, there was an upturn in the "tastes burnt" bitter type of coffee, which I first noticed at Au Bon Pain, and which was later taken up by Starbucks and others and is now considered the norm.
I think it goes back farther than that...
...there was a time when the pastries at DD were almost edible. They baked them on premises. Now they are stale pieces of crap, which matches the quality of their coffee, but is not fit for human consumption.
I realize you mean flavor when you say weak
and actually, I kinda disagree. Americans have gotten used to dark roast coffee by Starbucks. But the medium roast DD used is perfectly accept
And I wonder how many people know dark roast may taste 'strong', but it actually has less caffeine than a DD or McD's coffee. The more a coffee bean is roasted, the less caffeine it has. Some of the most caffeinated coffee is actually the cheap stuff. I personally never understood the attraction of very dark roast coffee like so-called Italian or Cuban. It's simply burnt coffee, literally. I don't know what the original reason for it coming about was. So-called French roast [which actually has nothing to do with France; the people who marketed it thought calling it French Roast would give it snob appeal.] is the most acceptable dark roast. Even then, I'm not always in a mood for it.
I do understand SB offers coffees other than dark roast, but dark roast is what they're known for.
The problem with DD coffee
The problem with DD coffee tasting weak is not so much how it's roasted but the fact that they put way too much cream and sugar (at least for my taste).
"Regular" coffee
"The problem with DD coffee tasting weak is not so much how it's roasted but the fact that they put way too much cream and sugar (at least for my taste)."
You could always tell them to add less cream and/or sugar.
But since you brought it up, I was born and raised in Boston, and a "regular coffee" (or the colloquial "coffee regular")has always meant coffee with cream and sugar. The question is, who decided coffee served this way is "regular"? Wouldn't it be more logical that plain black coffee is "regular" and anything after that is modified coffee?
Also, when I was younger, "regular" or anyone asking for "coffee with cream and sugar" always got coffee with two spoonfuls of sugar. I notice now that more often than not it is three spoonfuls. Personally I think that's way, way too much sugar.
I always heard
that "regular" coffee was cream, two sugars because it was the most common preference, and therefore, it sped up service as they did not have to ask everyone how much cream and sugar to add. I have heard that this is an Northeast term, only, but I can't confirm.
This is becoming increasingly moot, however, since most places let you add your own cream and sugar. I think Dunkin's one of the few holdouts without a add-your-own bar.
This is what I've heard too.
This is what I've heard too. There used to be a hand-written sign behind the lunch counter at a drugstore in Georgetown (as I recall) that explained this all (which was actually where I had learned it, since I thought black coffee was "regular" up until this point).
The world is not black and white
Or green and pink(ish?)... I for one remain a diehard Peet's fan, and as pointed out there are many other regional chains that have great coffee.
And while the map is a rehash, it's nice to remind my native New Englander friends that there is a reason why so many transplants simply don't understand the cultural love of this mediocre chain... Without the sense-memory from childhood it's just bad re-heated food, stale donuts, and bleh coffee.
Coffee aside, can we address
Coffee aside, can we address the miserable state that is Dunkin Donut's donuts!?
Didn't take their own advice
Remember "time to make the donuts"? They completely turned their back on that model in order to maximize profitability. Almost none of the locations make their own donuts any more and as a result, they get a truck delivery like once per day from some donut factory here in town. And that's as "fresh" as those donuts will ever be.
It's turned the 24-hour DD in Brighton on Market Street into a shell of its former self for a few years now. I don't want the last crappy donut on the shelf at 3 AM that was made 22 hours prior, thanks. About all it's good for to be open that late any more is the coffee...and that's not saying a lot.
Thank You!
I'm visiting San Francisco now, and someone recommended to me this "amazing independent donut shop that's affordable and delicious."
Their donuts, coffee rolls, etc., taste EXACTLY like Dunkin's did, 20 years ago. Same size as old Dunkin, same price as new Dunkin. It's amazing.
What's the name of the place?
I used to go to a great old donut shop in SF when I lived there....Bob's donuts on Polk St.
Oh god, tell me this isn't real
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/03/glazed-do...
Just what I was thinking they needed: some way to slap together their stale donuts, their reconstituted "egg product" and some hot meat in one place.
I think I just threw up a little.
I just wanted to point out I'm awesome
Two weeks later: 'Time to make the doughnuts' ad is over
It's almost as if they read my comment here and decided to make a news story out of it.
Coffee Obsession
Seems people only rate these places on coffee. I have never had a coffee in my entire life, so I'm always looking at everything else. First of all, if I *did* get coffee, I'd not be paying Starbucks prices. Dunkin Donuts also has some decent sandwiches (depends on location alot of times) and an awesome pastry selection.
Also, I would not put up with Starbucks douchebaggery if I were a coffee buyer. "It's a tall, not a large." You know what, douchebag? Just give me a large. And notice how Dunkin dominates all of NYC except douchey Manhattan and Starbucks dominates all of Washington DC (douchebaggery of the worst kind), Texas (more douchebaggery), and California (mixed bag of mostly douchebaggery).
[Lots of snark, very little seriousness. But I am sorta-serious.]
Maybe it's because I don't frequent Starbucks ...
Or maybe I've never been in a truly hardcore Starbucks, but whatever the reason, those times I have gotten a coffee at one, I've never been corrected after asking for a "medium" or "small" instead of whatever it is Starbucks prefers we call their cups.
WGC Starbucks and Dunkins
I remember years ago we all had a big discussion about Starbucks and Dunkins over at the Wicked Good Conference.
People always complain about Starbucks prices. Drip coffee at both places are about the same price and I know for a fact that in the past, Starbucks had a lower price for drip coffee (I don't know what prices are now). Of course Starbucks gets pricey when you start getting the fancy-pants drinks, the Frappuccinos, and the add-ons, but if you just want traditional coffee, price shouldn't be a factor in deciding between Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts.
you are 100% correct.
But don't let that get in the way of a good rant by the dyed in the wool Dunkin Donuts crowd.
The price for a similar product is the same, when drip coffee is concerned. Yes starbucks has their ridiculous set of drinks that cost over $4, but Dunkin Donuts is home of the $4 slurpee.
It all comes down to the coffee...I don't WANT to like SBUX better.....but their coffee is better.
Starbucks is for the nose-in-the-airs!
If you can afford the Starbucks prices, then you think that the grande, venti, etc. names for the sizes is appropriate. Who in their right mind would pay the overpriced $$$$$ for a small, medium, or large? I'd rather have DD's than Starbucks any day!
Pants on fire
Starbucks and DD are about the same price.
ew..
"an awesome pastry selection"??
I'm hoping that part isn't serious. DD donuts have blown chunks for years. Every once in a while I'll break down and buy one and am always reminded how bad they've gotten. Carboard. at best.
It's not convenient, nor cheap, but Give Me Kane's or Give Me Death!!
(Actually give me enough Kane's donuts and death is probably assured. But I'll go fat and happy. And super-diabetic.)
Starbucks pastries...meh. I like the little vanilla scones.
Heated-up pre-cooked breakfast turd sandwiches, Starbucks wins by a nose, but at that point if you're eating those things for breakfast it's not like you're all that choosey anyways.
Give Me Kane's or Give Me Death
+1
But when I say awesome, I typically mean... wide variety. And the donuts are good if you go to a location where they're actually made. Disclaimer on taste/texture: I don't really eat donuts anymore from anywhere except Kane's, and even that is very rare. But DD donuts still at least looks good to me. Haven't heard anyone complain about them.
..where they're actually made....do tell!
Where might that be, for real!? I read (probably on this board) a couple years back that there was one location in MA....somewhere on the south shore or south coast that bakes on premises. If there are any closer to boston don't keep it a secret, where are they?
Anna's in West Roxbury?
Do they make their own do-nuts?
Yes they do!
Every day
"anna's" is a dunkin donuts location?
Serious question: is this Anna's you speak of, a Dunkin Donuts location? You know, the way the DD location in Harvard Square calls itself something else, as well as one in the Financial District?
I was curious if there were DD locations still baking their own pastries, but I"m also happy to learn about any indie enterprise anywhere.
ETA: DO'H My question answered by post below....as Gilda Radner used to say: Never mind!
Hand-cut do-nuts
Photo.
A few DDs still bake their own. And many small donut shops do.
There's a few dozen DD that still bake-on-premises here in new England (and more elsewhere). You're probably thinking about the one in Weymouth, whose owners have been quoted in a couple articles on the subject, but there are others as well (I know there's one in Hillsborough too).
****
Yes Adam, Anna's in WRox make their donuts on the premises - and I'm sure plenty of other small shops do as well (Verna's in Cambridge leaps to mind).
Certainly you remember the myriad threads [color=green]on[/color] [color=red]this[/color] very site about the subject, yes?
DD's makes donuts all over
Some of the larger DD franchisee networks have their own donut bakeries; smaller networks buy their donuts from those bakeries. There's one in Wareham that serves a network on the Cape. There's another one in Pembroke that serves the neighboring towns. I got a tour of the one in Wareham once, and it was both cool and unsettling to see 50 lb bags of donut flour mix (30 dozen donuts per 50#, IIRC), 5 gallon buckets of jelly for the jelly-filled, etc. My favorite part, though, was the honey-combed roller used to cut the Munchkins from rolled out dough.
The best part of the old Krispy Kreme in Dedham
Was watching the donuts get made.
I miss the hot light
It was the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window.
Or am I thinking of a leg lamp?
Meh
I know you're not entirely serious here, but as much as people complain about the pretentious sizes, I've never been corrected or heard anyone else corrected when they order a small, medium, etc. at Starbucks. I also think their customer service is pretty decent. Whenever I've had a problem with my drink, I invariably get a coupon for a free one next time and often they refund me for the one I'm still planning to drink. Contrast that to some of the downtown Dunks where I've gotten a lecture for asking if what was in my coffee was actually milk and not cream (spoiler - it was cream), and been told that "black" means "with a cup of sugar in it.
I'm not a huge fan of Starbucks coffee, but I do appreciate the clean, inviting seating areas in most stores as well as the option for wifi and a place to plug in your laptop. I don't so much appreciate the douchebags who set up camp there for eight hours, but that's not the fault of Starbucks.
Bingo.
Starbucks' service is better, product is better (but not the best thing since sliced bread). Atmosphere *would* be better if people didn't take advantage of it as you mention--staying there the whole day.
Best coffee I've had in Boston lately is at Barrington in Fort Point area.
Agree on all points. I have
Agree on all points.
I have never used Starbucks' made-up names for their drink sizes in my life and have never had a problem. I think one guy said "You mean 'Venti'?" to me one time and that was it.
I should point out, though, that contrary to Nony's experience, I've almost always found the customer service at DD to be pretty good. My only pet peeve is that they sort of expect you to shout your order over the shoulder of the person in front of you if they haven't moved out of the way yet, but it actually works OK if you just shout back at them instead of trying to move closer to the counter as was my natural impulse for a long time.
I know, cool story bro, etc. That's actually way more opinion about the service at local coffee joints than I actually intended to post.
Why not make coffee at home in the AM?
Just out of curiosity, why is stopping for a pre-work coffee a ritual for a lot of you instead of making coffee at home? Is the coffee better than home brew? Is it more convenient? Is it the people behind the counter? Is it the specialty drinks like cafe mocha or cappuccino?
I'm not judging or trying to change anyone's mind, but with Keurig-type brewers, other home gadgets including the traditional coffee maker, and a wide selection of coffee options, I don't know of anyplace where I'd want to wait in line during my commute time.
I do like the coffee I make at home better than Starbucks, Dunkins, etc, but even if I didn't I don't think I would like something enough to wait in line everyday for it.
So, why do you prefer your morning coffee shop ritual over homemade coffee and a Thermos?
I do
I have a huge travel mug I bring on the T with me.. I typically only get coffee at Dunks if I drink my mug first.
It's not either/or
I usually do make my own but sometimes I'm in a rush or (more often than I care to admit) I accidentally leave my carefully prepared travel mug on the kitchen counter. I also sometimes pop out for a cup in the afternoon if I'm having a stressful day and need to get out of the office for a couple of minutes.
I tend to stop more often in the summer for an iced coffee because I don't tend to keep a pitcher in my fridge at home and I am not a fan of the iced Keurig cups. But then it's usually at Boston Common Coffee where they cold-brew their iced coffee. That stuff is amazing.
A couple of my reasons
My Keurig (pre-Vue) doesn't get hot enough. It's nice if I just want a cup-a-joe, but otherwise it's not the best flavor profile. Also, one K-cup would make 16 oz of coffee-colored water...so if I want my "grande" (16 oz) in the morning, then I need to burn 2 K-cups...and now we're approaching the same price as Starbucks drip coffee (about $2).
So, Starbucks is better than Keurig for flavor and compares well on cost.
Also, it's a nice ritual. I drive to work. Walk from my car across the street to the Starbucks and back across to my office to start the day. It's a nice diversion that doesn't mean starting the day only seeing the bathroom, the kitchen, the car, the office. There's some social-ness to being with a random assortment of people buying coffee and interacting with the staff that the Keurig isn't going to reciprocate until Skynet is in charge.
I can make nice coffee at home when I want to...like the weekends. I can even make fancy espresso drinks if I fire up the De'Longhi. But then it's just "getting ready for work" mentally...and I like it not being just that.
This is good insight
Thanks.
Good question. Not every day for me
..,.,.or even pre-work for that matter.
Getting coffee away from home every day was cut from my budget years ago. I don't make coffee at home during the week because it is not worth the hassle to carry the extra item (mug) on the T with me.
Instead I sacrifice quality for price and hit the free coffee machine at work. If I'm running an errand or going out to lunch (both kind of rare for me) during the workday I'll hit an independent place (if one exists nearby) or a starbucks for an early afternoon pick-me-up.
Keurigs are popular as hell,....but also overpriced IMO. But their patent is expiring soon , so look out for the generic equivalents! Plus, although they have thousands of varieties, I haven't found one that was so great. Maybe I need to try all of them.
Keurig's value is cleanup
Of course, it's not that hard to set up a traditional drip brewer on a timer the night before, but I went with Keurig over my drip brewer because half the week I would either forget to clean the basket and replace it with fresh coffee or I would fall asleep on the couch and skip it. And I got tired of doing all that in the morning when I clearly didn't budget that time into my morning routine.
I resisted buying a Keurig for a long time because, as Kaz points out, 2 K-Cups a day doesn't save you that much money vs the coffee shop and it is 3-5 times more expensive than if you bought a premium whole bean coffee and brewed it at home. I only recommend Keurig to people if they have the same time budgeting problem with coffee as I do.
Keurigs need to be cleaned too..
...but not nearly as often. I know this because my office used to have one. And guess who was the only one around who cared enough to clean it? Couple that with people stealing the kCups to take home to their own personal machines and the Keurig at my office got KO'ed.
Patent ran out
The patent has already expired (last September). It's why you're going to see more K-cup options (Peet's just released K-cups last month! Yay!). It's also why they created the Vue magically just a few months before the K-cup patents ran out!
And look! Vue packets are new and different and K-cups aren't compatible with their new system...imagine that...
Peet's has K-cups?!
Oh, man. I will be shipping a big box of those ahead of me when I return to the Midwest in a few weeks.
Here you go
http://www.peets.com/coffee/single-cups.html
You can have them mailed straight to you.
Dunkin vs. Starbucks
Many years ago when Starbucks first opened in the lobby of BIDMC, I was corrected by an employee when I ordered a medium coffee. After telling him what I thought of him, he quickly got over himself and offered me a free coupon for any drink. This was the first and last time anyone demanded that I use their terminology. I rarely do.
I am old enough to remember when it was "time to make the doughnuts". There was something so magical about someone bringing home a box that was so fresh...that magic is long gone.
Personally I don't give myself time to stop for coffee every morning. Never understood why people think that is quicker than making a cup at home, but I feel I am in the minority on this one.
If only
Twin donuts + Peet's coffee + Toscanini's music and vibe + Panera's free refills and free wireless = the perfect cafe experience.
Also, don't forget the appeal of clean toilets. I think they actually contribute to the success of the coffee chains at least as much as their products do. Too many locally owned places still fall victim to that old fashioned tight assed yankee frugality. Whats their thinking, "I can save a few bucks and get customers off my premises faster by keeping seating below the rest room threshold." ? We don't want to hold it in any more, small business owners !