Beyond the Video: Full Script of Coffee Industry Insight from the Recording of “How 5 Major Coffee Brands Actually Make Their Money”
Coffee Expert, Matthew Evilsizor was asked to be on the series “The Hustle” to share industry insights about Five Major coffee brands and how they actually make money. Covering everything from menu design to store layout, customer experience, loyalty programs, and equipment selections that lead to success for the big players. The finished video product was distilled into 20 minutes of more consumer friendly insights. But we wanted to share the full script that reflected the depth of insights and reflections aligned with a lifetime of coffee indudstry experience that was shared in a 5 hour filming session. Below is the oroiginal script, these insights are purely the perspective of Matthew Evilsizor and are not endorsed or directly connected to any of the businesses discussed. You can read the whole script below and You can also check out the Hubspot sponsored video Here.
Show: The Hustle x Hubspot®
Series: 5 Ways to Win an Industry
Episode: How 5 Major Coffee Brands Actually Make Their Money
Ep Release: July 02, 2026
Brands Discussed: STARBUCKS | MCDONALDS | DUNKIN’ | DUTCH BROS | BLANK STREET
Disclaimer: The analysis and commentary shared here reflects the opinions, interpretations, and industry perspective of Matthew Evilsizor. They are not official statements from, endorsed by, or directly affiliated with any of the companies, brands, or businesses discussed.
The data, examples, and market insights referenced in this script were based on the most current publicly available information we were able to identify at the time of the original shoot. Because the coffee industry, company strategies, pricing, ownership structures, and market conditions can change over time, some details may have shifted since recording.
SCRIPT for Matthew Evilsizor
PERSONAL INTRO
I’m Matthew Evilsizor, a coffee consultant and founder of Conscious Bean, We’re A caffination design firm rooted here in Los Angeles Ca.
Over the years I’ve been grateful to design cafés, coffee programs, and luxury coffee experiences for everything from primetime red carpet events, to bespoke high profile unveilings, and 2 sitting US presidents.
But to play at this level, coffee itself is almost never the real product you’re providing, it’s the vehicle to the feeling.
To me, The space between the arrival and the first sip is the theater that primes for lasting memory to be created. That’s where a simple commodity becomes something much bigger.
So today’s, I was invited in to break down five of the big coffee chains… and show you what I’m actually looking at when I assess a coffee company.
We’ll look at everything from store design and menu architecture… to loyalty systems and customer psychology. I hope to give you an understanding of how these brands are actually engineered to make money. So come on the journey with me… This, is 5 Ways to Win.
STORE DESIGN & LOCATION STRATEGY
Store design shapes customer behavior.
It changes how long people stay.How often they return.How much they spend.And how they emotionally relate to a brand.
For Starbucks, design historically focused on “dwell time.”Getting customers to stay longer, build emotional attachment, and justify premium pricing.
For McDonald’s and Dunkin’… the focus is much more operational.Speed. Efficiency. Throughput. Lower operating costs.
And then brands like Dutch Bros and Blank Street take a different approach.They optimize for efficiency, too… but they also try to build interaction and identity directly into the customer experience.
From a financial standpoint, store layout matters way more than most people realize.
For quick-service restaurants, optimizing your layout around the nuances of your process flow makes all the difference. I often see people turn around, bend over, and reach for milk from the fridge behind them each time they prepare 250 lattes a day. That leads to injury and burnout on top of time wasted. Or placing their ice machine in the far corner and walking 10 steps each direction times 200 drinks a day. These glaring inefficiencies result in large profit loss. Knowing what your business is about and optimizing for it is essential. I mean if you’re a drip coffee business, your brewer should be within arm's reach, and if it’s not your missing your identity.
The same goes for the drive-thru. That means lane design, queue flow, prep stations, pickup windows… all these organizational flows become major business variables. According to the National Coffee Association, a record 59% of American consumers who purchased coffee picked it up at a drive-thru.
And for quick serves, drive-thru sales often account for roughly 70–80% of total revenue according to Intouch Insights.
That’s important because it explains why nearly every major coffee chain has been aggressively moving toward smaller, drive-thru-oriented formats.
Smaller stores are cheaper to build.They fit on smaller parcels.They require fewer employees.And they can often generate higher revenue per square foot. But we will dig into that more as we go.
Naturally, the atmosphere matters too.
The materials used, the ease of process flow from beginning to end, the size, shape, and hardness of the chair you sit in, the smells, the sounds, etc all these details affect both time spent in-store and money spent.
That’s why atmosphere is such a massive part of brands like Starbucks, Dutch Bros, and Blank Street.They’re not just selling coffee.They’re designing emotional environments.
STARBUCKS - Store Design and Location Stategy
Starbucks stores are really designed around two competing goals.
On one side, they want you to stay.Sit down.Work.Hang out.Build emotional attachment to the space.
But at the exact same time… they also need to move people through quickly. It’s hard to make a profitable business model when your customers are take occupying your seating for 4 hours but only buying a 3$ cup of coffee.
Luckily, mobile ordering has expanded the options and streamlined two situations. Sit and stay awhile, or get it quickly and go.
And honestly, that tension is the entire Starbucks model.
Starbucks popularized what’s called the “third place” concept.The idea that a coffee shop should exist somewhere between home and work.Not just a place to buy coffee… but a place to exist for a while.
To work remotely.Meet friends.Study. Spend time.Your home away from home.
And that completely changed American coffee culture.
Before Starbucks, coffee in the U.S. was mostly functional.Diners.Offices.Homes.You drank it in a ceramic mug, and you took a functional little break.
Starbucks transformed coffee into an experience.And that experience helped justify paying five, seven, even ten dollars for a drink.
To facilitate these experiences, their stores are intentionally broken into what are basically “micro-environments.”
You’ll see lounge seating with warm lighting and soft chairs.Communal tables designed for working or meetings.Bar seating facing windows for solo customers.And quicker seating near entrances for high turnover.
The power outlets’ placement matters.
Limiting power outlets actually helps regulate the rhythm of the store. You don’t want people tripping over cords as they walk through your store.Additionally, too many outlets and people camp there all day.Too few and the space loses its “third place” appeal.
Then there’s the sensory branding.
The espresso bar is almost always positioned as the visual anchor of the store.You hear steaming milk.Coffee grinders.Baristas calling drinks.
Operations become performance.
You’re not just buying a latte.You’re paying to watch it be made.
And that performance reinforces craftsmanship and transparency… which helps justify premium pricing.
Starbucks also localizes stores incredibly well.
No two stores look exactly the same.But they all feel the same.
Materials change depending on region.Artwork references local culture.Layouts adapt to neighborhoods.
But the emotional language of the brand stays consistent.
That avoids the “cookie-cutter chain” feeling while still maintaining brand identity.
And then there’s location strategy.
Starbucks became dominant partly because it embraced what’s called a cluster strategy.
Especially throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Starbucks intentionally saturated dense urban areas with multiple stores.
The idea was simple:Even if stores cannibalized each other slightly… Starbucks still controlled the market.
Eventually the brand became psychologically unavoidable.Not just an option… but the default.
Today Starbucks has more than 40,000 stores globally across roughly 80 countries.
At one point in China, a new Starbucks was opening every 15 hours.
And now the company is redesigning stores yet again.
Because mobile ordering changed everything.
Starbucks now has to serve two completely different customers simultaneously:
The digital customer who wants speed.And the experiential customer who wants atmosphere.
That’s why newer stores have:
separate handoff zones, redesigned queues, more pickup-focused layouts, and increasingly more drive-thru formats
The company is constantly balancing convenience against experience.
And honestly, modern Starbucks is now trying to reverse some of the psychological damage caused by over-transactionalization.
For years, mobile ordering optimized the brand for speed and efficiency.But in the process, many stores lost some of the warmth and emotional intimacy that originally made Starbucks successful.
That’s why the company is now pushing softer interiors, warmer textures, local artwork, more seating, free refills, and redesigned espresso bars that bring craft back into view.
Starbucks is not trying to be the fastest experience.It’s trying to make convenience still feel premium.
MCDONALD’S / MCCAFÉ - Store Design and Location Stategy
Where Starbucks optimized for emotional attachment and atmosphere… McDonald’s optimized for throughput.
McCafé is not really built around “coffee culture.”It’s built around frequency.
The goal is to attach coffee to an already-existing habit loop. Like your breakfast routine. Or your drive to work.
Operational efficiency matters more than sensory experience.
Unlike Starbucks, McDonald’s usually hides the espresso station behind the counter.The system is standardized, simplified, and designed for speed. While still being good enough to compete in the general coffee shop category.
And honestly… that’s one of McDonald’s greatest strengths.
The company is obsessed with operational systems.
Once an order is placed, it instantly routes into digital kitchen displays.Employees work in highly segmented assembly-line workflows.Every movement is organized.
That level of standardization reduces training complexity and increases consistency. This is essential in a high-turnover industry like fast food or coffee. But honestly, that is one of the main shortcomings of most coffee businesses is that they lack a strong training program. This shortcoming leads to waste, inefficiency, and inconsistent product quality.
But not McDonald's, their focus on consistency is one of the reasons they’ve become one of the most dominant restaurant companies on Earth.
Modern McDonald’s layouts are also heavily built around zonal design.
Ordering kiosks.Pickup areas.Drive-thru lanes.Separate queue systems.
Everything is designed to reduce friction.
McDonald’s is not trying to create an atmosphere in the Starbucks sense.It’s trying to make complexity frictionless.
One of the smartest systems they use is the single-line-to-multiple-register setup.That eliminates the psychological frustration of choosing the “wrong line.”
And then the kiosks themselves become digital salespeople.
“Add a coffee for a dollar?”“Upgrade your meal?”“Add hash browns?”
The system quietly increases average order value. While saving the most expensive line item on a balance sheet- the employee.
The drive-thru is even more important.
About 70% of McDonald’s sales come through the drive-thru.
So lane geometry, menu board placement, beverage stations, handoff timing… all matter.
About 95% of locations are franchised is is a big revenue driver but that’s not their core business. Fundamentally, McDonald's is a real estate company. Thanks to the dubious genius of Ray Crock, they often own the land underneath the franchised restaurant. That’s one of the main hidden engines behind McDonald’s wealth.
And their site selection strategy is incredibly sophisticated.
Population density.Traffic flow.Transit routes.Visibility.Commuter behavior.
Nothing is random.
You’ll often notice McDonald’s positioned just after a stoplight… where drivers are forced to stare at the golden arches before making an easy right turn into the property.
That’s not an accident.
Those tiny operational details become billion-dollar advantages at scale.
DUNKIN’ - Store Design and Location Stategy
Where Starbucks optimized for atmosphere… and McDonald’s optimized for systems… Dunkin’ optimized for speed and routine.
Dunkin’ franchises nearly 100% of its locations.It operates with an extremely asset-light business model.
That means lower capital requirements, faster expansion, and lower operational risk.
And you can clearly feel that philosophy in the store design.
Dunkin’ stores are built around function over feeling.
No emotion. Minimal seating. Smaller footprints. High turnover.
Honestly, Dunkin’ has always felt more like a cafeteria than a third place.And I don’t necessarily mean that negatively.
The goal is not to make customers stay.The goal is to make them come back tomorrow morning because its an easy routine.
Starbucks tries to dignify the pause.Dunkin’ tries to accelerate the run.
And operationally, they’re very good at that.
Roughly 70% of Dunkin’ orders now come from drive-thru, mobile ordering, or delivery.
The company heavily optimizes for speed.
And according to the 2025 QSR Drive-Thru Report, Dunkin’ actually ranked fastest overall in drive-thru timing.
Faster than Starbucks.Faster than Dutch Bros.Even faster than McDonald’s.
Historically, Dunkin’ built its identity around drip coffee.But as Gen Z consumer behavior shifted toward iced beverages, refreshers, and highly customized drinks… Dunkin’ began repositioning itself.
That’s where the “NextGen” stores come in.
Lighter woods.Brighter, cleaner aesthetics.Digital kiosks.Mobile pickup.Beverage taps.More iced beverage focus.
You can clearly see them trying to modernize the brand while still preserving the “America Runs on Dunkin’” identity.
Functionally, the long linear layouts are not personally my favorite.But they’re cost-effective.Efficient.Easy to replicate.
And that matters at scale. And that gets back to the point.
Dunkin’s real superpower is convenience.
The company aggressively places stores along commuter paths:
gas stations
strip malls
subway corridors
high-traffic suburban routes
The brand creates what’s basically a convenience moat.
Even if another coffee shop has slightly better coffee… Dunkin’ wins by simply being easier.
In a lot of ways, Dunkin’ behaves less like café hospitality… and more like commute infrastructure.
DUTCH BROS - Store Design and Location Stategy
Dutch Bros approaches coffee completely differently.
The brand is built around energy.Interaction.And emotional engagement.
The goal is not to stay for a long time.It’s to have a really good time for a short time.
As of early 2026, Dutch Bros has roughly 1,100 locations across 25 states.And interestingly, the company stopped allowing outside franchising years ago.
That reflects how seriously they take consistency and company culture.
Now financially, Dutch Bros is a fantastic model to study.
There’s a general business rule that restaurants need to generate roughly ten times their square footage in revenue to work economically.
Dutch Bros basically hacks that equation.
Instead of building giant cafés with seating, bathrooms, Wi-Fi, and lounge areas… they compress the entire experience into roughly 950 square feet.
Over 90% of their business comes through the drive-thru.
That creates what’s essentially an asset-light retail model.
Once the initial drive-thru infrastructure is built, there’s dramatically less money tied up in dining rooms, furniture, bathrooms, seating maintenance, and large staffing requirements.
That dramatically lowers overhead.With little to no furniture.Less maintenance. And smaller staffing requirements.
And because the stores are so compact, revenue per square foot becomes extremely efficient.
Dutch Bros also benefits from one of the strongest average unit volume metrics in the category.
An average unit volume, or AUV, measures how much annual revenue an average location generates.
And Dutch Bros performs extremely well, averaging roughly 2.1 million dollars annually per store.Compared to roughly 1.6 million for Starbucks U.S. locations and around 1.2 million for Dunkin’.
And importantly… that growth is being driven more by volume than by raising prices.
That’s usually a healthier long-term signal.
One of the most interesting things about Dutch Bros is how they weaponize lines for marketability.
Have you ever seen a huge line outside a business and immediately thought:“What’s going on over there?”
That’s social proof.
Brands like In-N-Out and Dutch Bros intentionally lean into that psychology.Long lines signal hype.Popularity.Demand.
And within reason… waiting can actually increase perceived value.
The environment matters too.
Other coffee brands use lighting, furniture, smell, and architecture to create emotional attachment.Dutch Bros does it through social interaction.
Loud music.Bright colors.High-energy staff.Oversized drinks.Fast interactions.
At Dutch Bros, the employees ARE the atmosphere
.The “broistas” are trained to be conversational, upbeat, and highly engaging.
And honestly, it works.
The company consistently scores incredibly high in friendliness and customer satisfaction rankings.
But scalability becomes the question.
As the brand grows larger and larger… can they realistically maintain that same emotional intensity across thousands of stores?
That’s one of the biggest long-term questions for the company.
Because Dutch Bros is the real outlier here.
McDonald’s systematizes interaction.Dunkin’ minimizes friction.Starbucks leans into the environmental experience.Blank Street quiets it.
Dutch Bros monetizes interaction itself.
BLANK STREET - Store Design and Location Stategy
Blank Street might is the most modern brand in this entire group.
The company launched during the pandemic with electric-powered mobile carts.
And honestly… that was a really timely strategy.
Instead of committing immediately to expensive cafés and long-term leases during a chaotic economic period… they started with ultra-small flexible formats and scaled aggressively.
They launched in 2020 and by 2022, had over 40 locations in NYC alone, focusing on a "micro-retail" expansion strategy.
They started as a hyper-local small-format store in Brooklyn. it is quickly expanding into other cities.
Mobile Carts & Kiosks: Placed in high-density areas such as parks, building lobbies, and courtyards.
Micro-Storefronts: Small retail sites in busy urban neighborhoods focusing on rapid, contactless pickup.
While this is a unique strategy, prospective operators should be wary: the 'asset-light' allure of a coffee cart comes with significant hidden regulatory hurdles. From the mandatory daily return to a commissary for cleaning logs and business storage, to the complex logistics of potable water and bathroom access agreements, it is far from a 'park and play' business model that many think it is.
Blank Street’s success lies in its sophisticated hub-and-spoke execution. Centralizing the heavy infrastructure in commissaries while deploying a fleet of carts allows for a unique business model that is cost-efficient. This balanced approach minimizes the capital footprint without sacrificing the premium cafe experience, a vision clearly validated by their substantial venture capital backing.
As the company expanded into brick-and-mortar locations, they’ve kept stores small, minimalist, targeting locations near busy subway stops in residential and commercial neighborhoods across NYC, London, Boston, and Washington D.C.
Right now, Blank Street’s edge is their ultra-small footprint. We're talking 350 to 500 square foot shops and mobile carts that let them dodge heavy infrastructure and high rent. It’s a brilliant differentiator for competing in high-end markets.
But I’m really curious to see how this 'micro-expansion' holds up in a place like California. In this state, a 350-square-foot shop just isn’t legally possible. Even if you're strictly 'to-go,' you're still looking at non-negotiable spatial obligations: grease traps, floor drains, and ADA-compliant restrooms.
The biggest footprint-killer, though, is the plumbing. California generally requires five different commercial sinks, including a massive 110-inch three-basin unit that, by itself, swallows over 50 square feet of production space. When you add in mandatory ADA walkways, I strongly speculate that their footprint will have to double to around 1,000 square feet just to meet code, which is exactly the sizing we see fromDutch Bros.
It raises a big question for their business model: will they adapt to these larger, more expensive footprints, or will they shift focus to states with more lenient health regulations?
MENU ARCHITECTURE
Before we even talk about these brands individually… we need to talk about what happened to coffee culture in America.
Because modern coffee culture is actually pretty new.
Coffee used to be communal.
Drink a shot of espresso in a small cafe, talk with your neighbors and move on with your day.
And internationally, that’s still largely the case.
You really don’t see people walking around most countries carrying giant 20-ounce paper cups the way Americans do.That’s a very American thing.
Even in the U.S., coffee historically lived in diners, offices, and homes. You had a coffee break. You drank from ceramic mugs. It was social.
Then commuter culture changed everything.
Disposable cup infrastructure expanded. People drove more. Both people went to work. And coffee slowly became mobile.
But Starbucks was really the company that transformed coffee from a beverage… into a lifestyle object that you carry. An affordable status symbol.
That shift completely changed the industry.
Starbucks normalized Italian drink names. Latte. Espresso. Cappuccino.
It normalized oversized drinks. Premium pricing. Customization. Branded cups.
And psychologically, people started associating coffee with ambition, movement, urban lifestyle, and productivity.
Then Frappuccinos exploded. Third-place culture exploded. Shows like Friends normalized hanging out in cafés constantly.
And eventually that evolved into specialty coffee and third-wave coffee culture.
But there’s a problem with true specialty coffee.
It’s incredibly hard to scale.
Running a traditional espresso machine and grinder at a genuinely high level takes years of experience.
And coffee is not a highly paid industry.
So Starbucks became one of the first companies to truly standardize café quality at scale.
They invested heavily into custom superautomatic espresso systems.
Machines that automated huge portions of the process… while still preserving the theater of espresso making.
For years, most superautomatics simply weren’t good enough.
But now companies like Eversys® have changed the game.
Today, if you have the 30,000 to 50,000 to put towards the machine, you can produce a legitimately quality espresso drink with very little training.
And once quality became easier to standardize… the competitive advantage shifted.
It moved away from craftsmanship… and toward customer experience.
I’ve always said: A café with ten-out-of-ten coffee and an eight-out-of-ten experience will usually lose to a café with seven-out-of-ten coffee and a ten-out-of-ten experience.
People want emotional reinforcement around the experience itself. They want to feel good about their actions.
And that shift opened the door for brands like Dutch Bros and Blank Street.
Then Gen Z accelerated everything.
Millennials experienced the transition from:“coffee equals black drip coffee”into“coffee equals personalized beverage.”
But Gen Z was born directly into personalized beverage culture.
To Gen Z:
alternative milks are normal
Customization is expected
Cold drinks are default
Syrup is standard
Energy drinks overlap with coffee- now it’s just caffeine
And iced drinks solve a lot psychologically.
They last longer. They’re easier to carry. They suppress bitterness. They photograph better. They feel more social.
A black coffee doesn’t communicate very much.
But an iced matcha with lavender cold foam, ube syrup, and strawberry puree?That becomes an identity object.
A lot of modern “coffee” drinks are honestly closer to dessert beverages or energy drinks than traditional coffee.
But that combination of:
sugar
caffeine
customization
aesthetics
identity signaling
creates an incredibly powerful dopamine engine.
And that dopamine hit is one of the main drivers of memory creation, which reinforces habit.
Which is why modern coffee chains increasingly behave less like coffee houses… and more like beverage lifestyle brands.
The modern competition is no longer: “Who makes the best coffee?”
It’s “Who creates the most emotionally rewarding daily ritual?”
STARBUCKS - MENU ARCHITECTURE
Before Starbucks, coffee in America was mostly positioned as a functional caffeine product.
Cheap. Fast. Predictable.
Starbucks changed that.
The company reframed coffee as a premium experience.
Better ingredients.Italian drink names. Customization. More atmosphere.
And importantly… more margin.
Today, Starbucks still sits in this interesting middle ground.
They want to maintain the image of an elevated Italian-inspired coffee company… while also competing directly inside modern Gen Z beverage culture.
So their menu has to balance both worlds.
Classic espresso drinks. Drip coffee. Tea. Refreshers. Cold foam. Seasonal drinks. Frappuccinos.
They’re trying to remain premium and emotionally comforting… while still staying culturally relevant.
And structurally, the entire menu is built around modularity.
Starbucks basically pioneered modular menu design.
Same ingredients… endless combinations.
Different milk. Different syrup. Different toppings. Different foam. Different temperatures.
And psychologically, that matters.
People value things more when they feel like they helped create them.
Customization increases perceived ownership. We enjoy things more when we create it.
This is one of the reasons Starbucks became so dominant.
What’s interesting though, is that mobile ordering completely changed the viability of this system.
Years ago, hyper-customized drinks created bottlenecks.Customers standing at the register ordering six modifications slowed the entire café down. Thats why the dual register layout became so common.
But now customers can quietly customize everything through the app at their own pace.
And that increased ticket prices dramatically.
Because people are much more willing to add cold foam, extra shots, syrups, alternative milks, and toppings when they are just clicking a box. “
Oh, this isn’t money, it’s just a selection of what I want.
The menu architecture also reinforces identity.
Even writing names on cups matters psychologically.
People love hearing and seeing their own name. It’s the sweetest sound, some say. And this sound creates belonging, value, and personal attachment.
Then, Starbucks layers seasonal drops on top of all of this.
Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Peppermint Mochas. Red cups. Unicorn Frappuccinos.
These are not just beverages.They become cultural moments.
They strategically link a beverage to high-emotion times like holidays, turning the drink into a powerful emotional anchor. This technique leverages our heightened emotional state to create deeply rooted memories, ensuring the product is forever tethered to the feeling of that season.
Another psychological tool used is the urgency created by limited-time products.
Behavioral economists call this loss aversion.
As Psychologically, people feel the pain of losing something more strongly than the pleasure of gaining something.
So when customers know a drink is disappearing soon… desire increases.
The menu also uses classic pricing psychology.
The larger drink sizes are often priced only slightly above the medium.
That makes the larger size feel like the better value.
This is closely tied to what’s called the compromise effect.
People usually avoid extremes.The small feels too small.The large initially feels excessive.But once the middle option exists… suddenly the large feels justified.
You see this strategy everywhere.Streaming subscriptions.Software pricing.Meal combos.
Starbucks just applied it brilliantly to coffee.
MCDONALD’S - MENU ARCHITECTURE
McDonald's provides a masterclass in brand reinvention through McCafé. Back in the early 2000s, they were struggling with a 'processed food' image that was falling outside of favor with a more health-conscious generation. To fix this, they didn't just change the menu; they staged a total 'glow-up' by directly leveraging the Starbucks energy.
They basically asked, “What if we can give the cafe experience but at McDonald’s prices?”
They strategically moved away from the hard plastic benches and bright primary colors of traditional fast food, opting instead for the muted earth tones and lounge vibes of a modern coffeehouse.
This wasn't just a paint job; it was a spatial play to change how the brand felt. By aligning this high-end interior shift with a simultaneous elevation of their food quality, they successfully transitioned into the world’s number two coffee reatailer.
They leveraged their massive store count to bring that coffee house experience to the masses and become a major player in the coffee game while positioning themselves into a pricing segment for which they were already know.. Effectively using McCafé as the vehicle to pull their entire brand image out of the dumps and into the modern era.
McCafe became a significant revenue stream for McDonald's with executives crediting the coffee and breakfast business for helping the brand's turnaround.
Today, the brand sells nearly 8 million cups of coffee per day globally through its McCafe line. Moving well over a billion cups annually in the U.S. alone.
And that scale matters because McDonald’s can leverage existing infrastructure, labor systems, and real estate to distribute coffee far more efficiently than most standalone coffee concepts ever could.
But operationally, McCafé’s greatest strength is simplification.
One of the biggest issues I constantly see in coffee shops is a lack of training systems.
Without standardized workflows, cafés struggle with:
quality consistency
food waste
portion control
labor efficiency
Especially in an industry with high employee turnover like fast food and coffee.
But McDonald’s is built entirely around repeatable systems.
Highly detailed operations manuals.Highly controlled workflows.Streamlined equipment.
It’s a beautiful thing.
Instead of introducing highly complicated espresso programs… McDonald’s simplified the coffee menu around superautomatic systems and existing operational infrastructure, giving them a foot into the coffee world without actually reinventing themselves operationally.
That dramatically lowers training complexity.
And unlike Starbucks, coffee at McDonald’s is rarely the destination purchase.
It’s the add-on.
Coffee is integrated into existing breakfast behavior.
Breakfast combos.Dollar coffee upgrades.Bundle pricing.
And psychologically, bundled coffee feels cheaper.
When coffee is attached to an existing meal purchase, consumers stop evaluating it independently.
It just becomes part of the routine.
The kiosks amplify this even more.
“Add coffee for one dollar?”
That tiny digital suggestion quietly drives incremental revenue that’s massive at scale.
And visually, McDonald’s menus still prioritize food.
Food dominates the visual hierarchy.Coffee usually sits secondary.
Which makes sense.
McDonald’s is not trying to create café culture.They’re trying to increase total transaction value.
And pricing becomes one of their strongest competitive advantages.
Compared to Starbucks, McDonald’s coffee pricing feels dramatically more approachable.
That creates what’s basically a psychological “value win.”
Consumers feel smart buying coffee there.
Not luxurious.Not aspirational.Smart.
And for a massive percentage of consumers… that positioning works extremely well.
DUNKIN’ - MENU ARCHITECTURE
Dunkin’ sits somewhere between Starbucks and McDonald’s.
Coffee is absolutely the core identity of the brand… but the company still heavily optimizes for speed and routine.
Historically, Dunkin’ was built around drip coffee and donuts.
But over time the company realized something important:Coffee is habitual.Donuts are occasional.
So the brand gradually repositioned itself away from being “Dunkin’ Donuts”… into simply “Dunkin’.”
That shift tells you everything.
Coffee became the anchor.
Today Dunkin’ sells more than 4 billion cups of coffee annually.
And nearly 90% of Dunkin’ transactions include a beverage.
That’s important because beverages usually carry stronger margins than food while also reinforcing daily habit behavior.
The menu is intentionally designed around frequency.Morning routine with easy repeat purchases.
Unlike Starbucks, Dunkin’ intentionally limits customization complexity.
Customers still get personalization.Flavor shots.Alternative milks.Sweetness adjustments.
But the system stays visually simple.Operationally controlled.
Because too much customization slows throughput.
And Dunkin’ understands that its core customer usually values speed over endless personalization.
What’s interesting now though is watching Dunkin’ move increasingly toward Gen Z beverage culture.
Refreshers.Protein drinks.Matcha.Energy-style beverages.Cold drinks.
You can clearly see the influence of Dutch Bros and Starbucks on the modern Dunkin’ strategy.
And honestly… I think this is a really delicate balancing act for them.
Because historically, Dunkin’ succeeded by being simple, approachable, and routine-driven.
Once you start introducing highly trendy beverages… you start attracting a different customer with different expectations.
And this is something most businesses fail to understand:You have to know exactly who your customer is.
Some demographics want adventurous flavors.Others want predictability.
Some customers care deeply about premium matcha quality.Others literally cannot tell the difference.
You have to match the product to the customer at the correct price point… or the brand loses clarity.
Dunkin’ also positions itself aggressively around value.
Meal bundles.Rewards days.Limited-time deals.No upcharge for non-dairy milk.
Honestly, one of my favorite things Dunkin’ has ever done is remove non-dairy milk upcharges. This was psychologically one of the smartest things possible.
It removes a major annoyance customers increasingly associate with Starbucks.
And it reinforces Dunkin’ as the easier, less pretentious everyday option.
DUTCH BROS - MENU ARCHITECTURE
Dutch Bros barely behaves like a traditional coffee company anymore.
Even though it’s one of the largest coffee chains in America… the company actually sells surprisingly little traditional hot coffee.
The menu is built around:
iced beverages
energy drinks
flavor combinations
customization
visual identity
And that strategy aligns almost perfectly with younger consumer behavior.
Roughly 65% of Dutch Bros customers are Gen Z and millennials.
And about 90% of drinks are served cold.
That’s not accidental.
Cold beverages work extremely well psychologically.
They last longer. They carry easier. They suppress bitterness. They allow for more sweetness. And visually… they simply look better.
I mean, when have you held a cup of black coffee and said “man I have to take a picture of this for the gram.”
All these nuances give Dutch Bros something extremely important: They are not trapped by traditional coffee expectations.
The company can freely overlap coffee culture, energy drink culture, dessert beverage culture, and social-media beverage culture.
Operationally, the menu is extremely smart.
Most drinks are built from a relatively small set of base products:
espresso
cold brew
Rebel energy base
lemonade
tea
Then the company layers high-margin add-ons on top.
Flavor shots. Foams. Toppings. Syrups.
And those add-ons cost little compared to the increase in ticket price.
Every customization quietly increases revenue.
But what Dutch Bros does differently from Starbucks is emotional framing.
At Starbucks, especially at the register, customization often feels functional.Optimized.Controlled. More like youre making an alteration more than a customization.
At Dutch Bros, customization feels playful.Social.Expressive.
Baristas actively participate in the process.They suggest combinations.Recommend flavors.Co-create drinks.
So customization itself becomes part of the entertainment.
And honestly, that emotional interaction is probably one of the strongest parts of the brand.
If I were simplifying the difference:
Starbucks uses customization to increase perceived control and average order value.
McDonald’s and Dunkin’ limit customization to preserve speed and consistency.
Dutch Bros uses customization to create an emotional identity.
That’s a completely different psychological strategy.
BLANK STREET - MENU ARCHITECTURE
Blank Street feels almost more like a startup lifestyle brand than a traditional coffee chain.
The company has a very strong understanding of younger consumers… especially Gen Z.
And you can see that directly in the menu.
The brand moves quickly on trends.
Matcha. Seasonal aesthetics. Bright visual drinks. Influencer-friendly products.
At one point, the company reported that matcha accounted for roughly half of the business.
That tells you a lot about who they’re targeting.
The original Blank Street concept was actually pretty clever.
The idea was to create coffee that felt:
more approachable than Starbucks
higher quality than Dunkin’
and more culturally relevant than both
The CEO has even described the coffee itself as basically “good enough.”
Which is honestly a fascinating positioning strategy.
Because Blank Street is not fundamentally competing on elite coffee craftsmanship.
They’re competing on:
trend relevance
branding
convenience
aesthetics
social identity
And despite positioning themselves as more approachable… their pricing still sits toward the top end.
Personally, I’m still very curious how sustainable that middle positioning becomes long-term.
But right now, they have momentum and cultural hype working heavily in their favor.
One of the most interesting things Blank Street does is build detailed customer personas around drinks.
Not demographic categories.Actual personalities.
An “Aries latte.”A “Lower East Side Dimes Square boy.”A specific Brooklyn personality archetype.
And honestly… as ridiculous as that sounds on paper… I actually think it’s brilliant.
Because most businesses create products they personally like.
Blank Street creates products around highly specific identities.
And identity is one of the strongest forces in modern consumer behavior.
LOYALTY AND TECH STRATEGY
OPENING / OVERALL FRAMING
Loyalty programs are essential for coffee shops. They drive up customer retention and increase average transaction values by roughly 12 to 35 percent.
What they’re really doing is converting casual visitors into regulars, while also providing valuable customer data for personalized marketing and increasing frequency of visits.
And if you zoom out, every loyalty program is really trying to do one of two things:
Either increase the frequency of visits… or increase the frequency of spend.
And the best programs are usually the ones that focus on doing one of those really well.
Now, just to put the scale of these programs into perspective:
McDonald’s has around 210 million loyalty members. Starbucks has around 35 million. Dunkin’ has around 29 to 30 million. Dutch Bros has around 15 million. And Blank Street has roughly 5,000 in its subscription-style loyalty system.
STARBUCKS - Loyalty Program and Tech Stategy
Starbucks’ Rewards program primarily focuses on increasing customer spending per visit.
That aligns with Starbucks’ more premium positioning and its more affluent customer base.
The entire structure of the program is strategically designed to shift away from simply rewarding visits and instead reward total dollar amount spent. That pushes customers toward higher-value transactions.
And it’s become one of the most successful loyalty systems in all of retail.
Research from The Manifest found that nearly half, about 48 percent — of restaurant app users regularly use Starbucks Rewards. And mobile order and pay now account for more than 30 percent of all Starbucks transactions.
The Starbucks app runs on a very simple loop:
Add money to your account. Earn stars. Redeem stars for free drinks.
But financially, this system becomes incredibly powerful.
As of Starbucks’ FY2025 Q4 filings, the company holds over 1.8 billion dollars in customer deposits across its app and gift cards.
That’s nearly 2 billion dollars sitting on Starbucks’ balance sheet, interest free.
Just basically working capital, Starbucks never had to borrow.
Classic example:
Customer preloads money into the Starbucks app. Starbucks holds that cash. Customer slowly redeems it over time.
During that window Starbucks can use that money operationally or invest it and earn interest. Just like banks do.
And by investing that float Starbucks earned roughly 21 million dollars in interest income in a single fiscal year.
Except instead of paying you interest dividends… they reward you with the occasional vanilla latte.
But there’s another hidden advantage here:
Some percentage of that 1.8 billion dollars never gets spent.
People forget about gift cards. They lose track of balances. They stop using the app.
That unused money effectively becomes pure margin for Starbucks.
Additionally, Preloading money streamlines checkout. It makes spending feel less tangible because customers are no longer handing over “real” money in every transaction. And it increases repeat visits because the money already exists inside the ecosystem.
The Starbucks app creates what’s basically a loyalty loop.
Customers who use the app tend to:
Spend more per visit. Visit more frequently. And have significantly higher lifetime value.
In 2016 Starbucks shifted its loyalty system from visit-based rewards to spend-based rewards.
Instead of earning rewards per visit, customers now earn 2 stars for every dollar spent.
That subtle change completely altered customer behavior.
The spend-based system nudges customers toward higher-ticket items and pushes them beyond basic coffee into more customized drinks and add-ons.
As a result, rewards members now generate roughly 41 to 57 percent of Starbucks’ U.S. revenue and spend about 2.5 to 3 times more than non-members.
Another massive advantage here is customer data.
Starbucks collects an enormous amount of behavioral information from app users:
What you drink. When you drink it. Where you buy it. How frequently you return.
That data informs product development, inventory management, store design, operational planning, and hyper-personalized offers.
The rewards system also uses tiering - Green and Gold status - with milestones and progression systems that encourage customers to “level up.”
That gamification keeps customers emotionally invested in the system.
And the retention metrics speak for themselves.
Starbucks has roughly a 44 percent customer retention rate compared to an industry average closer to 25 percent.
But here’s another hidden financial advantage most people overlook:
Preloaded Starbucks balances reduce credit card processing fees.
When customers preload money into the Starbucks app, Starbucks only pays the processing fee once when the funds are initially added.
Not on every single coffee purchase afterward.
At Starbucks’ scale, that creates a very meaningful increase in margin.
With coffee being such a high-volume business, I think this is one of the most under appreciated aspects of a coffee business.
DUNKIN’ - Loyalty Program and Tech Stategy
Dunkin’s loyalty strategy is fundamentally different from Starbucks.
Dunkin’ is not trying to get customers to spend dramatically more per visit.
It’s trying to get them to come back more often.
That’s because Dunkin’ is a routine-driven brand.
Its most profitable customers are not necessarily higher spenders they’re just incredibly consistent.
According to Placer.ai foot traffic data, about 39.9 percent of Dunkin’ visits happen between 6:00 and 9:59 a.m.
For Starbucks, that number is closer to 29.9 percent.
Meanwhile Starbucks captures more afternoon traffic, with 23.7 percent of visits happening between 3:00 and 6:59 p.m., compared to just 16.4 percent for Dunkin’.
That difference says a lot about how the brands are positioned.
Dunkin’ owns routine.
The rewards system reflects that.
Customers earn 10 points per dollar spent. At around 500 points, they can redeem rewards like drinks, donuts, and menu items.
But the more interesting layer is “Boosted Status.”
If customers make 12 qualifying visits in a calendar month, they unlock higher earning rates — 12 points per dollar — for the rest of that month and the following three months.
That system incentivizes customers to maintain consistent visit frequency.
Dunkin’ also heavily uses gamification and personalized challenges.
Things like:
Visit multiple times this week. Buy specific items. Complete streaks for bonus points.
These challenges directly increase repeat traffic.
But one of Dunkin’s biggest strengths is simplicity.
The program is easy to understand.
Dunkin’ understands that convenience itself is part of the product.
The structure is very direct:
Get points. Get coffee. Birthday coffee. Sign-up coffee. 200 points gets a medium coffee.
Simple systems scale well.
Dunkin’s annual revenue is around 1.37 billion dollars, and approximately 60 percent of that revenue comes from loyalty members.
DUTCH BROS - Loyalty Program and Tech Stategy
Dutch Bros also focuses heavily on frequency.
Like Dunkin’, it wants customers coming back constantly.
But Dutch Bros executes this through a much more emotional and entertainment-driven experience.
Its business model is high AUV, high average unit volume, driven primarily through drive-thru throughput and repeat habit.
In 2025, roughly 72 percent of all Dutch Bros transactions came from loyalty members, up from 68 percent the year prior.
And the loyalty system has grown to over 15 million members.
Customers earn 3 points per dollar spent.
Most rewards become redeemable around 250 to 325 points.
Considering the average Dutch Bros drink costs around 5 to 7 dollars, customers are typically earning about 15 to 20 points per visit.
That means free drinks become attainable fairly quickly, usually within around a dozen visits.
The reward loop is tight and intentional.
Customers can visually see progress quickly, which psychologically reinforces the next visit.
The system also creates urgency because points expire after roughly six months.
So customers can’t just casually accumulate rewards forever.
They need to maintain frequency.
Dutch Bros also operates a fairly closed-loop app strategy.
Customers scan for rewards, preload funds, and order ahead.
That reduces friction and allows Dutch Bros to track customer behavior while reinforcing routine.
But unlike Starbucks, Dutch Bros doesn’t really use rewards to push customers toward bigger tickets or more customization.
Most rewards stay centered around free drinks.
That’s an important distinction.
Starbucks uses loyalty to increase spend.
Dutch Bros uses loyalty to increase frequency.
And the gamification systems reflect that.
Bonus point days. Limited-time challenges. Birthday rewards. Collectible sticker drops.
These systems create reasons for customers to return sooner rather than later.
MCDONALD’S - Loyalty Program and Tech Stategy
McDonald’s also leans heavily into frequency. Coffee at McDonald’s is not positioned as a premium experience or destination purchase.
It’s an add-on to an already existing routine commuting, or convenience.
And the loyalty system reinforces that behavior.
McDonald’s has the largest loyalty membership base in this entire group at roughly 210 million users.
Because the coffee is inexpensive, customers can earn rewards quickly without significantly changing their spending behavior.
That lowers the barrier to participation.
McDonald’s also leans heavily into short-term, deal-driven incentives.
Where Starbucks encourages long-term accumulation, McDonald’s focuses on immediate action.
Things like:
1 dollar any-size coffee promotions. Daily deals. Limited-time offers. Bonus points tied to specific purchases.
These offers often have expiration windows, creating urgency and driving immediate visits.
The system is built for operational efficiency.
Customers can scan their app or enter codes directly through the drive-thru.
And that matters because McDonald’s competitive advantage is speed.
Coffee fits perfectly into that model because it’s high-margin, fast-moving, and operationally efficient.
Unlike Starbucks or Dunkin’, McDonald’s is not trying to build “coffee culture.”
There’s: No heavy customization push. No experiential positioning.
The coffee exists to increase incremental visits and add food purchases to the ticket.
It's efficient and it works.
BLANK STREET - Loyalty Program and Tech Stategy
Blank Street takes a very different approach.
The company actually operates two separate loyalty systems designed to drive two different customer behaviors.
The first is built around exclusivity and recurring revenue.
The second is built around convenience and frequency.
Blank Street Regulars - Subscription Model
Personally, I think the subscription model is one of the more underutilized high-value tools in coffee.
Customers pay a monthly subscription fee in exchange for a set number of drinks each week.
That transforms coffee from a one-time transaction into recurring, predictable revenue.
And psychologically, subscription systems are incredibly powerful.
Once customers feel they’re “getting value” from the subscription, they become incentivized to increase frequency in order to justify the membership.
The model mirrors subscription economics from tech and media companies.
The program reportedly had a waitlist of up to 4,000 people in 2024.
Subscribers also showed roughly 25 percent higher retention rates.
Blank Street Rewards - Traditional Points Program
Alongside the subscription system, Blank Street also runs a more traditional rewards model.
Customers earn points on purchases that can later be redeemed for discounts and free items.
But there’s an interesting mechanic:
Rewards can be used every two hours.
That subtly encourages repeat visits throughout the day.
The app also supports mobile ordering, payment, and drink customization, reinforcing Blank Street’s positioning as a tech-enabled, Gen Z-focused coffee brand built around convenience and personalization.
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
OVERALL FRAMING
At a certain point, coffee itself stops being the differentiator.
Most major chains can now produce a reasonably good latte.
So the real competition becomes: How does the experience feel?
What need or desire does it solve?
What behavior does it reinforce? And what emotional relationship does it create with the customer?
Some brands optimize for atmosphere. Some optimize for efficiency. Some optimize for interaction. Others optimize for identity and lifestyle signaling.
And over time, that experience itself becomes the habit.
STARBUCKS - Customer Experience
Starbucks built its empire around the emotional environment.
The company popularized the idea of the coffee shop as a “third place” between home and work — somewhere customers could spend time, work, meet people, or simply exist for a while.
Everything inside the store reinforces that: warm lighting, music, smell, comfortable seating, handcrafted drink rituals, baristas calling names.
All part of the emotional experience.
Customers are not just buying coffee. They are buying belongings.
But Starbucks now faces an interesting tension.
The brand was originally built around atmosphere and human interaction… while modern mobile ordering increasingly pushes the experience toward speed and efficiency.
So Starbucks is constantly trying to balance convenience with emotional connection.
DUNKIN’ - Customer Eperience
Where Starbucks dignifies the pause…
Dunkin’ accelerates the routine.
The entire customer experience is built around speed, predictability, and convenience.
Customers are not looking for immersion. They are looking for reliability.
Fast drive-thrus. Simple ordering. Easy rewards. Minimal friction.
And honestly, Dunkin’ understands something extremely important: for many consumers, convenience itself is the product.
The company wins not by creating the most emotional experience… but by becoming part of an effortless daily habit.
McDONALD’S - Customer Experience
McDonald’s approaches coffee as an operational system rather than a café experience.
The focus is not atmosphere. It’s throughput.
Everything, kiosks, kitchen layouts, drive-thrus, digital prompts, is designed to reduce friction and increase speed.
Even the coffee itself is positioned as an add-on to an already existing behavior loop like breakfast or commuting.
And that consistency becomes psychologically powerful.
Whether you’re in Los Angeles or London, the experience feels almost identical.
McDonald’s is not trying to create coffee culture.
It’s trying to create a dependable, approachable routine at a massive scale.
DUTCH BROS - Customer Experience
Dutch Bros might have the most emotionally energetic experience in the category.
The brand monetizes interaction itself.
Employees are intentionally conversational, upbeat, and socially engaging.
The drinks are oversized, colorful, customizable, and designed to feel expressive and fun.
At Starbucks, customization often feels controlled and premium.
At Dutch Bros, customization feels playful and social.
The experience feels less like visiting a café… and more like participating in a high-energy social ritual.
The major long-term question for Dutch Bros is scalability.
Can that same emotional intensity realistically survive across thousands of locations?
We’ve seen more examples of this failing than succeeding. Will Dutch Bros break the code?
BLANK STREET - Customer Experience
Blank Street feels less like a traditional coffee company and more like a modern lifestyle startup.
The experience is built around: minimalism, technology, trend-awareness, and Gen Z social identity.
Automation simplifies drink production while baristas focus more on interaction and friendliness.
The stores are smaller. The branding is cleaner. The drinks are visually optimized for social media.
And culturally, Blank Street moves extremely quickly.
Collaborations, pop-ups, influencer culture, viral drinks, user-generated content.
The company understands that younger consumers increasingly want brands that feel socially current and aesthetically aligned with their identity.
So while Starbucks built the “third place”… Blank Street is arguably building the “Instagrammable place.”
What’s interesting is that all five companies are technically selling the same category: coffee.
But psychologically, they are selling completely different experiences.
Starbucks sells emotional atmosphere. Dunkin’ sells convenience. McDonald’s sells operational reliability. Dutch Bros sells energy and interaction. Blank Street sells trend-driven identity.
CLOSER
So, what’s the real lesson here? It’s that coffee, at the end of the day, is just the vehicle. The true product is the feeling and the ritual it creates. That’s how you find your niche and create your own brand culture. Be clear about who your target customer is, give them what they need, and create an experience that makes them feel good about it. Beyond that core need your solving People ultimately want a sense of belonging.
These companies aren't selling beans; they're engineering experiences, that’s why they’re winning.
Now that you have an understanding of how these brands are engineered to make money, tell me: which of these strategies do you think is the most sustainable for the next decade? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. If you found this breakdown helpful, hit the like button and subscribe for more content.
I’m Matthew Evilsior. Thank you for watching 5 Ways to Win as a Coffee Brand.
Written by Matthew Evilsizor for himself to be recorded for The Hustle by Hubspot
Copyright© Matthew Evilsizor and Conscious Bean® 2026 All Rights Reserved