New Englanders are extremely particular when it comes to their coffee of choice.
Coffee-drinking is no joke; die-hards are either Team Starbucks or Team Dunkin’ Donuts, and damned if they cross to the dark side. Dunkin’ Donuts, founded in Canton, Massachusetts, has 7,200 locations nationwide, but is predominant in the Northeast.
Starbucks is even bigger, according to the Boston Globe, with 11,200 locations.
The Seattle-based chain picks up the slack of Dunkin’ Donuts on the map, having many locations in the Midwest and along the West Coast.
But for the sake of coffee-drinkers everywhere, Dunkin’ Donuts must expand their franchise to show that Starbucks is far from superior.
AP / Photo
The color scheme for Starbucks includes hues of pine green, beige, black and white: these are classy colors when applied to a palette.
Pair those chic colors with a few chalkboards donned with elegant cursive writing, recessed lighting, leather love-seats and wooden tables and you’ve got yourself what seems like a high-end coffee shop.
But this is not the case.
This is a stark contrast of the bright oranges, pinks and bubble letters at Dunkin’ Donuts.
The ideology at Starbucks is to seduce the customer with the idea of its coffee. This is the ultimate form of consumerism, according to Slavoj Žižek in the film “A Pervert’s Guide to Ideology.”
While customers feel bad about the overpriced cup of java ($1.85 for a plain small), Starbucks reassures the customer they’re doing a good deed since a small portion of each purchase goes to some humanitarian cause. With this cup of coffee we can be a, “consumerist without a bad conscience.”
The bribe we are offered is that we can save the world and enjoy ourselves at the same time, according to a review of the film on truth-out.org. “Because the price of guilt is already included in the cup of coffee—and thus we are doing our duty to the environment, or whatever it may be—we can fulfill our personal desires completely conscience-free,” according to the review.
Businessweek also disclosed that Starbucks has raised prices twelve times since 1994. Twelve.
A prime example of the faux-swank is New York City. It seems in NYC, there is a Starbucks chain store around every corner without a Dunkin’ Donuts to be found.
In reality, there are over 100 more Dunkin’ Donuts locations than there are Starbucks, according to the Boston Globe.
Chris Christopher, the Director of Consumer Markets for IHS Global Insights, said Starbucks dominates in the “glitzy” areas of Manhattan.
Elsewhere are the Dunkin’s.
There is marketing and there is manipulation.
Starbucks likes to approach the former by using the latter, tricking customers into thinking they are spending their money wisely while getting a fulfilled and elegant coffee experience.
In truth, the merchandise is far overpriced. And frankly, Dunkin’s just tastes better.
Kattey Ortiz can be contacted at kortiz@keene-equinox.com