With coffee sales up, cafes pivot to new sales approaches

NEW YORK - COVID-19 may be keeping more people indoors, but it’s still hard to beat that morning caffeine craving.

Jill Gonzalez, a senior analyst at personal finance website, WalletHub, says Americans are drinking just as much coffee in 2020 as they did before the pandemic.

The only difference is, now, they’re making it at home.

“When things like going to the office, or our morning commutes are stripped from us, we really reach for whatever we can. For a lot of people, it’s that early morning cup of joe,” Gonzalez says.

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Sales for single-serve coffee makers, which include espresso machines and Keurigs, are up 46%.”

Partners Coffee, whose flagship store is located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, had to pivot its entire business model because more people are opting to buy their brewing equipment online.

“There is actually a shortage of coffee filters right now because people are brewing at home so much,” Chloe Langham, Account Manager and Educator at Partners Coffee tells Fox 5. 

The Brooklyn-based coffee shop even began posting “how-to” videos on its YouTube page for at-home coffee connoisseurs.

“We’re also expanding our outreach on our website. You can call us, text us, and live chat with us on the website to learn a little bit more about how to brew the coffee,” Langham adds.

The National Coffee Association says people will slowly, but surely, return to coffee shops:

According to a recent report, 52% of people are already visiting them, or plan to in the next month.

Another 16% will return in the next two to four months, and just one-third of people who were surveyed say they won’t be comfortable going to a coffee shop until the pandemic is over.

The top things people want to see before they return to brick and mortar coffee shops are gloves and masks for employees, mandatory masks for customers and increased sanitation procedures.