Starbucks vs Dunkin Donuts: Which is More Popular?

We surveyed our readers on the subject of which coffee chain is more popular: Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts? For seasonal beverages, coffee strength, flavor & environmental friendliness - Starbucks wins. But for price & food - Dunkin' Donuts takes the crown.

Starbucks vs Dunkin Donuts: Which is More Popular?

Despite being founded 20 years after Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks has grown to become a substantially larger company. The company has created a more premium brand than Dunkin' Donuts, offering a more extensive menu and product customization, as well as a comfortable and peaceful environment with free wireless Internet access. This encourages customers to stay and socialize, work, study, surf the media or listen to music while consuming its Starbucks products. However, this comes at a higher price.

We often wonder which coffee chain is more popular: Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts? To get to the bottom of the matter, we surveyed our readers on the subject. For seasonal beverages, coffee strength, flavor, environmental friendliness and overall ambience, Starbucks wins. But for price and food, Dunkin' Donuts takes the crown. Dunkin' Donuts has more than 3,100 stores in more than thirty countries, including China, Russia, Spain, Brazil, Chile and Canada.

Starbucks brands itself primarily as a beverage supplier that offers a more typical dining experience in a coffee shop. The container Dunkin' uses for a large iced coffee makes the Starbucks venti come out of the water; you're getting more out of your money with DD and this is the United States, so the biggest cup is the clear winner. This is mainly due to the difference in the cost of goods sold (COGS), since Starbucks has a higher COGS which is transmitted to the consumer through higher prices. Dunkin' serves a variety of hearty breakfast sandwiches, including the powerful breakfast sandwich and the sourdough sandwich for breakfast.

The big difference between Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts is that Dunkin' Donuts has items like donuts and munchkins that are very popular. Dunkin' Donuts offers a variety of hot and iced coffees, lattes, hot chocolate, iced teas, fruity iced teas and coolatas. In company presentations and earnings conference calls, Dunkin' Donuts management has described its intention to be the lowest cost provider in the market while maintaining quality above an acceptable minimum. Because COGS is much more prominent in Starbucks' spending structure, its profits are more severely affected by changes in coffee bean prices.

Starbucks has stronger coffee than Dunkin', averaging 267 milligrams of caffeine in a cup of coffee versus 220 milligrams of caffeine in a Dunkin's cup of coffee. Overall, it seems that both Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts have their own advantages when it comes to popularity. While Starbucks offers a more premium experience with better quality products at higher prices, Dunkin' Donuts offers lower prices with delicious donuts and munchkins that are very popular. Additionally, Dunkin' Donuts has announced aggressive domestic and international expansion plans in order to challenge its main competitor's presence.

Ultimately it comes down to personal preference when deciding which coffee chain is more popular.

Glenna Matthys
Glenna Matthys

Hardcore internet practitioner. Wannabe beer advocate. Infuriatingly humble beer expert. Devoted coffee evangelist. Hardcore social media scholar. Friendly beer fanatic.