Challenging Family Expectations—With Coffee!

A pretty quiet week, news-wise, but a few coffee things still happened:

• World Coffee Portal put out their latest report on the state of the “branded coffee shop market” in the United States (that is, the likes of Starbucks and Dunkin as well as smaller companies that “graduated to branded coffee chain status after surpassing five outlets”). The TL;DR of the report is that competition is heating up and everyone’s a bit glum over the short term future, leading to a focus on value to entice more price-sensitive customers.
• Young Vietnamese entrepreneurs are going against their parents’ wishes and eschewing more traditional careers in favour of opening coffee shops. These youngsters are “using espressos to challenge family expectations around work,” according to the AFP’s Alice Philipson.
• Unionised Starbucks employees won a contract! However, it’s not Starbucks Workers United—these workers are in Canada, the first of five Ontario cafes represented by United Steelworkers to secure a collective bargaining agreement. In the U.S., organisers continue to negotiate with the company.

Read more on all these stories, plus some new research on the safety of coffee consumption during pregnancy, over at Fresh Cup Magazine:

In case you missed it, you can check out my latest article, all about the downsides of corporate philanthropy in coffee:

Corporate Philanthropy Will Not Save the Coffee Industry

Coffee companies love to fund projects that look good in press releases and impact reports. However, corporate philanthropy is mostly a shield to deflect criticism, protect power, and avoid regulation.

The PouroverFionn Pooler

Until next week, it’s goodbye from Merlin: