Bend area tops Lower 48 in coffee shops per capita

Java, cuppa Joe, go juice, hojo, or whatever one wants to call coffee, a ready-made cup of it is not far from reach for the majority of U.S. consumers — and a new report out this week shows that the Bend-Redmond metro area (defined as all of Deschutes County) actually is tops in the country, per-capita — ahead of even coffee-loving Seattle and Portland.

In addition to coffee served at restaurants and other foodservice outlets, there are 33,129 gourmet coffee shops in the U.S., a 2 percent increase in units from last year, based on a recent restaurant census conducted by The NPD Group, a “leading global information company,” according to their news release

Chain coffee shop units increased by 5.9 percent in the census period to a total of 18,445 units, NPD reports. It was the opposite story for independent coffee shops units, which declined by 2.2 percent for a total of 14,684 units. Total coffee shops grew by 2,990 units over the past five years, according to NPD’s Spring 2017 ReCount ® restaurant census.

Another way to look at the proliferation of coffee shops is to look at per capita, or the number of coffee shops for every million people.

Among metro areas, Juneau, Alaska ranks the highest in density, with 22 coffee shops serving the city’s population of 32,519. Alaskan sibling city, Anchorage, is second, with 170 coffee shops for a population of 431,231.

In rank order, Bend, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon follow with the most coffee shops per capita.

As provided to NewsChannel 21 by NPD, here are the nation’s top five metro areas, in terms of coffee shops per capita (the geographies are based on the designated market area, or DMA, which is typically the advertising radius):

DMA

S’17 Units

Population

Per Capita

JUNEAU, AK

22

32,519

67.7

ANCHORAGE, AK

170

431,231

39.4

BEND, OR

60

172,735

34.7

SEATTLE-TACOMA, WA

1,762

5,083,955

34.7

PORTLAND, OR

1,030

3,264,865

31.5

MEDFORD-KLAMATH FALLS, OR

120

443,140

27.1

EUGENE, OR

164

612,737

26.8

MISSOULA, MT

78

294,089

26.5

Source: The NPD Group/Spring 2017 ReCount®

Consumer demand for foodservice coffee appears to be in line with their access, the report says There were 8.3 billion servings of coffee ordered at U.S. restaurants and foodservice outlets in the year ending August 2017, up 2.3 percent from the same period last year, according to NPD’s ongoing foodservice market research.

Regular or traditional coffee is still the most popular type of coffee with 4.4 billion servings ordered in the period but specialty coffee is not far behind with 4 billion servings ordered.

“Coffee chains are expanding units to meet consumer demand, because they have the resources to do so,” says Greg Starzynski, director of product management for NPD Foodservice. “Greater consumer access to chain coffee shops makes it more difficult for independent coffee shops to compete, which is why we’re seeing a drop in independent units.”