Dutch Bros. Wants To Become A Household Name

[Alpha8472]

The drive thru coffee chain wants to become a household name for morning coffee. They plan to go from 800 stores to 4,000 in 10 to 15 years.

They are using a rewards program and discounts. They are very different than Starbucks. Starbucks is all about a huge complicated menu and Dutch Bros. is all about the limited menu of drinks and very little food. Starbucks is more focused on cafes while Dutch Bros. is all drive thru with limited walk up service. You won't see Dutch Bros. taking online orders.

https://www.nrn.com/quick-service/how-d ... ing-coffee

[storewanderer]

This chain has captured a younger customer base away from Starbucks. I don't like the car focused nature of the chain. I know they have a walk up option but it feels like an afterthought. Their locations are so busy and congested their lines spread out onto the road in some locations, notably Reno at around 5000 South Virginia across from the Convention Center, a real mess there. Victim of its own success.

I think they absolutely have the potential to expand to 4,000 stores.

[veteran+]

This chain has captured a younger customer base away from Starbucks. I don't like the car focused nature of the chain. I know they have a walk up option but it feels like an afterthought. Their locations are so busy and congested their lines spread out onto the road in some locations, notably Reno at around 5000 South Virginia across from the Convention Center, a real mess there. Victim of its own success.

I think they absolutely have the potential to expand to 4,000 stores.

Just like In&Out....................with the cars in line.

[babs]

You won't see Dutch Bros. taking online orders.

https://www.nrn.com/quick-service/how-d ... ing-coffee

According to an earnings call from earlier this year, they were looking to add payment through the app and are kicking around the ideal of online orders down the road. With their younger demographic and the ability to add a mobile order only lane at locations with two drive through windows, this is something they absolutely should test.

Not sure about other areas but they do have dine-in locations in Oregon including the Oregon State campus, NW 23rd in Portland, Lloyd District on Grand Ave and at the Portland Airport Travel Plaza. I don't see this being a trend but more of an opportunity where they nonstandard real estate.

[ClownLoach]

The drive thru coffee chain wants to become a household name for morning coffee. They plan to go from 800 stores to 4,000 in 10 to 15 years.

They are using a rewards program and discounts. They are very different than Starbucks. Starbucks is all about a huge complicated menu and Dutch Bros. is all about the limited menu of drinks and very little food. Starbucks is more focused on cafes while Dutch Bros. is all drive thru with limited walk up service. You won't see Dutch Bros. taking online orders.

https://www.nrn.com/quick-service/how-d ... ing-coffee

Limited menu? They must have three times the number of drinks Starbucks has. Starbucks hasn't had a big menu in years, and keeps trimming the selection. Now Starbucks has eliminated the last Reserve Bar locations (Palm Springs had the last one in California), bringing them to have less than a dozen "fancier" locations serving special drinks (the Seattle, Chicago, and NYC Roastery locations, Seattle HQ, Naperville, and Empire State Building. It's unclear if Kuhio in Waikiki is still serving Reserve drinks).

And nearly every Dutch Bros is a sugar bomb that makes the Caramel Frappuccino look like a diet drink. Tons of drinks made "breve" so you've got all the makings for a massive caffeine and blood sugar crash later while the cholesterol and fat congeal in your arteries.

They have some strange cultural ritual in which they decide they must talk your ear off at the drive thru window and play twenty questions with you, which is frankly exhausting because they're very nice but sometimes I just don't feel like talking for 5 minutes while wondering why my drink isn't ready yet despite ordering it ten minutes ago in the drive thru line with the guy with an iPad. And you're supposed to pronounce it as Dutch Bros, and refer to their people as Bro-Istas. No bro, sorry but it's just too much.

There is a similar chain scattered about called Black Rock Coffee Co. with the same kind of tiny drive thru locations. They also have super friendly people but they are not as intrusive, I don't need "Where are you going today? Where are you from? How do you like your car? What's your favorite color? And all the other Dutch Bros window questions. Just genuinely friendly and outgoing. Really good food options. Like a heavily upgraded version of Dutch Bros overall without as many sugar and heavy cream bomb drinks. Black Rock has finally made it to San Diego but nowhere else in California yet.

[rwsandiego]

The drive thru coffee chain wants to become a household name for morning coffee. They plan to go from 800 stores to 4,000 in 10 to 15 years.

They are using a rewards program and discounts. They are very different than Starbucks. Starbucks is all about a huge complicated menu and Dutch Bros. is all about the limited menu of drinks and very little food. Starbucks is more focused on cafes while Dutch Bros. is all drive thru with limited walk up service. You won't see Dutch Bros. taking online orders.

https://www.nrn.com/quick-service/how-d ... ing-coffee

Limited menu? They must have three times the number of drinks Starbucks has. Starbucks hasn't had a big menu in years, and keeps trimming the selection. Now Starbucks has eliminated the last Reserve Bar locations (Palm Springs had the last one in California), bringing them to have less than a dozen "fancier" locations serving special drinks (the Seattle, Chicago, and NYC Roastery locations, Seattle HQ, Naperville, and Empire State Building. It's unclear if Kuhio in Waikiki is still serving Reserve drinks).

And nearly every Dutch Bros is a sugar bomb that makes the Caramel Frappuccino look like a diet drink. Tons of drinks made "breve" so you've got all the makings for a massive caffeine and blood sugar crash later while the cholesterol and fat congeal in your arteries.

They have some strange cultural ritual in which they decide they must talk your ear off at the drive thru window and play twenty questions with you, which is frankly exhausting because they're very nice but sometimes I just don't feel like talking for 5 minutes while wondering why my drink isn't ready yet despite ordering it ten minutes ago in the drive thru line with the guy with an iPad. And you're supposed to pronounce it as Dutch Bros, and refer to their people as Bro-Istas. No bro, sorry but it's just too much.

There is a similar chain scattered about called Black Rock Coffee Co. with the same kind of tiny drive thru locations. They also have super friendly people but they are not as intrusive, I don't need "Where are you going today? Where are you from? How do you like your car? What's your favorite color? And all the other Dutch Bros window questions. Just genuinely friendly and outgoing. Really good food options. Like a heavily upgraded version of Dutch Bros overall without as many sugar and heavy cream bomb drinks. Black Rock has finally made it to San Diego but nowhere else in California yet.

Prefacing this by saying I've never had Dutch Bros coffee, but I know of it and the fact that each coffee contains a plantation's worth of sugar. I'm of the mind that coffee is flavored because the coffee is inferior.

The Dutch Bros in Uptown Phoenix was forced to close when the city revoked their conditional use permit. The store, located at Central Avenue and Camelback Road, was permitted on the condition that the drive thru lane would not block traffic. Well, it caused major traffic jams. Now that @ClownLoach has explained their incessant yappiness, it makes sense that the lines are so long. They relocated the store to a large parcel on Seventh Street south of Camelback. It has plenty of room for the line to snake around the lot.

Black Rock has great coffee. I haven't visited one of their new drive thru locations, but I've had espresso from the one in Peoria that's located in the same shopping center as an Aldi. The baristas seemed to have been trained well, as they were knowledgeable about the coffee. The espresso was fantastic and the bakery item I had was also very fresh and tasty. Since that time, they have sprouted like mushrooms after a rainstorm.

Do you have Human Beans locations in California? There are a few here in Phoenix, but I haven't been there.

[ClownLoach]

The drive thru coffee chain wants to become a household name for morning coffee. They plan to go from 800 stores to 4,000 in 10 to 15 years.

They are using a rewards program and discounts. They are very different than Starbucks. Starbucks is all about a huge complicated menu and Dutch Bros. is all about the limited menu of drinks and very little food. Starbucks is more focused on cafes while Dutch Bros. is all drive thru with limited walk up service. You won't see Dutch Bros. taking online orders.

https://www.nrn.com/quick-service/how-d ... ing-coffee

Limited menu? They must have three times the number of drinks Starbucks has. Starbucks hasn't had a big menu in years, and keeps trimming the selection. Now Starbucks has eliminated the last Reserve Bar locations (Palm Springs had the last one in California), bringing them to have less than a dozen "fancier" locations serving special drinks (the Seattle, Chicago, and NYC Roastery locations, Seattle HQ, Naperville, and Empire State Building. It's unclear if Kuhio in Waikiki is still serving Reserve drinks).

And nearly every Dutch Bros is a sugar bomb that makes the Caramel Frappuccino look like a diet drink. Tons of drinks made "breve" so you've got all the makings for a massive caffeine and blood sugar crash later while the cholesterol and fat congeal in your arteries.

They have some strange cultural ritual in which they decide they must talk your ear off at the drive thru window and play twenty questions with you, which is frankly exhausting because they're very nice but sometimes I just don't feel like talking for 5 minutes while wondering why my drink isn't ready yet despite ordering it ten minutes ago in the drive thru line with the guy with an iPad. And you're supposed to pronounce it as Dutch Bros, and refer to their people as Bro-Istas. No bro, sorry but it's just too much.

There is a similar chain scattered about called Black Rock Coffee Co. with the same kind of tiny drive thru locations. They also have super friendly people but they are not as intrusive, I don't need "Where are you going today? Where are you from? How do you like your car? What's your favorite color? And all the other Dutch Bros window questions. Just genuinely friendly and outgoing. Really good food options. Like a heavily upgraded version of Dutch Bros overall without as many sugar and heavy cream bomb drinks. Black Rock has finally made it to San Diego but nowhere else in California yet.

Prefacing this by saying I've never had Dutch Bros coffee, but I know of it and the fact that each coffee contains a plantation's worth of sugar. I'm of the mind that coffee is flavored because the coffee is inferior.

The Dutch Bros in Uptown Phoenix was forced to close when the city revoked their conditional use permit. The store, located at Central Avenue and Camelback Road, was permitted on the condition that the drive thru lane would not block traffic. Well, it caused major traffic jams. Now that @ClownLoach has explained their incessant yappiness, it makes sense that the lines are so long. They relocated the store to a large parcel on Seventh Street south of Camelback. It has plenty of room for the line to snake around the lot.

Black Rock has great coffee. I haven't visited one of their new drive thru locations, but I've had espresso from the one in Peoria that's located in the same shopping center as an Aldi. The baristas seemed to have been trained well, as they were knowledgeable about the coffee. The espresso was fantastic and the bakery item I had was also very fresh and tasty. Since that time, they have sprouted like mushrooms after a rainstorm.

Do you have Human Beans locations in California? There are a few here in Phoenix, but I haven't been there.

I tried ordering a drink from Dutch Bros in Oceanside recently without a lot of sugar and crap added, and it was very flavorless coffee. Reminded me of generic donut shop stuff. You're absolutely correct that they need to add all the sugary sweetness and the high fat breve and such to make up for the total lack of flavor. And when I say flavor I don't mean near burned dark roast like Starbucks either; I learned to value the milder and more floral roasts as I was taught about them by the legendary Martin Diedrich who was the originator of fancy coffee in Orange County. (Sidenote, if you're ever in the Newport Beach/Costa Mesa or Tustin areas, Martin Diedrich came out of retirement after the corporate vultures sold all of his Diedrich Coffee stores to Starbucks. He only has two stores and isn't interested in more. They're named after his son and I only wish I still lived and worked near them. Kean Coffee is the name). Dutch Bros coffee has no redeeming nuances or other flavors, it's just so mild tasting that it seems watered down which is probably why they make drinks with six shots of espresso.

I knew there was a Black Rock in Oceanside somewhere but I was delighted to see they're also in Vista and Escondido now. Probably the only reason I would ever set foot in either city (sorry I had very bad experiences running stores there despite great success in Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, La Costa and beyond). Hopefully whoever is franchising North County has the rights to head up the 15 and open in the Temecula Valley; I would be first in line opening day and probably every day.

I'm not sure what's going on with Human Bean. I know they were going to open a bunch of stores but then it seems they slowed down. They have one in SoCal in Lake Forest and the rest look like they're in the Central Valley. A small cluster around the San Luis Obispo county area too. I vaguely recall they were trying to open a bunch of stores in the Central Coast region within striking distance of new Dutch Bros locations. They seem to have slowed down tremendously.

Dutch Bros is going to be opening many stores in Orange County and Riverside County over the next couple of years, only a handful have been announced but let's just say there's a lot of developments going up in Riverside county and every one I've seen has a "unnamed drive thru" on the map that's clearly a Dutch Bros. I do think that the fad is going to die down once people realize this is possibly the most unhealthy coffee product on the market, their intent is obviously to graduate the energy drink crowd to a similarly high calorie coffee drink. There is precedent for such failure; I grew up on Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino which is probably the reason my entire generation got into coffee the same way the current generation starts with energy drinks. Starbucks likes to pass along blame for their struggles recently to everything from labor to COVID, but I firmly believe that the biggest loss they've been hit with is when the Frappuccino generation woke up and realized that they're fat and unhealthy and broke from this diabetes-in-a-cup product then stopped buying them. What goes around comes around, and that is what will be the fate of Dutch Bros.

[storewanderer]

Another thing I think is not being acknowledged about Dutch Bros. is they are typically open late at night. It is not unusual at 9 PM to see 20+ cars present there waiting in line/making purchases. This includes law enforcement. I don't know if these folks are buying this as a late night dessert or what.

Starbucks typically pushed morning business and since COVID their locations close earlier and earlier. Even locations that are near Dutch Bros. units that are very busy at night, Starbucks locks up tight at 7 PM or 8 PM.

The lack of any effort on unsweetened drinks is why I am not interested in buying at Dutch Bros. The coffee reminds me of a 7-Eleven light roast, but it is a LOT easier to get a 7-Eleven light roast than a Dutch Bros. Plus I hate drive throughs so that is another issue I have with Dutch Bros. This Dutch Bros. product is also rather similar to Caribou in its lightness.

So I think Dutch Bros. is going after a different customer. I don't think they are taking the customers who got addicted to Starbucks sweet drinks in the morning 20 years ago. They are taking a new generation of younger customers who are buying this stuff as a dessert or as a mid afternoon snack. As those customers grow up and cut this stuff from their diet, another group of young customers will be behind them to follow.

Human Bean is healthy around Reno. There is another operator called Scooter's starting to build drive through units around Reno area. I forget where I've seen them before.

[ClownLoach]

Another thing I think is not being acknowledged about Dutch Bros. is they are typically open late at night. It is not unusual at 9 PM to see 20+ cars present there waiting in line/making purchases. This includes law enforcement. I don't know if these folks are buying this as a late night dessert or what.

Starbucks typically pushed morning business and since COVID their locations close earlier and earlier. Even locations that are near Dutch Bros. units that are very busy at night, Starbucks locks up tight at 7 PM or 8 PM.

The lack of any effort on unsweetened drinks is why I am not interested in buying at Dutch Bros. The coffee reminds me of a 7-Eleven light roast, but it is a LOT easier to get a 7-Eleven light roast than a Dutch Bros. Plus I hate drive throughs so that is another issue I have with Dutch Bros. This Dutch Bros. product is also rather similar to Caribou in its lightness.

So I think Dutch Bros. is going after a different customer. I don't think they are taking the customers who got addicted to Starbucks sweet drinks in the morning 20 years ago. They are taking a new generation of younger customers who are buying this stuff as a dessert or as a mid afternoon snack. As those customers grow up and cut this stuff from their diet, another group of young customers will be behind them to follow.

Human Bean is healthy around Reno. There is another operator called Scooter's starting to build drive through units around Reno area. I forget where I've seen them before.

The marketing really makes me think Dutch Bros is interested in converting the energy drink customer to their sugar bomb coffees, and for some reason I think the traffic patterns are similar to C-Stores where people are looking for the mid-afternoon boost and later evening energy drink blast to stay up all night. I really think the current generation that is in middle and high school is doing the energy drinks more heavily than any before, just like the Frappuccino was with the previous couple generations. Starbucks used to get the same mid afternoon and evening bursts of traffic. I think it's more than a coincidence.

[SamSpade]

Human Bean is healthy around Reno. There is another operator called Scooter's starting to build drive through units around Reno area. I forget where I've seen them before.

I am also a fan of Human Bean. Though, as mentioned above, their baristas also want to talk your ear off sometimes. It's interesting that Human Bean, Dutch Bros, and Black Rock all originate from southern Oregon.

Scooter's is from Texas, I believe the panhandle region (Amarillo / Lubbock) originally. Their location in Amarillo was a traditional coffeehouse with a drive through window, like many Starbucks today.

I am also not a fan of Dutch Bros most of the time, but I do like ordering their nitro cold brew with cream on ice. This comes from a can (the nitrogen infusion) and definitely smooths out the roast a bit.