The average coffee drinker in America consumes three cups a day. The coffee market totals about $18 billion. That figure may well be too low. Starbuck’s revenue last year was $30 billion.
Coffee drinks come in all sorts of containers and flavors. A cup can cost as little as a few cents to make. Buying a Starbucks coffee can cost $5. That has not blunted traffic to America’s largest coffee store chain. In fact, there are over 37,000 coffee shops in the United States. From the nearest corner Starbucks to the French patisserie, coffee lovers have loads of coffee vendors to choose from. Yet, the price of a cup of coffee can vary widely from shop to shop and from city to city.
To determine America’s worst city for coffee-lovers, 24/7 Tempo reviewed The Best Coffee Cities in America: 2022 Data report from Clever Real Estate, a real estate agent matching service.
The nation’s 50 most populous metropolitan areas were ranked on criteria including the average reported price of a cappuccino, the number of coffee shops per 100,000 residents and the price of a daily cappuccino as a percentage of average income. The number of coffee shops per square mile and the Google Trends search volume for several coffee-related terms in each city were also considered. Population and income data came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2019.
The results show that many of the worst cities to buy a cup of coffee are in the South, while the West Coast, Great Lakes and New England are home to some of the best coffee cities in the nation. Cities on the bottom of the list generally have fewer places to get coffee and the coffee is more expensive.
The worst city to buy a cup of coffee in is Virginia Beach, Virginia. Here are the details:
- Average coffee price: $5.39
- Average annual coffee cost: $1,401 (2.6% of annual income)
- Coffee shops per capita: 12
- Population: 1,765,031
Click here to see all the best and worst cities to buy a cup of coffee