User Tag List

+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: America’s favorite coffee trend may be coming to an end

  1. #1
    Points: 665,213, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 90.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassYour first GroupOverdrive50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassVeteran
    Awards:
    Discussion Ender
    Chris's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    433307
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    197,542
    Points
    665,213
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    31,981
    Thanked 80,896x in 54,714 Posts
    Mentioned
    2011 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)

    America’s favorite coffee trend may be coming to an end

    Far as I'm concerned monopolies are created by the government, through regulation, taxation, subsidies, tax breaks, so on so forth rent sought political favors. Even when the government takes a corporation to court over monopolistic practices it's usually at the behest of competitors seeking political favor. One can read Armentano's Antitrust and Monopoly: Anatomy of a Policy Failure for longer argument based on court cases.

    But, you say, monopolies would form without the government preventing it. No, competition prevents it. Consumer prevent it. Change prevents it. The market is evolutionary. You just can't control it.

    America’s favorite coffee trend may be coming to an end is the story of how Keurig discovered a good thing and tried to monopolize the market but competition and change in the economic environment has worked against it.

    Several years ago, coffee pods seemed invincible. Sales of the single-serve cups were skyrocketing, more than tripling in the United States between 2011 and 2013. Sales of coffee pod machines were soaring, too, growing from 1.8 million units to 11.6 million between 2008 and 2013, according to data from market research firm Euromonitor.

    Today, however, things aren't looking quite so rosy for coffee in its most convenient form....

    ...Machines weren't the only thing hurting Keurig's bottom line, though: Its K-cup coffee pods aren't selling like they used to, either. The company said unit sales of its pods fell for a second straight quarter, an ominous sign considering the little guys are responsible for roughly 80 percent of Keurig's sales.

    The decline is partly a problem of Keurig's making. The company, concerned that copycats — which emerged after a slew of patents expired in recent years — were eating into its business, launched the Keurig 2.0 in late 2014, a pricey new machine that only works with company-approved pods. The bet was that by controlling the market, it could better defend its territory. But the move backfired, leading to a 22 percent drop in machine sales in the first three months of 2015. Customers weren't thrilled, which they have communicated, sometimes angrily, in reviews on Amazon.

    But Keurig's problems are probably also emblematic of a bigger trend. Coffee pod sales grew quickly during the recession, as Americans shifted to single-serve as a cheaper alternative to buying coffee out at restaurants and other food-service establishments. It also didn't hurt that coffee pods are efficient (they are associated with less coffee waste) and convenient (press a button, and voila!).

    ...But the circumstances that allowed for such impressive growth are changing.

    “With the improved economy we are experiencing today we believe the window of opportunity for pods is closing and the growth will stall in the next five years,” Eric Penicka, an industry analyst with Euromonitor, told Food Navigator USA last year....
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

  2. #2
    Original Ranter
    Points: 858,899, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 91.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialCreated Album picturesOverdrive50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Awards:
    Posting Award
    Peter1469's Avatar Advisor
    Karma
    496516
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    NOVA
    Posts
    241,649
    Points
    858,899
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    153,205
    Thanked 147,526x in 94,387 Posts
    Mentioned
    2552 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    I never really liked the Keurig brand. We have a machine in the break room at work. I use green tea instead of coffee. I have a nespresso machine at home. It makes much better coffee, and espresso, and cappuccino.
    ΜOΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ


  3. #3
    Points: 665,213, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 90.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassYour first GroupOverdrive50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassVeteran
    Awards:
    Discussion Ender
    Chris's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    433307
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    197,542
    Points
    665,213
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    31,981
    Thanked 80,896x in 54,714 Posts
    Mentioned
    2011 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by Peter1469 View Post
    I never really liked the Keurig brand. We have a machine in the break room at work. I use green tea instead of coffee. I have a nespresso machine at home. It makes much better coffee, and espresso, and cappuccino.
    I've used Keurig for years...1.0, not 2.0.

    Nespresso looks impressive, and expensive. But coffee is my main vice.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

  4. The Following User Says Thank You to Chris For This Useful Post:

    Peter1469 (02-04-2016)

  5. #4
    Points: 39,654, Level: 48
    Level completed: 69%, Points required for next Level: 496
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    VeteranTagger First Class25000 Experience PointsSocial
    waltky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    5662
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Posts
    8,859
    Points
    39,654
    Level
    48
    Thanks Given
    2,515
    Thanked 2,140x in 1,616 Posts
    Mentioned
    46 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Cool

    Granny says a cup o' coffee inna mornin' gets her goin' fer the day...

    Judge Orders Coffee Sellers in California to Put Cancer Warning on Products
    March 29, 2018 - A Los Angeles judge Thursday ordered coffee companies to abide by California state law and put cancer warning labels on their products.
    A nonprofit group called the Council for Education and Research on Toxics is suing such popular coffee roasters and retailers as Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s. They say the companies fail to warn consumers that roasting coffee naturally produces a carcinogen called acrylamide. In the first part of the three-phase trial, Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle ruled the coffee companies failed to prove their assertion that there is no significant risk from acrylamide.




    Roasting coffee beans naturally produces a carcinogen called acrylamide. A California judge found that coffee companies must warn their consumers.



    In Thursday’s ruling after the second phase, Berle said the companies failed to adequately show coffee is a healthy drink. “Defendants failed to satisfy their burden of proving by a preponderance of evidence that consumption of coffee confers a benefit to human health,” he wrote. An upcoming third phase would decide what civil penalties the coffee companies would have to pay.


    Company officials have not yet responded to the judge’s ruling. Acrylamide forms naturally when such foods as coffee, hot wheat cereals and potatoes are cooked or deep fried. Most medical studies show no increased risk of cancer from eating such foods. Some recent studies have shown possible benefits from drinking coffee, including protection against liver disease, some diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.


    https://www.voanews.com/a/california...g/4323577.html

    See also:


    Science: What We Know About Cancer Risk and Coffee
    March 30, 2018 - Trouble is brewing for coffee lovers in California, where a judge ruled that sellers must post scary warnings about cancer risks. But how frightened should we be of a daily cup of joe? Not very, some scientists and available evidence seem to suggest.
    Scientific concerns about coffee have eased in recent years, and many studies even suggest it can help health. "At the minimum, coffee is neutral. If anything, there is fairly good evidence of the benefit of coffee on cancer," said Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a nutrition expert at the Harvard School of Public Health. The World Health Organization's cancer agency moved coffee off the "possible carcinogen" list two years ago, though it says evidence is insufficient to rule out any possible role. The current flap isn't about coffee itself, but a chemical called acrylamide that's made when the beans are roasted. Government agencies call it a probable or likely carcinogen, based on animal research, and a group sued to require coffee sellers to warn of that under a California law passed by voters in 1986.



    Coffee beans are seen in a roaster at a stand at the Coffee Fair in Lima, Peru.



    The problem: No one knows what levels are safe or risky for people. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets acrylamide limits for drinking water, but there aren't any for food. "A cup of coffee a day, exposure probably is not that high," and probably should not change your habit, said Dr. Bruce Y. Lee of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "If you drink a lot of cups a day, this is one of the reasons you might consider cutting that down." Here's what's known about the risks.


    The chemical


    Start with the biggest known risk factor for cancer — smoking — which generates acrylamide. In the diet, French fries, potato chips, crackers, cookies, cereal and other high-carbohydrate foods contain it as a byproduct of roasting, baking, toasting or frying. Food and Drug Administration tests of acrylamide levels found they ranged from 175 to 351 parts per billion (a measure of concentration for a contaminant) for six brands of coffee tested; the highest was for one type of decaf coffee crystals. By comparison, French fries at one fast-food chain ranged from 117 to 313 parts per billion, depending on the location tested. Some commercial fries had more than 1,000. Even some baby foods contain acrylamide, such as teething biscuits and crackers. One brand of organic sweet potatoes tested as having 121 parts per billion.


    What's the risk?


    The "probable" or "likely" carcinogen label is based on studies of animals given high levels of acrylamide in drinking water. But people and rodents absorb the chemical at different rates and metabolize it differently, so its relevance to human health is unknown. A group of 23 scientists convened by the WHO's cancer agency in 2016 looked at coffee — not acrylamide directly — and decided coffee was unlikely to cause breast, prostate or pancreatic cancer, and that it seemed to lower the risks for liver and uterine cancers. Evidence was inadequate to determine its effect on dozens of other cancer types.


    The California law

  6. #5
    Points: 45,552, Level: 52
    Level completed: 17%, Points required for next Level: 1,498
    Overall activity: 0.2%
    Achievements:
    Tagger Second ClassSocialOverdrive25000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Max Rockatansky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    17946
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    14,862
    Points
    45,552
    Level
    52
    Thanks Given
    2,071
    Thanked 3,801x in 2,984 Posts
    Mentioned
    94 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by Chris View Post
    Far as I'm concerned monopolies are created by the government, through regulation, taxation, subsidies, tax breaks, so on so forth rent sought political favors. Even when the government takes a corporation to court over monopolistic practices it's usually at the behest of competitors seeking political favor. One can read Armentano's Antitrust and Monopoly: Anatomy of a Policy Failure for longer argument based on court cases.

    But, you say, monopolies would form without the government preventing it. No, competition prevents it. Consumer prevent it. Change prevents it. The market is evolutionary. You just can't control it.

    America’s favorite coffee trend may be coming to an end is the story of how Keurig discovered a good thing and tried to monopolize the market but competition and change in the economic environment has worked against it.
    I like my morning coffee, but not a fan of Keurig. My mom loves hers, but they're too expensive for me. I inherited a machine from a friend and used it for awhile, but then it broke and I wasn't impressed enough to buy another.

    About 15-20% of the hotels I've stayed in had them in the rooms as do many doctor and dentist offices. Handy for a selection of choices, but for home use, we have a Ninja coffee bar.


  7. #6
    Points: 78,488, Level: 68
    Level completed: 33%, Points required for next Level: 1,562
    Overall activity: 11.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialVeteran50000 Experience Points
    Abby08's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    72476
    Join Date
    Feb 2017
    Location
    Arizona and New Mexico
    Posts
    35,655
    Points
    78,488
    Level
    68
    Thanks Given
    30,474
    Thanked 29,991x in 18,674 Posts
    Mentioned
    133 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by Max Rockatansky View Post
    I like my morning coffee, but not a fan of Keurig. My mom loves hers, but they're too expensive for me. I inherited a machine from a friend and used it for awhile, but then it broke and I wasn't impressed enough to buy another.

    About 15-20% of the hotels I've stayed in had them in the rooms as do many doctor and dentist offices. Handy for a selection of choices, but for home use, we have a Ninja coffee bar.
    Is the ninja coffee bar on the expensive side? I've considered getting one, but, not sure if it would be worth it, since I don't drink that much coffee and, my husband sticks firmly to plain ole, strong coffee.... brewed in his, Mr.Coffee.

  8. #7
    Points: 665,213, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 90.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation Second ClassYour first GroupOverdrive50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassVeteran
    Awards:
    Discussion Ender
    Chris's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    433307
    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    197,542
    Points
    665,213
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    31,981
    Thanked 80,896x in 54,714 Posts
    Mentioned
    2011 Post(s)
    Tagged
    2 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by Abby08 View Post
    Is the ninja coffee bar on the expensive side? I've considered getting one, but, not sure if it would be worth it, since I don't drink that much coffee and, my husband sticks firmly to plain ole, strong coffee.... brewed in his, Mr.Coffee.
    About $180 @ https://direct.ninjakitchen.com/16/p...0L1Q&gclsrc=ds
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

  9. #8
    Points: 45,552, Level: 52
    Level completed: 17%, Points required for next Level: 1,498
    Overall activity: 0.2%
    Achievements:
    Tagger Second ClassSocialOverdrive25000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Max Rockatansky's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    17946
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Posts
    14,862
    Points
    45,552
    Level
    52
    Thanks Given
    2,071
    Thanked 3,801x in 2,984 Posts
    Mentioned
    94 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by Abby08 View Post
    Is the ninja coffee bar on the expensive side? I've considered getting one, but, not sure if it would be worth it, since I don't drink that much coffee and, my husband sticks firmly to plain ole, strong coffee.... brewed in his, Mr.Coffee.
    A bit pricey, but my wife likes it and wanted it as a present. It is a handy coffee maker with an adjustable switch allowing you to make a mug, travel cup, half pot or full pot of coffee.

    It's more expensive than Keurig, but you'll quickly make that back in being able to use whatever coffee you like.
    https://www.amazon.com/Ninja-Coffee-.../dp/B0160R1MO4


+ Reply to Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts