Dunkin' Beats Starbucks In Price For Product

Dunkin’ Donuts beats Starbucks in coffee, food, and prices…kind of like doughnuts beat pastries.

Dunkin’, however, is at a slight disadvantage in popular imagination. When people think doughnuts, they think Krispy Kreme. When they think coffee, they think Starbucks.

On the doughnut flank, Krispy Kreme has the advantages of being older and appealing to 50s middle-class nostalgia.

Part of the coffee disadvantage, though, comes from American class aspiration.

Starbucks has always marketed itself as an upscale European coffee bar. Its stores are ridiculously crowded in downtown metro areas , especially inside 4 and 5-star hotels.

The names of its drink sizes , like its lobbies, look chic and pretentious — much like Americans’ aspirations.

For years, Starbucks was one of the few restaurant chains where all social classes could afford to sit side-by-side and feel equally elite.

As journalist Daniel Palmer put it:

Sure people were aware that the beverages at Starbucks were more expensive than at many cafés but they still frequented…