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In the 1990s, coffee exploded in

popularity in the United States. There

were cafes and coffee shops opening all

over the country. They became popular

hangout spots, and that was reflected in

TV shows like Friends. Well, the two

companies that capitalized on the trend

far more than any of the others and

likely even helped fuel it and maintain

it to an extent were Starbucks and

Duncan. In October of 2025, Duncan

became the fourth restaurant chain in

the country to ever reach 10,000

locations, while Starbucks was one of

the three that had already reached that

milestone over a decade earlier.

Meaning, most of us do not have to

travel far to get to either one of these

restaurants. Starbucks claims that they

purchase 3% of the world's coffee supply

each year, while Duncan claims to sell 2

billion cups of coffee each year, which

comes out to 60 cups per second. Yeah,

obviously these are both massive success

stories centered around coffee. However,

that might be the extent of the

similarities. When it comes to running a

business, Starbucks and Duncan are

practically opposites. So, in this

video, I think it would be interesting

to highlight some of the major

differences between them. Starting out

with geography, Starbucks is heavily

associated with Seattle, Washington.

That was the city of their first

location back in 1971 and remains the

location of their headquarters. While

Duncan is heavily associated with

Boston, Massachusetts, considering that

their first location opened in Quincy

all the way back in 1948, and their

current headquarters is in Canton, both

in the Boston area. As you might expect,

Starbucks has been more common on the

West Coast, while Duncan has been much

more heavily concentrated on the East

Coast. In fact, out of those 10,000 US

locations, about 9,000 of them are east

of the Mississippi River, and zero of

them are found in Starbucks home state

of Washington or the surrounding states

of Oregon or Idaho. Duncan believes that

they can ultimately reach 20,000 US

locations, which would likely require

them to win over some of those areas

currently dominated by Starbucks.

Starbucks has 17,000 locations in the

US, but their biggest expansion plans

concern the rest of the world. Duncan

opened their first restaurant outside of

North America in Tokyo, Japan in 1970.

That was technically before Starbucks

even existed, while Starbucks opened

their first overseas restaurant, also in

Tokyo, Japan, in 1996. And over these

past three decades, they have been so

much more aggressive. Since 2018, the

international locations have outnumbered

the domestic ones. Compared to Duncan,

Starbucks currently has about five times

as many locations outside of the US. My

next comparison is going to be

franchising because Duncan is recognized

as one of the earliest restaurants to

franchise in a big way. Founder Bill

Rosenberg started doing it in the 1950s,

shortly after opening his fifth

company-owned restaurant. And in 1960,

he even helped organize the

International Franchise Association,

currently recognized as the oldest and

largest franchising organization in the

world, known for providing advice and

guidance to all sorts of franchises. He

has said in 1960 when franchising was in

its infancy, most people looked upon it

as an outcast or a misfit, but I

believed it was the epitome of

entrepreneurship and free enterprise.

So, he was obviously a big believer in

it. And to this day, Duncan is over 99%

franchised, meaning every Duncan that

you have ever been to was likely not

owned or operated by the central

company, but rather a franchisee who is

paying the central company for the right

to do it. Now, Starbucks, on the other

hand, has actively avoided franchising.

However, around 7,000 of their US

locations are operating under a license.

Like the ones that you find inside of a

store or an airport or something like

that, but the bigger ones that are on

their own are very likely owned by the

company. The reasoning is that they fear

giving up control of the restaurants

could harm the quality or the perception

of the brand that they have worked so

hard to build. Leading me into the next

comparison, the customers. Simply put,

Duncan has a much more bluecollar

workingclass customer base. And maybe

the best way to exemplify this is by

looking at the people who started the

companies. Legend has it that Duncan

founder Bill Rosenberg started working

when he was 3 years old by selling ice

from his tricycle. When he was 14 during

the Great Depression, he dropped out of

school so he could help support his

family. When he was around 30, he

started a food truck to serve factory

workers that led to a doughnut shop that

ultimately became the business that we

know today. In the 1980s, they had a big

advertising campaign that centered

around a hardworking man named Fred the

Baker intended to relate to their core

customers. Whereas Starbucks was started

by a magazine writer and two teachers

who had a passion for premium coffee. In

the 1980s, when Starbucks was still a

very small retail operation, it was sold

to Howard Schultz, who transformed it

based on higherend coffee shops he had

seen during a trip to Milan, Italy. In

2003, they acquired Seattle's Best

Coffee for almost 20 years, and it

served as their lower grade, less

expensive brand before selling it in

2022. Today, Starbucks is known for a

variety of specialty drinks that tend to

be higher quality and higher priced when

compared to Duncan. They say that their

mission is to be the premier purveyor of

the finest coffee in the world,

inspiring and nurturing the human

spirit, one person, one cup, in one

neighborhood at a time. So, you can see

how their different approaches have

helped build very different brand images

that have attracted different customer

bases. Next up on the list, I want to

compare their focus on coffee. Again,

Starbucks was started by three friends

that were passionate about coffee. So by

the time coffee was exploding in the

1990s, they were already well positioned

while Duncan had to make some

adjustments. Entering that decade,

donuts were by far their main focus,

while coffee was considered to be more

of a compliment to those donuts. I mean,

their mascot was Fred the Baker, not

Fred the Barista. In 1989, they were

even bought by the company who owned

BaskinRobins, partially because ice

cream and donuts were thought to be a

logical pairing. But in 1995, they

started expanding their coffee menu.

First by offering flavored coffees like

French vanilla and hazelnut. In 1997,

they started selling iced coffee like

the Duncan Kulada. In 2000, the Duncino

was introduced, followed by a line of

espressos and lattes in 2003. Then in

2006, does anyone remember the Fralian

commercial where they were essentially

poking fun at the complexity of the menu

at competing coffee chains like

Starbucks? Perhaps fatality.

>> Now I have that one stuck in my head

again after not hearing it for almost 20

years. That was the same year, by the

way, that they introduced their current

slogan, America runs on Duncan. That is

meant to emphasize their coffee sales. I

mean, the most dramatic transition that

I could mention happened in 2018 when

they dropped the word donuts from their

name to reflect the fact that they were

a beverage-led onthe-go brand. However,

I think it is interesting that while

Duncan was transitioning away from

bakery toward coffee, Starbucks was kind

of doing the opposite. It's not like

baked goods were ever seen as all that

promising during their existence, but

they are a good compliment to coffee and

viewed as a logical way to expand. Just

a few examples here would be in 2010,

they introduced those cake pops that

quickly became a hit in their stores. In

2012, they spent around $und00 million

to buy a chain of bakeries in San

Francisco. And in 2017, they opened

their first original bakery. So, not

nearly as extreme as the other way

around, but you can see the similarities

there. Going back to the list, I also

want to compare the advertising between

the two brands because yet again, they

have taken completely different

approaches. Historically, Duncan has

been pretty conventional. I know that I

have been seeing Duncan commercials

throughout my entire life. I even

mentioned a few of them already in this

video. They've had Super Bowl

commercials featuring celebrities like

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who are also

from Boston. Whereas Starbucks has

relied much more on word of mouth

advertising, not even airing a single

national TV commercial until 2007. The

idea being that they would benefit more

by directing that money toward the

restaurants, things like music,

decorations, employee training. They

want to sell the experience more than

the product by making it a third place

to spend your time outside of your home

and your workplace. If you have a great

experience, maybe get to know the people

that work there or the other customers,

you are likely to return and maybe even

tell your friends about it. Lately,

Starbucks has reported some troubling

sales figures and their way to address

it yet again is to focus mainly on the

instore experience. They're renovating

and redesigning locations, trying to

speed up the service by hiring more

baristas, and encouraging people to stay

longer by offering free refills.

Finally, I want to compare the owners of

these companies. Nothing too detailed,

but I just want to point out that

Starbucks has always been its own

company, not really connected to any

larger brands. Whereas Duncan has been

part of a larger company since it was

acquired in that 1989 deal that teamed

it up with BaskinRobins. They even went

so far as to open combination buildings

where you could buy your ice cream and

donuts all in one place. They also

acquired Mr. Donut around that time and

gave those franchises the opportunity to

convert them into Dunkin Donuts. In

2006, those brands were sold to three

private equity firms for $2.4 billion.

And in 2020, they were sold to Inspire

Brands for 11.3 billion, a company that

was already the owner of a bunch of

other national food brands. What I'm

trying to get across here is that while

Starbucks has been mostly independent,

Duncan has been involved with many other

large companies. I do want to mention

before the end of this video that coffee

continues to be a competitive business,

maybe more now than ever before.

Starbucks and Duncan naturally continue

to compete with each other in addition

to other national chains that sell

coffee in a big way alongside their more

popular menu items like McDonald's or

Panera Bread. And on top of that, there

are all these relatively new drive-thru

concepts like Dutch Bros or Seven Brew

that have been really gaining traction.

And Lucking Coffee, the biggest coffee

chain in China, might become a factor in

the US market considering it opened its

first US locations in 2025. So clearly a

lot going on there that could

potentially shake up the industry one

day. Let me know in the comments. Which

of these chains do you prefer and what

do you like about it? Is it something I

mentioned on my list? or maybe you have

something that should be added to it. In

your experience, what are the biggest

differences between the brands? And what

do you predict for the future? Will they

continue to be as dominant or will one

of these smaller competitors find a way

to catch up to them? Really quick, I

want to remind you that I have covered

both of these companies with their own

videos in the past. So, I recommend

watching those if you want to hear more

about the individual stories. And any

other thoughts you have about Starbucks

or Duncan, leave them in the comments.

I'd like to hear what you have to say.

Thank you for watching.

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