Coffee Shops & Snack Bars NAICS 722515

Sep 14, 2025 - Profit-Sharing for Coffee Shops

• In January 2025, coffee shop and roaster Methodical Coffee launched a profit-sharing program covering all of its 85 employees, Fresh Cup reports. After reading “Profit Works” (Freytag and Bouwer, 2023), CEO and co-founder Marco Suarez was inspired to launch a profit-sharing program at the privately-owned company and test its impact on his team and its sustainability as a business model in the cost-heavy coffee business. “The goal is to shift the behavior of our team to being more disciplined in controlling our costs and impacting revenue where they can in order to more easily hit our profitability goals. And the way we do that is by sharing in the upside,” Suarez told Fresh Cup, adding “We want our team to feel the same investment as a stock-holding employee of a large company.” While still new, Suarez says Methodical Coffee hit its mid-year profitability goals, and recently cut employees their first checks.
• While Starbucks struggles, smaller upstart coffee chains are succeeding by offering a more premium, coffee-centric experience, founder of the Australian-style coffee chain Bluestone Lane Nicholas Stone said during an interview at the National Restaurant Association Show in June. One reason legacy brands are struggling may be because they’ve pulled back from coffee, focusing instead on refreshers, energy drinks, and other beverages. “I don’t see that demand for more premium coffee going anywhere,” Stone said, adding smaller chains offer an affordable luxury experience that encourages customers to linger, as opposed to fast in-and-out service. Small coffee chains have seen visits grow recently, according to Placer.ai, with much of that growth concentrated in longer 10-plus minute visits, suggesting consumers are looking for something other than speed at many cafes. Matcha and cold brew are other strong opportunities for coffee shops, Stone says.

• A federal judge has dismissed allegations that Peet’s Coffee discriminated against the lactose intolerant by charging extra for non-dairy alternative milks, Bloomberg Law reported in May. The proposed class action suit brought by Keith Gibson Law (KGL) alleged Peet’s violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to make accommodations for people with milk allergies and imposing a surcharge despite a lack of meaningful differences between the cost of regular and non-dairy milks. In his dismissal the judge ruled “Peet’s pricing policy is facially neutral and applies equally to customers who are not lactose intolerant but prefer non-dairy alternatives in their drinks.” KGL has filed similar lawsuits against numerous coffee chains, including most recently, Dunkin’, all of which have been dismissed. Amid consumer pushback against surcharges for non-dairy milks Peet’s, along with Starbucks, Dunkin’ and other coffee chains have recently stopped charging extra for non-dairy milks.
• Employment by snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars grew to a record high in July, up 3.7% compared to a year ago, while the average industry wage at restaurants and other eating places rose 4.1% over the same period to $18.94 per hour, easing from its high in May, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. According to a National Restaurant Association analysis of BLS data, the coffee and snack segment has outperformed the rest of the restaurant industry in job growth. As of June 2025, employment at snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars – which includes coffee, donut and ice cream shops – was 173,000 jobs (or 21%) above February 2020 levels.