Starbucks disposable cup shortage coffee shop rising cost of goods and materials

Coffee is something that many Westerners must drink in the morning. Going out to a coffee shop to pack a cup of coffee is the first choice of many people. In the United States, where the culture is extremely strong, this phenomenon can be said to be part of daily life. But these days it's harder for Americans to be happy with coffee to go.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 9 about the dilemma of going to Starbucks, where beans are available and coffee is plentiful, but there are no cups to hold it. A consumer interviewed by the media bought the coffee she wanted only when she called another nearby Starbucks to confirm the size of the Venti cup because the Starbucks she was in did not have a Venti size disposable cup.

A Starbucks spokesman said the company is trying to stabilize supplies and is using holiday-themed disposable coffee cups to make up for the $6 billion it spends annually on disposable cups.

Starbucks isn't the only one facing this dilemma, however. Restaurants and suppliers across the United States are struggling to find a cup. Due to the lack of labor in the paper industry in the United States, disposable paper cups in the United States are mainly imported from China and other countries. Due to epidemic prevention requirements, many imported disposable cups are still trapped in the port. Texas has been hit by a cold snap that has halted production at a maker of plastic cups and paper cup coatings and has yet to recover from the effects.

In response to the one-time cup crisis, some merchants even set up groups to inform each other about the stock status of Amazon and local suppliers; others cooperated with each other to keep track of who borrowed whom and promised to return it later.

Even so, a new problem arises: lids are scarce. Because disposable cups and lids used by different brands have their own specifications size, the same 24-ounce cup, but the lids do not match each other.

But imagine, the same capacity of the cup, the next store cup lid is bigger than you use, the lid is covered, the result is that the guest drinks when spilling a whole body, this is not waiting to be complained? In order to find the right lid for the cup, the merchant is also painstaking, constantly trying the lid.

The lid of a cold drink cup was used on a hot drink paper cup, while the creamer was contained in an ordinary plastic cup without a logo.

When the stock of a particular takeaway cup type is insufficient, merchants have to remove specific drinks from the line, leaving more opportunities for offline consumers.

Some coffee shop merchants complained in interviews that the price of some disposable cups has increased by 70% compared with last year. In order to solve the shortage of disposable cups and the rising cost, consumers who bring reusable cups are given discounts. Some businesses are forced to use disposable paper cups for cold drinks.

But how many of us take our own personal cups with us when we go out? Standing at the bar of a coffee shop trying to order, only to be told that there were no disposable cups available, but could only stand there stupidly watching without drinking. Therefore, it was still a private cup of incense!

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