The coronavirus pandemic achieved in a few weeks what the owners of Folgers and Maxwell House have been trying to do for a decade: get people to brew coffee at home again.
The morning coffee ritual is one of the toughest consumer habits to change, food executives have long said. Once people got used to stopping at Starbucks or Dunkin’ on their way to work, they weren’t likely to switch things up, the thinking went.
That is, until a pandemic forced millions of people to work from home.
As Americans suddenly changed the way they spent their days and their dollars, a fierce sales battle emerged between cafes, coffee brands and makers of home-brewing machines.
At first, consumers bought whatever coffee they could find as they faced shortages at supermarkets. They got more picky as the pandemic stretched on, improving the quality of their caffeine fix. Many coffee drinkers invested in espresso machines, French presses and pour-over brewers.
