Americans are working longer hours and for less pay than they have a decade ago. Household incomes are stagnant and Generation Z is being confronted with slower growth, soaring national debt, stiffer competition for jobs, waning economic opportunities, and tuition and health care expense increases previous generations couldn’t have ever imagined. Millennials, despite their reputation for being lazy and self-entitled, are confronting an economic environment where they need to work faster and harder than previous generations while dealing with global competition for their jobs from English-speaking foreigners who benefit from far lower living expenses.
Their solution? Coffee and lots of it at that. The coffee industry is booming. Americans’ obsession with the caffeinated beverage has become a staple of Corporate America with an estimated 400 million cups being served daily. Coffee and energy drinks have risen steadily from 2000-2015 and are expected to close out 2016 at record numbers.
Make no mistake about it, coffee is a drug and America is addicted. Millennials are getting hooked at a younger age and on stronger brews at that. In addition, your typical 10-ounce cup of fresh brew isn’t doing it for them anymore. Americans under thirty are fueling an espresso-based caffeine revolution and all that caffeine is costing them a whole lot more than it has for their parents.
