You can bet your bottom dollar that Josie's thread touched a nerve on Twitter. His photo got more than 331.4k likes and was retweeted a combined total of 51k times at the time of writing. That just goes to show that customers like Edward and their logic-defying orders aren't anything rare—they're out there and they're coming for you (if you're a barista).
Coffee means big business in America. According to E-Imports, the United States imports over 4 billion dollars worth of coffee per year. And it's no wonder that the numbers are so high because Americans consume a whopping 400 million cups of coffee per day.
The US' massive consumption of the drink is making me imagine a literal ocean of coffee being gulped down. To say that Americans are coffee lovers would be an understatement. (Though we wish more of those orders were a bit less adventurous. All that syrup in your coffee can't be good for you.)
Meanwhile, Statista reports that a 2018 survey found that US consumers most commonly use drip coffee makers and single cup brewers. Though the former is slowly but surely going out of style and its future remains uncertain.
On the flip side, cold brew coffee is growing in popularity. The cold brew coffee market had been valued at 321 million dollars in 2017 and is expected to reach 1.37 billion dollars in market value by 2023.
What doesn't change, however, is the ‘customer first' mentality that many cafe owners, franchise workers, and baristas have. Though, should they accommodate each and every whim? Or should they try talking to all the Edwards that show up for their pick-me-ups? We think that it depends on just how monstrous the order really is. Just remember to do things diplomatically and with a smile. We all have our own little vices after all.
