"We've seen the same things as everyone else," said Joe Simonovich, Co-Founder of Shoffee.com. "Although, for us, there seems to be a few things working in our favor."
One of those things is the fact that many Americans are cutting back on everyday luxury items, and at the top of that list are the $3.00 (or more) cups of gourmet coffee they used to enjoy every morning.
"There has really been a switch to at-home brewing," said Simonovich. The mass marketing of at-home, single-cup brewing equipment, like the Keurig has lead the way."
Even though Keurig has been selling at-home brewers for nearly 10 years, the fact that they are now available in places like Macy's, Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Walmart has made them more popular than ever.
"This past holiday season, Keurig put a lot of new brewers in homes," said Simonovich. "When people go to a friend's house, and try the coffee, they are ready to buy one themselves."
Shoffee.com offers the full line of Keurig home brewers, ranging in price from $79.95 to $179.95. Shoffee.com also offers a large selection of Keurig K-Cups (coffee that is used with Keurig brewers); more than 190 varieties from companies like Green Mountain, Caribou Coffee, Timothy's, Coffee People and more.
"One of the big misconceptions is that the only people who are using these brewers at home are people who were used to spending $4.00 every morning on Starbucks coffee," said Simonovich. "Our number-one-selling coffee for more than a year has been Coffee People's Donut Shop Coffee; I am pretty sure the person buying that used to get their coffee somewhere else."
After the initial investment in the brewer, Keurig users can begin to see the savings almost immediately. This past May, Shoffee.com added the actual cost per cup to the description on each of it's Keurig K-Cups.
"Sometimes we can miss the actual savings when we're buying a single box of coffee for more than 10 bucks," said Simononovich. "When a Shoffee.com shopper looks at the cost-per-cup, and compares that to what they are spending at a coffee shop, they can see the real savings."
Shoffee.com estimates that the average coffee-drinking family can save more than $200 in the first year of owning a Keurig brewer versus the cost of buying their coffee every morning at a coffee shop or donut store.
