Business Insider/Jessica Tyler
Dunkin' Donuts' new stores have taps offering drinks like cold brew and nitro cold brew.
- Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts have long competed as two of the biggest coffee chains in the world.
- Now, Dunkin' is becoming more like the slightly-more-upscale Starbucks with a major rebrand that includes a new store design, drinks like nitro-infused cold brew, and digital-ordering kiosks.
- We compared one of the remodeled Dunkin' stores to a Starbucks location, and one store had a few advantages over the other.
Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts have long competed as two of the biggest coffee chains in the world.
Now, Dunkin' is becoming more like the slightly-more-upscale Starbucks with a major rebrand, starting with a name change. The Massachusetts-based coffee empire began testing the name "Dunkin'" - without the "Donuts" - at a handful of Massachusetts locations late last year, beginning with one in Quincy, according to Eater. Now the name change is being tested at 30 locations in Boston and 20 others elsewhere.
The Dunkin' concept is part of a major rebrand that includes a new store design, drinks like nitro-infused cold brew, and digital-ordering kiosks. Starbucks, on the other hand, has been offering nitro cold brew since 2016.
The Dunkin' concept isn't necessarily a permanent change. While it will be rolling out to about 50 stores, Dunkin' Donuts said in a statement that it didn't plan to make any decisions about the branding until later this year.
We visited one of the new Dunkin' stores in New York City and compared it to a Starbucks in a different part of town. Here's the verdict: