Study Suggests Indie Coffee Shop Design Has Become Strikingly Uniform

New research suggests that independent coffee shops in the U.S. and Canada are so homogenized in their interior design that they collectively present a de facto brand, running counter to their perceived authenticity and independence.

Based on surveys of independent coffee shop-goers, the study suggests that independent “third wave” coffee shops apply “broadly recognizable aesthetic cues” to cater to today’s “creative class” — whether intentionally or not.

“In effect, the interior aesthetics of local coffee shops are not necessarily reflective of the local culture or geography, but of the expectations and aspirations of their globally aware consumers,” the authors wrote in the study, published in March in the journal City, Culture and Society.

While “third wave” is a convenient label for such analysis, DCN’s coverage of hundreds of independent coffee shop openings over the past decade underscores how diverse independent coffee shops are in practice.

Yet the study does bring up some interesting questions regarding who many coffee shop operators are appealing to in their design choices. Are they appealing to the local community as a whole, or are they sending signals to a certain class?

Identifying ‘Third Wave’

The authors of the new study — affiliated with the University at Buffalo, the University of New Orleans and Washington University in St. Louis — defined third-wave coffee as characterized by local, independent ownership, a perceived superiority of products and the “perceived unique aesthetics and authenticity of the establishments.”

Their research involved two anonymous online surveys, with data collection spanning fall 2017 through summer 2020.

First, the authors ran a pilot study of 50 author-identified third-wave coffee shops across the U.S. and Canada to build a list of 23 interior elements that would later be used in the first survey. The pilot shops were primarily in Cincinnati, Ohio; Ann Arbor, Michigan; St. Louis; and Toronto.

Survey one then asked respondents to identify a “favorite local coffee shop,” defined as locally owned, including local chains while excluding large regional and national chains. Respondents selected which of the 23 design elements applied, added open-ended notes and, in most cases, uploaded an interior photo.

What Showed Up Again and Again

The most frequently identified features of respondents’ favorite shops included baristas with tattoos or piercings (66%), baristas with beards (59%), chalkboard signage (56%), reclaimed wood features (56%) and local art (56%). Other frequently noted elements included milk foam designs (52%), posters of local events not on site (51%), exposed brick (50%) and reused or vintage furniture (47%).

The photos captured through survey one were then used for survey two, which tested whether people could place coffee shop interiors geographically. The survey also asked what drove the guesses.

The Locality Test Didn’t Go Well

Respondents struggled mightily to match six interior photos to three cities (Cincinnati, Toronto and St. Louis). Only 14% correctly placed both the Cincinnati photos, 10% correctly placed both the Toronto photos and 4% correctly placed both the St. Louis photos. None of the respondents correctly located all coffee shops in the task.

In the second photo test, respondents identified a Chicago shop correctly 53% of the time, yet most misidentified a San Francisco shop as Portland (69%) while choosing San Francisco only 15% of the time. In open-ended responses, 54% said they relied on interior design qualities such as architecture, materials or plants to make an educated guess.

Some respondents essentially tapped out. One wrote, “I consider [locating the survey coffee shops] impossible.” Another concluded, “Honestly, these aesthetics are very transferable now.”

The authors wrote that the survey results illustrate that “third wave shops” are more representative of the expectations of “creative-class consumers” than they are representative of local geographies or local aesthetics.

“Even participants who lived in the same city as the coffee shop photos, who would arguably be sensitive to the local aesthetic, were unable to reliably identify the coffee shops in their own city,” they wrote.

The paper also addresses a source of tension within the specialty coffee industry relating to gentrification and exclusion.

The authors wrote that third-wave coffee shops may “facilitate bonding social capital within the creative-class community” while failing to build the broader bridging connections that link a space to a wider neighborhood.

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