Those of us of a certain age might remember Fotomat. It was basically a small hut that sat in a parking lot where you could drop off your photographic film to be developed and picked up at a later date. After the demise of film photography on a mass scale, many shopping centers were left with these tiny reminders of a time long past. Flash forward to 2026 and tiny outparcel buildings are making a comeback, only this time people are pulling up for coffee. Between the school drop-off and the office parking lot, a new American ritual has taken hold: the double-lane drive-thru coffee run. Chains like Dutch Bros, 7 Brew, and Scooter’s Coffee have gone from regional curiosities to some of the fastest-growing retail concepts in the country, and the real estate world is scrambling to keep up.
The growth numbers are hard to overstate. No chain in the 2026 Datassential 500 grew sales faster than 7 Brew, which posted 139% systemwide sales growth and 87.5% unit growth in 2025 alone. 7 Brew’s sales jumped from $502 million in 2024 to nearly $1.2 billion the following year.
Dutch Bros, the elder statesman of the category, isn’t slowing down either: the chain had 538 shops in 12 states at the end of 2021 and had grown to more than 1,100 by March 2026. The company delivered record average unit volumes of $2.1 million in 2025 and plans to open at least 181 new locations in 2026, with a target of 2,029 locations by 2029.
In most retail concepts, you want more dwell time to generate incremental sales; however, in drive-thru coffee world, speed is of the essence. Time spent at a 7 Brew stand averaged just 8.7 minutes in the third quarter, versus 10 minutes at Dutch Bros and 13.8 minutes at Starbucks. That efficiency, paired with drive-up and walk-up flexibility, has made these stands a fixture of the daily commute rather than a destination trip. Roughly 73% of consumers drink coffee or tea multiple times a week, making it one of the highest-frequency habits any restaurant format can build a business around, and chains have leaned into customization. Drive-thru coffee brands launched 1,221 beverage limited-time offers in 2025 alone. Meanwhile, energy drinks have grown 186.8% on coffee chain menus over the past four years, a sign of how aggressively these brands are chasing new beverage occasions beyond the basic cup of coffee.
These chains have essentially reinvented the footprint math of retail real estate. Drive-thru-only coffee kiosks run between 500 and 1,000 square feet, which means lower construction costs, lower occupancy expenses, and a bigger cushion between sales and rent obligations. That small footprint lets operators tuck stands onto outparcels and infill sites that larger restaurants can’t use, and landlords have taken notice: coffee drive-thrus have become one of the hottest single-tenant net lease product types in the country. Dutch Bros properties have traded at cap rates below 5.25%, with Starbucks deals selling faster than at any point since 2021.
Retail brokers describe drive-thru coffee as sitting in a category of its own, distinct from typical QSR: a $5 to $6 coffee purchase tends to hold its place in a household budget even when broader restaurant spending contracts, and Dutch Bros reported a 5.4% rise in customer visits in the fourth quarter of 2025, far outpacing the decline in overall restaurant traffic.
Do the new coffee chains represent a paradigm shift in a segment that has been dominated for decades by Starbucks and Dunkin? While Starbucks has responded by reinvesting in the interior of its cafes to be a differentiator compared to the more limited experience offered by these upstarts, it’s also been prioritizing site selection that allows for drive-thru service, so it clearly sees this new competition as something to pay attention to. The question is whether or not this influx of new coffee options will be a passing fad like the Fotomat.
Mike Jordan, Director of Research
