Scooter’s Coffee: A Success Story

ByCheryl De Torres Updated on

Eager to know how Scooter’s Coffee changed the coffee landscape with their business approach? Join us as we do a review of what made Scooter’s Coffee a household name in Nebraska and across the world.

Scooter’s Coffee: Amazing  People, Amazing Drinks… Amazingly Fast

That’s the motto of Scooter’s Coffee. Let’s find out if it’s true..

An Overview: Scooter’s Coffee since 1998

Started as a drive-thru coffeehouse in Bellevue, Nebraska, Don and Linda Eckles managed to create a multi-million dollar business from serving great tasting coffee to Nebraskans in 1998. After three years, Scooter’s Coffee expands their business through franchising. To date, they have over 200 chains in 14 states and in development throughout the U.S.

Despite the number of coffee chains that have sprouted in different parts of America. Scooter’s Coffee remains headstrong. According to the VP of franchise recruitment for Scooter’s, Tim Arpin, their business firmly roots from the drive-thru model built for providing a good service with speed and consistency.

No wonder, Scooter’s Coffee ranked highly and landed at the 225th spot in Entrepreneur Magazine’s 41st Annual Franchise 500 for this year. The recognition given is based on outstanding performance in essential areas such as financial strength and stability, unit growth, and branding power.

Coffee Culture in Nebraska

The love for coffee of many Nebraskan can be traced back in history to the 1800’s when the Civil War broke out.  There was a tremendous food shortage in Nebraska, including coffee. Since “real” coffee was worth 25 to 33 cents per pound at that time, Nebraskan households had to cast for a cheaper substitute.

The cheap coffee substitute that most Nebraskan had depended on was made from dried barley, corn, and rye – and it was BAD. Some Nebraskan farmers even suggested using dried carrots and okra seeds to make an alternative coffee.

Today, drinking coffee in Nebraska is like visiting an art museum. Most baristas in Nebraska will put a lot of effort into each and every mug of coffee they serve. As much as possible, they’ll make sure that the foam they use in creating the latte designs on top of the mug equates to the quality of the coffee poured in it.

What’s in Scooter’s Coffee?

Scooter’s is a drive-thru establishment that serves premium coffee, espresso, and lattes. They also serve real fruit smoothies and baked-from-scratch pastries. 

Other than their tasty coffee and pastries, another factor that makes Scooter’s a favorite is their quick order fulfillment that takes only 40 seconds per customer!

Is Scooter’s Coffee Good?

Many frequent travelers recommend Scooter’s coffee blends, smoothies, and pastries as a perfect travel buddy. In fact, Tripadvisor ranked Scooter’s 19 out of 57 as one of the most recommended quick bite coffee shops in Lincoln, Nebraska for its “good coffee, great smoothies, and pleasant service.”

Scooter’s also received an overwhelmingly positive response from Yelp. Many praise the quality of their hot and cold brews purchased from Scooter’s drive-thru. Some loved the pastries they serve, especially the cinnamon rolls. While others commend the generous size and prices of the Scooter’s product served. If you’re checking off items on your USA bucket list, I highly recommend stopping by a Scooter’s and give their coffee a try.

What Kind of Coffee does Scooter’s Use?

The house blend used 100% Arabica beans for their hot and cold brews. These roasts are from the top 10% of premium quality coffee beans. The beans are cultivated in the rich soils of Central America and Africa. Thus, the roasts used in all the cuppas that Scooter’s serve features a rich and smooth body with an easy, buttery finish.

If you want to take home the delicious coffee blends of Scooter’s Coffee to make your own hot or cold brew. They also sell their house blends including Scooter’s Blend, Costa Rica Micro Mill, Wonderland Roast, Ethiopia, and Espresso.

Scooter’s Blend: This classic coffee blend is 100% Arabica coffee beans. It is roasted and packaged at Scooter’s Coffee Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. It’s a medium roast blend available in whole bean and ground. 

For $12.99, you can taste this Central American and African coffee blend with hints of dark chocolate, molasses, and dried berries in a 12 fl oz. pack.

Costa Rica Micro Mill: It’s a single-origin coffee roasted using high-quality coffee beans at Costa Rica Micro Mills. This medium roast coffee has a smooth and balanced taste with layered hints of cacao, citrus, and tropical fruit. 

Only 100% Arabica coffee beans are roasted and packed at the Scooter’s headquarters. You can choose between whole bean or ground packed in 12 oz fl packs for only $12.99.

Wonderland Roast: It’s Scooter’s limited edition medium roast coffee made from 100% Arabica coffee beans. The coffee beans used are cultivated and harvested from the rich soils of the Calderon-Castillo estate located at the picturesque hillside of Tarrazu, Costa Rica.

This coffee is only available in ground packed 12 oz. fl resealable packaging. You’ll enjoy every cup of Wonderland Roast as this blend has hints of caramel, sweet fig, and chocolate – truly grown and harvested with love.

Ethiopia: This is the only medium-light roast in the Scooter’s Coffee blend collections. It has a smooth, full body with a slight sweetness in flavor. After drinking this, you’ll smell the fruity aroma of the coffee with hints of chocolate, honey, and fruit.

Espresso: Scooter’s has their own version of Espresso that will make you drink more cups than usual. It’s a rich dark roast coffee with hints of milk chocolate, caramel, and tropical fruit. It is made from 100% Arabica beans. The whole beans are the only available type for this variant. You’ll feel like you’re walking through Italy and drinking a proper espresso.

What States have a Scooter’s Coffee?

For more than 20 years in serving world-class coffee from Nebraska to the world. Scooter’s Coffee currently has more than 240 locations in 15 states of U.S. This 2020, Scooter’s drive-thru franchise is committed to opening additional stores.  

If you’re craving for an amazing coffee, smoothies, and pastries you want to bring along in your travels. You can check out for the nearest Scooter’s Coffee in your location here.

Scooter’s Coffee Franchise Opportunities

If you want to start a business, many people will suggest franchising. With the current situation of the world economy, owning a franchise is much better than starting your own. Franchise organizations will help you to start a business with their structure for launching, operating, and growing the business.

The franchisors have comprehensive operation manuals and provide training to help the franchise owners manage their business. Through this approach, franchise business owners will learn how to earn more and spend less in time and effort.

So if you’re looking for a good franchise business, you should check out franchise opportunities. It’s one of the fastest drive-thru coffee franchises since a lot of people are looking for ways to get easy access to specialty coffee with commendable service.

Such opportunities that Scooter’s can guarantee are:

  • Brand awareness and strong reputation. Scooter’s Coffee had built a solid foundation from the reputation they had for 20 years in providing excellent coffee and pastry products and good customer service.
  • A proven franchise business model that  works. Scooter’s Coffee firmly roots from their drive-thru model with speed and consistency in mind. Since many people want easy access to great tasting coffee, the drive-thru has always been the to-go places of buyers.
  • Effective marketing campaigns. You no longer have to put up so much effort on marketing your business as Scooter’s Coffee is widely known for its premium coffee, flavorful smoothies, and freshly baked pastries in every corner of the U.S.

What to Consider with a Coffee Franchise

If you want to avail of a coffee franchise there are some things that must be considered. These are:

  1. Capital. The capital will be the life source of your coffee shop. If you compare the capital needed to start your own coffee shop with a coffee franchise. You’ll see a great difference and how much you can save when you choose the latter.
  2. Secured real estate or space. It is important to decide whether you’re going to use your property to build your coffee franchise or just rent a space. However, the location of your supposed-coffee shop is what matters most.
  3. Application for permits and sanitation certificates. To be able to operate legally and for your business’ safety, it is important to secure permits and sanitation certificates from your state before your business officially opens.
  4. Building a supply chain. You’ll never know when your supplies will last as the coffee shop has no peak and lean season. As much as possible, you should have a backup supply chain for your products. But if you franchising, this isn’t a major problem as long as your inventory is strictly monitored.
  5. Marketing the business. The advantage of a franchise business is that you don’t have to do so much for the marketing campaigns. As long as you chose a franchise business that has wide brand awareness and a strong reputation.

Location: Brick and Mortar Stores

The location of your coffee franchise is important. Although you already had set your website where they can also order. People will still look for your physical store to personally buy your products.

Even if we’re in the age where everything can be purchased online. Many people still prefer buying from Brick-and-Mortar stores. These physical stores are where the business operation takes place and where it also involves customer service. 

However, brick-and-mortar stores won’t sell well if this will be located in areas where people seldom pass. If your franchise business is a coffee shop. The most strategic location you can put up your coffee shop is in the city, near subway stations, parks, and public theatres. In areas where most people gather.

Top Ten Best Franchises

To know more about how to succeed with your coffee franchise. Doing your homework with these top ten best franchises can help. These top franchises follow a strict company principle and apply the best business practices to win people with their products and services.

In 2019, TopFranchise.com revealed its top 10 coffee franchises in the USA. These are:

  1. Dunkin Donuts
  2. The Human Bean Drive-Thru
  3. Biggby Coffee
  4. Gloria Jean’s Coffee
  5. Maui Wowi
  6. Scooter’s Coffee
  7. The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
  8. Duck Donuts
  9. The Coffee Beanery
  10. Dunn Brothers Coffee

Features & Benefits

Aside from the premium coffee, natural smoothies, and flavorful baked pastries. Scooter’s is very well known for their enormous contribution to the local economy. Such contributions include:

  • Opening more jobs to the locals and preventing talents from leaving the neighborhood.
  • Increase in the tax base as people patronize the local small business.
  • Healthy competition in the community where businesses are motivated to do better.
  • Community service such donations to local charity and lending a hand to the less fortunate.
  • Promote a healthy environment as small businesses will encourage more walking than cars on the road.
  • Small carbon footprint as it uses fewer public resources and requires less maintenance

Scooter’s Coffee also supports coffee bean farmers by directly purchasing their harvest with no middleman in between. Scooter’s is strongly aware of the strong competition in the coffee industry. That’s why, Scooter’s makes sure that the money used to buy high-quality coffee beans goes to the hands that definitely deserve it: the farmers.

Social Proof

With the Covid-19 global pandemic that has cost a billion jobs and severe economic losses, Scooter’s has remained resilient. To promote social distancing and keep people in their homes. Scooter’s Coffee chose to temporarily close their physical stores and encourage people to place their orders online.

Aside from that, Scooter’s Coffee recently donated a total of 29,000 cans of coffee to the frontliners of 14 CHI Health hospitals in Nebraska and in the Southwest of Iowa.

Alternatives

Although there are lots of coffee shops and drive-thrus in America. Scooter’s Coffee continuously offers great tasting coffee, delicious smoothies, and freshly baked pastries. They are consistent with the quality of their customer service and speed of order fulfillment.

Other coffee shops that managed to stay on top of the business for years are also constantly upgrading their products and services to meet their clients’ expectations. Starbucks might be more popular than Scooter’s but there’s more in Scooter’s than meets the eye.

Rather than build and get going to every city in the US. Scooter’s have a different approach to being recognized. According to Don Eckles, the co-founder of Scooter’s Coffee, “coming up and trying to establish a little bit of a brand” will be a foundation on which to make Scooter’s widely known. With so many employees and stores, you’d imagine Scooter’s being one of the top purchasers of the Reebok RB3500 shoes for their employees.

Other than that, Scooter’s Coffee aims to build more additional stores to serve commuters and frequent travelers across the state.

Military Support / Discounts

Scooter’s is a big supporter of the US Military and offers active and retired military free drinks every Veterans Day November 11th. In addition, they have partnered with Wounded Warriors Family Support (WWFS) to create a donation mechanism on November 12th. Lastly, Scooter’s Coffee is a member of the International Franchise Association (“IFA”) and supports the IFA’s VetFran Program, in which honorably discharged vets can receive up to $20k in product credits for their respective franchise.

Conclusion

Scooter’s Coffee continues to take a different path in the coffee shop industry. No wonder that for two decades, it remained one of the sought after drive-thru coffee shops in America. There might be hundreds of coffee brands out there but once you’ve tried the specialty coffee, flavorful smoothies, and delicious pastries of Scooter’s, you will always look for Scooter’s.

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Cheryl De Torres

Writing content for 3 years and it wouldn't be possible without a cup of coffee in the morning. And yes! The stronger, the better.

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