Starbucks on wheels, yay or nay? Northeastern Dining rolled out a Starbucks bike, last fall. The bike serves 16-ounce cups of Nitro Cold Brew coffee for $4.99. It can hold nine gallons of Nitro Cold Brew (three 3-gallon kegs), which is infused with nitrogen as it pours out of the tap, giving the coffee a thick, foamy top.
Snell squad is one of the busiest places on the Northeastern University campus. You will find students attending a fair or learning how to ride a bike. While some are just running off to their classes or going for lunch, Robert Phillips just wanted a coffee.
When Phillips saw the Starbucks bike, he started walking towards it, it was definitely not something he was expecting to see in the student centre. He preferred to order a Nitro Cold Brew from the mobile coffee shop, rather than waiting in line at the indoor Starbucks.
The bike is usually on the campus three days a week in places such as Snell, Centennial, and Krentzman squads. The goal was to extend the campus’s Starbucks service beyond the four-walled stores. Interestingly, the bike has Northeastern roots, built by Coaster Cycles, a company founded by 2005 graduate Ben Morris. He started the company in 2004 when he was still a student at the University.
The company first started as a pedicab service. It has since evolved and changed names, over the years. Coaster Cycles now manufactures and sells a range of three-wheeled, pedal-powered vehicles such as pedicabs, cargo bikes, billboard bikes, coffee bikes, and promotional bikes.
The company is doing pretty well with its sales in the country as well as abroad in countries like Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, and New Zealand. Nowadays, companies have started looking at bikes as a tool to help their business needs. From delivering goods to beverages and food items.
“We’re basically positioning ourselves to major brands as the go-to source for commercial-grade bikes and trikes for business applications,” says Morris.
There is a large opportunity for them to capture the market and change the way deliveries happen as emissions from vehicles are harmful to the planet. With awareness, new standards are being set and bikes can be the best alternative. It is time to take advantage of the opportunity right in front.
Soumya Pandey
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