For our Quantitative Methods II class, we decided to examine the coffee drinking habits of Kalamazoo College students during Fall and Winter Quarters of the 2005-2006 school year. We aimed to determine if the addition of Beaner's coffee shop to the Kalamazoo College campus affected the tendencies of its students. The data we received from the surveys led us to the following conclusions:

  • Though the majority of students prefer Ravenwood Coffee, most students reported going to Beaner's Cafe within the last seven days of completing our survey.
     
  •  The three most important factors students look for in a coffee shop were atmosphere, quality of product, and proximity to the student. 
     
  •  Due to the high importance students place on a cafe's location, we inferred that part of the explanation for Beaner's popularity in the past seven days stems from its placement on campus.  
     
  •  In Fall Quarter, the most frequented shop was Ravenwood Coffee. In Winter Quarter, the majority of students went to Beaner's Cafe. Therefore, we can say that the addition of Beaner's to Kalamazoo College's library shifted a large portion of consumer traffic from other local shops to the campus. 

 

Research Paper 

Survey 

Important Links

Class Homepage

Beaner's 

Rocketstar 

Starbucks 

Water Street Coffee Joint 

(note: To our knowledge, 4th Coast cafe and Ravenwood Coffee do not have their own websites) 

E-mail Katie 

E-mail Charlie 

Coffee Consumption at Kalamazoo College - May 2006