Coffee shop and bakery sales statistics show two related but distinct parts of the U.S. food economy. Snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars—a Census category that includes coffee shops—reported $63.963 billion in revenue in 2022, while retail bakeries recorded $7.403 billion in shipments in 2024. Commercial bakery shipments reached $39.786 billion in 2024, and food away from home represented 58.9% of total U.S. food expenditures.
Contents
- Coffee shop and bakery market revenue
- Retail bakery sales and employment
- Commercial bakery shipments and payroll
- Coffee shop operating expenses
- Food-away-from-home demand
- Coffee and bakery price indicators
Coffee shop and bakery market revenue
The federal revenue series for snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars is a useful broad indicator for coffee-shop activity. It covers all establishments in the employer-firm category, so it is not a pure coffee-shop series and should not be read as a measurement of coffee-only sales. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis series, titled “Revenue for Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars, All Establishments, Employer Firms,” reports these annual amounts:
- 2013: $31,768 million
- 2014: $34,006 million
- 2015: $36,223 million
- 2016: $37,754 million
- 2017: $38,811 million
- 2018: $41,755 million
- 2019: $45,988 million
- 2020: $43,244 million
- 2021: $55,709 million
- 2022: $63,963 million
The series rose each year from 2013 through 2019, when reported revenue was $45.988 billion. It then measured $43.244 billion in 2020, followed by $55.709 billion in 2021 and $63.963 billion in 2022. These are reported revenue levels for the broad category, not forecasts and not a like-for-like estimate of an individual café or bakery.
The 2020 figure is lower than the 2019 figure in this series, while the 2021 and 2022 observations are higher than every earlier year listed. Because the category includes snack and other nonalcoholic beverage businesses, the figures provide market context for coffee shops rather than a precise coffee-shop sales total.
Retail bakery sales and employment
Retail bakeries recorded steadily higher shipments in the available 2020–2024 series. The FRED retail-bakery shipments series, titled “Retail Bakeries: Shipments,” reports amounts in thousands of dollars:
| Year | Retail bakery shipments | Retail bakery employees |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $5,155,436 thousand | 63,594 |
| 2021 | $5,852,298 thousand | 68,181 |
| 2022 | $6,118,018 thousand | 77,170 |
| 2023 | $6,938,101 thousand | 89,967 |
| 2024 | $7,403,445 thousand | 88,767 |
The shipment figures increased from $5.155 billion in 2020 to $7.403 billion in 2024. Employment also rose from 63,594 people in 2020 to 89,967 in 2023, before the 2024 observation recorded 88,767 employees. The employee counts come from the FRED retail-bakery employees series, titled “Retail Bakeries: Employees.”
The 2024 numbers therefore show a mixed movement within the retail-bakery series: shipments were higher than in every prior year shown, while reported employment was below the 2023 level. Shipments and employment measure different parts of the industry and should not be treated as interchangeable indicators of sales or productivity.
For a bakery café, the retail-bakery series is especially relevant when the business sells baked goods directly to customers. It still does not identify the share of sales coming from bread, pastries, cakes, coffee, or other products. The category is best used as an industry-scale reference, with the year attached to every observation because the employment and shipment measures cover different reporting periods.
Commercial bakery shipments and payroll
Commercial bakeries operate at a larger production scale than the retail-bakery category. The FRED commercial-bakery shipments series, titled “Commercial Bakeries: Shipments,” reports the following annual values in thousands of dollars:
- 2020: $33,663,283 thousand
- 2021: $35,709,025 thousand
- 2022: $38,164,287 thousand
- 2023: $42,476,631 thousand
- 2024: $39,786,314 thousand
Commercial bakery shipments increased from 2020 through 2023, reaching $42.477 billion in 2023. The 2024 figure was $39.786 billion, lower than the 2023 observation but higher than the 2020, 2021, and 2022 amounts in this series.
Annual payroll moved differently. The FRED commercial-bakery payroll series, titled “Commercial Bakeries: Annual Payroll,” reports:
- 2020: $5,439,654 thousand
- 2021: $5,727,196 thousand
- 2022: $6,129,488 thousand
- 2023: $6,641,800 thousand
- 2024: $6,971,064 thousand
Payroll rose in every year from 2020 through 2024, reaching $6.971 billion in 2024. The different 2024 directions for shipments and payroll are important when reading bakery sales statistics: shipment value and payroll are separate reported measures, and neither one alone describes total profitability.
Coffee shop operating expenses
The same broad snack and nonalcoholic beverage bar category also reports expenses. The FRED expenses series, titled “Expenses for Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars, All Establishments, Employer Firms,” reports these annual amounts:
- 2013: $19,579 million
- 2014: $21,093 million
- 2015: $23,017 million
- 2016: $24,600 million
- 2017: $25,152 million
- 2018: $26,017 million
- 2019: $30,701 million
- 2020: $29,416 million
- 2021: $36,375 million
- 2022: $41,538 million
Reported expenses increased from $19.579 billion in 2013 to $30.701 billion in 2019. They measured $29.416 billion in 2020, then rose to $36.375 billion in 2021 and $41.538 billion in 2022. These figures describe expenses for the broad category and are not a list of rent, labor, ingredient, utility, or other line-item costs for individual coffee shops.
For market readers, the revenue and expense series are most useful when kept side by side without turning them into an unsupported profit calculation. Revenue is reported for snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars, while expenses are reported for that same category; the data do not provide a complete operating-margin analysis for coffee shops or bakeries.
Food-away-from-home demand
Coffee shops and bakery cafés participate in the wider food-away-from-home market. The USDA Economic Research Service reported that U.S. per-capita spending on food away from home reached $4,004 in 2022 and $4,485 in 2023. The figures come from “U.S. Consumers Increased Spending on Food Away From Home in 2023, Driving Overall Food Spending Growth”.
The same USDA analysis reported $7,672 in per-capita spending on all food in 2023. Food away from home represented 58.5% of U.S. food spending in 2023, while food at home represented 41.5%. Food-away-from-home spending rose 12.0% in 2023 from 2022 and absorbed 5.9% of disposable personal income in 2023.
The USDA’s Food Prices and Spending data reports nominal U.S. food-away-from-home spending of $1.52 trillion in 2024 and nominal food-at-home spending of $1.06 trillion. In that 2024 measure, food away from home accounted for 58.9% of total U.S. food expenditures.
Restaurant channel shares add context, although they do not isolate coffee shops or bakeries. USDA’s limited-service restaurant chart reports that limited-service restaurants received 37.6% of U.S. food-away-from-home spending in 2020. USDA’s 2024 restaurant-share chart reports that full-service restaurants received 36.3% in 2024 and limited-service restaurants received 36.2%.
Coffee and bakery price indicators
Price statistics show that coffee and baked goods did not all move at the same rate or in the same direction. According to the BLS Consumer Price Index—May 2025, the all-urban CPI for coffee rose 11.5% over the 12 months ending May 2025. The CPI for roasted coffee rose 11.8%, while the CPI for instant coffee rose 12.4% over the same period.
The BLS Consumer Price Index News Release—2025 M08 Results reported more moderate and varied changes over the 12 months ending August 2025:
- Cereals and bakery products: up 1.1%.
- Fresh cakes and cupcakes: up 1.6%.
- Crackers, bread, and cracker products: up 1.1%.
- Fresh sweet rolls, coffee cakes, and doughnuts: down 2.3%.
These are consumer price index movements for the named categories and periods, not changes in a specific café’s menu prices or bakery revenue. Taken together with the shipment and revenue series, they show why coffee shop bakery sales statistics need several measures: market revenue, bakery shipments, employment, payroll, broad operating expenses, consumer demand, and category-specific prices each describe a different part of the business.