Lids Top Off Coffee Culture

Books, it is said, should not be judged by their covers. But in Boston’s competitive coffee house market, sellers are pouring money into luxury containers to hold their drinks.

Faced with mounting competition from national chains, independent sellers hope that fancy disposable lids will allow them to attract a loyal customer base.

At 1369 Coffee House, which has locations at Central and Inman Squares, the strategy seems to be working. Customers come in to the store with the intention of showing off to friends the shop’s lids, which feature a sliding mechanism that opens and closes a drinking hole.

“I don’t get that for my beverages,” says Operations Manager Mark LaHoud, referring to the “Traveler Plus” lid produced by Solo Cup Co. that 1369 has carried for the last three years.

Starbucks, meanwhile, still uses the non-closable “Traveler” model.

Three years ago, managers at 1369 Coffee passed out customer feedback cards.

“The number one complaint we got was our lids,” says LaHoud.

After discussing the problem with their paper supplier, Solo Cup, a representative showed 1369 Coffee managers a new lid sample.

“We loved it,” LaHoud says.

“We got to be known as the place with the lid,” he adds. “Our customers started calling it sexy.”

“The lid has definitely helped our business. If we took it away it would hurt our business....We know that people come in, in part, because of the lid,” he says.

Java House, located in South Boston, has been using the same lid as 1369 Coffee has, for roughly two and half years.

“We do everything in our power to be ahead of Starbucks,” says owner Brian Tunney.

Manufacturers say the fancier and more expensive lids are quickly growing in popularity.

Solo’s senior vice president of marketing, Beth A. Dahlke, says that since the company introduced the “Traveler Plus” lid in the summer of 2003, sales by volume have continued to grow. She would not provide specific numbers.

But since the lid is made up of pieces of interlinking plastic, 1369 and Java House are paying almost double or triple the price of simpler lids used by stores like Starbucks or Toscanini’s.

Because of the cost, 1369 Coffee uses the lid only on lattes or other drinks that need space for condiments like whip cream.

Tunney, the Java House owner, says at first he wasn’t sure if the added investment would pay off.

“Sometimes you’re not sure if it’s worth it,” he says. He says he was finally convinced that customers relied on his lids when his supply ran out and he reverted to using the “old-fashioned slap lid” until the new shipment arrived.

“Everyone was asking me for them,” he says.

One of the reasons the coffee industry has topped off its brews with increased sophistication, according to Dahlke, is that Americans increasingly want their coffee on-the-go.

“We are catering to the lifestyle and time requirements that today’s busy customer has,” she says.

John W. Roderick, a salesperson for Perkins Paper, a distributor that sells products such as Solo to food providers, including Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS), says his product line has evolved significantly to include larger cups and more complex spill-proof lids.

“If you get coffee on your shirt, it can ruin your whole day,” he says.

Roderick has been in the paper business since 1978 and has watched over the evolution of plastic lids. Originally, a lid was a single piece of plastic, he says. Customers would tear away a piece of the plastic in order to drink the beverage. There were no tear lines or re-closable flaps.

The flat lids made with pre-cut tear lines, those still used by HUDS, were once considered a modern sophistication.

When the newest design was created by Solo, a team of researchers and designers spent almost two years producing the final product.

But not all chains need to cater to take-out customers or buy fancy lids. Chains such as Au Bon Pain (ABP), do not use the most-recently designed lids.

ABP tends to have a higher percentage of customers who sit in the store than Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks has, says Ed Frechett, Senior Vice President of Marketing for ABP. Because ABP customers do not have the same need to prevent drink-spillage, there has been less pressure on the chain to provide top-notch coffee lids. ABP offers only a flat tear-tab lid for its hot drinks.

“It has not been a major issue for us. As long as customers tell us that [these] are the lids that meet their needs, then this is what we provide,” he says.

Harvard also provides the simplest and cheapest lids available next to its paper cups.

Like the customers at ABP, students have not vocally complained about the lids, and HUDS treats the issue like “choosing paper for your copying machine,” according to Jami Snyder, HUDS communications coordinator.

“I don’t think it’s ever been an issue that’s been brought to our attention,” Snyder says.

Harvard refuses to use styrofoam cups for environmental reasons. Most of the fancier dome lids are designed to fit styrofoam cups.

HUDS is also limited by the cost factors of requesting a specially designed lid for their paper cups, Roderick says.

Only large chains can request specific designs for their cups, Roderick says, because they purchase in bulk.

“If Dunkin’ Donuts doesn’t like the lid that the manufacturers are making, the manufacturers will work hard to make something better,” he says. “For the most part people have to go with what is offered by the manufacturers, which is run by the McDonald’s of the world, the Burger Kings of the world.”

Because paper companies work with massive quantities of products, “Harvard could only get special lids if they spent thousands of dollars,” Roderick says.

Nevertheless, HUDS will not completely rule out the possibility of buying more complex lids for students.

“I read all the feedback, and no one has mentioned it,” Snyder says. “If there is a problem we can certainly look into it.”

—Staff writer Shifra B. Mincer can be reached at smincer@fas.harvard.edu.