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During the current economic crisis stories about coffee have moved into the headlines of the business page.

For example, Starbucks' stock has plunged over the past year. In the past decade Starbucks has seen tremendous success. It began as a small franchise selling gourmet coffee and extended its reach all across the United States. Now a Starbucks can be found in almost every major city throughout the world. Starbucks has coffee shops in Paris, Milan and London.

Starbucks operated a seemingly failsafe business plan selling coffee in a comfortable setting and earned a tremendous retail profit on purchases. Sales were so good that Starbucks also sold other coffee accessories including mugs, gifts, beans, and other coffee supplies, even specialty coffee makers.

Starbucks has now run into trouble after the housing market bubble burst. These two events might seem unrelated, but economic turmoil has become so widespread that even the coffee market has been affected.

The collapse of the housing market caused a credit crunch. Consumer confidence dwindled and unemployment rates went up. Consumers began hoarding cash rather than spending it because they began hearing stories of friends who lost jobs and retirement funds. This eventually created bad news in an unexpected place: the gourmet coffee market.

Suddenly spending time at Starbucks drinking a high priced cup of coffee does not fit in with the nation's new notion of saving and cutting back on such blatant luxuries. Investors in Starbucks lost almost 75 percent of their money in less than 52 weeks and coffee went from a back-page story to a front-page headline.

As Starbucks fell, an unexpected coffee seller, McDonald's, actually reaped the benefits of an economy that was spiraling toward recession.

Even as the fast food industry had been losing popularity because of the nation's new obsession with health foods, McDonald's was retooling its menu. It now includes healthy alternatives such as salad and the chain has eliminated the use of unhealthy cooking oils. It also made a pivotal decision involving coffee: it eliminated its own generic brand of coffee and brought in Newman's Own coffee.

Because McDonald's associated gourmet coffee with a low-priced menu, consumers who had changed their tastes for richer coffee blends now headed to McDonald's in the morning again. McDonald's continues to succeed even as Starbucks fails despite the fact that consumers are now eating at home far more than in previous years.

Because McDonald's has heavily promoted its one dollar menu, it has become a new go-to destination for financially strapped consumers who want to eat out. They bring with them their addiction for caffeine and McDonald's remains one of the few restaurants succeeding in what has now been described as the worst economic climate since the Great Depression.

Analysts expect that consumers of gourmet coffee will consume most of their caffeine from home if they already own items such as coffee grinders, roasters, coffee machines, coffee makers etc. Those who don't will likely be getting their daily dose of caffeine at fast food chains rather than specialty shops until the current economic climate changes.

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