Startling news from Seattle earlier this year—Starbucks, the company that reinvented the coffee experience; the franchising stalwart that was opening new locations anywhere it could find the real estate; is going into safe mode. Expansions are slowing, and some stores will be closed!

Analysts say that in the last year or so, with the economy running on 3.5 cylinders, the $5.00 cup of coffee had begun to look conspicuous. Good riddance some of you might say. Maybe you were getting a little sick of the tattooed barista’s, the Nora Jones music and the wi-fi hound customers and their earbuds.

But, then again, you’re in the dairy business, and especially if you bottle and sell milk, the bad news about Starbucks, is bad news for you. Starbucks and its ilk have become very good customers for dairy processors. Together, these places move a heck of a lot of milk in their lattes. You’ve heard this before, I’m sure.

If it’s harder to justify the expense of getting a coffee drink or two a day at your favorite café, what’s a coffee addict to do?  Well there is evidence that some in the coffee business are expecting coffee sales to move back to retail.

This year, Procter & Gamble sold the Folgers brand to the J. M. Smucker Co. But before the deal is closed (expected by year’s-end), P&G is overhauling the roasting methods for Folgers, which is still the top brand of coffee in the grocery stores. 

It seems that folks on both sides of the Folgers deal realize that consumer expectations about coffee have changed.

What I’m getting at here is that despite a stale, bitter economy, the milk opportunities afforded by coffee shops don’t have to dry up. Sure, Starbucks is sailing in stormy seas right now, with coffee shops on every other corner. But the opportunities for milk that have been introduced by those ubiquitous retail outlets, may just be shifting to a new location even nearer to you—your kitchen.

I love making good coffee at home, but for years I have driven my wife’s parents nuts by making relatively small batches of java in my primitive, yet effective, French press.  Finally, last year for Christmas they bought us a great big combination drip brewer and espresso maker. Oh boy, I’ve had some fun with that espresso maker! With my 18-year-old grinder and some nice dark-roasted beans, I can make a darned good cup of cappuccino. Wasn’t it just last year or the year before when one of the hottest new home appliances was the high tech single cup coffee maker designed to make coffee house-style coffee right in your kitchen?  I think there were more than a half-dozen models in the some of the reviews I saw.

I mentioned Folgers above, but the coffee aisle in any grocery store offers all kinds of options at lots of different price points—including organic fair trade products in private label. Starbucks moved into this space years ago, and while the company may be busy with its core business, it’s not likely to back out of what could become a growing channel. I buy Starbucks espresso beans at Target, at a very attractive price.

The 21st century coffee drinker is not going back to the regular cup of jo, but he or she might be brewing more at home. The dairy industry needs to do whatever it can to make sure the at-home barrista uses milk just like the gal with the nose ring who used to work at the Starbucks. 

The milk business does a great job at cross promoting with cookies and cereal. Is it time to wake up and smell the Decaf Sumatra?