Benoit- Delmotte Espere McMain 1

Meridian Stories Starbucks vs. Tim Hortons

When you think about going to get a cup of coffee, what store first comes to mind?
Starbucks or Tim Hortons maybe? Well, we are wondering whether the amounts of cups of
coffee sold at each of these two locations are equal to one another. A survey is also going to be
conducted asking the community how many cups of coffee they think are sold at each location
and which one they think is more popular. A two-sample t-test will be run with the second
question to compare to the actual data received.
Data Received online and in stores:
When looking up the data, we found that globally, 10087065 cups of coffee are sold at Starbucks
and 5479452 cups are sold a Tim Hortons. At each store, 472 cups are sold at Starbucks and
1259 are sold at Tim Hortons. Looking at the data, it seems like Starbucks is more popular,
however, taking into account that there is significantly more Starbucks around the world, Tim
Hortons is the clear winner in the most popular coffee. When going around to the 10 randomly
selected locations, it was found that, on average, 1000 cups are sold at Tim Hortons and 450 cups
are sold at Starbucks, which is relatively close to the numbers found on the companies websites.
When asking the students, we are going to ask them how many cups they think are sold at each
store and compare their data to the data received off the two companies websites and the data
received from the 10 locations.

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The Survey:
This survey was conducted with students living in Warren and Sterling Heights and there were a
total of 30 students surveyed.
1. Which coffee company do you think is more popular, Starbucks or Tim Hortons?

Which is more Popular?

Tim Hortons

43%

Starbucks

57%

Figure 1. The Results

Figure 1 above shows the results after the survey when 30 students were asked which
coffee shop they think is more popular. Looking at the data, it is clear the students think Tim
Hortons is more popular than Starbucks, which goes right along with the information, found
during the research.

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2. How many cups of coffee, on an average day, do you think is sold at each location?
Table 1.
The Results
Student
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

Tim
Starbuck
Horton's
s
500 400
600 550
765 700
800 400
550 200
530 300
360 350
290 250
760 100
440 150
500 300
600 900
600 850
550 760
780 300
850 250
678 110
560 650
700 500
500 400
670 320
650 320
550 200
450 150
350 600
290 850
250 200
900 750
250 400
400 650

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Table 1 above shows the results of the survey when the students were asked how many
cups of coffee they believe are sold at each location. This data is the data that will be used during
the statistical test.
Statistical Analysis and Two Sample T-Test:

1259

Figure 2. Box Plot for Tim Hortons

Above in Figure 2 is the box plot for the students estimation on the amount of cups sole
each day at a single Tim Hortons store. The overall shape of the data looks roughly symmetrical,
which means the normal bell shape curve does exist with tails. There looks to be no outliers and
the mean and median of this sample are about equal. This data is not bimodal. The mean for this
specific set of data came out to be 555.767 cups of coffee with a standard deviation of 187.535.
The data does not seem to be centered on the true value. The students estimated a much lower
average amount of cups sold than the true value, which is marked in the solid black line at 1259
cups per store.

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47
2

Figure 3. Results for Starbucks

Above in Figure 3 is the box plot for the students data for the estimated amount sold at
each Starbucks store. The data looks slightly right skewed, however, still fairly normal with no
outliers in the data. The spread of data is much larger in the Starbucks category compared to the
Tim Hortons estimations. The true value of average cups sold is shown by the line marked 472.
The data does seem to be centered around the true value, which is much closer than previously
seen in Figure 2. This data is not bimodal, however if both Starbucks and Tim Hortons were on
the same histogram, there is potential for a bimodal distribution. This type of distribution does
not make sense for the data, so it was not used. For this box plot of data, the mean is 432 cups of
coffee with a standard deviation of 242.351.
Two sample t-test is now going to be run between the two populations of the students
estimated amounts sold in each store.
Ho: t = s
Ha: t > s

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t=

t=

( x1 x2 )

S1 S2
+
n1 n2
(555.77432)

187.542 242.352
+
30
30

t=2.122
Assumptions: Random sample All the students asked in the survey were randomly selected.
The data is normally distributed the data in the Tim Hortons population is normally
distributed, however the Starbucks in slightly righted skewed, however, since there are no
outliers, the test can still be run confidently
10n > N when N is the population of all the cups of coffee sold in the world.
All the assumptions are met, so the test can be carried on.
T= 2.2122
Pval = 0.015579

Figure 4. The T-Distribution

Figure 4 above shows the t-distribution for the two-sample t-test, which was conducted
resulting in a p-value of 0.015579 and a t of 2.2122. The shaded area is the part of the

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distribution where the data collected falls. In this comparison, reject the null hypothesis due to
the p-value of 0.015579 being less than the alpha value of 0.05. There is evidence to suggest that
Tim Hortons sells more cups of coffee on a daily basis when compared to Starbucks. There is a
1.56% chance that data this extreme happened by chance alone, assuming Ho is true.

Confidence interval for two- sample t-test are as follows:

s 2 s2
CI =( x1 x2 ) t 1 + 2
n 1 n2

187.54 242.35
CI =( 555.77432 ) 2.045
+
30
30

CI =123.767 114.412
Clower = 9.35454
Cupper = 238.179
We are 95% confident that the true mean of average cups of coffee sold at a single branch
daily is between 9.35454 and 238.179 cups.

95% Confidence interval for Tim Hortons

t s t
CI = x
30
CI =555.77

2.045187.54
30

CI =555.77 90.48
Clower = 485.746
Cupper = 625.788
We are 95% confident that the true mean of average cups of coffee sold at Tim Hortons
daily is between 485.746 and 625.788 cups. The true value found through calculating online was
1259, which is more than double the upper bound of the confidence interval, suggesting that the
students vastly underestimated the amount of cups of coffee each Tim Hortons store sells daily.

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95% Confidence interval for Starbucks

t s t
CI = x
30
CI =432

2.045242.35
30

CI =432 90.48

Clower = 341.505
Cupper = 522.495
We are 95% confident that the true mean of average cups of coffee sold at Starbucks daily
is between 341.505 and 522.495. The true value found through calculating the online data given
by Starbucks is 472, which is within the confidence interval, showing that students were fairly
accurate in their estimations.