A Lesson From Starbucks Gourmet beverages might belong to the category of cheapest luxury goods, but these manufacturers suffered this year along with the overall economy. Even leaders such as Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX ) and PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP ) saw significant sales declines as soon as lockdowns took place, though their equity has since rebounded for the most part. Starbucks specifically has taken coffee to the next level with 32,000 cafes across the globe. So what did Starbucks do that helped it stay afloat? The effect of a global pandemic Starbucks revealed COVID-19 made it lose $1.2 billion in sales as an impact of limited operations, reduced hours as well as closures. This year, the US coffee chain saw everything but its typical quarter where sales and comps both score notch high growth numbers as they bottomed out at as low as a 65% decline during the company's third quarter. Competitors For now, the coffee giant does not really have a real competitor be threatened by. Dunkin' Brands (NASDAQ: DNKN ) stores and McDonald's ( NYSE: MCD ) do both sell coffee.