Where do Americans buy coffee? (how do you guys survive without timmy's?)

In Canada, EVERYBODY goes to Tim Hortons. Sometimes you get the odd person who prefers starbucks or other places, but Tims is the universal standard. What is the American equivalent? My first instinct was Starbucks, but they are so pricy, I can't imagine people would go there every day.

Dunkin Donuts has their own brand of coffee from what I understand; not a coffee person myself but I imagine it would be much cheaper.

Also though I don't know if a person would go there every day, large book store chains often offer a cafe where people can sit and read, and I would imagine they would have coffee, too. And, thinking about it, if you draw your characters in the right way I think you could easily have them going to bookstore for that. (Borders befoer they went out of business; we just got a Books A Million in its place and they have a cafe now, too.)

if you are talking about the already made and ready to drink coffee and not coffee beans to make your own coffee at home, yes there is a Starbucks on nearly every corner.

Less prestigious/expensive places such as Dunkin' Doughnuts and McDonalds also claim great popularity for their coffee. Every convenience store or gas station will have coffee as well.

Some places also have regional competitors to Starbucks - Caribou Coffee is very widespread in the upper midwest.

Judging by the number of little drive-through espresso stands (I mean, there's even one in my speed-bump sized hometown) I don't think there is one universal standard.

Not that I'd know for sure, since I don't ever drink it.

Yup, for ready-made coffee people often go to Starbucks or other chains (like Caribou as mentioned...around here we also have Alterra). Other than that, there are also just coffee shops. They're locally owned and aren't part of a chain. They often times have a bit of food for sale as well (like soup and sandwiches or pastries). I know some people also go to Panera Bread for coffee. Specialty coffee has become so well-known now that it's served all over.

In the nearly nonexistent NJ town that I live in, people buy coffee from quite a few places. Though I prefer homemade coffee, I often get similar beverages like iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts. As you mentioned, Starbucks is popular. We have one as an adjunct to Barnes and Noble in the neighboring town. There is also a place called Take Five in my little town, but it is strictly local, so that doesn't really help you much.

Other Places I can think of:

Fast Food chains (generally McDonalds)
Panera Bread
Wawa, but I don't know a lot of people who go there

Where is your story set? Many cities have their own local chains. CC's in New Orleans (Community Coffee) has competition from PJ's, but there are many independent coffee shops as well. While you can find a Starbucks there, the local places seem to have the edge.

Yeah, Starbucks is the go to in my area and most of California from what I've seen, but some people are loyal to specific local cafes. Where I live there's "One of Life's Perks" and where my fiance lived during high school is "The Queen Bean". I prefer local shops, but Starbucks is easier to get to...

And am I the only one here who refuses McDonald's coffee? I tried one of their "mochas" when a bus I was taking broke down and it was offered for free. It still wasn't worth drinking. Now Burger King has good mochas for cheep. :P

It really depends on the demographic, I think, and what's convenient. Where I live, there's not a Starbucks remotely near my house or school, so teenagers tend to go to QuickTrip, which actually has pretty decent coffee for a convenience store. People who drive further to work are more likely to pass a Starbucks, so they'll go there, and Panera is pretty popular, too, since they're everywhere. In other places I've lived, it's far easier to find a Caribou Coffee than a Starbucks, so people go there. Dunkin' Donuts isn't nearly as popular, but it has the problem that there's only one locally.

TL;DR:
Cheap, fast and everywhere: QuickTrip
Moderately expensive: Panera
More expensive and slower, but better variety: Starbucks

Depending on the state, you can go to Tim Horton's too. There is at least one just outside Detroit, for example. I've gotten most of the coffee I've drunk from gas-stations, Mobil Quick-Trip! but I don't like coffee so I've really only drunk it when I had to stay up all night doing homework. The mobile was the only food place within a reasonable walking distance from my dorm that was open all night and didn't require you sit down and order, and not take their cup back to your dorm room. Silly Denny's. I think the brand they had was called Seattle's Best or something like that. It had a picture of Pike's Place (?) market on the cardboard stand with all the coffee dispensers in it, and I have seen it all over the place, in gas-stations, in cafeterias. I had to travel a lot for my last job, all over the country, and I saw it all over the place.
Well, I don't remember seeing it in Canada. ;)
If you were going for a stereotype, though, I would go with Starbucks. Conspicuous consumption, anyone?

BTW: the town I'm in now, in western Missouri, has a drive-through coffee stand called Scotty's. I've never been there or heard of it before, but it looks like a chain. I think the general rule is that most American's bleed coffee, so you can get it everywhere and anywhere. A lot of grocery stores even have coffee shops in them any more (Starbucks back home in GA, Caribou here in MO). After all, as Thomas Jefferson said, coffee is the favored drink of the civilized world. ;>

Tangential: I saw a coffee drive through in Perth just outside the campus of UWA called "Rocket Fuel".

When I lived in a big city, either Starbucks or the local independent coffee shop was the place to go. The local one was favored by students and 'artsy' sort of people (writers, artists, etc.) because it was bigger than all of the nearby Starbucks and thus had a lot more table space and many more power outlets for plugging laptops into. It was also independent and thus a good way of rebelling against The Man while still enjoying tasty beverages. The businesspeople tended to prefer the Starbucks as it was quicker and they weren't really there to sit down anyway.

Now that I am no longer living in the big city we typically go to the local gas station mini-mart or occasionally McDonald's. The gas station's is cheaper and tastier than McD's, and they do a pretty good stock of pastries in the morning as well. There's a Starbucks nearby, but everyone sort of feels 'loyal' to the gas station - the owner knows us all by name, and if we go awhile without stopping in she'll ask us if everything's okay. XD

We do have a Dunkin' Donuts, but compared to the other options it's pretty far away, so the only time we get coffees there is if we're going there for doughnuts as well.

We have starbucks, but also Coffee Bean (when those are the options, I tend to go with Coffee Bean). Also a lot of small local places. And little cafés too. And LPQ has some good coffee. Also, we make a lot of coffee at home...

My favorite spot to buy coffee in the US is at one of the farms along the highway south of Kona. Sure, it's a little out of the way, but it's well worth the detour.

Lacking that, Starbucks or Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf will do.

I was in Michigan just last week and there was a Tim Horton's across the parking lot from our hotel. I liked it; it was like a cross between Starbucks and a donut shop, with a little bit of Denny's thrown in.

I live in Santa Monica, California. We usually go to a Starbucks -- there are two, yes, two, just a couple blocks away. (On different cross-streets.) We also have Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Peete's, and if you really want to spend money, Luxxe! We also get coffee at local cafes, and don't forget the good old pastry shop or three. Recently we've been going to a small Mexican (or maybe just Mexican-inspired) chain called La Monarca, which I really like.

Definitely Starbucks as every single previous post said if you're going for a chain. When I lived in new york city though, most people seemed to get their coffee from a street vendor, but not the hot dog vendors, the ones that had entree food items like gyros.

It's definitely about location; in New England, you'll find one Starbucks for every six or seven Dunkin Donuts, so obviously, Dunkin is the preferred coffee location. If you're in California, though, there's only like two Dunkin Donuts' in the entire state, so that's not where people would go. There are three Dunkin Donuts' within a mile and a half of my house. The town I used to live in, there were four all on the same street, within 2 miles of each other (and it was definitely a town, not a city).

Personally, I get Dunkin Donuts every morning. I have coworkers who make trips to Starbucks every afternoon, and others who go to Dunkin. My mom drinks McDonald's coffee a lot. I have friends in the military who complain that the closest Dunkin is in another state. One friend in the military was overjoyed when she got stationed in Korea because they had one on base, compared to the base in Wyoming which didn't.

I love Dunkin Donuts coffee more than anything in the world, but Iowa doesn't have a single Dunkin Donuts. But I'm going to disagree with some of the above posts regarding Starbucks - if you're getting coffee every single morning, Starbucks gets pretty expensive pretty quick. My cousin's wife manages a McDonald's and their biggest sales are at breakfast; I think McDonalds is an equally popular option for people who want the coffee but don't want to pay too much. My personal favorite is Caribou Coffee, which is less expensive than Starbucks (I think) but more so than McDonalds.

Where I live, though, everybody goes to the Java House since it's local and started by a former university student. If you don't go there, though, you go to Starbucks.

Trouble is starbucks just costs too much monay! (for my characters) McDonalds is a good one because for one, I've actually had their coffee. (and it's actually really good!) Dunkin donuts... I've never seen one, and I assumed it was like a bakery... for donuts... Anyways, I had no idea they had coffee! I guess I should have figured it out from the "dunkin" part lol anyways thanks for the fantastic suggestions!

I go to Pilot or Wiegel's. Or just make it at home.