Caribou Coffee Reviews

Pros

Tips
Customers make it worthwhile
Discount and free half pound coffee every week
Great coworkers, flexible hours
Good health benifits

Cons

Lack of raises
sporadic appreciation of employees by upper management
can only get maximum 45 cent raise once a year

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure you listen to your employees they make it worthwhile
We aren't disposable, customers come more for interaction and good customer service with the drink, have too many people staffed to cut hours it makes a less pleasant experience for everyone

Pros

Customers make going into work worthwhile
Co-workers are wonderful, including the store manager
Free coffee, discounts, and good tasting food
Flexible hours and time off requests are generally always granted

Cons

Low pay for the amount of work (Only because of understaffing)
District Managers in this company are a joke
Outdated equipment, broken equipment takes too much time to be replaced
Very little communication between upper management and store members
Focused on pure profits, not employees

Advice to Senior Management

Get your act together, realize that it takes more than 2 people to keep the store running well. Listen to your employees and give more opportunities for them to voice opinions and concerns. (A 6 question survey does not count)

Pros

The customers are friendly and the environment is laid back. There are opportunities to move up in the company and to pick up shifts from other stores. Time off is given when requested.

Cons

The management lacks communication to the employees when changes are made or when work isn't being done properly. Workers are pressured to up-sell merchandise. Breaks are not given. Eight hour shifts are not available.

Pros

The regulars are usually pretty cool people.
Easy work
Tips
Free drink during your shift
My store was very good at scheduling.

Cons

As some others have said on here, Caribou isn't at all what it used to be. I was a team member for 2 1/2 years, I was offered the position of shift supervisor/manager but turned it down due to my schedule. During that time I watched the company change from an awesome, positive, personality supporting company to one where you are simply treated as a drone to sell coffee to customers. You're given multiple questions to try and sell everything (an extra espresso shot, whipped cream, mix-in's, extra flavors, sandwiches or bakery, etc) that you MUST ask to every customer, even the regulars who just want their normal medium white chocolate turtle mocha that they get every day before their commute to work. There are work contests based on which store can sell the most multiple times a year, if you fail to do well in these contests even one time it could mean a slap on the wrist or the loss of your job. One month we were instructed to sell La Minita Peaberry, a special coffee that the company only gets once a year. Because I was absent for one of the weeks of the selling period I got written up by the DISTRICT manager for selling under the required amount despite the fact I was out of state for my great grandmother's funeral. The company boasts so much about how ethical their coffee is, too bad they treat their workers like utter crap.

Pros

-The customer experience can be wonderful, Learning how to make espresso drinks is fun, also the knowledge about coffee beans is quite good as well.
-tips
-they offer health and dental benefits if you can afford it

Cons

Upper management
Store manager turnover
Promotional items pushed down throats of customers
Employees are disposable

Advice to Senior Management

Care about your employees,Team building is important but impossible with the turnover.

Pros

Caribou has the added perk of any sort of job in its field such as free drinks, discounted coffee and products as well as learning more about a particular product such as coffee. Caribou stresses education about its product which does allow for one to be enthusiastic about it, but it ends there. Once the charade has worn off, one realizes how they are simply a tool to rake in capital. If you are willing to work full-time, Caribou has health insurance and wonderful dental insurance, which is expensive- but at least is available.

If you are a coffee enthusiast, you get a half pound of beans every week for free (or tea). You get a free drink per shift and 30% otherwise. Depending on your manager, it can be a great work atmosphere.

Cons

I worked at Caribou for two years, had a stellar work record and moved up in the company- only to see how truly disorganized and money-driven the entire corporate strategy is. And yes, the purpose of a company is to make money, but not at the cost of their employees. After listening to the rhetoric my manager was telling me about how our District Manager goes about hiring, it seemed that people were simply expendable and replaceable. The lack of concern about employees, the fact that they had lives outside of their workplace and their sole concern being how much of a promotional product was being sold- was my point of concern for them.

Each period there is a brand new bean that "has" to be sold. Supervisors are threatened with "notices of discipline," if they do not succeed at selling these promotional beans. I have been told to lie to customers in order to sell beans, persuading people who already have beans in their hand; to opt for the promotional bean instead. If the purpose is to only make money off of promotional beans, then why have a coffee shop? The purpose is to provide an eclectic variety of coffee beans and drinks for people to enjoy and to enjoy with the peace of mind that they were obtained ethically.

The company boasts sustainable and fair-trade practices for their beans, yet they treat their employees with no respect and do not foster a sustainably healthy environment for their workers - who are the ones actually bringing in the capital. This past week I put in my two week's notice after I called a manager to get back-up since our store was being slammed, but was stunned when their only concern was whether or not I had sold any pounds of that period's promotional beans. Promotions are often on a whim, and the staff isn't informed with enough time to prepare for the onslaught of 200+ customers with a coupon in tow. One day I came into work unaware that it was a promotion and was severely understaffed which had its own set of ramifications (long drink waits, upset employees, running out of materials, trash piling up).

Whether a caribou environment is successful or not is incumbent upon whatever manager might be stationed there at the time. Caribou's strategy involves shuffling managers all across a district and so team-building and healthy work environments often suffer as a result of this shuffling. In my time as a supervisor I've seen wonderful managers go, while managers who are unfit for their position- climb ahead since their align themselves with Caribou's rhetoric; doing whatever it takes.

I used to love Caribou, but their blatant disregard for their employees makes me feel bad for them. It has become a company I am not longer proud to work for. I would never recommend anyone that I cared about to work here.

Advice to Senior Management

- Treat your employees with sincere respect, staff stores better for the well-being of your employyes
- Narrow down the promotional beans and focus on the 12+ varieties of beans that are already being sold; do not drive promotional bean sales with NOD threats
- Screen your managers better, get more anonymous feedback from the employees to get a better gauge of that manager's abilities
- Communicate better with the staff about promotions/it will ensure the success of that promotion

Pros

freindly atmosphere, regular reviews and raises, great customer service experience

Cons

can be challenging, few benefits, constant change to keep up with

Pros

-Lots of down time
-Tips
-Making drinks can be fun
-Shift drinks and 1/2# of free coffee
-Tasks aren't difficult

Cons

As with most retail jobs your experience will depend a lot on your store manager. Other cons include the fact that the job can be incredibly boring. Calling in sick is a much bigger deal than say at a clothing store. Favoritism is common and people talk behind each other's backs a lot. There are also no scheduled breaks.

Advice to Senior Management

Know what you're doing and be fair to the employees.

Pros

Flexible schedule
Fun working environment
Extra money through tips

Cons

No scheduled breaks
Not the greatest pay

Advice to Senior Management

Creating advancement paths for employees who are interested in progressing within the company would be nice.

Pros

Customers are great. management can be touch and go. There are good opportunities to get into the management in training program

Cons

Company policies are overly strict and can be misconstrued as stifling to a positive corporate culture and can adversely effect guest relations