I find it interesting, the news as of late that Caribou Coffee’s Michael Coles has stepped down as CEO of the second largest coffee chain in the United States. He took over in 2003 as interim CEO and eventually was given the job later on.

Having worked at Caribou — and in the past fiercely loyal to them because of their commitment to quality and an excellent guest experience — I’ve never been impressed by Michael Coles and what he brought to Caribou (and consequently led them to). His goals to make Caribou #2 in the coffee industry included rapid chain expansion (including moving from a company-owned store system to a franchise, and getting Caribou products into the grocery stores. Considering Caribou’s commitment to freshness (in the past), the idea of having their coffee beans in grocery stores (like Super Target) would have been scandalous… especially to founders John and Kim Puckett. Even more scandalous — borderline mortal sin, the idea of finding Caribou Coffee ready-made beverages [PDF file] on your grocery store’s shelves. I recall asking that once in a training session I went through, why we didn’t see Caribou drinks on store shelves. “Starbucks does it, why not us?” The resolute answer was about Caribou’s commitment to quality and freshness.

And over the past year or two I’ve noticed Caribou’s quality waning in favor of becoming a bigger contender against the coffee giant, that is Starbucks. Caribou described Coles’ departure as a “Termination Without Good Cause” in their regulatory filing, but I think forsaking quality is good enough in my book.

So after a horrid experience in the Caribou drive-thru the other day, I felt inspired to tell Caribou Coffee what I thought, encouraging them to get their head out of their coin purse (and their hind quarters) and to return to their former values… a come-to-Jesus letter if you will.

Here’s what I wrote them:

Last Saturday I went through the drive-through of your West Saint Paul store, and frankly after that experience it’s clear that Caribou needs some serious help.

For starters, it took nearly 15 minutes to get my drink from start (entering the drive-through) to finish (on my way with my drink). Even though I had alloted more time for stopping by Caribou, the excessive time in the drive-through set me back and was nearly late for my appointment.

Secondly, after asking for an extra hot Mocha, I received the most rank-smelling mocha I’ve had in my life. The skim milk was more than scalded and smelled horrid. In addition, there was a subtle overtone of the cleaning agents you use to clean the machine(s) and equipment overnight. so between the smell of cleaning agents and scalded milk, it goes without saying that I didn’t (and couldn’t) drink it.

I’m not writing this to ask for a new mocha or anything like that. But as a former shift supervisor who knows a good product and excellent service when I see it, I felt it imperative to encourage this store (and Caribou as a whole) to work a bit harder at winning the customer over with speedy service, but even MORE IMPORTANTLY the perfect drink…every drink, every time. If I have to wait 15 minutes for a drink, I want to wait for the perfect drink, not something that was rushed out the window because they were busy.

Which leads into a short rant about the former regime of Michael Coles and the quantity (not quality)-driven intentions of said CEO. Back in the day, Caribou used to have very high quality standards about their coffee, where it showed up, and in what forms. The idea of having Caribou Coffee in the form of a canned beverage or in ice cream (that just sits on the shelf of a grocery store) was scandalous because of the freshness policies. Quality came before quantity, and that seemed to be the message/mantra that lay beneath all of the decisions that Caribou made when branching out. Now it seems the care that goes into having the freshest coffee possible has been forsaken for the almighty dollar and reaching a wider market segment by placing just about anything into the grocery stores.

Cole’s goal of being #2 in the coffee industry is just ridiculous, a goal that will get you nowhere in my opinion. I used to be fiercely loyal to Caribou because it once seemed to favor quality and an excellent guest experience over trying to be the second biggest by any means necessary. Now I don’t see Caribou as being any different from Starbucks; you’re one and the same to me now. I can’t imagine what founders John and Kim Puckett would have to say about all of this (profit/shares aside). You both have a lot of stores in the Twin Cities, you both have coffee beans in the grocery store, you both have beverages available on the shelf, ice cream with coffee in it, and both have about the same attention to quality in my opinion.

I think if you really want to see good, quality growth, it should be because you were slow and steady with GREAT attention to quality and an outstanding guest experience… and not because you worked hard to keep up with “number one” with rapid store expansion, products in the grocery store, and all the other gimmicky things that come with running a coffee franchise.

Anyway, that’s my rant. There are still a few good Caribou’s that I can count on for great service, but I can only hope that your new interim CEO has the strength and the humility to bring Caribou closer to its roots of a quality guest experience and be less concerned about rapid expansion (both in terms of franchise and store-bought products).

Just my two cents.

November 13, 2007, 2:48 pm

Filed under: General

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