[1]: http://www.forbes.com/finance/2005/09/23/cariboucoffee-IPO-equities-cx_sr_0923ipooutlook.html
[2]: http://www.cariboucoffee.com/aboutus/ownership.asp
[3]: http://www.ghirardelli.com/products_hotchoc2.html
I used to be a huge fan of Caribou Coffee mochas. I drank them for years. I shunned the offerings of others and learned where all the Caribous were on my various paths of travel. Fun decor. Usually nice staff. I have two Caribou thermoses (thermosi?) and a Caribou travel mug. I had Caribou gift cards. I drank their mochas frequently.
I think [their IPO][1] wrecked everything.
A few years ago, Helen was chatting it up with a Caribou employee and she got the recipe for their mochas (which it seemed wasn’t treated as any kind of secret). The key was (IMO) the chocolate. [Ghiradelli][3]. Delicious. We now occassionally make them at home.
But a while ago I started to notice their mochas weren’t very good. Seemed weak. Sometimes even bitter. I would always pass it off as maybe an inexperienced employee. But it kept happening. All new Caribous were like that, and slowly the old reliable ones become so, too. Then we found out (through another conversation) that they’d changed the chocolate. And a few weeks later was the IPO.
Why do I link the two? Because I just think it makes a very plausible story.
When a company is going to go IPO, their bigwigs travel all over the country or world speaking to potential investors. They want to impress upon the investors one thing in particular: the value of, and thus profit potential of, their company. So I think that to help the numbers look even better, they switched to a cheaper chocolate. Saving a penny or two per mocha could be very significant. I can just imagine the negotiations with Ghiradelli: “Listen, we need you to lower your price, but when we go IPO, we’re going to expand so much that you’ll make it back in volume.” Obviously, no deal.
Maybe they changed for some other reason. They are sensitive to the special Islamic requirements of their [majority investor][2], so maybe there was something there. But for whatever reason, they changed their mochas. For the worse.
I never go there now – even if I’m craving one – because I will be disappointed. I avoid them.
When I spend $4 for a coffee, I expect it to be tasty and reliably so. Caribou Coffee was once always that. It is now never that.
I usually go to select smaller shops now: Java Drive, Cupcake. Second teir, I’ll go to Starbucks. They are not the tastiest, but they are reliable.
Of course, Caribou Coffee is doing just fine without our $50-ish per month. But it’s kind of disappointing to not be able to do business with a home-grown Minnesota company I used to love.
Welcome to the skeptical side of capitalism! :)
Au contraire! It’s capitalism which allows me to move my money from Caribou Coffee to others who are willing to supply a decent product. Heh heh… Caribou in the old U.S.S.R.: “Vat you mean to complain? All mochas is grey and flavorless. Power to the people!”
(Yes, he had a german accent in my head. No, I don’t know why.)
I’d prefer an Austrian accent!
Speaking of capitalism truly at work. Here lies an opportunity to replace Caribou’s newly lacklustor
hoity toity drinks with your own tasty version. There seems to be no end to the demand for this
product. I’m astonished at how much these things go for. Why? I frequently (at least once a week) have a mocha or something like it. And I do pay close to $4.00 per drink. Wow, I just had another guilty chill. Maybe seeing those $$$ in print is what does it to me. Perhaps the chill is coming from my money gland. Oh! There it goes again! Yep, I’m gonna check into this for sure.
It’s tricky now because Caribou Coffee and Starbuck’s can afford to lease all of the best space. It’s like a self-perpetuating circle now: they get the prime real estate, which gets them the best traffic, which is drawn by and increases brand recognition, and back around it goes. They’re past a certain critical mass.
Smaller coffee shops are often in second-tier spaces with less traffic and thus less ability to compete truly head on. So I think the key would be to find a niche location or a niche target audience. Not easy, but doable.
When you open ScottyJ’s, I’ll be there. Well, as long as the mochas are good. :)
As an aside, you wouldn’t believe the traffic I get from folks searching Google and MSN for “Caribou Coffee”. Good. Folks should know that their product isn’t what it used to be.
Granted their product has changed..but as for that second tier….it’s becoming the number one food chain…or as one of the spokesperson for Starbucks said a “lifestyle change”…..
Yeah, they are wanting to have Starbucks be a person’s “Third Place”… I heard this discussed by a Starbuck’s exec on a PBS show. Interesting.
You might as well get used to it, Papa. Many things are going to change in the future and most likely things much more important than a mocha… but all the same I feel sorry for you.