team member

shift leader

baker

general manager

assistant manager

Caribou Coffee

As a shift supervisor, you will either open or close. Depending on the size of the store, you may or may not have a team member to assist you during the very early or very late hours. If you are located in a Lund's, you will work by yourself for the first few hours and the last few hours, as Lund's stores are open much later and there are plenty of people around. If you work in a neighborhood store, you will always have someone else working with you. Opening includes setting up coffee filters, setting up espresso machines and timing the shots, setting up the bakery case, assigning registers, ensuring that the trivia is correct, and overall getting ready for the day. As the main product that we are selling is caffeine, the rush may be early in the morning if you are working at a drive-thru, serving the 9-5ers as they begin their day. The remainder of the day is working on register, or bar, or providing support if you have team members to cover both positions. Rushes can be stressful and hectic. Lines can get long, people can grow impatient, others might order several complicated drinks slowing the line down, coffee might run out needing to be brewed again, a team member might be new, or the machines might need to be repaired, requiring you to submit a work order. The best thing to do is to keep calm and set a positive example for your team members. Task delegation is a significant part of this role as there might be several things requiring attention at the same time. As for closing, the duties include setting up for the morning, weighing out coffees, cleaning the store, counting down the registers, and filling out some minor paperwork. I find that I do not usually work with the store manager anymore, as my job is to be them while they are not on the floor. We communicate, and the store manager assists me with any problems/issues I may have with my role and with team members. The work/life balance is pretty good, as Caribou generally discourages overtime. Some challenges I have faced are meeting quotas to sell our special limited time only beans that seem to come out every month. The pay is not enough to be independent. I am thankful with how supportive management is with my personal goals after Caribou.

Coworkers can range from high school aged students to folks with degrees hit hard by the recession to retired folks who are working part time. I would say that for the most part, speaking for my location, that I got lucky in terms of team members. They seem to be hard-working and competent at their jobs. I have heard different stories of other locations, however, as I have not personally worked their myself, I cannot validate their claims. 

Things I don't enjoy are the stress of the job that comes during a rush and the sometimes unreasonable demands that a customer might have of us. For example, a customer may demand several boxes of coffee to go right away while we are in the middle of a rush. Many demands come flying at us in different directions, but we are always expected to keep a calm demeanor and provide excellent service. We do the best we can, but sometimes certain things cannot be done right away, and we have to be straightforward, suggesting feasible alternatives. For the breadth of responsibilities we have and the multitasking, I feel that our pay is a bit too low. 

I do enjoy the teamwork and the feeling of getting through a rush and the feeling of accomplishment that accompanies and of our small victories throughout the day. I enjoy seeing my regular customers and helping them have a better day by providing them with what they want.

Upon entering the store on an ordinary day, I'm greeted by the manager on duty and briefed as to what has been done and what needs to be done. I'm handed the store keys and get to work. My coworkers are very friendly and I get along well with them. We have set positions, but as supervisor, I have to be flexible. I make drinks, maintain the drip coffee, take orders up front and/or on the drive through, keep the counters clean, restock supplies, weigh out coffee for the next shift, take inventory on the food and pull what needs to be thawed for the next day, count the safe, recount the registers after the deposits have been dropped, wash dishes, clean floors, maintain the lobby, and, of utmost importance, help customers enjoy an exemplary experience at our store. 

Everyone is usually very easygoing and understanding when mistakes occur, but I have had to deal with difficult customers when something goes wrong or simply not their way. Luckily, those are rare occurrences and often easily fixed. In situations where I'm unsure of the appropriate action to take, the store manager is easy to reach and always willing to help.

I've learned a lot about time management and multitasking. When first starting, the hardest part about working here is simply learning how to do everything. There's a lot to learn, and if you haven't been in the food industry before, a lot of it can seem overwhelming at first. Once you learn how to do everything, the next step is learning how to look for things to do. There's always something--you just have to know what to look for. And when you get these down, the job is pretty easy from there.

Management is okay. The store manager is great and very understanding when it comes to scheduling and needing to ask for days off (as long as it's done in advance), but the higher up the ladder, the more management expects from stores without understanding how much they're asking.

Workers receive an annual raise. The first two years, the raise will be around $0.50. In the years following, raises usually drop to $0.10-0.20 yearly. This is from my own experience, as well as what I've discussed with former employees.

I've only worked here part-time. I know benefits are available for full-time employees, but I'm not familiar with the policies.

Your individual team members, supervisors, and managers will likely be good people, because Caribou does not like hiring (in my experience) unfriendly, unpleasant humans. That's nice.

That being said, it appears that management is under a LOT of pressure to cut labor costs. Our schedules are always super tight and the store is often understaffed. I have a maximum amount of hours I can work because I am a student, and, you know, I don't want to work at Caribou forever... but you are expected to act as if you want to work at Caribou forever. I am always getting called in for an extra shift and liking my team members makes saying "no" very uncomfortable.

On the occasions in which I have been asked to stay late or come in early and accidentally gone into overtime, the company acts like it's my and my manager's fault. "We can't afford extra labor costs!" Well, maybe I can't afford to give you all this extra time--but I do, because I don't want to make life harder for people I have come to care for very much at my store!

Caribou talks a lot about how its employees love coffee and love making an inviting environment for customers, but honestly, combining that with the attitude of most of our clientele (in a rush, tired, entitled) and the very low pay (I started at $8.50) makes such a demand inhumane. No one would love such a job for $8.50--not for more than a few months.

I will say I qualified for health insurance very quickly while working 38-42 hours a week, and you don't lose it if your average drops under that during the year (I think).

Also... ... corporate also has some interesting (and wrong) ideas about how much a cappuccino should weigh. They want those things heavy, and people complain if you make a cappuccino the way Caribou wants you to. And they should, 'cause you're basically giving them a latte with extra foam.

Hopefully, if you are getting this job, it is just a stepping stone to something better. It's not as dehumanizing as, say, Walmart, but the implication that I should devote my life to a coffee chain for so little money is just insulting. I am ecstatic to say I've moved onto something better and relevant to my field of education, while also making more money and lowering my blood pressure.

I started at a new store and I was there from the beginning of training. Everything was great in the beginning, fun people and fun work. 

However after a few months of being open things started to fall apart. The manager started to set a precedent of yelling at those beneath her, which the shift leads also started to do. Despite what I thought was pretty thorough training, quite a few team members had trouble with basic tasks, but it wasn’t handled professionally. A lot of them couldn’t keep up during the stores rush hours and when they fell behind they were routinely chewed out by the manager, shift leads, and even peers (in front of customers!). 

Caribou is also very much about the numbers. They don’t schedule enough ppl to run a store because they’re trying to pay as few ppl as possible. You’re often expected to be filling at least two positions at once which is HIGHLY STRESSFUL. You also don’t get any of your 15 min breaks because there’s pretty much never anyone to relieve you. When you take your mandatory 30 everything pretty much falls apart. 

 Multiple times when I told someone I worked there they would immediately tell me about some bad experience they had there, it was embarrassing. Customers FREQUENTLY received wrong drinks and food, and were treated rudely. I never once had someone respond positively when I brought that place up. It wasn’t work I could be proud of. I did my best as an individual to make the customers happy but it has to be a team effort. I think people were under too stress to be able to provide a good customer experience. I honestly feel bad for everyone that still works there. It is NOT A GOOD ENVIRONMENT.

As a former shift leader, you're better off either staying as a regular team member, or apply for a higher position. Didn't learn a whole lot of new material because I had previous management experience at another workplace, just typical food safety and quality assurance. After transferring my management was awful. Didn't really stay for the entire shift, and didn't show up to the shifts on time pretty regularly. Manager always scheduled themselves for morning to open, and would almost show up an hour later than what they were scheduled. Had a lot of issues of bringing other locations products before checking if we were able to without putting our stock at risk of running out, so we were constantly out of key ingredients. When the truck orders were placed, they were rarely revised to make sure nothing was missed so we normally received orders that contained products that we didn't need because we already had an abundance. Outside of manager tasks, there was also a LOT of unwanted sharing of their personal life. No offense, but I don't go to work to hear about you throwing things at your husband at home and relapsing on heroine. Hardest part of the job was probably solving problems with the lack of communication, as most of the time no one answered your calls or text messages regarding questions. However you meet some cool regular customer, unfortunately they don't affect the workplace quality directly but makes the shift a bit more enjoyable.

Caribou was a great place to work for about a year. After that they changed. They were bought out and became obsessed with numbers instead of people. 
The drama was always heavy at my store. Whether it was two team members who didn't get along, petty gossip... or the store manager ignoring people instead of addressing rumors. 
I was bounced around from store to store with no pay increase or promotion. Constantly told that it would "look good". 
Now that they will be becoming "Peets" things will only get worse. 
Caribou used to care about their staff. They did whatever they could to keep good people employed and keep the loyal customers happy. Within 1 month my former store went from "the community place I love" to "Dear god, don't make me go in there".
Though every job has a sense of drama, intrigue and misinformation Caribou is by far the most dramatic. 
A typical shift was 8 hours long with no break because there were only 2 people in the store. Schedules were posted a week in advance and request offs were rarely honored. Many times the tasks all fell on the closing shift instead of being spread out and there was a definite rift between "openers" and "closers". 
I do miss my team members and my regular customers. I loved doing my inventory and creating contests. I definitely developed a unique leadership style during my time there and will take everything I learned to my next position.

Caribou Coffee is one of the most fun places I've ever had the pleasure of working in. A typical day at work is fast-paced and busy, but not unpleasantly so. I've had days where I've worked five hours non-stop on bar with three other people just knocking out drinks like a well choreographed dance. The pace is exhilarating and the stores, to my knowledge, are constructed so as to encourage fast and efficient production. The customer base is warm and friendly, and the staff is just as chummy. I learned a lot about the origins and roasting process of coffee while I was there, also that the community can be a big part of your day at work, and make it super great. Management was on point, very well educated in keeping the store running smoothy but without any additional stressors. Everyone was happy to work for the people in charge. 

The hardest part of the job was the pace, at most. I worked in a large location where I was the closing shift supervisor. Keeping track of the guests as well as our closing tasks was difficult, but rewardingly so. I've never had a day of work where I was unduly stressed about my workload or the expectations of the baristas on shift with me. 

I have to say the community was the most enjoyable part of the job. A local church group helped us donate hundreds of pounds of coffee to the troops over seas every year, it was an amazing feeling.

When I first applied with Caribou I felt that I was applying to he best coffee company in the world. I continued to feel that way through the interview process and even through my training. When I finished my training and landed my first store I was still very optimistic that I had made a great career move. My District Manager was a strong leader who focused on the development of his team. Personally and professionally. It all got real when I moved out of his district and into a district closer to home. The caliber of management I was exposed to initially was very few and extremely far between. Over time I had the experience of working for a DM who was not a leader of people but yet a task manager with no courage to make decisions for their self. After experience an extremely stressful labor budget that caused 40% company wide manager turnover year to year and an even higher percent of team member turnover, I decided I had enough. For a company that has a lot of great intentions with what seems to be a great CEO at the helm, there is a lot to question in between what happens at the executive level and how it is communicated and represented throughout the chain of command down to the stores. Caribou is a Coffee company struggling to find its place among the giants in the QSR business.

The most enjoyable part of the job is connecting with your coworkers and costumers. I loved my coworkers, the enviorment, and the drinks. On the other hand the genral manager was 2 faced and unprofessional to me multiple times, spreading gossip about me, trash talking other coworkers to me, and not communicating with me on what I was doing wrong. She has breated me and my coworkers in front of costumers, ignored coworkers concerns, as well as leaving team members on the floor alone to do "manager tasks" in the back. It was pretty good as a team member, then I became a Day Manager and that's when it went downhill. It's only 1.25 cent raise, with tips, when the extreme cleaning tasks and dealing with customer complaints isn't worth that 1.25. Day Managers that work 8 to 10 hour shifts do not get a 30 minute unpaid break if there's no other Manager coverage, as well they don't offer free food nor another free shift drink if you are working a 10 hour shift. It also depends on the store for cleaning tasks, coverage, and the way the GMs (General Managers) run their stores. Which is already inconsistent and there was a constant fight between stores on what was "Caribou Standard". 
Do not work at Rochesters Civic Center Drive location. The other locations are pretty ok.

The management there is really good. Mostly everyone there is super friendly with the exception of maybe one or two employees. Generally the customers are friendly and kind. Again some exceptions. Very laid back atmosphere but the expectation of performance is not something one should disregard. You will do a variety of work there, usually your first few weeks you will be doing some various jobs such as opening the store, taking drive though orders, etc. My only complaint is that there is no formal training to make certain drinks, work the register system, etc. But usually you will be doing the more basic stuff until you learn how to make drinks, sandwiches, etc. 

A typical day at work is pretty relaxed depending on when you work. You will have one or more 'rushes' in which there are a lot of customers and things get a bit hectic. Mistakes are something you should learn from. Management is really good. The culture there is really relaxed, there is some drama but not something you need to be involved in. The hardest part of the job are the rushes, can be hard to stay organized and remember all the things you should be doing. The most enjoyable part of the job is when business slows down and you have time to chat with customers/employees a little.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Team member 1346 salaries reported	$14.96 per hour
Shift leader 1159 salaries reported	$16.99 per hour
Baker 860 salaries reported	$15.54 per hour
General manager 86 salaries reported	$30.30 per hour
Assistant manager 348 salaries reported	$22.03 per hour

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