Asking for a friend. More details:
Fans of Caribou Coffee might want to start loading up on caffeine now, as the Minnesota-based company confirmed today that it’s closing down 88 locations around the U.S. A further 80 will undergo a rebranding makeover and re-emerge as Peet’s Coffee & Tea sometime in the next year or so.
“Over the past few months, we at Caribou have revisited our business strategy, including closely evaluating our performance by market to make decisions that best position us for long-term growth,” the company said in a written statement, via KARE News.
The 88 under-performing stores will be going away quite soon — April 14 is D-Day for those stores, but there’s no list identifying which locations will be shuttered.
Stores getting a makeover are scattered across Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Illinois and Eastern Wisconsin.
It’s worth noting that a ton of people will lose their jobs over this, some of whom are taking to the company’s Facebook page to rip the chain. While I’ll be disappointed about my loss of a coffee chain that was good for writing SFB posts even if their coffee was only “OK” (DC is loaded with chains, and good local shops are hard to come by), my minor frustration is nothing compared to the folks who are about to lose their jobs.
![fastcompany:
Why You Should Work From A Coffee Shop, Even When You Have An Office
Fast Company contributor and founder of Family Records and GNTLMN.com Wesley Verhoeve makes a good case for working in coffee shops.
Why:
A change of environment stimulates creativity.
Even in the most awesome of offices we can fall into a routine, and a routine is the enemy of creativity.
Fewer distractions.
Being surrounded by awesome team and officemates means being interrupted for water cooler chats and work questions. Being interrupted kills productivity. The coffee shop environment combines the benefit of anonymity with the dull buzz of exciting activity.
Community and meeting new people.
Meeting new people always provides me with new ideas, a different perspective at existing problems, or an interesting connection to a new person doing something awesome that inspires me.
Tips:
Rotate coffee shops.
Avoid the stifling feeling of routine you were trying to avoid in the first place.
Buy something.
Coffee shop workers are awesome, and they’ll be awesome to you if you are a good customer. That hidden power plug will be revealed, an extra free refill will be given, an introduction will be made.
Placement.
Don’t sit near the door or the register, if you can avoid it.
Power up.
Come with a full charge.
[Image: Flickr user Kyle Hale]
Where will you work today?
Basically someone wrote all the thoughts down which I’d already been thinking in my head for months. May I offer one other piece of advice: Bring a backup for the wi-fi, say a phone you can tether or a CLEAR spot. Nothing can ruin your desire to work more than an ineffective wireless connection. And definitely don’t work at the same place every day if you can avoid it. And buy something, you cheap skate. — Ernie @ SFB](http://25.media.tumblr.com/3dea1f0968fec9560c220136bc9f752c/tumblr_mhrkn8BAXY1qzt7h7o1_500.jpg)
Why You Should Work From A Coffee Shop, Even When You Have An Office
Fast Company contributor and founder of Family Records and GNTLMN.com Wesley Verhoeve makes a good case for working in coffee shops.
Why:
A change of environment stimulates creativity.
Even in the most awesome of offices we can fall into a routine, and a routine is the enemy of creativity.
Fewer distractions.
Being surrounded by awesome team and officemates means being interrupted for water cooler chats and work questions. Being interrupted kills productivity. The coffee shop environment combines the benefit of anonymity with the dull buzz of exciting activity.
Community and meeting new people.
Meeting new people always provides me with new ideas, a different perspective at existing problems, or an interesting connection to a new person doing something awesome that inspires me.
Tips:
Rotate coffee shops.
Avoid the stifling feeling of routine you were trying to avoid in the first place.
Buy something.
Coffee shop workers are awesome, and they’ll be awesome to you if you are a good customer. That hidden power plug will be revealed, an extra free refill will be given, an introduction will be made.
Placement.
Don’t sit near the door or the register, if you can avoid it.
Power up.
Come with a full charge.
[Image: Flickr user Kyle Hale]
Where will you work today?
Basically someone wrote all the thoughts down which I’d already been thinking in my head for months. May I offer one other piece of advice: Bring a backup for the wi-fi, say a phone you can tether or a CLEAR spot. Nothing can ruin your desire to work more than an ineffective wireless connection. And definitely don’t work at the same place every day if you can avoid it. And buy something, you cheap skate. — Ernie @ SFB
![theatlantic:
Study of the Day: Why Crowded Coffee Shops Actually Help Creative Thinking
The next time you’re stumped on a creative challenge, head to a bustling coffee shop, not the library. As the researchers write in their paper, “[I]nstead of burying oneself in a quiet room trying to figure out a solution, walking out of one’s comfort zone and getting into a relatively noisy environment may trigger the brain to think abstractly, and thus generate creative ideas.”
Read more. [Image: Global X/Flickr]
Why we work out of coffee shops.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5xkiv2GD51qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
Study of the Day: Why Crowded Coffee Shops Actually Help Creative Thinking
The next time you’re stumped on a creative challenge, head to a bustling coffee shop, not the library. As the researchers write in their paper, “[I]nstead of burying oneself in a quiet room trying to figure out a solution, walking out of one’s comfort zone and getting into a relatively noisy environment may trigger the brain to think abstractly, and thus generate creative ideas.”
Read more. [Image: Global X/Flickr]
Why we work out of coffee shops.
Dutch Government hatches plot to anger college kids everywhere: In an effort to completely obliterate their tourism industry, Dutch officials want to ban non-residents from visiting weed cafes in the Netherlands. Yeah, we’re as stumped as you are. source
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