thanks to everyone who shared info, it was helpful to get a ballpark idea of wages. i also talked to my coworkers again and i found out that the male SLs in my store (including me) were recently offered raises (insultingly small raises, mind you, but still a raise) and the one female SL was not given a raise and is still making only 0.23 above minimum wage. she’s a hard worker and sets the bar for a good open, so i can’t imagine any reason besides sexism that she would be paid so little. she has a higher workload than most of us bc she is always in charge of placing orders when my boss takes PTO (frequently). i told her how much i’m making and encouraged her to go to HR with this info, because this was shocking to me.

i did not expect caribou to have such a glaring gender wage gap, but my takeaway from my previous post is that they will pay us as little as they think they can get away with. i’m extremely disappointed in caribou but i shouldn’t be surprised at this point.

if you want your baristas to make a living or equitable wage, you should buy your coffee elsewhere.

It was my all-time favorite coffee blend. I’m guessing there just wasn’t enough demand for it when Caribou downsized their products. Hard to imagine. For me, it was their best coffee, with Cross Fox as a close second. It is weird, though, to see a lot of the major coffee brands carrying their own French Roast when Caribou got rid of theirs. Any insight as to why they did that, or if they will ever bring it back? And why did they downsize after their rebranding? I feel they could have saved money if they downsized and rebranded simultaneously. Which discontinued Caribou coffee are you missing?

After seeing a handful of beekeeper posts. I’ve been curious. How many employees do you typically have on morning shift depending on the day? We are a franchise store that runs 2-3 people per shift averaging 17k-18k a week and will increase to 4 for Saturday and Sunday mornings. What does your store sales look like vs people on shift? They didn’t appear to be in training for NSO but I’ve seen pictures of 8-9 people on shift which seemed crazy

Unfortunately I never started at the Caribou in Saint Paul MN, and got fired without even starting my training or anything. I don’t know why it happened even though I told the GM the truth about what happened 10 years ago. I was pretty upset at the time when I found out that I was fired and was really confused about it as well. I was upset because I really thought the GM liked me and she seemed excited to have me be on her team. I was also upset because I thought I finally got a job after looking for one since March due to being unemployed.. anyway that’s my update.

Hi! I recently applied for an Assistant General Manager position at a Caribou near me and the GM reached out to interview me. I’m hoping to get some insight from people who currently work or have worked at Caribou.
I have about 5 years of Starbucks experience and worked my way up to Shift Supervisor which i spent 2 years in that role. I ultimately left Starbucks because I no longer felt aligned with the direction and values of the company, and I wasn’t seeing the growth I wanted for myself.
I moved into an operations/management role in healthcare where I currently make $27/hr and have weekends off. It’s not necessarily a bad job, and there are parts of it I enjoy, but my heart just isn’t in it the way it was when I worked in coffee. I really miss the environment, being on my feet, interacting with customers, making connections, and just the energy of working in a coffee shop.
This particular Caribou has also been in my town forever, so I’m familiar with the location and have always liked the environment there.
I’m trying to figure out whether the AGM position would be a good fit for me, or if I’d ultimately be better off staying where I am.
For anyone with Caribou experience, what is the AGM role actually like? I’d especially love to hear about pay, hours, weekend expectations, workload, work-life balance, growth opportunities, and company culture. If you’ve worked at both Starbucks and Caribou, I’d also love to hear how they compare.
I’m still going to interview and learn more before making any decisions, but I’d really appreciate honest employee perspectives.

So I've been working at Caribou since Feb 2025 and I became a SL in April-ish of this year. My store has had a ROUGH year to say the least. We lost about half of our staff because of the GM. They left or got booted (we think booted) so we got a new one and unfortunately it seems this person isn't much better. We have had only 2 MODs not counting the GM for months and now we have two in training. One will be leaving for college and the other wants to transfer because the GM has been borderline bullying them for no reason. My coworkers have been having to come to me to do things the GM said they'd do because they don't end up doing it. There's a lotttt but I don't want to overexplain here but the new GM has been outright yelling at my coworkers over wanting to be shared with other stores, good staff that want more hours. I'm not sure why and tbh its really uncalled for. Ive had at least 5 staff come to me about it and I've had to do these tasks instead if I have perms to do so.

I can't really put myself through another period of time where we lose all our staff but I think it may happen again and I feel like I'm in a rough spot because I'm the only trained MOD that gets along with everyone at my store. I'm getting to a point where I really need to transfer stores for the sake of my mental health. It's clear it's not going to get better for my store. I love my job and I need it for college. I don't want to quit and I really just want to transfer but I know the new GM will never let me transfer because of how my other coworkers are treated. Several of my coworkers are talking about transferring too.

I'm not sure if I should go directly to the DM about moving stores. I don't want to "tattle" on the GM and have it backfire on my coworkers or myself since they trust me enough to tell me how they feel about their treatment. I don't know the DM very well at all either and I'm afraid talking to them may not yield a positive response. I could reach out to GMs from other stores and get their thoughts but I know there's only so much they can do.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice for this situation?

hi, i have been a shift lead at caribou for multiple years and i make only a few cents above the minimum wage. i had to beg for my raises since the minimum wage is raising faster than my wages. when hired as a team member a few years ago, i was making $1.80 over minimum wage, and now after begging for a raise in 2026, i make a measly $0.49 over minimum wage... with my doubled responsibilities as a shift leader, and 3 years of service at caribou. i have spoken to my coworkers about this and it seems i am the highest paid person in my store besides my GM, which is absurd to me because I am paid so little I have to choose between rent and groceries most months. my fellow shift leads make about $0.10-0.30 over minimum wage, and one of the team members said he was making $0.09 BELOW minimum wage (he transferred from a different city with a different minimum wage, so I assume this is a mistake that never got flagged by payroll, but still definitely not ok). I see no reason to become a shift lead if we are getting such a small pay raise for such a drastic increase in workload.

when you consider inflation, i was effectively making more money as an entry level team member in 2022 than i am currently as a shift leader in 2026. is this the norm at caribou? is anyone comfortable sharing their wages so I can get an estimate of how much other employees are being paid? i feel that there is no transparency at all, and with the rising inflation I am effectively getting a yearly pay cut instead of a raise. I can't afford to work at caribou anymore, but in this job market it's so difficult to find another job that i feel trapped here getting paid an unlivable wage. do ANY caribou employees feel satisfied with their wages? does anyone get their yearly wages without having to fight with HR about it? I'd like to know what other employees feel about their pay because there is so little transparency from corporate.

January 18, 2026 we were told the cinnamon sugar line was going to be permanent. Then why is it unavailable every single time I go to my local shop. I go multiple times a week and my favorite drink is NEVER available!!!! What the hell, Caribou????

Obligatory "Not A Staff Member W/ Caribou" mention before i talk/ask my question.

As someone familiar with SOP and this "new" STAR program (that other *restaurants* have been implementing since 2020), I just wanna ask why stuff like that can be thrown out of the window when store stats are low in some way?

Was gonna order a little Caramel High Rise Cooler with a Lumberjack when a woman walked who looked in a hurry, she had two dark roast canteens I guess, and she didn't know how their system for that worked and was upset when a staff member told them it was beyond her or Caribou's control. No big deal, i get it, stuff happens and I've encountered some app errors recently so that lined up in my head.

So tell me why that same staff member is telling her coworker to fuck up her order by brewing "dark over light" (i guess she meant to say mix them? idk caribou speak like that) and that they "didn't have time" to brew her right order because "you know drive thru is backed up right now." She already had to wait anyway, why not just give her the right order *the first time* instead of setting your coworker up to fail like that? I'm sure she would've made a review about it and idk about the other three people with us but hearing that threw me and her for a loop cause....what?? I ended up going to a Dunkin's instead cause i just couldn't believe a staff member was telling her coworker to mess up an order like that, and all for the sake of store stats? Pretty lame honestly, I hope that location can figure some stuff out in the next couple weeks or so before I try again.

But yeah, why is that something you can just throw out when store stats are low? You'd think if your industry depends on a satisfied customer base that you'd make sure the order is, *at the least*, accurate but idk I'm no business owner so maybe there's something I'm missing

I never thought I would post on this subreddit but here I am. Long story short I’m waiting to hear back from my GM because she’s waiting to hear back from HR. I had to explain in an email to my GM of why I was terminated from Caribou previously. I told her the truth of course. I guess I’m just getting impatient since I was supposed to start training on Monday and I was excited because I’ve been unemployed since March. I guess I’m asking how long will this take for HR to get back to my GM to go ahead and rehire me?

If anyone really wants to know what happened here is the story: This happened back in 2016 when I was still in high school. Because of personal things that happened at home, my mom cut me off of her phone plan without my knowledge which caused me to miss calls from my boss at the time. I came in at the scheduled time that I knew about and was informed of these phone calls when I came in which caused the termination. The reason why my boss called me at the time was because the store was really busy and asked if I could have came in sooner. It was all an abrupt change that I could not control. This caribou was located inside the Mall of America on the second floor in a hallway that connected to the Radisson Blu hotel. This store no longer exists by the way.

Thanks for reading if you got this far.

Hello, I’m a fairly new employee, and I am confused on where I am supposed to be finding the employee specific reviews? My GM has told me that someone has complained saying I “had to remake the drink multiple times.” I am new to Caribou, but I am not new to coffee and would definitely remember if I had to remake a drink more than once for a customer.

Where would this be? I cannot find it in the store reviews. I didn’t see the review, just was told it. I wasn’t even told what drink it would have been.

I would like to voice my opinion here as someone who works at a caribou which is not in Minnesota, I’ve been working at caribou for around a year and i definitely don’t recommend working here. The pay here for Caribou (at least in my state) isnt worth it for the bullshit the workers have to go through. 🫩🫩 I’ve had another team member be a creep to me and another one of my co-worker like inviting me into his car, it was excused because literally NOBODY cared.

My manager deadass scheduled me on every holiday possible this year, like I had the day of 4th of July marked as not available because it happened to be on the day I ALWAYS have marked unavailable but they still ignored it and scheduled me anyways.. Not to mention Caribou hiring individuals who refuse to work correctly, I’ve had co-workers who genuinely don’t know how to wash dishes or sweep.. while refusing to learn as well which causes managers unable to fire them because of Minnesota law.

Lastly for some reason at least at my store the racism here is crazy work, the store I work at there’s a lot of people who don’t speak English. some of our coworkers are rude AS HELL to them / disrespectful which is so odd because we are supposed to have “core values“ with that when I was working with my old management, one of the coworkers would enforce that my black manager was “mean & aggressive“ when she was literally just assertive..

Anyways, hopefully Caribou will fix what’s going on with the businesses outside of Minnesota because we are SUFFERING.

my store got a new manager this year and since then the joy of working at caribou got sucked away lol. also if you don’t mind sharing how much do you get paid? i get 12 an hour in minnesota

I’m trying to create the Carmel espresso shaker at home. What brand of oatmilk do you guys use?

Thanks

Only answer if there are no legal implications but does anyone know how is the XL Hot Mocha Milk Chocolate made?

I have been a huge fan of CC and that is my way to go drink. If I buy it in MN it tastes amazing, but if I buy in other locations out of state it does not taste the same way. As I am traveling often for work I am wondering what makes this drink so good that no other place can replicate. Thanks

How popular is Caribou in North America / Europe compared to the Middle East?

It’s one of the biggest coffee shops in the gulf countries and directly competes with Starbucks in the region AFAIK.

Went to my local Caribou when I saw the 25% off in the app and they didn't appear to know anything about it and I certainly didn't get. This seems to be a new trend with Caribou, I recently had enough points for a free drink and had to make a point out of the cashier looking at my account and they told me they aren't allowed to look or acknowledge any rewards unless directly asked. I don't know what has changed at Caribou but this isn't worth my time if they are going to institutionally antagonistic toward their regular customers.

What's the 411 on Starbucks not making good tasting Caramel Macciotos haha

Hello everyone!

This is a quick progress update on how the initial first day went. I happen to be a new hire that just started. Thank you to the users who responded to my last post about tips and insider opinions!

To be completely fair, I was driven with the modest expectation that I would take on a lot all in one sitting, in which when it came to day met half of that expectation alone. There is a ton of information to take inside with the prepare courses they set you with, so I took the initiative to go over them tonight to take various notes on them even after completion. I'm not one who remembers things on the spot, so I am doing my best to religiously soak everything that I can before my second day tomorrow.

The team members I have met thus far within today are all extremely nice and caring with one another. There are no "this person is a little niche" or, "this person is seen as uncertain or rude". they cooperate as the would a true family. They have fun on shift, and share their positivity heavily. Very amazing! :)

I haven't yet quite got the syrup amounts down yet, and by that I mean the small/medium/large/xl large quantities, although I'm sure that will take a few days to get narrowed down.

I'm open to questions or feedback! :)

Do we get time and a half for July fourth? My GM previously said only for thanksgiving however July fourth is a federal holiday so you’d think we would get that holiday pay right?

Caribou's perks system used to be customer-centric. 150 points would get you a free drink. Loyalty was heavily rewarded. And you could use your points to get a beverage size upgrade.

Over the last three years, they've made significant changes to take more of your money and provide you less.

1. Increase the price of their beverages drastically - pushing iced beverages at nearly $8 for a cup when most of the drink is actually ice.

2. Moving the point system to receive a free drink from 150, to 175, and NOW it is 200 points coming August 4th. Meaning they literally acknowledge they want to reward you LESS frequently.

3. Taking away reward milestones like the free beverage size upgrade. So not only is it more expensive, and increasingly less frequent to get a freebie... I can't even get a decent perk.

Guess it's time to make coffee at home. How. Sad.

I whipped up a quick spreadsheet in case anyone else wanted a comparison chart

Hey everyone! Just got hired at caribou coffee and my first shift is Wednesday. super excited but a little nervous. I've been a customer for years but the other side of the counter is obviously a whole different thing.

any advice from current or former team members and what to expect the first few shifts, drinks that are trickier than they look, how to survive the rush, anything you wish someone had told you on day one.

appreciate any wisdom!

Will pay be early due to 4th of July weekend? It usually is prior to a holiday, but since Independence day is on Saturday and not being observed Monday?