Pros
Caribou provides staff with a half pound of premium free coffee every week. It's a friendly place to work with great relationships between regular customers and staff. Most of the Store Managers I've worked with have been very good. Caribou provides opportunities to move up in the company. Throughout the recent downturn in the economy I feel like my job has provided a great deal of stability. It's great to not have to worry about layoffs coming just around the corner.
Cons
There's a disconnect between the corporate offices and the stores. This is especially true of problems within human resources. The amount of sick days and paid vacation is less than desirable and the requirements to to receive paid time off do not mesh well with the operations of a coffee shop. There are no lunch breaks, which leads to shorter shifts, making it very difficult to work full time in a five day work week. There are no holidays. Caribou is open every day of the year and only pays holiday pay for Christmas and Thanksgiving. I can name many more holidays than just those two.