Fri, 2 Dec 2005 16:42:31 -0600
From: "CustomerRelations"
To:
Dear (redacted)
Thank you for taking time to write us with your concerns. At Caribou we
strive to offer products of highest quality while delivering superior
customer service.
Let us take a moment to address your concerns. Caribou Coffee makes real
estate site selections in response to demand for our products. Where
independent coffee houses operate near Caribou, both businesses thrive.
Caribou and LIMU Coffee co-existed in the St. Anthony area for more than
6 months. Independent coffee houses have loyal customers just as we have
loyal customers. It is interesting to note that during the past decade
the chain coffee houses and the independents grew at the same pace.
When Caribou negotiates lease agreements, we will request an exclusivity
agreement, which is a standard practice among most retailers. This
request is made to deter future competitors from entering the market and
does not apply to current tenants in the area. This request has not
always been granted and does not always dictate whether Caribou will
ultimately decide to move into the area.
In the instance of LIMU Coffee, mentioned in the Star Tribune, this
request was granted to Caribou Coffee to deter future competition from
entering the market. The choice of not renewing LIMU's lease was a
business decision made solely by the landlord of this property and was
not effected by Caribou's exclusivity agreement. Caribou Coffee Company
made no request to have LIMU removed from the site. Nor can Caribou
Coffee influence a change in this decision. Our hope is this additional
information helps clarify the matter for you. For your convenience I
have enclosed a press release from St. Anthony Retail Development, LLC.
Thank you again for your comments and for allowing Caribou to be a part
of your coffee experience.
Sincerely,
Jaidyn Martin
Customer Relations Specialist
Caribou Coffee Company
763.592.2200
-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 1:05 PM
To: CustomerRelations
Subject: Store Visit Comments
Store:
City:
State: mn
Subject: startribune article
Message: This publicity can not be good for your business. I have made
the decision to boycott your stores now due to this article and the fact
that your company feels the need to destroy small businesses. The great
American way...
Coffee brouhaha leaves owner miffed
Curt Brown, Star Tribune
December 2, 2005
Ever since she moved from Ethiopia to Minnesota in 1989, Gedam Azeze has believed in the American dream. Then a lawyer's letter changed all that.
"I thought if you work hard, day in and day out, you can make it in this country," said Azeze, 40, who works seven days a week at Limu Coffee, her five-year-old shop on Silver Lake Road in St. Anthony.
"Now, I have found out that is not true."
Azeze said she has been told that her lease will not be extended and that her shop has to close by the end of the month. Caribou Coffee, which opened a new outlet in May in the nearby Silver Lake Village Shopping Center, negotiated a lease that prohibits other coffee shops at the development, according to the shopping center's attorney.
Azeze and her customers can only shrug.
"If America is based on free enterprise, why can't we have two coffee shops?" asked Robert Schwalm, a retired teacher from New Brighton who enjoys the seasonal Ethiopian coffee-roasting ceremonies Azeze conducts at Limu. "As someone who believes in diversity, I don't see why can't we have different types of products."
More than 100 of Azeze's customers have signed a petition of support.
"Unfortunately, continued operation in the space by Limu Coffee is not possible," according to an Oct. 24 letter from attorney Paul W. Anderson, who represents the shopping center's management company.
Anderson said his clients have a legal right to decline a lease renewal. "It has nothing to do with the tenant or her background," he said.
"It was purely a business decision," Anderson said.
Caribou CEO Michael Coles said his company, which has more than 300 coffeehouses in 14 states, always asks for exclusive deals when it moves into shopping centers. While malls seldom agree, he said, such arrangements are common in a majority of Caribou's shopping center sites.
"I would want to make sure they're not going to put a Starbucks in the center," he said. "We didn't base our decision to go in there on being the only one, we based it on the fact that, whatever existed, no future coffee-shop deals would be made."
Coles said the decision to decline Azeze's lease renewal request "had nothing to do with us. If the landlord wanted to keep the tenant, it should not have granted us the exclusive, and we'd still have gone there."
A statement Thursday from the shopping center's management company, St. Anthony Retail Development, said Azeze first was notified in April that her lease would not be renewed. "Any suggestion by the tenant that it is being forced to close its business is contrary to the facts and without merit," according to the statement.
Azeze, who became a U.S. citizen seven years ago, lives near Caribou's Brooklyn Center corporate headquarters.
She has started looking for a new location, but she's worried about the $60,000 she borrowed from a friend to purchase the store. Her $2,000 monthly rent will be doubled if she is not out by Dec. 31.
She thanked her loyal customers, who found their way to the shop even when road work and construction made it difficult when the former Apache Plaza became the new Silver Lake Road Shopping Center.
"It's very disappointing," she said. "I never thought this kind of thing would happen in America."
Curt Brown • 651-298-1542
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Copyright 2005 Star Tribune. All rights reserved
1 comment:
I already boycotted them years ago!
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