With the fall semester starting and Simpson students back on campus, they’re able to point out a handful of new things: a new interim president, a new first-year class and a new facility under construction. However, an update stirring up the most conversations can be found in the heart of Kent at Millie’s.
Millie’s has offered the full Starbucks drink menu for a handful of years, even changing with the seasons. Now the green logo has been replaced by a blue Caribou sign, and some students at Simpson aren’t thrilled with this sudden change.
“I’m sad that it’s not Starbucks anymore just because the coffee itself isn’t as good,” said sophomore Zoe Ackerman, who said she goes to Millie’s every day.
“Since the first day, I was ready to get my normal order, and it wasn’t there,” said sophomore Savannah Sistad. “I had to step back and really decide whether or not I even would have an order anymore. I was just frustrated that we didn’t get a heads-up.”
The switch to Caribou came as a shock to many, but back in April, the Student Government’s weekly meeting minutes said, “student survey from Matt Hansen will be sent out about switching Millie’s from Starbucks to Caribou Coffee.” Students never got a campus-wide survey, but other forms of resources to inform students of the change were used.
“I spent three Food Advisory Councils in a row talking to students, going, ‘What are your feelings? What do you think? And how does everybody feel?’” said Sodexo Retail Manager Shaun Martin. “I even put a big announcement on the screens in Pfeiffer saying, ‘coming next semester, Caribou,’ with pictures, descriptions, and benefits of Caribou as opposed to Starbucks.”
So why did this change need to occur? To Vice President of Student Development and Dean of Students Matt Hansen, this change was necessary.
“The concept for it came initially from a service loss, because what Shaun, as retail manager, would find is we’d run out of product,” said Hansen. “They’d order it, and there was this longer-than-appropriate leg to get product from the company.”
By partnering with Caribou, Sodexo hopes to maintain a larger stock of products and get products in faster because Caribou is a closer, more local brand. They also ship and deliver products in around three to five business days, compared to Starbucks’ seven to ten business days.
However, keeping the inventory in stock for all campus food services isn’t the complex factor; predicting what students will want each week, month and semester is.
“Students’ one day might get frappuccinos all day, and then the next day it’s all refreshers. And so we just go through stuff so fast, and I can’t predict that,” said Martin.
This ability to keep products in stock may have been the first reason for the change, but other reasons arose, including cost.
“The cost is less for Caribou, meaning it gets passed down to the students, which means that we’re doing the right thing,” said Hansen. “I think anytime we can be more affordable, that is very much in line with one of our core values, access, and that means a lot of things, but money is certainly one of them.”
Although they can’t provide specific numbers, they believe a student would save a larger percentage of money if they used their flex dollars at Caribou compared to what they would at Starbucks.
Another reason for the change centers around freedom and drink personalizations.
“Starbucks had rigid rules on what I can and can’t do, what I have to do to follow their brand,” said Martin. “Caribou said, ‘You’ve got freedom to create your own drinks and do what you want as long as you buy our product and use our signage.’ So I have a lot more ability to be creative and do more special things for the students.”
Martin said he’s letting his staff assemble fun menu items, including new energy Italian sodas featuring Simpson-related titles.
But with new creative freedom also comes new challenges. Martin said some items have already been low in stock, which he attributed to the start of the school year plus an increase in student population.
“This is all still a work in progress as we’re hammering out the details, which is why we’re out of stuff right now,” said Martin.
The Midwest coffee shop, founded in Minnesota, has around a thousand stores compared to Starbucks’ nearly forty thousand stores across 80 countries. With Caribou’s strong roots in the region, Hansen and Martin hope Simpson students will join the smaller but loyal fanbase.
“It’s a work in progress, we’ll get better,” said Martin, “So just stick with us and we’ll find something you like.”
If students have any concerns or questions about food services, they are welcome to attend the Food Advisory Council meetings every other week, starting Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. in Pfeiffer Dining Hall.
