Caribou Coffee Announces It's Closing Its Doors

One of Peachtree Corners favorite hang-outs will soon be shuttered - Caribou Coffee is closing its doors for good on Sunday, April 14 -- employees at the cozy coffee shop will serve the last latte at noon that day.

"We were notified last Friday (April 5), that our last day would be Sunday," said Fran Gunther, the store manager. "We were all totally surprised." She said the store employs five people, where they will go, she wasn't sure.

Signs are posted on the front and back doors of the store alerting customers of the upcoming closure. Gunther said the reaction from customers has been a mixture of surprise and sadness with many left to wonder where they will go after Caribou Coffee closes.

Sal Brownfield, who stops in regularly stepped up to the counter Wednesday afternoon to order his "usual" - a regular latte with one raw sugar in a mug - and was surprised to hear of the store's closing.

"I come once a day, sometimes twice," said Brownfield, an artist who works out of his Peachtree Corners home studio. "I need to put my paint brushes down and get out of the studio." Where he will go for his latte fix after Caribou shuts its doors he's not sure.

Some customers have used the store's giant chalk board to add personal notes to express their dismay over the coffee shop's closing. Perhaps the store's fate was written last December when a German-based company announced it was purchaing the chain for $340 million.

According to another report, the new owner announced 80 stores would close, the remaining locations would be re-branded to Peet's Coffee & Tea.

Rachael Sharpe and Colleen Donnelly were just as shocked to learn their favorite lunch-time haunt would be closing. Both work for the law offices of Rubin and Lublin on Da Vinci Court.

"I come every day," said Sharpe as she sipped on her favorite drink, an Earl Gray latte. Where will she go next week? "I don't know," she said simply.

Donnelly said she only heard Tuesday that the shop would be closing and like her friend was disappointed to learn the news. "This place is definitely better than Starbucks," she said.

Caribou Coffee has long been the gathering place for Peachtree Corners residents - "Meet you at Caribou" was a common refrain for more than a dozen years now.

Will you miss sipping on your favorite hot beverage and chatting with friends?