Peet's Leaving The 'Wood - Closing 12/15/14

[marklingm]

Word on the "Detroit Avenue Chow Line" is that Peet's is closing effective tomorrow night.

Employees were reportedly informed yesterday morning.

[Matthew Lee]

Had to be difficult being across from the Root.

[Amanda Tabor]

I heard today that all the Peet's locations in Ohio were closing - haven't verified that yet though.

[David Lay]

After just fifteen months in the local market, Peet’s Coffee & Tea is closing its remaining Columbus stores along with all others in the Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania markets. The local stores originally opened in former Caribou Coffee locations in Gahanna, Clintonville, Upper Arlington and Downtown, but shuttered the Downtown and Gahanna locations earlier this year. Clintonville and Upper Arlington locations are closing today.

“After nearly an 18-month assessment of our Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania markets, we are closing the remaining stores and ending our retail presence in these areas to focus on our top-performing markets,” reported a company statement forwarded by Amy Lester, PR Lead & Spokesperson for Peet’s. “These store closures include the remaining six in Ohio, two in Michigan and three in Pennsylvania as they have not performed to our expectations.”

The statement mentions that employees are receiving six weeks of pay and benefits to take them through the end of January, and additional severance is available to those who accumulated collective tenure between both Peet’s and Caribou.

http://www.columbusunderground.com/peet ... um=twitter

[Paul Schrimpf]

"It's not us, it's you."

[Jim O'Bryan]

What has gone wrong with the world???

I am laughing my butt off over here. Years ago I was told that the Deck needs to be more
like Facebook, all positive and fluffy.

Well that might have been true, but in the FB version of this post, many people calling others
assholes, talking about what customers smell like, how much they hate this or that.

Funny, stuff, but then again it is the holidays.

.

[Scott Meeson]

Well that might have been true, but in the FB version of this post, many people calling others
assholes, talking about what customers smell like, how much they hate this or that.

Funny, stuff, but then again it is the holidays.

.

You Betcha!

[Glenn Palmer]

Jim great point about the FB post, as much as I would like to post there it had soured and I don't see it turning around. Thanks for being the one to point out what it takes to go all in on a business and then hold on while the learning curve tries to throw you off. It truly is another victory for The Root, they have had to brace themselves for the great unknown twice while remaining true to their beliefs. Job well done Bob and Julie!

[Bill Call]

The Paninis in Westlake closed recently:

http://www.cleveland.com/tipoff/index.s ... cart_river

We have probably reached the saturation point for new restaurants in the Cleveland area. When a new restaurant opens another closes down.

This calls into question the focus on the bar based economy as the key to economic growth. Those restaurants in the taxpayer financed entitlement zones have a distinct advantage but is their subsidy worth the cost?

[Stan Austin]

Bill----Perhaps council or the County council should hire consultants to answer that question

[Jim O'Bryan]

Bill----Perhaps council or the County council should hire consultants to answer that question

Stan

They don't want the answer, because it is with everything tried and done, Cuyahoga County is
still losing residents at an amazing rate. All of the great things down in this town to make it better
like getting privately owned stores off of Euclid for Non-Profit Corridor, nothing. All the marketing
campaigns CLE, CLE + etc, nothing but crickets and sheople talking. Move Christmas lights from
Publiuc Square to PlayHouse Square Triangle, nothing, crickets and sheepople, hell even LeBron
came back and nothing...

They will tell you "Downtown is the fastest growing area in Cleveland," but they won;t tell you why
everywhere else is losing people. Lakewood yet another anomaly, but as we homogenize to be more
like them, instead of who we are, it will come.

The off thing if you go to Pannini's Westlake, instead of just read about it, you would have seen
something very odd. Most of the Caribou Workers from Lakewood Caribou/Peets were working at
Pannini's Westlake. One of the girls from Caribou married the owner, and when Lakewood closed
went to Westlake!

Outside of that, one might ask how many mediocre places are needed in this area? And is it any
wonder that some of these places close when one they offer nothing special, and two have merged
into crappy versions of each other. Hmmmmmmm another lesson Lakewood could learn from.

FWIW

.

[Peter Grossetti]

Bill----Perhaps council or the County council should hire consultants to answer that question

I believe the going rate for economic impact studies that sit on shelves and collect dust is $7,000.

[Jim O'Bryan]

I believe the going rate for economic impact studies that sit on shelves and collect dust is $7,000.

If you make it an environmental impact/economic study you can charge $100,000 like the group
that is studying what Euclid did to save their coastline and Lakewood coastline. Never mind that
the difference between the two is nearly 150'. Never mind that the guy that did it, George Voinovich
is in an office willing to explain to anyone how and why they did it. Never mind that the poorest
residents in the city will help underwrite Lakewood's $50,000 share of the study for the wealthiest
members of the community. Never mind that it was already studied for tears through Mike Skindell's
office and that the only real hang up is how to get up to $2 million for residents that already spent
money protecting their property.

$7,000 is a bargain.

FWIW

.

[Matthew Lee]

No need to spend money on a study.

Everything is a triangle. With a restaurant it is food/drinks, price and service. All else is window dressing (ambiance, location, etc.). Get two of the three right, and you will succeed. Get all three right and you are golden.

Is it any wonder that Cozumel has decent crowds almost every night? Above average Mexican food, reasonable prices and great service. Around the Corner also does well.

Westlake Panini was nothing special. Just another Paninis. But, the two times we were there, service was not good and drink selection was poor. And the prices aren't so great that you wanted to go back.

Very interested to try Forage. Read some great things about them so far.

[Bill Call]

They don't want the answer, because it is with everything tried and done, Cuyahoga County is
still losing residents at an amazing rate. All of the great things down in this town to make it better
like getting privately owned stores off of Euclid for Non-Profit Corridor, nothing.

I'm still waiting for some politician in Cuyahoga County to challenge the County's priorities. It would not only be the right thing to do but the politically smart thing to do. I suspect it will never happen.

Cleveland just lost out on tens of millions in State of Ohio tax credits. The credits are going to Cincinnati. Development of the May Company Building and Huntington Building are now on hold. Nothing is built in downtown Cleveland without millions is subsidies.

That policy could be defended if those subsidies brought jobs to Cuyahoga County or new residents to Cuyahoga County but they don't. Current policy spends billions to bribe people to move from one side of town to the other. Those businesses or individuals who don't get the subsidy eventually leave town.

The media propaganda is very annoying. I'm listening to a guy right now on the radio who is saying Cleveland is one of the worlds top travel destinations. Right up there with London and Paris. Are they lying to themselves or us or both?