Companies everywhere are changing their policies as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Food chains are doing so in ways that help them continue to safely serve their customers, and part of Caribou Coffee's new procedures include throwing away some of its coffee sleeves because of the message they're sending.
TikTok has been giving us dances, hacks, and behind-the-scenes restaurant content in recent weeks. We've learned why McFlurry spoons look like that, what milking cucumbers means, and new stories break on the app all the time. That's exactly what happened with this incident, because a Caribou coffee worker posted on the app about a new responsibility he was given at work that involves organizing coffee sleeves.
"We have these sleeves for the coffee cups, right? So you don't burn your hand and they have cute, outdoorsy, nature phrases on them—very on brand for us—but I have to go in and I have to take out every fourth one because they printed them with the words 'fight the urge to remain indoors,'" he says in the video.
The other coffee sleeves are printed with phrases like "May cause irrepressible happiness," "The world needs more explorers," and "The scenic route is the only route." Given any other circumstances, "Fight the urge to remain indoors" would fit right in with the other wanderlust-themed sayings, but obviously now is...not the time. With the current state of the world and the CDC's guidelines that encourage vigilant social distancing and individuals staying in their homes as much as possible, it's just...not appropriate. Other Caribou employees confirmed to BuzzFeed they'd had to do the same thing.
The printed sleeves aren't being thrown out all together, though; in the video it looks like the employee is just sifting them out and putting them in a box. It's possible they're being set aside to be used once again when it's safe and smart, or maybe they're just being sent back to corporate to be repurposed into sleeves with a saying that's little more timely.
