The Corp coffee shops that Georgetown students know well are making numerous, large-scale changes to their service and products throughout the month of January to become better, more efficient Corp coffee shops.
Corp CEO Bryan Carroll (SFS ’07) described the changes to Midnight Mug, Uncommon Grounds, and More Uncommon Grounds as “two-sided,” differentiating between “front-end” changes that will be immediately visible and “back-end changes” that will end up directly affecting the coffee shops’ services in the long term. All three shops are switching to a different fair trade coffee vendor in hopes of providing a “better quality coffee,” Carroll said.
Two different flavors of coffee will be offered, a house blend and another flavor which each store will decide on individually; prices will remain the same. The 100 percent biodegradable cups that Uncommon Grounds uses will also be used in Midnight Mug and MUG, though the design for each will be different so that there is a “unified theme, but store specific,” Carroll explained.
Each store is making its own individual changes as well.
Uncommon Grounds has already installed a new lighting array and is “looking into getting new furniture,” according to Cara Noverio (COL ‘07), director of Uncommon Grounds.
Midnight Mug is installing a new cart to “maximize efficiency behind the counter” and provide more storage space, director of Midnight Mug Michael Wang MSB ‘07 said.
“Accommodations weren’t accommodating anymore,” Wang explained.
“I haven’t waited for coffee [at Midnight Mug] because the line is too long,” Joanna Lee (MSB ’10) said, “but if they had a more efficient line I would probably try Midnight Mug coffee.”
MUG will have a new awning and switch its fast lane to a full-service lane, so that the lines will move faster, Carroll said. According to Florian Lorenz (MSB ‘10), it is a much-needed improvement. “It’s too slow and they always give you the wrong stuff, he said.
Employee training will also change, according to Carroll and Noverio. “We’re streamlining our processes so that we do things the same way,” Noverio said.
“The idea is that all of the employees will receive the same level and quality of training so that they’ll feel more comfortable picking up shifts at another service.”
“Each store had a best way to do certain things,” Carroll said. “Our goal was to take all the best methods and implement them across all the services. This way we could ensure higher quality for our customers across all three stores.”
Students like Lee, whose favorite Corp coffee shop is Uncommon Grounds, “because it’s cozy,” should not be alarmed by the impending changes, however.
“The line that we walked,” Carroll said, “[was] maximizing quality while maintaining store cultures.”
Wang characterized the improvements as a move towards a more Starbucks-esque model, explaining that while the pricing and quality of the products are consistent across every store, “you know exactly what quality you’re getting at every store,” but, depending upon the location, “the products are different, the environments are different.”
