Peet's Coffee Replaces Caribou in Novi

Novi's Caribou Coffee closed last month and reopened Monday as Peet's Coffee & Tea.

The popular location, at 47490 Grand River Ave., remained closed for about a month during the transition. The exterior has not changed, but the coffee shop no longer has the rustic, cabin-in-the-woods feel that Caribou Coffee customers loved. Now, its design is more open and modern. 

Caribou Coffee closed a string of 160 stores across the country earlier this year. The company was the second-largest java chain in the United States behind Starbucks.

In December 2012, German conglomerate Joh. A. Benckiser Group said it would be buying the publicly traded Minneapolis-based Caribou Coffee Co. for $340 million. Earlier in 2012 it bought Peet’s Coffee & Tea for $1 billion. Peet’s Coffee was founded in Berkeley, CA, and is now headquartered in Emeryville, CA. The bulk of its stores are located in California.

Now, the last of the Caribou Coffee shops are officially gone in Michigan and Peet's Coffee is here to stay.

How do you think Peet's Coffee & Tea compares to Caribou Coffee? Post a comment below.