Lulu Carpenter's

We’re the kinda coffee joint that, in season, finds a deserving Girl Scout Troop - like Troop 6000 in NYC, serving kids in the shelter system - buys 30 boxes of cookies from them, and puts them out at our stores, from which to help yourself, free. We know you think you’re full up with Girl Scout cookies, but you’re not. Trust us. Come have some more free cookies. You know you want to.

Here’s a deep cut. This guy, Marcus Goller, passed this week. No one on our crews today knows him, or even knows of him. He was a cofounder with me of Lulu’s in Santa Cruz, under a different brand name. He was instrumental in the seed idea that became our downtown store, and in bringing it to life, all the way back in 1991. We worked together in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from where I moved to Santa Cruz. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that our little business wouldn’t have ...been, if it hadn’t been for him. He never lived or worked in Santa Cruz, and hasn’t much figured in the experiences of our crews or customers the last two decades, but he’s been a constant presence for those of us who knew him, and worked with him across the country. In our corner of the world, when one of ours passes, we don’t fly flags at half staff, or sound Taps on a bugle, or hold a solemn memorial. Often we don’t do much of anything, except to come in to work and carry on. But I wanted to take a moment today to thank him, a mostly unsung protagonist in our story, for being there all those years ago, and giving us wings. Godspeed, Marcus. -M

We can all agree on what this means, right?

America has lost some (more) innocence these last few years. You can’t go home again, but you can find a better place. Here’s hoping we do some of that in the days to come... But before I go, I have just one more thing to tell you: Something has spoken to me in the night, burning the tapers of the waning year; something has spoken in the night, and told me I shall die, I know not where. Saying:... "To lose the earth you know, for greater knowing; to lose the life you have, for greater life; to leave the friends you loved, for greater loving; to find a land more kind than home, more large than earth---- "--Whereon the pillars of this earth are founded, towards which the conscience of the world is tending--a wind is rising, and the rivers flow. -Thomas Wolfe

Here’s something interesting. Pistachio milk, from real pistachios. It’s delicious. Available sweetened and unsweetened at all our stores. Do something nice for yourself today :)

From Business Insider, Uber and DoorDash are raising prices on customers in California in order to pay for new driver benefits guaranteed under Proposition 22. Uber will introduce a flat fee between $0.30 and $2, while DoorDash will slightly increase its service fees. Drivers will still receive substantially fewer benefits under Prop 22 - a law written and bankrolled by Uber, DoorDash, and other gig companies - than they would have been under the state's gig work law, AB-5......The surcharges are intended to help cover the costs of minimum earnings, per-mile expenses, healthcare stipends, accident insurance, and other benefits that rideshare and food delivery companies will soon be required to pay workers.. Here at Lulu’s, we are very opposed to Proposition 22, and deeply disappointed that the gig companies have bought their way to bending the laws to their purposes. We own our delivery fleet, our drivers are paid for the entire time they are on shift, like any other crew people, and we pay payroll taxes, workers compensation insurance, and contribute into the social security fund for their retirements, decades from now. In other words, they enjoy normal employment protections, and all that that means. Our business model doesn’t need to be changed in order to comply with basic labor laws, and we don’t have to add a surcharge to your delivery order to pay our coworkers a base wage. We took that stuff into account before we delivered to our first customer. So when you order (FREE!) delivery from us, you’re not gonna see an Uber or DoorDash independent operator at your door 30 minutes later. You’re gonna see a Lulu’s driver-barista. One of our staff, who’s gonna be at our next company dinner, because that’s what our crew people do on company dinner night. Download our delivery app in the App Store and In Google Play :)

I generally get a little bit more contemplative and reflective in the late fall, what with the sharpening of the early evening shadows, the snap of breathing in the dry, crisp cold, and the way everything in Santa Cruz generally evokes the Nashville creamsicle cinematography of Dead Poets Society. My experiences in the fall seem more viscous and lingering, somehow. It’s a time when I - and I suspect, you - assess the year gone by. Increasingly, as I age, I find myself contemp...Continue reading

Love that retro spice scale :)

Area Coffee Nerd Readies for the Morning.

For everyone affected by the fires, by COVID, by that shithead, Donald Trump, and every other goddamned thing that’s gone sideways of late, there’s free coffee every day for you from 7am-10am at our Scotts Valley store. So that’s something.