Starbucks To Close 600 U.S. Stores

SEATTLE — Starbucks Corp. has announced it's closing 600 underperforming stores in the United States.

The Seattle-based premium coffee company also announced Tuesday it expects to open fewer than 200 new company-operated stores in the United States in fiscal 2009.

The company says it will try to place workers from closed stores in remaining Starbucks.

Comments

[alieninvader]

Talk about overreaction! They are closing 600 stores, a tiny fraction of their overall stores, not going out of business. It's extremely sad for their employees, but Starbucks will survive.

[steamboat]

Why doesn't Starbucks give Chris Dodd free coffee for life. Then maybe Chris will contact his buddies at Countryside Financing mortgage and get some preference and under-the-table money and deal like Chris got?

[OneLiberalLady]

Boy, that's a reach! Seems like you're a Chris Dodd fan?

[WFV]

I, for one, could not care less. Actually, I have thought their monopoly in many places has been a detriment, and I have never been a fan of their product - it tastes burnt. Things are tough all over, and the days of $5 coffees may be past as well.

[GJP2006]

When Starbucks went mass production corporate clone - they diminished their brand. Remember the days when coffee beans were stored in large draws and the staff scooped out the coffee, let the customers smell and look at the beans - a total coffee experience. Now, you by everything packaged and even ground. The preferred brewing method used to be press pot but now that has changed and some stores don't even stock them. I still buy their beans but the "Starbucks experience" vanished year ago.

[paulfromportland]

Schade - First, Howard messes up his basketball team and sells them into a legal morass, then this closing.

And, now room for real coffee such as Stumptown from Portland and Community from Cajun Country in Louisiana.

Guess that SoDo has really become SoDown, for Howard.

[Warmglobe]

And thousands of yuppies and college students weep...the­y bitch about $5 a gallon gas but not about a $5 cup of coffee that you can make at home for about 30 cents

[BabsfromKS]

just what my son-in-law said

[Vinca]

To Warmglobe: Starbucks closing stores, is just more more signs of our slumping economy, I've seen quite a few stores closing nearby, lots of people laid off, it's the DOMINNO EFFECT, IT MOSTLY STARTED WITH JOBS GOING OVERSEAS, PEOPLE WITH GOOD PAYING JOBS BUY CARS,TAKE TRIPS, EAT OUT etc

[Myshkin57]

But they choose to spend too much for coffee. Try to commute 40 miles without paying for gas.

[JTyroler]

Perhaps some local shops managed to stay open next to the predatory Starbucks that opened to put the local shops out of business.

[francoise]

Maybe they're investing in other countries. We have some Starbucks here, and people, especially young people, are queuing for ages to get their drinks.

Our Starbucks aren't organized like American ones though. Here, there are many many armchairs and tables in several different rooms around the small counter, because people spend much leisure time having a cup and chatting/g­ossiping/a­rguing about politics, with friends.

Moreover young french people have much free time (free universities, and Mom and Dad enjoy paying for shelter, food, car, starbucks. Who needs to work ?)

I always go to Starbucks when I'm in Paris. It gives me the opportunity of meeting American people and practising my English !

Moreover, there are American-clean toilets in Starbucks. Our french-clean toilets are fine only if you need a good puke.

[croneofcaulder]

That's because the French know how to enjoy life (except the toilet part), Americans are like frenetic hamsters on an exercise wheel. We run harder and longer but never seem to get anywhere--­especially after 8 years of the bush fiasco!

[blueshift]

The company that defined modern branding is also the case study for what happens when you mismanage that brand. (Can you tell what business I'm in?) They have also taught their mom and pop competition how to succeed.

What they got right: a customer experience created by a full atmosphere of sights, tastes, smells, sounds (music) and touch. (Those smooth creamy lattes were a serious upgrade over whatever they served next door.) Their focus was small, on each individual store.

Then they got corporate, and blew up their own brand. You can buy your own starbucks from a grocery store, they installed drive ups, subcontracted 'hospitality sector' kiosks (the latte I get at the airport or at the hotel, not to mention the way I get treated, is very different from a real Starbucks sidewalk storefront). Display cases are stuffed with kid-stuff sugary junk.

Of course, the local shops learned from Starbucks. In the cities and towns I travel in, the coffee has improved dramatically, the pastry is more diverse (and less sugary), free wi-fi, and unique atmosphere. And mom and pop are focused on their customers, while starbucks, like any public corporation, is in the business of selling stock, not product.

[NTO08]

Starbucks yuppified the coffee experience­...people got sick of it...end of story...th­ey served burned coffee and made what should have been a simple order into something absurd...t­hat's why Dunkin Donuts and Mickey Ds collectively have kicked their a--...

Give me the days when you got your jo at the diner...no one needs coffee mixed with all kinds of foreign matter.

[dennyd]

Good Riddance Starbucks-- the coffee tastes burned -

[charlot]

It is unfortunate that people are losing their jobs, but how many small, local operations have been put out of business by corporations like this? I think maybe they're all starting to learn that America is re-thinking the notion of its divine right to unchecked consumption and gluttony. As for the soon-to-be­-out-of-wo­rk Starbucks employees, hell, they can always go work at Wal-mart.
I never went to Starbucks, anyway. For the price of two cups of their coffee, I can get a decent bag o' beans at my local grocery for home brewing, which will last me several weeks. Just like Krispy Kreme, Starbucks is way overrated.

[thebeerdoctor]

The Starbucks saga is a little reminder that the omnipotent corporation can sometimes be revealed to be a paper tiger. It reminds me of another corporate melodrama: the InBev take over bid for Anheuser-Busch. What is A-B's plan to stop the takeover? Cut a thousand jobs and raise the price of their beer. Talk about shareholder value...

[watchingthings]

....underp­erforming? Could it be that what's left of the middleclass can no longer afford to stop in at Starbucks?

[Raymondf]

Good I hope they close the one in our town, that just opened about a year ago, the coffee is lousy, and I need 4.00 gas, not 4.00 lousy coffee. We can by 3lb. cans of coffee here in my town for 6.00 why should I pay 4.00 for 1 cup of lousy coffee.

[FlippyO]

Is someone forcing you to go to Starbucks to buy coffee? If so, maybe you should call the police.

[NTO08]

So said the Starbucks jockey, or maybe lackey?...­you kind of give yourself away, you know?

[tombollocks]

Sounds like Raymond has his priorities right. I grind my own every morning. Its organic and local. No lines or chatter. Just a peaceful, easy wake-up for me.

[collprof]

Well there goes George Lopez's schtick on Sodoku and Starbucks.­..It was good for a laugh as was a mocha, chocha, double foam latte for $7.00.....

[NTO08]

When they started showing up on every street corner, you knew they were doomed.

[BabsfromKS]

And in the Safe way and Tar get stores

[Snerdgronk]

Periodically when at Starbucks and when waiting on the production end with everyone else for a specialty coffee, I'll get asked, "Did you order the Low-Fat, blah, da blah, da blah ..."

I always reply, "No! I ordered the Extra Fat ..." The reactions are diverse ... and anywayz, I still think it's funny.

Snerd

[AlmostLiberal]

Word to Snerd:

You're not as funny as you think you are.

[Myshkin57]

Proof that too many middle schoolers are going to Starbuck's.