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Starbucks to Close 434 Stores in North America This Quarter
In a significant move, Starbucks recently disclosed plans to shutter approximately 1% of its North American stores by the close of the current quarter, thereby concluding the fiscal year with an estimated 18,300 locations operational across the U.S. and Canada.
To put this into context, the total number of store closures amounts to 434 between the end of Q3 and the close of Q4, marking a notable 2.3% decrease in Starbucks’ North American cafe count in a single quarter. This figure, while surprising, reflects a net figure that considers about 200 new store openings in early 2025. Taken as a whole, the net closure for the fiscal year is projected at 227 stores, equating to roughly 1.2% of its North American outlets.
Starbucks has yet to provide a comprehensive list of the closing locations, leaving ambiguity around the impact on unionized stores involved in this decision.
In a statement, the Workers United union expressed their concerns: “Workers United is sending a formal request for information to Starbucks about the planned closures. We expect to engage in effects bargaining for every impacted union store, as we have done elsewhere, so workers can be placed in another Starbucks store according to their preferences. … Starbucks seems to be prioritizing cost-cutting, yet they compensated Brian Niccol a staggering $98 million last year and recently spent over $80 million on an extravagant managers-only conference in Las Vegas this June.”
Baristas, now former employees, have begun sharing their stories on Reddit, with one user alleging that amid store closures, more employees were let go than were successfully transferred to new locations.
A crowd-sourced Google spreadsheet circulating online indicates that at least 150 of the closures, approximately 35%, are situated in California, a state with the highest minimum wage for quick-service employees at $20 per hour. Furthermore, 41 of the closures are reported in New York, and another 18 in Oregon. Many of these closures have been verified by Google and Yelp, which denote these locations as permanently shut down.
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