Just when you think things can’t get any worse for Starbucks. The Seattle-base cafe giant is about to get a little smaller.
The chain announced plans to close 600 domestic stores over the next several months. The news is surprising, given the fact that Starbucks said earlier this year that it only planned to close 100 stores. But, Tuesday, Starbucks said “rigorous evaluation” of company-operated cafes has forced them to add 500 more units to its shutdown list.
“The stores identified for closure are spread across all major U.S. markets with approximately 70 percent of them opened since the beginning of fiscal 2006,” the company said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.
During a conference call, Starbucks said cafes targeted for closure have another Starbucks within “close proximity.”
That would make a number of Orange County cafes a target — including more than a dozen former Diedrich Coffee shops converted to Starbucks. Those stores were sold off by Irvine-based Diedrich Coffee because they were underperforming. Most of the 17 units were converted to Starbucks cafes in 2007. (For a list, CLICK HERE)
On Tuesday, Starbucks said stores slated for closure will be ones that are not providing “acceptable returns in the foreseeable future.”
*Starbucks declined to provide more information about the locations of store closures.
“Store closures will begin in July 2008 and continue through March 2009. Individual stores will be notified by their district manager and/or regional director approximately 30 days prior to the anticipated closure date. Details for specific locations are still being finalized. Out of respect and dignity for our partners, and our desire to share this information with impacted partners first, we are not publishing a full list of the stores,” the company told the Orange County Register Tuesday after inquiring about the notification process.
Starbucks also said it would open fewer than 200 new U.S. company-operated stores in fiscal 2009. The company said it would try to relocate cafe workers affected by the mass closures.
Stay tuned for more details.
*additional comment from Starbucks added at 3 p.m. Pacific time.
Related stories:
- Starbucks buys cafes from Diedrich Coffee
- LIST: Other O.C. retail closures (OC RETAIL blog)
- Starbucks to offer free refills, other perks
- Starbucks eliminating 600 U.S. jobs (2/2008)
- Starbucks hires former executive to head global development
- Starbucks scraps breakfast sandwich program (2/08)
- Starbucks testing French-press inspired brew (2/08)
- Starbucks changes Wi-Fi provider (2/08)
- Starbucks to yank topless mermaid logo from cups
- How free wi-fi works at Starbucks
- Caffeine junkies: Starbucks to pour custom-made energy drinks in SoCal cafes
- Starbucks launching smoothie drink in Southern California
There are two Starbucks in the Orange Plaza, right across from each other. The first Starbucks is in the lobby of the Wells Fargo bank (and makes for a very weird setup in my opinion), and the second Starbucks is the old Deidrich’s, next to the cigar store. The Deidrich’s Starbucks is a more traditional cafe with a better vibe.
I’d bet a night at the Orange Street Fair that the Starbucks in the Wells Fargo will be closed.
Just thought of another pair of redundant OC Starbucks.
Anaheim, Katella Avenue at State College. There’s a Starbucks on the north side of the street that has been there for 10 years and is always very busy. (They just got totally remodeled with funky new interior and enough patio furniture to seat three sorority teas at the same time.)
Then about a block away there’s a newer Starbucks inside the newer strip mall next to Hooters. That strip mall can’t seem to keep many tenants, as the CPK Express only lasted there about six months. The Starbucks went in about 18 months ago, and now it is only open limited hours Monday through Friday. Yup, closed entirely on weekends all of a sudden. It’s a bigger store though, and you can tell they thought it would do just as much business as the older one a block away.
I’d bet a bucket of clams at Hooters that the Starbucks next door will be closed.
what’s wrong? nobody wants $4 coffee anymore?
the money trees have died (heloc’s)
back to reality.
I updated the post to include an additional comment from Starbucks…
Also, this from Reader Mark:
“There ARE TO MANY COFFEE SHOPS! People kid about Starbucks inside Starbucks but it is almost that bad and it was/is a fashion thing. Everybody who was trendy just had to wait in line to read their liberal SF and Seattle mags and pay through the nose for those frothy, calorie rich drinks. When the package was hot, management opened way too many stores but they sold franchises right, so what did they care. I have been in industries taking off and management kids itself. Everyone tells them, you are so smart! You are so wonderful! And they start to believe it. In the meantime every Tom Dick and Harry opened coffee shops and they all taste the same so when business crashed especially with all our mortgage and auto and construction and real estate people out of work; everyone ditched Starbucks to save their money for gas. Should not come as a surprise to anyone!”
This should not come as a surprise, I agree.
I’m sure it’s only the beginning.
LIST ANY CLOSURE TIPS HERE:
If you go to your local Starbucks, and hear that one is closing in Orange County, please list your tip here on this post, or email me at nluna@ocregister.com. Some stores may have already been notified.
Thanks, Nancy
What am I going to do w/o my daily crack?
haha too bad, so sad… I’ll be monitoring the ‘death list’ closely!!
I guess one could call this karma from the Diedrich’s buyout, at least as Starbucks relates to OC. I also love the 2007 article with the arrogant exec bragging about their future growth and how they ‘never’ do such things, like discount or give things away. well… I give you Starbucks Rewards. and I’ve seen freebies
I never could understand way anyone would pay so much for the worst coffee ever made.
learn to make your own, it’s not that hard and tastes better
I live in RSM and there are 7 Starbucks. There is even a Starbucks inside Vons Pavilions and a full store 200 feet away in the parking lot!
CLOSURE TIP:
Don’t go to a closed Starbuck’s.
oh and i am sure all pf those displaced teenagers will be going back to *gasp* fast food!!
You know, I’m a former Seattleite and I remember going to the Pike Place store in the 1970’s for a pound of coffee for a dinner party when the Orange County was still drinking Folgers. As such, I have a soft spot in my heart for Starbucks. (The original Sur La Table store was just around the corner in Seattle, and you used to be able to get amazing sandwiches there at their lunch counter when you picked up a bundle of cheesecloth or some such item for said dinner party.)
But I have to say that Starbucks got way too big, way too fast over the past 10 years. And the free standing kiosks in Vons and such are some of the worst offenders when it comes to the lowered standards and sloppy service of 21st century Starbucks. My Vons here in Orange has a Starbucks counter, and it’s uniformly dreadful. Sloppy service from sullen teens, served up with a messy presentation and no desire to put some thought into what they are making.
The Starbucks inside grocery stores need to go, and I hope many of them are part of the 600 closures.
It would be great if they got back to a format they had in the late 1980’s when they were in all the trendy and hip neighborhoods in Seattle and Portland, but hadn’t yet started spreading through the cookie cutter suburbs like mold.
The Coffee Bean is far more superior anyways!
I don’t visit Starbucks often, but no wonder the chick who made my coffee on Monday was so bitter… maybe her store is among the potential closures
The Simpsons poked fun at the abundance of Starbucks in the Springfield Mall years ago. Here in Lake Forest they outnumber almost everything except megachurch attendance and F-series trucks.
all starbucks is doing is rippingo off everybody with their horrible coffee that is grossly over priced.
in your face Starbucks….. Mc Coffee for 1/4 the price and 10 times better
Try the chocolate abuelita with coffee and cream. Its really good. Shave some on the top too. I prefer Pete’s coffee to starbucks anyway.
Great. Now I have to drive an extra .00025 mile to the next nearest Starbucks.
I can truthfully say that I have never been to a Starbucks.
Seems like the coffee shops serving the students at Chapman University are doing OK.
While Troy was drinking Starbucks coffee, we were drinking Diedrich’s and Coffee Grinder, not Folgers. Not to say that Starbucks espresso doesn’t taste good-it does-but their coffee always tasted burnt. If you’ve ever had freshly brewed Diedrich’s before they went corporate in the late 90s, you wonder what all the fuss was over the Starbucks coffee. Overpaying for burnt beans-what a great scam. And there were better places to get coffee in Seattle even when Starbucks was hip there, like the little indie coffee shops in Wallingford and Greenwood districts. I used to pick up a great latte at a little place after a run around Green Lake. You could rest a quarter on top of all that luscious foam.
But here’s to hoping that by cutting back on the number of stores, especially the crummy grocery store locations, that the quality of a Starbucks latte improves. Slopping warmed milk onto poorly pulled espresso is an injustice no one should have to pay $4 for. And their iced coffee is still the best scam they have going. A real coffee house pours the hot coffee over coffee ice cubes (made from the older brewed coffee). Doesn’t water down the drink. If anyone knows a place where you can get that, let me know. I tried it at SLO Perk in San Luis Obispo across from the mission, and you can get it in New York. S
tea leaf and coffee bean are much much better.
Starbuck’s always tastes burnt. It’s disgusting stuff. I, for one, think they are highly overrated and won’t missed the closed stores at all.
Has anyone tried Seattle’s Best? It’s not bad stuff for a coffee chain.
I’ve never liked Starbucks’ coffee. But their stores are really cool places to read the newspaper or use my laptop with a green tea and a Maple Oat Nut Scone. My favorite coffee is at the Dennys restaurants, the Pantry restaurant in Downtown L.A., and I used to really like McDonalds coffee before they changed it to taste more like Starbucks.
I guess I’m just a bumpkin. At least according to Troy. You seem to have a lot of disdain toward OC Troy, why do you live here? Unless I’m wrong and you’re not the same Troy who keeps posting highly opinionated things about OC on this blog, if so then I’m sorry and I stand corrected. But I drink Folgers at home. And why not? It’s cheap, taste just fine and gives you the pick up you get from any other coffee.
Colleen: Have you been to the Organic Bean in Tustin? It’s in Layfette Square on Newport and Old Irvine. You might like it. And don’t hold me to this but I think they use coffee ice cubes in their iced coffee.
Regards,
Nick
Sorry: It’s called The Lost Bean, not Organic Bean…
Oh, thank you for the tip Nick! I will have to try out the iced coffee at the Lost Bean. I went there once, but just had tea. I love the shakeratos at Kean. So refreshing. Bon Appetit had an article about this drink last summer.
I have spent many summers and several winters in Seattle. The whole reason for needing good coffee becomes apparent when it’s 33 degrees outside (the high for the day) and so damp the chill sets in your bones. Maybe Troy is just jealous that we can get Starbucks, Sur La Table, etc here and that they aren’t regional anymore.
If anyone wants excellent mail order coffee, try this place I stumbled across in an ad while waiting for my luggage at baggage claim in Kahului. Maui Coffee Roasters. They sell full 1-lb bags of beans, whole and ground, from the local islands and elsewhere and will ship via FedEx to your door. I love the Kauai Peaberry and the Nickybeans Kona. http://www.mauicoffeeroasters.com
Right on Colleen, thanks for that link. I do love Kona coffee when I want to splurge. I’ll check them out. And I’ve never been to Kean… is that the one started by the people who started Diedrich’s?
I hear you, I lived in Chicago for several years and it gets down right cold there. But Chicago is a different city than a coastal city and I don’t remember too many options when it comes to coffee. It could also be that I’m a dude and I’m pretty simple and working class so I’d usually just pick up a hot beverage at 7-11 or a place called White Hen when I lived in Chicago.
Anyway, I like Troy’s posts here. He’s at least entertaining. Just seems he isn’t too happy with OC. I could be wrong.
Thanks for your response and feedback.
Nick
They should close 7000 of them. Overpriced junk.
Denny’s coffe is way, way better, and more flavorful then Starbucks. Posers, liberals, trendy, those into labels and the materialistic go to Starbucks for their $4 cup of INFERIOR coffee…
See if I’m wrong….go to Denny’s one day and try their coffee…you will be surprised!
One more thing….the very best coffee I’ve ever tasted was “home treated”. Try this: Get a can of Folger’s ground, and spread it out on a cooky sheet. Place the cooky sheet on top of your frig and let it air out for several weeks. After about 3-4 weeks, use it as you normally would to make coffee. Your first sip will be exceedingly amazing to your tastebuds. I learned this tip while on a Mormon Mission in Pacioma, California back in 2003.
Hey Phil, I thought Mormons couldn’t drink coffee-especially missionaries!!!
I’m serious Stoked that you Starbucks freaks with your little laptops will have to find somewhere else to ponder and act important. I always hated the nerds that hungout after they got their coffee frappy wappy… SHOWER YOU WINE-O’s…..
Whether you like or dislike Starbucks coffee drinks is not important in this story. What is important is that the Executive Management Team has finally come to the realization that opening 1,000 new stores a year is less important than running a profitable business and its stock price.
Starbucks is an example of successful entrepreneurship that started with roasting coffee to their first retail stores in Seattle’s Pike Place Market and University Village to more than 10,000 stores today.
Starbucks has never been about the coffee it’s about creating a comfortable place to that people can meet and take a break from their frantic pace. Equally important to Starbucks’ founder Howard Schultz is the importance of being a good place to work that has a social conscious.
The economic effect of closing 600 stores means 6,000 to 8,000 store employees will be looking for jobs so they can continue to support their families. Most likely those new jobs will come without the health insurance Starbucks employees get as part of their employment package.
The good news is for the stockholders who will see the company’s bottom line go up by the elimination of these stores.