Even Starbucks Is Cutting Back
You may have to go a little further to get your Starbucks fix soon because the king of coffee chains will be shutting 600 stores in a financial pullback. The corporation announced it will also be opening fewer new stores than originally planned in the coming year.
About 70% of the stores going dark have been open fewer than three years. Starbucks has been in the forefront of exuberant chain store expansion and, as of filings last September, operated 6,793 stores in the United States. Some analysts have speculated that Starbucks saturated the market to the point where the newer stores were taking significant business away from the more established stores.
The closings will affect about 12,000 workers although the corporation said it will try to relocate many of the employees in existing stores. It is not yet known how many workers will eventually be laid off.
Apparently, the financial turmoil which is shaking up middle class households throughout the country has hit home for many of the loyal customers. One of the first items to be eliminated from the personal budget often is the daily trip to Starbucks.
The company will begin to close the 600 underperforming stores later this month.
