Starbucks closing stores and laying off hundreds of workers
FILE-A Starbucks Coffee store location is shown on Broadway Avenue in New York City. (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Starbucks is laying off roughly 900 non-retail employees and closing some store locations in the U.S. and Canada.
Company officials will inform workers whose positions are being terminated early Friday as it plans to close an undetermined number of U.S. stores in the coming days, according to the Associated Press.
Workers being laid off will be offered severance and support packages, Starbucks shared with the AP.
Starbucks CEO responds
What they're saying:
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol released a letter Thursday, obtained by the Associated Press, explaining that an assessment of Starbucks locations found that many of them were financially underperforming or weren’t creating an environment customers expect.
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In the letter Niccol added "Each year, we open and close coffeehouses for a variety of reasons, from financial performance to lease expirations," Niccol wrote. "This is a more significant action that we understand will impact partners and customers. Our coffeehouses are centers of the community, and closing any location is difficult."
Niccol joined Starbucks in 2024 to help bolster the brand. The company told the AP Thursday that it expects to end the year with 18,300 stores in the U.S. representing a slight decline compared to 2024.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Associated Press, which obtained a letter from the Starbucks CEO related to the store closings and layoffs. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.