Starbucks to close 500 stores and layoff 900 employees

That's like 1% of their stores.

Didn’t this happen around 2008 when the economy went to shit?

Meanwhile how many millions was the CEO’s last raise?

[quote]Didn’t this happen around 2008 when the economy went to shit?

Well people aren't going to pay $10 for a diabeetus frappe when the economy is going in the tank.

I was at one yesterday and there was a huge hiring event.

I want them out of business worldwide.

NOOOOOOOOOO!

During the boom times.

People are on Wegovy now and don't want to drink a 500 calorie sugar bomb.

What happened? I never go because…well a hundred reasons, but I thought everybody else loved this place.

They’re also selling off their stores in China.

The quality of the drinks is suffering due to the ridiculous requirement for their employees to write messages and draw pictures on the coffee cups.

"Well people aren't going to pay $10 for a diabeetus frappe when the economy is going in the tank."

People aren't going to pay $6.00 for a cup of coffee that they can get at Wawa or Dunkin' for less than 1/2 the price, regardless of economic conditions.

They decided to remove DEI and this is what happened. Fuck around and find out.

More than half of their stores closed in downtown Toronto over the past 3-4 years.

Meh.... Who cares. Overpriced coffee and over "woke' staff. I'll take my business to Dunkin or Horton's.

They have way too many stores, even after closing a lot of them down. I worked in Union Square in San Francisco before Covid, and there were at least 7 Starbucks locations within a 3 minute walk from my office.

There are currently 5 Starbucks locations within a quarter mile of my house, not counting the 2 locations inside the Target and Safeway nearby.

In related news, non-binary unemployment rate to hit new peak.

A woman drove her car right through the front doors of the Starbucks by me. I found it hilarious for some reason.

Maybe Starbucks can pair up with Ozempic or Wegovy and create a specialty drink that actually makes you shed pounds ?

It’s called get a cafe misto and don’t add sugar.

I haven't been in a Starbucks in years. Shitty coffee and dirty stores. Gurl, bye.

[quote]There are currently 5 Starbucks locations within a quarter mile of my house, not counting the 2 locations inside the Target and Safeway nearby.

What neighborhood do you live in?

I'm not a coffee drinker, but I always see a line at the Starbucks drive-thru near me.

So, instead of there being 4 Starbucks on every damn block, there will only be 3.

I live in Daly City r28.

Is Starbucks over?

R26, do you live in Daly City or San Francisco? It has to be one of the two.

I live in Daly City, worked un San Francisco.

shucks

I just made a pitcher of 1/2 mint coffee and 1/2 chocolate milk. Should last me a week.

How absolutely ghastly! It's such an authentic and quality product.

Hadn't been to Starbucks in years but on a recent miserably humid day in NYC I stopped in for a venti ice tea. $6. Six fucking dollars. Never again.

I Keurig their Orange/Brown Sugar breakfast blend at home—much better than the bitter gasoline their store coffee brews all seem to taste like.

But surely not before Pumpkin Spice October?

[quote] How absolutely ghastly! It's such an authentic and quality product.

I don’t understand why people like, say, Anna Wintour, Need Their Starbucks.

Wouldn’t a cosmopolitan fashionista want espresso from a very specific Italian cafe? But no, it’s the McDonalds of coffee for her.

Agreed R36 - I always assumed that the Starbucks references in "The Devil Wears Prada" were product placements, like all the Apple Macs randomly scattered around.

And 9000 homeless just lost their bath and shower.

R36 you talking bout a bitch who been rocking the same Bob for the past 40 years. She is what I call avant garde basic bitch.

They'll close all the ones in Safeway 1st..... Such a weird collab.........

It had its prime time. It was a long and prosperous run for quite a while. And it's still going to continue - stores will still still be all the fuck over the place and many people still like their products. But, understandably, it's hard to keep on growing and get new people and entire new generations excited. It was never my go-to coffee place, but it was certainly a chain that became a part of the culture - for better or worse.

Oh thank heaven for seven eleven!

They had opened cafes in a local chain of supermarkets in my area. They used to be open from 7 am - 7 pm every day inside the market (market was open until midnight every day). I noticed early this summer they started closing down around 12 pm every day. There was a sign on their counter saying they would resume 'normal hours of 7 -7' on Labor Day weekend. That was three weeks ago, and nothing has changed. I have a feeling these locations will be shuttered by the end of the month.

Cost of living, isn’t it.

I purchased a travel mug and use it for French press coffee which I make it home. I’m not spending $5-9 hot beverages in this economy.

The trouble with the world today, it seems to me, is coffee in a cardboard cup.

Never understood the appeal. Very expensive and overly strong, bitter brew.

Horrible company, terrible to workers. I haven't set foot in one in over a decade. I hope they go bankrupt.

Did they hire you, R5?

I like burnt coffee with half n half. Just the right amount of bite.

I could tolerate it, but as a black coffee drinker, I never actually wanted it. First, I didn't really like the roasts, though, again, I could drink it in a pinch. Second, it just wasn't worth the drive thrus or the waiting when just getting black coffee. It's not like I had some preferred coffee drink concoction and a certain store knew just how I liked it. I guess, third, I never got into coffee shop culture, so it wasn't a place I'd go to work or just hang.

Are they still in Target and Barnes and Noble?

They just built a new stand-alone one near me.

Their coffee has a horrible aftertaste. What is it?

I have 7 within 1.5 miles of me, 5 regular and 2 inside Target/Vons.

Only thing I really liked there was the black Iced Tea. But like R33, I give up once it hit $5. $5 for fucking iced tea? Having worked my whole life in the restaurant industry, I know that brewed iced tea was the #1 margin product we sold. We joked that even the lemon wedge cost more than the tea itself. $5? It’s been a couple of years since I went to a Starbucks.

[quote] Their coffee has a horrible aftertaste. What is it?

They burn the beans. They trained people to think a very dark roast is a sign of quality. In fact, it makes the quality of the coffee irrelevant because past a certain point the flavors from burning dominate the other flavors.

Breakfast for me and my daughter at Starbucks total almost $50! The last few times I went there, there were hardly any vehicles in the lot or drive thru. Before, the line of cars would spill into the street.

After reading this I decided to stop by the Starbucks closest to my house. There is a sign on the door stating they are closing for good on Sunday.

So I guess there will be one less location in Daly City.

They are a large employer of trannies. I’m sure they are losing money on their insurance plans paying out for surgeries and hormones.

[Quote] They decided to remove DEI and this is what happened. Fuck around and find out.

Yet Target lives and is opening more stores

R59 Target has been struggling mightily this year. Lots of articles on this in the press.

Best news all week. Shitty overpriced coffee. I pray this is the beginning of the end of cafe chains. Could they please start with the Starbucks drive-thrus? For the life of me I don't understand people sitting in their cars for 30 minutes, engines on polluting our cities, waiting for a friggin' cup of coffee.

Yummy!

Dutch Bros. is kicking their ass in some areas. Phoenix specifically.

They have plenty of room for expansion. How many GAP Stores have a Starbucks inside?

Do I sense a bout of union-busting?

Pre-Covid I used to stop every day for a grande black coffee on the way to work. It was around $2.50, or approximately $50 per month. Working from home showed me I could make a pot of coffee for peanuts and I take my own coffee with me now. I was curious how much a cup is now and the online menu I found had that same cup is now $3.97! I’d be spending $80 if I had kept that habit. A month of home brewed coffee costs me maybe $20 now.

The drive thru sitters r61 always perplexed me. They’d wrap around the building every morning. I’d just park and hop in the place, order at the counter and come out in no time at all while the drive through had advanced maybe a car length. How do these people have that much time to waste sitting in a drive thru.

Do they sell anything that doesn't taste horrid? From the acrid unsweetened coffees to the super sweet dessert drink to the doughy pastries and sandwiches. Every single location has a trademark stale, acrid stench.

R19, was she related to Aunt Diane?

Their coffee is awful and their breakfast sandwiches aren't even Bob Evans quality. And it's way overpriced. I hope they go bankrupt.

Support your local coffee shops instead.

R69, and the ambience is so corporate, cookie-cutter, and sterile. I'm shocked that people like 'working' there.

Just like craft beer, coffee over a relatively short period of time improved dramatically in America - both quality and options. Even in middle America, most people have several options for coffee ranging from decent to great - from certain convenience stores and gas stations, to actual coffee chains, to coffee at some non-coffee food chains, to local and independent coffee shops. Not to mention all the ways to make good to great coffee at home. And people are aware of this and will expand and contract spending on coffee based on their personal financial situation. The market is saturated and mature, so this doesn't surprise me.

If they want to streamline, close stores, but the ones which remain open have them stay open longer. It’s really the only place in my suburb where one can sit and chat, grab a snack without going to a bar or restaurant. They used to stay open to 10 or 11. Now most close at 6:30-7 and the latest is 8. No Denny’s or the like, so Starbucks is the go to for me.

Agreed, R72. Gabbing over coffee is a true, adult non-alcohol option for getting out and chatting. I know, I know, it's ridiculous, you don't "need" anything to talk to other people. Yet, some sort of drink is often nice, and if you don't want to "drink, drink," coffee/tea is great.

I wouldn't miss them. I know of two, unless I count the one inside the bookstore at the mall.

One is in Hyannis. The other one, and the only one I've ever been to, on the corner or Charles and Beacon in Boston.

The one time I've been it was full of impatient people, each of whom was holding an anxious small dog.

[QUOTE]Do I sense a bout of union-busting?

Yeah, I came to post that of the six in my area slated for closure, the employees of one had voted to unionize. I don't know how many store tried to unionize.

I became enraged when my Starbucks stopped pouring a simple drip coffee at the register and instead send you into the “queue” to wait for a dozen or more ridiculously pompous “drinks” to be prepared before someone can tackle the complicated task of my black drip coffee. Fuck you Starbucks, and your lazy cashiers. No, I’m not “adding a tip”. No wonder the employees need to unionize.

I never "fit-in" to Starbucks culture.

I consider frappe, latte, non-dairy milk, oat milk; all assorted variations of whatever a complicated order I'm supposed to utter to a barista obstructors to mainlining that powerful, efficient carrier of caffeine - hot, black coffee, straight up.

Among the few times I made an emergency purchase at Starbucks, it was because there was one in my hotel lobby, and my room was insufficiently stocked with coffee pouches for the little coffee maker.

To be fair, though, when on a road trip, a relative recommended I purchase one of their bottles of "Cold Brew" Black coffee from the truck-stop refrigerator.

That was very good but haven't had one since.

[quote]Pre-Covid I used to stop every day for a grande black coffee on the way to work. It was around $2.50, or approximately $50 per month. Working from home showed me I could make a pot of coffee for peanuts and I take my own coffee with me now

It took working from home for you to figure that out R66? What a revelation!

They've also killed the whole experience by catering too much to delivery orders, to the extent that they removed seating areas where you could meet up with friends for coffee. Most of their stores now feature stools and countertops to sit at individually. Basically it's "Please pay for your coffee, get out and come again!"

I'm a DL outlier because I like Starbucks. Quality is consistent and opens at 5 a.m. most days (I'm an early riser). When I'm on biz travel I always can count of it. I mostly make coffee at home but like that I can always find a store nearby no matter where I am. Plus, they seem to treat their employees OK - give insurance, etc.

Another tidbit… I now actively avoid Courtyard hotels since they converted their breakfast “offerings” into a Starbucks outlet. I just want a pot of hot coffee sitting on a table for self service. No. Now you have to wait in line behind every putz debating what they want for breakfast and out doing their pompousness on the coffee orders. And I get to pay over $5 for the privilege. Please tip!

Most of them seem dirty and crowded. The feel you got of a relaxing old school coffee house and a high quality product worth the price I think is gone.

Yeah, the phone orders really slow things down because they do those orders first. So it could not look crowded in the lobby but have a ton of pickup orders to do.

I don’t know why anyone would wait in a line at Starbucks. Order ahead on the app, and your order is ready when you get there. Even the airport locations have mobile ordering now.

I like an Americano and the Impossible Breakfast Sandwich for a quick breakfast when I’m on the road. Costs about ten bucks.

China's Luckin Coffee has had a strange journey but is trying expansion with two shops now open in NY.

Great now people can save $25 a day.