Starbucks is closing
500 stores and laying off 12,000 workers. This is not good.
The pullback is a sign that the Seattle-based coffee giant is continuing to see weak sales as high gas prices and other pressures on consumer spending prompt Americans to cut back on extras.
t also shows how badly the specialty-coffee business is struggling just as mainstream companies, such as fast-food giant McDonald's Corp., are beginning to invest heavily in it.
Starbucks said the 500 stores just slated for closure, as well as 100 others it announced plans to close earlier this year, will shut down in 2008 or early next year.
The company said it will eliminate as many as 12,000 full-time and part-time retail positions in connection with the closures; some baristas will get jobs at other stores. Starbucks said it had 172,000 employees as of last year, the latest count available.
With the rising cost of fuel, coffee will only get more expensive. If only we could grow fabulous coffee right here in the continental USA. But coffee plants require a tropical or subtropical climate to thrive: all coffee is grown between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. So Hawaii is the only place in the U.S. that grows coffee, although Puerto Rico is trying to get its coffee production going.
We love our daily latte, especially the iced lattes from either Starbucks or Seattle's Best (which is owned by Starbucks.)
And we feel bad for all the hard-working baristas who will lose their jobs at a company that gets consistently high marks as being one of the best U.S. companies to work for.
