Starbucks Closing About 400 Stores, Cutting 900 Jobs

Starbucks is closing about 1% of its North American stores—roughly 400 locations—and cutting about 900 non‑retail roles as part of CEO Brian Niccol’s $1 billion “Back to Starbucks” restructuring to refocus on its core coffeehouse model; the company expects to end the year with about 18,300 stores. Closures have appeared suddenly across many markets, with crowdsourced checks identifying multiple sites — including roughly 54 in New York City and 7–8 in Las Vegas — and a mix of pickup-only and small‑market locations. Starbucks says it is closing sites where it cannot create the expected physical environment or see a path to financial performance and is offering transfers, severance and benefits extensions to impacted partners. A reviewed severance document shows estimated pay of about 60 hours for baristas, 84 hours for shift supervisors and 30 hours for café attendants, with roughly 45 days to accept. Starbucks Workers United says 59 of the stores marked for closure are unionized and criticized the company’s handling; Starbucks says union status was not a factor and that it has reached agreements to support represented partners. The abrupt notices have drawn landlord and worker backlash, come after six consecutive quarters of sales declines, accompany ongoing labor disputes, and the company has not released an official full list of affected locations.