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Starbucks has released the full list [pdf] of 600 “underperforming” locations nationwide that will close between now and mid-2009; 10 of them are in New York City, with the majority clustered in midtown, two in Queens, one on Staten Island and one in Bay Ridge. Which means we’re left with a scant 225 Starbucks citywide – so get out and support your local neighborhood Starbucks!
The closings will affect some 12,000 employees – er, partners – who have been gathered around the Starbucks Gossip blog to commiserate. Some comments are pretty depressing, like this reminiscence for beloved Starbucks #9930 in Fort Worth, Texas: “To touch on special relationships. This store is truly an example. Ralph, the manager, considers the partners and customers his family and it is a painful ‘separation.’” Pour a Grande out for poor Ralph. Other comments are depressing in a different way, like: “Every store has unique characteristics, many have something that make it special. I'm wondering what traditions are being lost in the stores that are closing?”
In a memo to employees last week, Starbucks C.E.O Howard Schultz explained the downsizing: "Poor real estate decisions that were made, coupled with a very troubled economy, convinced us that these stores would not reach acceptable levels of profitability." And no mention of Starbucks closures would be complete without reminding everyone that this is all just a normal part of Starbucks Phase Two. Read and weep or celebrate the full list of New York City Starbucks closures after the jump.
Brooklyn
BAY RIDGE: 8414 THIRD AVE 8414 3RD AVE BROOKLYN NY
Manhattan
1675 BROADWAY MANHATTAN NY
400 MADISON AVE NEW YORK NY
1600 BROADWAY NEW YORK NY
46TH & FIFTH AVE: 565 FIFTH AVE NEW YORK NY
MADISON & 44th: 340 MADISON AVE NEW YORK NY
MACY'S 5TH FLOOR: HERALD SQUARE 151 W 34TH ST NEW YORK NY
Queens
8989 UNION TURNPIKE GLENDALE NY
ATLAS PARK: 8000 COOPER AVE GLENDALE NY
Staten Island
FOREST PROMENADE: 1756 FOREST AVE STATEN ISLAND NY
Photo courtesy doyoulikehiphop.
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Are the people who work in the city stores able to just move to a different store? If not that's pretty shitty by Starbucks.
"I'm wondering what traditions are being lost in the stores that are closing?"
How does "nothing" sound?
It's fashionable to put this company down but it's entirely unfair.
Whenever I'm walking through Astor Place, I am reminded of Lewis Black's take on Starbucks: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z9iMgSNrwv4
I'm surprised about the Bay Ridge location closing considering 84th Street and 3rd Ave are high traffic locations. I guess people could always go to the two other locations on 3rd Ave.
Are the people who work in the city stores able to just move to a different store? If not that's pretty shitty by Starbucks.
They are closing stores. Of course a reduction in force goes with that. How is that shitty by them?
If Starbucks was smart, they'd make an effort to retain the best employees at the closing locations and get rid of the lousy employees at the locations that are staying open.
Interesting kind of situation these shut downs causes, or maybe implies. It looks like the employees have become really attached to their own stores and Starbucks as an organization, which I suppose is what Starbucks was going for in projecting itself as the good guys in the corporate world. Turns out they're just as corporate as any other corporation and their employees have taken a hit, and on top of it feel an emotional loss in addition to the loss of employment.
So what's better off? A corporation not making any bones about it being a corporation and only projecting itself as a business? Or this personal connection corporate world that makes its workers more attached to the company than the time old idea of the American corporate employee relationship as strictly business (cause it ain't personal, right?)
It's fashionable to put this company down but it's entirely unfair.
that's true. Walmart too.
Meanwhile, it's fashionable to love Apple, ignore the problems that its products have, its wasteful packaging, etc.
Take the new iphone. It's faster, yes, but that's more of a correction to a design flaw of the original than an upgrade. Same with the headphone jack. The black or white plastic back is a stepback in design from the original, not an improvement. The lower price isn't really lower, the difference is just distributed over higher monthly payments. But people still camped out overnight to get one. Go figure.
#8 eyekantspel, Wal-Mart has a well-documented history of exploitive labor abuses. The Apple Store doesn't. (Look it up on Google). I think you're talking about something else.
i'm glad there are less starbucks but it sucks that these people are now jobless.
Whoa, check out the list and look for nevada. A ton of Vegas locations are closing. It looks like starbucks closures and where the mortgage crisis has hit the worst correlate.
That's backup Starbucks (46 & Fifth) and second backup Starbucks (44 & Madison)! Primary Starbucks (42nd & Madison) is going to be hell now — it's the smallest of the three.
10 closures in NYC and an average of 20 employees per store for a total of about 200 people. If the other 225 SBUX in the city pick up ONE employee there wont be much job loss will there?
It sucks worse for those in Vegas, Florida and Cali where you can actually live on a SBUX salary and job losses are staring to mount in other industries. Just goes to show how wealthy, spoiled and plump we are here.
That specific one in Bay Ridge I just recently found after having lunch at Sofia's. The front of the store is a bit more subtle than most Starbucks and is by far one of the cleanest I've seen. It's a shame because I was going to start using that one as opposed to the other one on Third that is always messy and has this huge, unused space.
The biggest problem is once again apple doesn't make it easy for the customer to change the battery once it doesn't recharge anymore.
I've read that the big issue was real estate, that they overpaid for some locations, saddling the company with costly leases at a time when those trendlines are going to start dropping. Although in places like Vegas, I never see a lot of coffee drinking: drinking yes, but not coffee.
I'd love to see a mashup of Google maps and the list of locations closing.
i love how starbucks made up a city name called "manhattan." if some cubicle ape from starbucks reads this, "manhattan" is a borough, "new york" is a city.
peter @2, you're entirely correct.
You missed one of the other Queens locations on the list:
Douglaston Plaza
242-02 61st Ave.
@Anna Merkin: Someone did this. Maybe I saw it on Lifehacker? But it was for rumored closings -- maybe now they'll update it with the official list.
Hey, thats my photo! You got the credit wrong though, its doyoulikehiphop not peeperita.
i think we need more starbucks - like on the street corners - mobile units should be put out on the streets like ice cream trucks :)
When I read about Starbucks closing down stores today, I wasn't the least bit afraid of them filing for bankruptcy or closing down forever. I've been following the whole Starbucks ordeal on savvywallet.com. Even with the free iced coffee on Wednesday promotion, introduction of their fruity smoothies, and free wifi with gift card registrations. The only thing I'm worried about is not enough hotspots for wifi. There are several stores around my area that are closing down, and that's what I'm concerned about. I enjoy walking around the streets, plop down and always be able to find a signal because I know a Starbucks is near. The glory days are over.
The location closing in Bay Ridge is my local shop, and the place where I have a standing weekly meeting with nearly 10 other knitters. It's a nice location, different from the other Starbucks in Bay Ridge in that it's newer, has nice (non-plastic) furniture and a slightly more laid-back feel. I seems they do a pretty steady business, but there are at least 3 other Starbucks within a 10 block radius.
The "local" coffee shop across the street is considerably more expensive, and both the products and the service are sub-par. They also don't have the wi-fi option, and aren't always hospitable to larger groups.
I'm not the biggest fan of Starbucks' domination of the coffee market, but as their competition failed to prove itself to be a better option, I have no choice but to mourn this loss.