Word of Starbucks cafe closures is rippling across Southern California, with social media posts and letters in café doorways alerting customers that their coffee stop is soon to be no more.
At least 69 locations in the region were marked for closure in a crowd-funded Google sheet. Dozens of Starbucks shops are closing in Los Angeles County, while at least 10 will shutter in Orange County and another eight the Inland Empire.
The Seattle coffee chain announced Thursday that it was closing hundreds of stores nationwide in a $1 billion restructuring plan under its Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol, the former CEO of Chipotle and an Orange County resident brought in a year ago.
“Each year, we open and close coffeehouses for a variety of reasons, from financial performance to lease expirations,” Niccol wrote to employees on Thursday. “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.”
Notices posted Friday on café doors indicated that stores would serve their last Frappuccinos and pumpkin spice lattes on Saturday, Sept. 27.
“We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to close this Starbucks location by the end of this week,” the notice reads. “We know this will be hard to hear because this isn’t just any store. It’s your coffeehouse, a place woven into your daily rhythm, where memories were made.”
It also encourages customers to visit another Starbucks location. “Thank you for being part of our story. We look forward to seeing you again soon.”
One of the first Southern California cafes to announce its closure is in Old Towne Orange’s historic plaza. The Instagram page for the café posted the news Thursday:
“Hi, my favorite people, I just want to come on here and make an announcement that our store will be shutting down permanently on Sunday 9/28,” wrote olplazasbux. “Will be open all day Saturday the 27th if you want to stop by and say your goodbyes. We would love to see you.
“Thank you all for being such amazing people, customers, and friends,” the post continued. “We love you all so much and appreciate you supporting us through all of these years. We just got this news, so there are many questions that we still have, so bear with us if we can’t answer all of your questions.”
The Old Towne Starbucks opened in 2007, taking the place of a Dietrich’s coffee shop after the Irvine-based coffee roaster sold its retail stores to the Seattle coffee giant. The café at 44 Plaza Square was one of two Starbucks at the traffic circle. The second opened inside the Wells Fargo bank lobby on the opposite side. It closed in 2019.
Other closures were noted on social media in Hermosa Beach (1303 Hermosa Ave.), and Brea (1080 E. Imperial Ave.)
A publicly-sourced Google sheet showed at least 69 cafe closures in Southern California.
Niccol said in a letter to employees that a review of the company’s stores identified locations where the company doesn’t see a path to financial stability or isn’t able to create the physical environment customers expect, according to The Associated Press.
Retail analysts on Thursday said they expected closures to hit 500 U.S. and Canadian stores. As of Friday, one TV media outlet reported at least 28 stores closing in the greater Los Angeles region — 32 statewide.
Starbucks is suffering from declining sales, attributed to operational inefficiencies like long wait times for drinks, complex menus, high prices and increased competition, plus unionization efforts since the early days of the pandemic in 2021. A year ago, Niccol was brought in with the mission of turning around the chain.
A spokesman for Starbucks Workers United, a union which represents 12,000 baristas across 45 states, referred questions about the store closings to the coffee chain for a “fuller picture and confirmation on any store closures.”
He provided a statement saying the union has sent a formal request for information to Starbucks about the planned closures. “We expect to engage in effects bargaining for every impacted union store, as we have done elsewhere, so workers can be placed in another Starbucks store according to their preferences,” according to the statement.
“Fixing what’s broken at Starbucks isn’t possible without centering the people who engage with the company’s customers day in and day out,” the union said. “Starbucks is talking a big game about cost-cutting, but at the same time paid Brian Niccol $98 million last year and spent over $80 million on a glitzy managers-only conference in Las Vegas this June.”
If your Starbucks is closing, please let us know by emailing the store address and any thoughts you have about the closure to Samantha Gowen at [email protected] and Pat Maio at [email protected].