Starbucks Closing 16 Stores Over Safety Concerns

Starbucks is closing 16 stores in five US cities in response to workers’ fears about crime and safety, including complaints about drug addicts congregating in bathrooms open to the general public in the company’s stores, according to a report in the Seattle Times.

Six of the store closings will be in Seattle, where the coffee-shop giant is headquartered, and another six will close in Los Angeles. Two stores are being shuttered in Portland, OR; Washington DC and Philadelphia will each lose a store.

Howard Schultz, the Starbucks founder and CEO, alluded to the pandemic’s impact on the company’s business model of coffee shops which encourage customers to hang out at their cafes.

“Like so much of the world right now, the Starbucks business as it is built today is not set up to fully satisfy the evolving behaviors, needs and expectations of our partners or customers,” Schultz said.

Schultz said that store managers now will be able to limit seating and close restrooms if they choose to. In the wake of mass shootings across the US this year, Starbucks baristas will be trained on what to do in an active-shooter situation.

Schulz told the NY Times last month that the company is considering ending the open-bathroom policy it adopted in 2018.

When two Black men were denied permission to use the bathroom in a Philadelphia Starbucks because they had not purchased anything—and then were arrested by police summoned by a store manager—Starbucks announced that “any customer is welcome to use Starbucks spaces, including our restrooms, cafes and patios, regardless of whether they make a purchase.”

Schultz told the NY Times that growing mental health problems in the US due to the pandemic are creating safety concerns at stores that necessitates a review of company policies.

“We have to harden our stores and provide safety for our people. I don’t know if we can keep our bathrooms open,” Schultz told the Times.

Safety concerns at its stores may also accelerate Starbucks’ introduction of its Starbucks Pickup concept of cashier-less small convenience outlets designed for customers who order using the app and then stop by to pick up their orders.

Starbucks joined forces with Amazon to launch two Starbucks Pickup locations with Amazon Go in NYC.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, two of the Seattle stores scheduled to be closed were outlets that voted to unionize, and a Portland store that will be shuttered had petitioned for a union vote.

More than 300 of Starbucks’ 9,000 US stores have filed to unionize, with the National Labor Relations Board recognizing 133 store unions that have been elected by Starbucks workers at those locations.

Starbucks said workers at the stores it is closing will be offered jobs at other Starbucks locations.