Starbucks Closing 150 Locations: Are CA Stores At Risk?

CALIFORNIA – Starbucks announced late Tuesday it plans to close an anticipated 150 stores by the end of 2019. While the company has not yet said which locations will close, a notice to investors said the closures will affect "underperforming company-operated stores in its most densely penetrated markets" in urban areas.

Starbucks has more than 28,000 stores in 77 markets. In 2017, there were 2,821 Starbucks locations in California, according to Spoon University. (We'll let you know what locations are closing when it's announced.)

The anticipated 150 store closings is up from a historical average of 50 closings per year, according to Starbucks. The coffee chain expects same-store sales to grow just 1 percent in the next quarter.

"Our recent performance does not reflect the potential of our exceptional brand and is not acceptable," Kevin Johnson, Starbucks president and CEO, said in a statement.

"We must move faster to address the more rapidly changing preferences and needs of our customers. Over the past year we have taken several actions to streamline the company, positioning us to increase our innovation agility as an organization and enhance focus on our core value drivers which serve as the foundation to re-accelerate growth and create long-term shareholder value."

Starbucks is "optimizing its U.S. store portfolio at a more rapid pace" in fiscal year 2019, " including shifting new company-operated store growth to under-penetrated markets, slowing licensed store growth" and closing the 150 underperforming stores.

Starbucks temporarily closed 8,000 locations, including in California, the afternoon of May 29 to offer about 175,000 employees racial bias training after the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia location.

ALSO SEE: Coffee Break: Starbucks To Close Stores For Racial Bias Training

By Mike Carraggi/Patch; Kristina Houck/Patch contributed to this report.

Image by David Allen/Patch