Starbucks Closing 150 Locations: Are New Jersey Stores At Risk?

NEW JERSEY — Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee chain, announced late Tuesday it plans to close an anticipated 150 locations by the end of 2019. And New Jersey could definitely be on the target list.

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.

New Jersey could be one of those "densely penetrated markets." As of October 2017, New Jersey was home to 261 Starbucks locations — about one Starbucks for every 34,467 people, according to a "Spoon University" study.

When asked about specific locations, Starbucks said in a statement: "Our store growth strategy will continue and remains consistent in FY19, with a focus in under-penetrated areas in the U.S."

Starbucks did say that, "as is the case in past evaluations, our partners (employees) will not lose their jobs as a result of these small closures."

“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 said it 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 closed 8,000 locations, including hundreds in Illinois, the afternoon of May 29 for racial bias training after the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia location.

Image via David Allen/Patch