Starbucks Closing 150 Locations: Are NC Stores At Risk?

CHARLOTTE, NC — Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee chain, announced late Tuesday it plans to close an estimated 150 locations 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.

The Charlotte metro area could be one of those "densely penetrated markets." As of October 2017, North Carolina had 338 Starbucks sites, or one shop for every 30,319 people, according to a study.

Starbucks on Tuesday said the anticipated 150 store closings is up from a historical average of 50 closings per year. The company expects same-store sales to grow just 1 percent in the next quarter.

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

"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 dozens in North Carolina, the afternoon of May 29 for racial bias training after the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia location.

Patch Editor Deb Belt contributed

Photo by David Allen/Patch