Starbucks has a bitter plan
By Scott Moritz
Starbucks (SBUX) can’t catch a break. The coffee retailer says it will close 600 stores, about 8.5% of its 7,100 total stores, an expansion of the 100-store closing target it had previously announced.
The Seattle coffee chain has been feeling the pinch of a tightening economy. In February, the company fired 600 employees and conducted a in-store retraining program to try and revive the Starbuck Experience, as CEO Howard Schultz has called it.
Starbucks says it is trying to cull unprofitable stores from the franchise and expects to book $200 million of asset write-offs in the third quarter related to the closings. Starbucks shares are down 40% over the past year.
