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Starbucks to Close 600 Stores. How Many in Tacoma
 by Erik on 7/1/2008 @ 9:12pm |
Today, the news media is reporting Starbucks closing 600 stores in the U.S.  Starbucks has announced it’s closing 600 underperforming stores in the United States. The Seattle premium coffee company also announced today it expects to open fewer than 200 new company operated stores in the United States in fiscal 2009. www.thenewstribune.com/news/updates/stor... Is this good or bad news for Tacoma? |
 by izenmania on 7/1/2008 @ 9:28pm | Bad news (assuming any of them are in T-town). Will business improve for local coffeeshops? A little. Maybe. Not enough to balance the jobs lost by people working for one of the better large-scale employers around (as far as treatment of their workers goes). It's not like these stores closing is going to open the door for new local shops: the point is that they are closing because they aren't profitable, and I think the odds that a local will suddenly open a shop and turn a profit where Starbucks failed are slim to none. |
 by NineInchNachos on 7/1/2008 @ 9:50pm | let me know if this helps
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 by Mofo from the Hood on 7/1/2008 @ 10:26pm | Yeah, sometimes a logo upgrade does help.
Thanks NIN. |
by Erik on 7/1/2008 @ 10:32pm | and I think the odds that a local will suddenly open a shop and turn a profit where Starbucks failed are slim to none.
Starbucks stores certainly bring in foot traffic. It would be interesting to see how they are doing relatively to other coffee shops. In Tacoma, the Starbucks seem to all do pretty well and do the lions share of the business. Hit hard by a slowing economy, Starbucks Corp. is closing 600 stores, or 8.5 percent of its U.S. company-operated portfolio, signaling an end to the Seattle company's U.S. boom, at least for now. 8.5 percent of the stores could mean one closure or more in Tacoma. |
by NineInchNachos on 7/2/2008 @ 11:16am | If there is one thing I like it's diversity. This development is a huge blow to THE CONSPIRACY and to greater MONO-CULTURE in general.
so my question is how do the independent coffee shops maintain their rugged individualism? One such coffee shop in the great liberal city of San Fransisco has started their own pirate radio station. How awesome is that? www.piratecatradio.com/ |
 by sillypunk on 7/2/2008 @ 1:44pm | one thing that was noticed (and pointed out by Izenmania) when we were over from London is the state of your downtown core. that is one quiet city centre you have there. have there been any recent plans to re-develop (I'm sure Izenmania has blogged about this too..)? if you guys are hard hit by the shrinking of starbucks profit margin, maybe channeling energy into the city centre will help alleviate some pains? but meh, that'll take some time. the thing that gets me is how awesome the transport in the centre is! i'd figure there'd be a lot of interest for business! |
by izenmania on 7/2/2008 @ 2:51pm | Oh, you don't even know the can of worms you are opening up by asking that question... |
by sillypunk on 7/2/2008 @ 3:02pm | hee hee. sorry? Shall I retreat back to my side of the atlantic? :p
Revitalization of mid-size cities in Ontario was such a hot topic when I was at Uni. If only I remembered what they were doing and if they succeeded... I know it takes a massive effort from business, community and goverment working in concert. Which is generally, freaking hard. Have there been many initiatives? How many have been tracked and followed through? Money offered by city hall and the like? (Maybe you can all point to some massive archive or something if I am just dredging up stuff you've all covered :p) |
 by fredo on 7/2/2008 @ 7:48pm | Redundancy is a pretty good business plan when you have a hot product coupled with a hot market. Starbucks product is not that hot and the market for expresso, as we all know, is cooling fast. The Starbucks clientele will now have to drive a couple blocks further for their fix. They're a well run company so when things stabilize we'll probably see some new Starbucks openings. |
by Erik on 7/30/2008 @ 4:41pm | More fallout: NEW YORK – Starbucks Corp., which already plans to shut 600 stores, said Tuesday that it is also cutting almost 1,000 office jobs as part of its bid to re-energize the brand and boost its profit. www.thenewstribune.com/1032/story/428282... How does one "re-energize the brand"? I guess we have to wait and see. |
by fredo on 7/30/2008 @ 5:26pm | Here's how Starbucks can re-energize their brand: Bikini Baristas |
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