digg

Join DiggAbout

Donkeys and Elephants and Delegates,oh my!
Check out the most popular Elections 2008 content on Digg.

Starbucks to cut up to 12,000 jobs, close 600 stores

reuters.com — By Lisa Baertlein LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp said on Tuesday it plans to close 600 underperforming stores and eliminate as many as 12,000 full- and part-time positions, lifting shares nearly 6 percent. The company, which has been...

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • skipthefrog, on 07/02/2008, -1/+35Gone are the days when you can find two Starbucks on the same block... tsk tsk.
    • Buckeye17, on 07/02/2008, -1/+2It should be known that Starbucks was planning on closing stores before all the gas price riff raff began.
      • SkippyDoorknob, on 07/02/2008, -0/+3They were originally going to cut only 100 stores. The news they released yesterday bumped this to 600. But yeah, it's hard to say for sure how much, if any, the gas prices figured into this. Most likely just too rapid of growth in a slow economy.
    • alex7575, on 07/02/2008, -0/+9What? A Starbucks on every corner (literally), is not a sound business plan?
    • mayhemchaos, on 07/02/2008, -0/+6same block? In Houston (galleria) there's 3 on the same corner (one in the galleria) 2 across the street from one another.
      • TheKingInYellow, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1there used to be two across the street at shepherd and west gray...now one is a bank or something. when they were both starbucks i thought my head was about to explode.
    • AndreiOttawa, on 07/02/2008, -0/+6Remember a routine by Lewis Black about Starbucks across from Starbucks?
      • popfrogs, on 07/02/2008, -4/+1No but I remember this same story hitting the front page yesterday. Buried as a dupe.
      • dancousar, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1This routine is actually talking about Houston. On West Gray there is a Starbucks across the street from another. As Mayhemchaos has said there is also three in the galleria, one on the street corner, one actually located in the mall, and one in the Barnes and Noble on the other street corner. Pretty ridiculous.
    • Versh, on 07/02/2008, -0/+2Also gone is the future scenarios in the movie Idiocracy...
  • theeandrew, on 07/02/2008, -2/+14I read that Starbucks is being hit not just by the general economic downturn, but by gas prices specifically. Something like 25% of consumers say they aren't going to Starbucks anymore because the drive is too expensive.
    • BoonTobias, on 07/02/2008, -0/+7the 4.50 is for gas now i guess
      • CedEx, on 07/02/2008, -1/+2$4.50 for a gallon, or $4.50 for a cup...

        Decisions decisions decisions...
    • ByrcheWroot, on 07/02/2008, -0/+33"because the drive is too expensive"

      And the coffee wasn't? 0_o
    • Chicken, on 07/02/2008, -1/+11The drive? Starbucks is everywhere.
    • Jess2mix, on 07/02/2008, -1/+6I've never been in a city where a Starbucks wasn't within walking distance.
      • shadowfoxmi, on 07/02/2008, -2/+5what about Detroit?

        there is a good chance you might get shot trying to walk around.
  • Thrilltone, on 07/02/2008, -3/+35When people lose their disposable income, they start looking for less expensive options. They can't find cheaper gas. They can't find cheaper milk. Their rent isn't going down. They CAN find cheaper coffee. Much cheaper. Luxuries like Starbucks are gonna see business cut in half almost instantly. It will just get worse from there.
    They are doomed.
    I also sell a small luxury item and it's like somebody turned off a faucet.
    • TomK88, on 07/02/2008, -1/+12The economy will rebound, I wouldn't start panicking just yet.
      • slogged, on 07/02/2008, -1/+7I love the optimism coming from the Canadian ;)
      • TomK88, on 07/02/2008, -1/+9You're right, the economy will probably collapse and everybody will starve to death.

        The US isn't even in a recession yet. The economy is cyclical, it goes up and down. Right now, the economy is slowing down a bit after nearly a decade of big-time growth.
      • nycmac247, on 07/02/2008, -2/+1???

        http://www.relfe.com/derivatives.html


      • ekidz220, on 07/02/2008, -4/+2i guess we should go to war with Iran right now.
      • regeya, on 07/02/2008, -2/+3Not war, ekidz220! Liberate! We're gonna LIBERATE the ***** out of them ragheads!

        (I never refer to anyone from the Middle East as a 'raghead' except in poor attempts at humor.)
      • mk3k, on 07/02/2008, -1/+0@regeya
        I only beat my wife that once and that was a joke.
        I prefer sandN*gg*r. I say it all the time.
        Watch the burying commence!
    • Buckeye17, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1They were planning on shutting stores before the gas price crap.
    • mk3k, on 07/02/2008, -0/+3Weed?
      • wanderingsun, on 07/02/2008, -0/+8I don't care if there's a recession - I'll sell my car and walk everywhere before I give up my smoke.
      • ncnavguy, on 07/02/2008, -1/+4Weed is reccession proof kinda like booze where back in the day. When people get depressed they want to escape their current situation so instead of paying for a trip out to the beach they smoke a blount and mentally travel.
      • Thrilltone, on 07/02/2008, -0/+4I said "luxury item", not "necessity"
    • websyndicate, on 07/02/2008, -3/+1ALL great civilizations have fallen at one point what make you think the US wont.
      • mk3k, on 07/02/2008, -0/+0You make me think it will, learn the language.
    • ismschisms, on 07/02/2008, -0/+2Weed sales unaffected.
  • THEROC, on 07/02/2008, -4/+28in other news: catfood sales have gone up by 600%
    • erichw1504, on 07/02/2008, -1/+6in other news: rich people start getting more sleep
  • StingingNettle, on 07/02/2008, -3/+58So they closed down a 6 block area?
  • MikeSetera, on 07/02/2008, -7/+21http://digg.com/business_finance/BREAKING_Starbuck ...

    already fp'd
    • DefaultGen, on 07/02/2008, -3/+5That one sucks ass.
    • SkippyDoorknob, on 07/02/2008, -3/+11If Starbucks can have multiple stores on one block, then Digg can have multiple front page stories about them closing stores.
    • PuyoDead, on 07/02/2008, -0/+2BREAKING! This was on the front page under a ridiculous title.
    • kevinwiz, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1Ya but I buried that one for "breaking." I digg this one.
  • bosssmiley, on 07/02/2008, -8/+27Oh great. Swarms of mangy unemployed Barristas stalking the streets, rooting through garbage, leaving dead birds on your doorstep and trying to mate with your domesticated hipster. We should have made sure the filthy things were spayed or neutered when we had the chance.
  • Maverick0420, on 07/02/2008, -3/+4i guess that means they are stopping the work on the starbucks they are building in the apartment below and next to mine.
  • slogged, on 07/02/2008, -3/+27Wonder what this will do to Apple's stock.
    • Trifold, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1I think they'll manage.
    • blackjack75, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1Apple's stock won't care about the loss of these 12'000 jobs. The one other Jobs on the other hand...
  • eryximachus, on 07/02/2008, -2/+11Perhaps Americans will now need to consume fewer anti-anxiety medications?
  • silver26, on 07/02/2008, -9/+4Capitalism != fun
  • Solid07, on 07/02/2008, -10/+5Yep. Middle class gets punished for stupid mistakes the elites have made. What a great world we're living in today. :)
    • Narcism, on 07/02/2008, -0/+14Am I feeling bad for the pompous university students who work there, the yuppies who go there with their macs or the people who'll have to travel an extra 200meters for 5$ coffee?
      • cubicledrone, on 07/02/2008, -0/+112,000 formerly employed people is always better for the economy, right?
      • Narcism, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1They were addressed in my comment. Read carefully.
  • TomT223, on 07/02/2008, -2/+28600 fewer stores? I'll bet most people won't even notice.
    • Pricebreak, on 07/02/2008, -0/+7Yes they will, because that would mean they would have to walk a whole 2ft extra just to get to the next one.
    • twrife, on 07/03/2008, -0/+212,000 people will notice.
  • ddawggin, on 07/02/2008, -5/+12But wait, I thought they just closed 600 stores yesterday as well? That's like twelveteen hundred stores in two days! AHHHH
  • j0hnk377y, on 07/02/2008, -1/+7Please give me more financial analysis done by art and communication majors....
  • neferiousrich, on 07/02/2008, -1/+40Starbucks puts a coffee shop in every corner: People complain.
    Starbucks shuts down a bunch of its shops: People complain.
    • cubicledrone, on 07/02/2008, -3/+1Well, see, Starbucks could have afforded to pay their employees better, therefore raising the standard of living for them and possibly millions of other people. Instead they chose to piss money down a hole opening new stores. They have known the new stores were competing with their old stores and hurting sales for five years now. But they kept right on opening new ones.

      Now, they are closing all those shiny new stores, and those employees that should have gotten raises are being fired. And the people who made the decisions are all going to get bonuses and raises. The economy takes another kick to the crotch, and people get more depressed about things.

      They don't have to fire all those people, but they will. No matter how cruel, layoffs can always be justified, because they are America's number one product.
  • handler, on 07/02/2008, -6/+4Stop posting this article. Who cares! Maybe they should charge less than $5 for a latte. When gas prices are a record high, expensive coffee is the first to go. Thats only like 1% of there total stores anyway.
  • krisscofield, on 07/02/2008, -2/+10600 stores, eh? I live near 5 Starbucks. All within a range of 1.5 miles. It won't be noticed. One of the Starbucks, is across the street from ANOTHER Starbucks.
    • DrvThruPnk, on 07/02/2008, -1/+2I hear they do that to benefit communities of Alzheimer's sufferers.
    • Duositex, on 07/02/2008, -0/+4Hey guys, Lewis Black called. He wants his jokes back.
    • Rhendal, on 07/02/2008, -0/+4Thank you, Lewis Black.
    • krisscofield, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1o__o I wasn't even referencing Lewis Black? It's true.
  • soupcan58, on 07/02/2008, -2/+11And now it's gonna be EVEN HARDER to get a job....
  • seanmx, on 07/02/2008, -1/+3maybe a good money saving technique is if they wouldnt have 20 employees
    • Rhendal, on 07/02/2008, -0/+5Or not saturating their own market with over 15,000 stores.
  • RobotLeAwesome, on 07/02/2008, -2/+712,000 jobs is a lot of jobs.
  • daxsymbiont, on 07/02/2008, -9/+10Thank God for Bush and his Oil wars. They sure dropped the price of oil.
    • deadjedi, on 07/02/2008, -3/+1Stow the sarcastic soapbox, hippie.
  • webmastir, on 07/02/2008, -2/+7BURIED for duplicate. read FrontPage
  • SolidBones, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1This is good news for office interns. Or bad news, since "drive farther" is more likely than "we'll just not have coffee".
    • secrity, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1Why not just get a coffee pot? Or maybe just use the coffee pot that is already there.

      My company just did away with the Starbucks coffee and the Bigelow tea in the breakrooms, now we are down to the coffee service brand coffee and tea -- at least it is still free. I wonder if they are going to get rid of the UHT half and half and the flavored coffee creamers. Some people are going to be pissed if they have to use powdered coffee creamer.
  • phphreak, on 07/02/2008, -4/+8It's time you Americans get a few Tim Hortons stores down there like in Canada, and start drinking good coffee for $1.50/cup instead of indulging in the hyper-pretentious Starbucks experience. Why the f are there CDs for sale where I want to buy coffee?!?!?
    • wacomwacoff, on 07/02/2008, -0/+9Coffee at Starbucks costs about $1.50 a cup, as well (depending on what part of the country you're in).

      There are CDs for sale because Starbucks has its own record label.

      Tim Horton's coffee is good, but much weaker than the burnt-dark roasts people are used to at Starbucks.
    • Rhendal, on 07/02/2008, -0/+3I had Tim Hortons for the first time when I was visiting Buffalo. It's damn good coffee.

      I for one would welcome our new coffee overlords.
    • 1337chic, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1We have them in the northern part of the midwest, and we also have Dunkin Donuts in the Northeast. There are Starbucks alternatives that lots of people use. I really doubt most people will give a damn to see 2 of the 5 Starbucks in a 2 mile radius disappear.
    • Elise1984, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1They have them in Maine too :-)
    • deadjedi, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1Dunkin Donuts buries them all.
    • blackjack75, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1I remember a time when individual people opened bars and made their own coffee... Now it's "my megastore is better than you megastore". Sigh.
  • flagrant, on 07/02/2008, -1/+15If my favorite Starbucks closes, I'll just go to the one across the street...
    • CedEx, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1Is it possible to have a favourite Starbucks? I mean, aside from the baristas, aren't they pretty much carbon copies of one another?
  • salomejones, on 07/02/2008, -4/+9Hear that? That's the sound of a million yuppies crying and me not giving a *****.
  • noahhoward, on 07/02/2008, -2/+15You mean overpriced crap isn't popular anymore? 'Bout ***** time.
  • jburnzie, on 07/02/2008, -13/+0test
    • Duositex, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1Your test worked. Writing useless one-word comments and not deleting them gets you dugg down! Thanks for saving us all the trouble of performing that experiment ourselves.
  • wowsah156, on 07/02/2008, -5/+6Dugg because the fast food and coffe shop era is coing to an end. with world food shortages beginning to kick in, companies like Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza hut etc are all going to suffer big time. Americans and to a lesser extent Europeans are going to have to learn again that lost art of home cooking!
    • CedEx, on 07/02/2008, -0/+0Not everyone eats at fast food places.
    • clipspace, on 07/02/2008, -0/+0Companies like McDonald's won't struggle because it's cheap. If anything, the more expensive burger chains will.
  • RomanThommassen, on 07/02/2008, -2/+3ECHO
  • Zlorp, on 07/02/2008, -2/+1oh no! now how are the majority of you going to get on digg?
  • goodfellaNW, on 07/02/2008, -4/+3I wish I had my 9-year ban on Starbucks to thank for this, but still happy about it nonetheless. Sorry for any employees that may lose their jobs, of course (though it seems they will just get shifted around), but happy this coffee empire may finally start breaking apart.
  • erichw1504, on 07/02/2008, -1/+8So, there will still be 230,454 stores within a 5 mile radius of my house?

    Not too bad.
  • Jess2mix, on 07/02/2008, -4/+2Well at least those coffee cups won't go to waste. the ex-employees can use them for pan handling now.
    Starbucks can just consider this karma for all the millions of Americans they've served overpriced watered down coffee to over the years.
    • topangea, on 07/02/2008, -1/+3Apparently you've never had a cup of Starbucks? It's anything but watered down. It's 4x stronger than you'd get at any sit-down restaurant.
      • cjh79, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1Starbucks coffee itself really isn't overpriced. It's their "specialty" drinks that are way overpriced. A normal coffee is like $1.50, which is comparable to anywhere else. It's also not watered down by any stretch of the imagination.

        However, they burn their beans to all hell and for that reason it's my least favorite coffee and I avoid it at all costs. And when I go there I refuse to use any adjective other than "small", "medium", or "large". Snotty bastards.
  • bashar2, on 07/02/2008, -2/+3great, now I'm going to have to cross the street to get my Americano
    • deadjedi, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1And with any luck a bus will mow you down. Right after you paid too much for your coffee.
  • erichw1504, on 07/02/2008, -2/+5Study: rich people getting more sleep
  • seandfeeney, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1I can definitely see the recommendation engine creating a lot of duplicate stories.
  • Ferretman, on 07/02/2008, -2/+2I can't understand why folks want $5+/cup coffee anyway....

    Ferretman
    • topangea, on 07/02/2008, -0/+2Go visit Europe and then come back and complain about Starbucks' expensive coffee. You'll wish you had a 20oz Starbucks for $5 instead of a 2oz European coffee for 4 euro --> $6.32 (current exchange rate).
    • Typhoon2009, on 07/02/2008, -0/+2*****, if somebody told you the Earth was flat you'd believe them too eh? A normal, REAL coffee is like $1.50. It's when you get fancy stuff like a "Venti Double Shot Mocha Docha Frappchizzle" that it costs 5 bucks.
  • seanmx, on 07/02/2008, -1/+320 employees per store that is.
  • Steinr, on 07/02/2008, -4/+1dugg, because I just digg everything.
  • etx313, on 07/02/2008, -1/+3Yay. No more stale coffee beans!

    Seriously. Starbucks beans are effing gross.
    • esus4, on 07/02/2008, -0/+0That's just wrong. The Starbucks beans are as fresh as you could ask for. Still burnt crispier than a bag of charcoal though.
  • wedges, on 07/02/2008, -1/+6Economy sucks ass
  • michaelarana, on 07/02/2008, -1/+2we need a list of which stores are closing.
  • wacomwacoff, on 07/02/2008, -1/+3I used to have a two-cup-a-day Starbucks habit. I stopped drinking coffee three months ago. If nothing else, I've got a few more dollars in my wallet.
    • Duositex, on 07/02/2008, -0/+5A few more? $2 x 2 cups = $4 * 90 days = $360

      A few hundred you mean.
      • wacomwacoff, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1True. And my tea habit doesn't cost $360 a year :)

        I kind of pity the folks that indulge in two venti lattes a day and wonder where their money's going.

  • DiggityCarl, on 07/02/2008, -2/+4OK, now all they need to do is convert those locations to oil refinery's and our gas prices will drop!!!
  • dellegazze, on 07/02/2008, -1/+1[BREAKING!]
  • bigfinger, on 07/02/2008, -2/+3I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. - Obi-Wan
  • rootsm3, on 07/02/2008, -1/+3Wow I'm so glad I just started working there :/
  • Fleagleman, on 07/02/2008, -1/+4Oh no! That means I'll have to walk a full block instead of half a block for my latte! You bastards!
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 81 of 81 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.