Sign of Economic Apocalypse #6 - Starbucks closing 600 shops

One example is the Corydon area in Winnipeg.

From Wikipedia:

Anti-competitive tactics
Some of the methods Starbucks has used to expand and maintain their dominant market position, such as buying out competitors' leases, acquiring independent coffee shops and converting them into Starbucks stores, and clustering several locations in a small geographical area (i.e., saturating the market), have been labeled anti-competitive by critics.[53] For example, Starbucks fueled its initial expansion into the UK market with a buyout of a major potential competitor (the 49 outlet, UK-based Seattle Coffee Company), then used its capital and influence to obtain prime locations, some of which operated at a financial loss. Critics claimed this was an unfair attempt to drive out small, independent competitors, who could not afford to pay inflated prices for premium real estate.[54]

 

The list:

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/USStoreClosureInfo.pdf

Your Starbucks is most likely to closing if:

-- It's located in or near a mall.
-- It's in an outer-ring suburb that didn't build out to projections thanks to the housing crisis.
-- It's in an urban location where Starbucks was drawn in as a symbol of hope to turn around a high-crime or otherwise dicey area.
-- It's in Fargo or Baton Rouge.
-- It's in a downtown location or otherwise near multiple other shops.
-- It was opened in 2006 or afterward (which describes a lot of the above locations).

 

All my Starbucks are safe, so I'm okay with this. Wouldn't mind if they opened some Seattle's Bests out this way (Borders is too far away)

 

My dumbass mall has two Starbucks: one upstairs and one downstairs. One of them is closing.

Now what am I supposed to do if I'm on level 1 and the Starbucks is on level 2?!?!

There's also a freestanding Starbucks less than a mile down the road.

 

Starbucks could have learned a lesson or two from Boston Market about overexpansion.

But part of Starbucks' whole business plan was ubiquity, to be on every corner in every town. Now maybe they have a new plan.'

Which includes opening 200 new stores – hardly what you would do in an actual environment of "economic apocalypse."

 

WHEW!!! The Starbucks downstairs from my office is safe. More hookups for me from the girls behind the register that love me.

 

You mean coffee, right?

 

I bet the strippers at your local establishment can't get enough of you either.

 

That reminds me of the line from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. "I bet you think the strippers really like you too."
And one Starbucks in my town is getting the ax.
I did a story couple weeks back that one or two were probably going to shutdown. I got an angry phone call from a Starbucks PR person on my "reckless speculation."
Now, one is going to close.
That whore can suck it.

 

Or Mobile.

Also, two more locations closing here in addition to two previously announced. One of the new closures is about a mile away from ... wait for it ... Steve & Barry's.

 

One in my town is getting the ax. The one in the mall that I've never been to. Meh.

For the sweet love of all that is holy, I hope the fine folks at Caribou are paying attention and going to pick up a cheap lease.

Once you get used to Caribou, you realize how shitty Starbucks coffee is. It's strong and it's hot, but I can get that at any truck stop.

 

Not that commercial real estate needed any help to suck right now, but this is going to hurt a lot. I don't see a lot of banks or fast food joints in a position to snap up these freestanding units.