Starbucks is closing stores and laying off 900 people in $1 billion restructuring

"And it will be eliminating 900 jobs outside of its coffee houses (in other words, corporate and other functions). The company claims it will attempt to place affected baristas into new stores, but Starbucks says, "For those we can't immediately place, we're focused on partner care including comprehensive severance packages. We also hope to welcome many of these partners back to Starbucks in the future as new coffeehouses open and the number of partners in each location grows.""

"CEO Brian Niccol has been at the helm for a year now, where he's been unable to break a six-quarter streak of same-store sales declines. He's promised a Back to Starbucks turnaround centered on better store design, operations, and customer experience. But as he faces the scrutiny of an impatient Wall Street, the former Chipotle chief appears to be reallocating spending to drive the company's growth while offsetting overhead."

"A closer examination of the details around this restructuring spot a somewhat finer narrative than sheer cost-cutting-and Starbucks insists that Niccol's aggressive growth plan, in which he'll add to store count in 2026 and imagines reaching 100,000 stores globally one day, is still intact. Speaking just last week at the Fast Company Innovation Festival, he promised to add "hundreds of thousands" of seats back to Starbucks stores. The company will have actually closed hundreds of stores over the course of 2025, but it's been opening enough new stores to offset the figure significantly for this final announced tally."

Starbucks will end the year with fewer stores and fewer employees, reducing North American locations by 1% to about 18,300 for fiscal 2025. The company will eliminate 900 non-retail jobs and will attempt to place affected baristas into new stores while providing severance and partner care for those not immediately placed. CEO Brian Niccol has served one year amid six quarters of same-store sales declines and is pursuing a "Back to Starbucks" turnaround focused on store design, operations, and customer experience. Niccol is reallocating spending to drive growth, plans additions in 2026, and envisions far greater global expansion.

Read at Fast Company