2 Charlotte Starbucks stores among 250 set to close. Here’s when + what to know
Two Starbucks stores in Charlotte are among 250 locations set to shutter nationwide, some as soon as this week.
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The Seattle-based coffee giant announced the sweeping closures on Thursday, Sept. 24, a decision it said supports its “Back to Starbucks” plan launched under CEO Brian Niccol two years ago.
The company didn’t say which cafés are closing. But store hours for two Charlotte locations — one in uptown and another in University City — were updated in the Starbucks mobile app and show both will serve their last lattes on Saturday, Sept. 26. They are:
Employees at both stores confirmed the news to CharlotteFive over the phone. Neither location is unionized.
Some Reddit users also shared lists of the U.S. locations confirmed to be shutting down soon.
“Closing any coffeehouse is a difficult decision, and we know today’s news will be hard for the partners, customers and communities affected,” Mark Grams, chief operating officer at Starbucks, wrote in a letter to employees Thursday.
Grams said the affected stores were either underperforming or struggling to deliver a worthy experience for customers and employees. This latest round of closures represents 1% of Starbucks’ 18,000-plus cafés in North America, he said.
“We’re speaking directly with impacted partners and will support them through this transition, including transfer opportunities wherever possible,” Grams added.
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An employee at the Mallard Pointe store in University City told CharlotteFive that its workers will likely be transferred to other locations but couldn’t offer specifics on where.
Starbucks Workers United, the union representing more than 12,000 baristas at 700 coffeehouses nationwide, responded Thursday to the company’s plans to close additional stores.
This latest round of café closures comes nearly a year after Starbucks shuttered several hundred locations in North America and Europe, WCNC reported. About 900 non-retail employees were also laid off.
“Today’s announcement proves again that ‘Back to Starbucks’ is nothing more than a betrayal of what workers and customers loved about the company,” the union wrote in a statement.
A source with knowledge of specific closures confirmed 20 unionized stores were impacted this time around. There are at least seven SBWU-represented stores in North Carolina, though none were affected.
“We expect to engage in effects bargaining for every impacted union store, as we have done elsewhere, so workers can be placed in another Starbucks store according to their preferences,” the group said.
In the past, Starbucks has said the union represents roughly 4% of its employees.
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