Starbucks plans 250 closures in the U.S. and Canada this week, about 1% of its North American footprint. COO Mike Grams said Starbucks sees no path to acceptable financial performance or doubts it can consistently deliver its desired customer and employee experience.
Starbucks had 18,371 North American locations last quarter, down from 18,734 a year earlier, and made a similar roughly 1% cut almost exactly a year ago. The company also plans to accelerate café redesigns, bringing back chairs and a cozier atmosphere. It aims to complete at least 1,500 upgrades by the end of fiscal 2026 and increase the pace further in fiscal 2027.
Starbucks reported third-quarter same-store sales growth of 7.9%, above the 5.7% expected by Wall Street, according to Bloomberg data, and the 6.2% increase in Q2. William Blair analyst Sharon Zackfia said the closures could be “modestly beneficial” to same-store sales growth and maintained her Outperform rating on the shares.
