Starbucks is preparing to close approximately 250 coffeehouses across North America later this week as CEO Brian Niccol continues reshaping the coffee giant’s sprawling store network.
The closures represent roughly 1 percent of Starbucks’ more than 18,000 North American locations. According to the company, the targeted stores either have struggled to provide the customer experience management wants or lack a realistic path toward acceptable financial performance.
In other words, Starbucks is taking a hard look at stores that simply are not working and deciding that another pumpkin spice season probably will not fix the underlying math.
Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams outlined the decision in a message to employees, explaining that Starbucks has been evaluating individual locations as part of its broader “Back to Starbucks” strategy.
Starbucks to shutter about 250 stores in latest round of cafe closures https://t.co/dADqcTalWu
— CNBC (@CNBC) September 24, 2026
“We have made the difficult decision to close a small number of coffeehouses where we are unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we don’t see a path to financial performance,” Grams said.
Employees at affected locations are being contacted directly. Starbucks says it will attempt to transfer workers to nearby stores when possible and provide severance support to employees who cannot be placed elsewhere.
The company has not disclosed how many jobs could ultimately be affected.
Starbucks also has not released a complete list of the approximately 250 stores scheduled to close, leaving customers and employees in many communities waiting to learn whether their neighborhood café will be affected.
The move follows a significantly larger restructuring last year. In September 2025, Starbucks announced plans to close hundreds of locations in North America and Europe while eliminating approximately 900 nonretail positions. The company also made another reduction of corporate positions in May 2026.
Despite the latest closures, Starbucks says it is not retreating from North America.
Management continues to develop new stores while pouring money into existing locations. The company is working toward approximately 1,500 coffeehouse upgrades by the end of its fiscal year, part of an effort to make stores more comfortable and improve service.
That creates an interesting picture: Starbucks is simultaneously closing stores, renovating others and planning new locations. It is less a retreat than a reshuffling of an enormous retail footprint.
The labor situation adds another layer. More than 700 U.S. Starbucks locations have voted to unionize since 2021, according to the Associated Press, although the company has not disclosed how many of this week’s closing stores, if any, are unionized.
Starbucks and the union representing organized workers have also yet to reach a comprehensive collective bargaining agreement.
For customers, the immediate question is much simpler: Is their local Starbucks disappearing?
So far, the company has not provided a public list identifying every affected café or specified exactly how many closures will occur in the United States versus Canada.
For now, Starbucks says affected employees are being notified directly, while customers at closing locations will be directed to nearby coffeehouses.
The siren logo is not disappearing from North America anytime soon. But at roughly 250 locations, the espresso machines are about to go quiet.
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