Starbucks Closing 600 U.S. Stores

The retail giant made the announcement July 1 following a "rigorous evaluation" of its U.S. company-operated stores to sort out underperformers.

The 600 closures are inclusive of the 100 stores the retailer announced it would close in February of this year. 

In addition, Starbucks plans to open fewer than 200 new U.S. company-operated stores in fiscal 2009. This compares to already-reduced guidance that it would open 1,175 U.S. stores in 2008 and 1,000 U.S. stores in 2009. In 2007, it opened 1,800 U.S. stores. In 2010 and 2011, Starbucks plans to open "less than 400" U.S. stores.

"In January, we committed to transforming the company through a series of critical and strategic initiatives to improve the current state of our U.S. business and build the business for the long term," stated Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman, president and CEO who took the company back over in January.

The stores being closed are located across the country. In an interesting note suggesting Starbucks may have been cannibalizing existing stores by opening new stores too close to others, the coffee company said that 70% of the stores being closed have been open less than three years. Store closures will occur throughout the rest of this year and into the first half of next year. A list of closing stores was not released.