Starbucks closing 250 stores, cutting 900 jobs in restructuring

Starbucks will shutter roughly 250 low-performing cafes across North America this week in a bid to trim expenses and strengthen the financial returns of its store base, according to the Wall Street Journal .

This wave of closures represents Chief Executive Brian Niccol's second round of cafe reductions since he took the helm in September 2024. Starbucks said it would incur roughly $300 million in restructuring charges related to the store closures, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"Some coffeehouses continue to underperform despite the hard work and commitment of all of you," Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said in a message to employees Thursday. The company said it aims to transfer baristas from closing stores and offer severance to those who leave.

The current round of closures follows a broader restructuring plan that Starbucks' board approved in September 2025 , which authorized the closure of coffeehouses and a transformation of the company's support organization under its "Back to Starbucks" strategy. That plan estimated total restructuring charges of approximately $1 billion, with 90% of expenses attributable to the North American business. The breakdown included roughly $150 million in employee separation benefits, $400 million related to the disposal and impairment of store assets, and $450 million associated with accelerated lease costs from closing stores before the end of their lease terms, the company said.

As of late June, Starbucks had 11,149 company-owned and company-operated stores across North America, a decline of roughly 300 compared with the same point a year earlier, the company said.

Niccol has also reduced the company's corporate workforce. The company cut around 2,000 corporate roles in the prior year and also did away with hundreds of unfilled positions, according to the Wall Street Journal. In August, Starbucks dismissed more than 200 corporate staff members, among them employees in store design, development, and technology functions who had refused to move to the company's new Nashville, Tennessee, office. Starbucks then eliminated another 300 U.S. corporate positions earlier this year in conjunction with the shuttering of regional offices in Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and Burbank, California.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Niccol has set a goal of cutting $2 billion in costs before the close of the company's 2028 fiscal year. Starbucks has indicated that the bulk of its upcoming store expansion will happen in markets beyond North America, and it is working on a new, scaled-down footprint concept aimed at the U.S.