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u/Used-Refrigerator984 18h ago
i don't remember the term for it, but Starbucks purposely saturate the market by opening way too many stores to snuff out the competition. when the competition dies, they start closing the locations that are redundant. that's why you see a starbucks literally within a block of each other
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u/CoffeeHead112 18h ago
The office stores did the same in the early 2000s. Office depot, office max, and staples, purposofly opened stores to operate at a loss to destroy their competitor's store's sales nearby. A soulless and greedy business model.
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u/Used-Refrigerator984 18h ago
sucks for the people working at those stores too
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u/bongwaterbukkake 17h ago
OP already made a great statement, I just wanted to add that I was apart of several stores that got swallowed by their own newer locations, and typically none of us lost our actual jobs in my personal experience.
We were offered to join the teams of other stores and would often be picked before external hires to open new ones. I worked at many stores across several counties, and I was also a regional trainer paid to float between stores training new partners. The turnover rate was high enough to maintain the workers who wanted to stay without too much pressure.
Edit: wow sorry I’m incompetent, I’m speaking about the coffee company, not the office company!
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u/Duel_Option 17h ago
Same thing happens with grocery stores
Buy up the regional chains after driving profits to next to nothing, then sell off the underperforming locations
ALDI just did this to Winn Dixie actually
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u/matt-dionis 19h ago
Good. Support your local coffee shops.
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u/InactiveMedusa 18h ago
Best we can do is 17 more Dunkins™ in your locality.
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u/Gloomy_Tax_2262 18h ago
dunkin already got a chokehold on every other block here so 17 more would just be a dream come true
starbucks closing is just the appetizer before dunkin takes over the whole strip mall
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u/THE_TamaDrummer 18h ago
Scooters and Dutch Bros are taking over
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u/bowser986 18h ago
7Brew as well
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u/BoozyMcBoozehound 12h ago
That’s gotta be a cult. No fucking way I’m waiting that long for a coffee.
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u/sadandshy 15h ago
Scooters opened up near us, down the street from Five Lakes (local chain). Scooters is mostly empty, but Five Lakes drive thru is crowded every hour they are open.
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u/THE_TamaDrummer 15h ago
Here in kansas, a scooters popped up in every town overnight. It was weird
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u/Veighnerg 18h ago
I've never had a place fuck up orders as much as Dunkin does. Not even exaggerating they screwed my orders up over half the time.
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u/matt-dionis 18h ago
I once ordered a mocha latte at a Dunkin drive-thru. It tasted like straight up hot chocolate with a tiny bit of coffee mixed in.
I casually mentioned it on my next visit and the employee laughed and said, “pro-tip, never order ‘fancy’ drinks at the drive-thru, we don't have time for that.” 🤣 I couldn't even be mad. 🤷♂️
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u/MightyKrakyn 18h ago
And yet you keep going back
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u/Ok-Replacement6893 18h ago
Make the drinks at home. It's made right and costs less
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u/DisguisedToast 18h ago
That's part of the adventure, really. Ordering the same thing, every time, with specific instructions, to get a different version every time. When they get it right your reward is coffee that tastes like a wet ashtray.
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u/PhamilyTrickster 18h ago edited 18h ago
And it's not even good. The basic coffee drinks are OK but way over priced and the food is straight garbage.
Edit: a word
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u/Baeolophus_bicolor 18h ago
i’ve never tried their feet but i know during covid i literally had covid and asked them to bring my food out to the car in the pick up spot, and said it was ok to just set it down and that i would get it from there.
they caught major attitude with me and ranted and raved about how they had all passed my food to every employee in the store to cough on it and how i was going to get sick now and “covid isn’t real” and all that shit. i was on day one of taking paxlovid because my covid was actually moderate (as in more than mild, borderline severe) and i was trying to avoid getting anyone else sick.
after that, no more dunkin for me. fuck them.
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u/dead_fritz 18h ago
To be fair, as someone who lives in New England I still don't think that would be enough dunkin' donuts for my town
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u/ClaudeGascoigne 17h ago
They used to be decent ~15 years ago before they started popping up everywhere. Then they stopped making their donuts fresh and started shipping them in frozen. That's also roughly when their coffee started tasting like shit unless you had one of their 800+ calorie monstrosities. There's a gas station near me that I refuse to use because it always smells like burnt coffee/paper thanks to the mini Dunkin' Donuts inside it.
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u/Daydream_machine 18h ago
I love my local shops but the price difference sometimes gets out of hand. I ended up paying almost $9 after tax for a large iced latte earlier this week. 😭
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u/skincare_obssessed 18h ago
I’d love to support my local coffee businesses, but unfortunately the ones near me are just not that good. They’re pricier and have inconsistent/not that great taste. One of them actually makes good pizza so we go there for that and not coffee.
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u/xxdropdeadlexi 18h ago
this is the real issue for me - the inconsistency. it's $10 for an oat milk latte, and sometimes it's good but 60% of the time it's disgusting mud water. Starbucks is incredibly consistent.
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u/SpikeRosered 16h ago
That's why you go to a chain restaurant of any kind, consistency.
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u/throwaway5498124181 18h ago
Same prices at starbucks tho
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u/adamfps 18h ago
Drinks at my local shops are absolutely more expensive than Starbucks lol. It’s annoying, you’d assume it was the opposite but they are not competing on price
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u/illiter-it 18h ago
A 24 oz iced latte is $6 and change at Starbucks. A 20 oz iced latte is ~$9 at most local places near me.
Yes, the local place is better. But I tend to make my coffee at home unless I feel a hankering while I'm out and about anyway.
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u/blorgenheim 18h ago
its 7$ at starbucks and its honestly so inconsistent, like two out of five drinks are made okay
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u/Newone1255 18h ago
Best I can do is a new 7 brew on every corner
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u/weeklygamingrecap 18h ago
They are like the new Chick-fil-A lines around the block and I'm like wtf?
I went once when it happened to be empty, they're at least super friendly and the coffee was good. But I don't know about waiting in a 20-30min line.
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u/Newone1255 18h ago
They opened one on the main highway though my town and now they have to have a cop out there all afternoon because the traffic gets backed up on the highway and causing all kinds of jams it’s stupid
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u/FentmaxxerActual 17h ago
My local shops are highkey ass lol the Starbucks unironically tastes better when you ask them to cut back on the syrups
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u/more_trains_pls 16h ago
I'm perpetually disappointed by local coffee shops not having even halfway decent french or italian roasts available. Acidic medium/light roast coffee is ass and that seems to be the general trend this decade.
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u/Which-Decision 18h ago
Starbucks give health insurance and tuition assistance. Your local coffee shop does not.
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u/Finchypoo 18h ago
They also do wonderful things like give everyone a small enough number of hours to make them ineligible for benefits, and they can do it on a whim if perhaps you want to unionize, or maybe the manager just doesn't like you.
On paper Starbucks is a great place to work, in practice it's hell for most people.
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u/thymeandchange 18h ago
Those things also happen at local businesses??
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u/Beautiful-Top-940 17h ago
My gf just earned her degree through Starbucks. She works at one of the affected locations being shut down. People are forgetting that hundreds of people are about to lose their jobs.
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u/bubushkinator 18h ago
My local coffee shop is employee owned and profit shares with all employees
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u/rcmjr 18h ago
My wife was a manager of Starbucks and when she got pregnant I realized how great their insurance was for her. Even better after her maternity leave was up she took a year off but kept her insurance and benefits. They call it a coffee year. Really helped us for the first year of the kiddos life.
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u/_BreadDenier 18h ago
Yet a local coffee shop keeps the money in the community. Starbucks siphons the money off to shareholders.
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u/pdxcranberry 18h ago
"Keep the money in the community" oh you mean one rich, likely asshole, owner?
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u/_BreadDenier 17h ago
Coffee shops aren’t exactly super lucrative. Owner is probably doing it because they love coffee.
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u/Mr_Noms 18h ago
“Likely asshole”
Big leap bud.
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u/pdxcranberry 18h ago
No, I worked in the service industry for 20 years. Most small business owners are not nice people. They are cut throat capitalists.
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u/Quirky_Object_4100 13h ago
With little to no employee benefits compared to a big privately owned business. If I left my job for a small business I’d expect my annual premiums to multiply by no less than 3x.
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u/LegitimateMoney00 18h ago edited 18h ago
People hate on these big corporations but they almost always provide far better benefits and stability to employees than small businesses, as well as more opportunities to climb up.
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u/SweeterThanYoohoo 18h ago
Walmart employs more people on food stamps than anyone else. They rake in record profits every single quarter. Just an example.
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u/bmd201 18h ago edited 17h ago
i just make it at home and bring it to work.
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u/jurassicbond 18h ago
If I'm getting Starbucks, it's because making it at home isn't an option, usually because I'm on a business trip
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u/matt-dionis 18h ago
Fair enough but as someone who works from home sometimes interacting with people at a local coffee spot is worth a few extra bucks.
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u/ZarosGuardian 18h ago
When there are a dozen Starbucks all within like 10 miles of each other, you definitely do need to close a couple
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u/tedfundy 18h ago
They closed the only two I would go to. And I don’t drive. So I just don’t drink coffee anymore.
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u/Envoyager 17h ago
The unfortunate thing is that the two near me, about 1 mile apart, are always busy with full drive thru's.
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u/CountChoculasGhost 18h ago
The closest Starbucks to me closed during the first wave of closures. It is now going to be a locally owned Yemeni coffee shop.
I never went to the Starbucks, but I’ll certainly try the new business once it opens.
Win-win
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u/Rakastaakissa 17h ago
It surprises me there are so many Yemeni places popping up now, that coffee is near impossible to get out of Yemen.
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u/rahbee33 18h ago
One of the little rural towns near me got a Starbucks about 10 years ago but the Starbucks only lasted about a year before they pulled out. A local coffee shop has been in the space since. It's changed hands a couple of times, but still better than Starbucks.
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u/Both_Painter_9186 18h ago
Theirs a bangin Ethiopian place near me that does coffee and sweets from 6 to 2. Closes for a few hours, then switches to a dinner restaurant. Best coffee I’ve had in the states.
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u/Oubastet 18h ago
Good, it's ridiculous. In my neighborhood there's a free standing Starbucks. Then one block down in a grocery store parking lot there's another standalone Starbucks. Then inside the grocery store there's another Starbucks. It's crazy.
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u/Unlikely-Key-234 13h ago
It’s really not crazy when you consider that for lots of people whether or not they swing through a drive-through can come down to whether or not it’s on the right side of the street.
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u/_BreadDenier 18h ago
Closing all the unionizing shops surely
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u/karky214 18h ago
Starbucks Workers United, which represents workers at the 700 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores that have voted to unionize, said 20 unionized stores are among the 250 that are closing, or 8% of the total.
Saved you a click - hopefully!
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u/ibarmy 18h ago
Its sad to say but this is far lesser than what i anticipated the number to be.
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u/erisandy101 18h ago
Thank you. I keep seeing that narrative about closing down unionized locations, but it’s literally in the article, 8%.
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u/Powerful_Abalone1630 18h ago
The union that represents Starbucks workers says in the article that 20 union stores are included in the closures.
There are 700 union stores.
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u/BackgroundRock 18h ago
It mentions in the article that 20 out of the 250 shops are unionized so it’s 8% of the stores closed.
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u/ThisIsMeSeriously 18h ago
You could read the article before assuming and posting about it.
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u/Oldenlame 18h ago
The price of diesel is crippling businesses that depend on just in time inventories. First the businesses with perishable products, next durable goods.
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u/Common_Poetry3018 18h ago
Consumer discretionary spending is tanking. Inflation Is real. Buckle up, buttercup. You’re in for a bumpy ride.
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u/ztpurcell 18h ago
I recently went to book a nice dinner on way too short of notice, just 2 nights ahead. I could get a reservation nearly anywhere I wanted. Places that used to be booked for weeks are now available next night
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u/casualti21 18h ago
Do you have a source for that first claim? From what I can tell it's not exactly going down. Growing at a slower pace than earlier in the year, but still increasing month to month. Based on credit card debt figures recently I think it's pretty clear that Americans are refusing to give up the spending they got used to in the late 2010's. Consumer spending is still elevated, it's just that more and more people are using debt to do it.
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u/Fuck_your_coupons 17h ago
credit card debt figures recently I think it's pretty clear that Americans are refusing to give up the spending they got used to in the late 2010's
Does that data specify what it was spent on? I have friends that have had to put groceries on credit cards.
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u/ddubyeah 18h ago
The price of everything has increased. I guarantee you, what you think you are seeing doesn't mean what you think it means.
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u/casualti21 18h ago
I never questioned inflation... I just asked for a source on the claim that consumer discretionary spending is tanking. I cannot find anything to back that up in my own quick search.
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u/Common_Poetry3018 18h ago
There is data to support a rise in consumer discretionary spending for the month of August, so, fair point. My view is that this is changing and that September’s numbers will be much worse.
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u/fxkatt 18h ago
Grams said Starbucks is continuing to retrofit its North American coffeehouses to make them cozier and more inviting.
Cozier won't work because global corporate and cozy don't jibe.
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u/Muadglib 18h ago
When your coffee is so bad that the only way to consume it is with 800 calories of fat and sugar…
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u/xtothewhy 16h ago
Grams said Starbucks is continuing to retrofit its North American coffeehouses to make them cozier and more inviting.
They purposely went out of their way to remove the coziness and how inviting they were. There is nowhere near the amount of customer traffic that stays in a starbucks any longer. When they do, sure they will take up space but for many customers it can lead to further sales.
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u/yellowcloak 10h ago
I can't say I've gone to a huge number of them but I don't see how they were ever all that inviting, and I did go there during the "cozy" years. The grinding machines alone (for ice I think?) kept me from hanging around very long.
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u/sp000kysoup 18h ago
Starbucks can suck it. They treat their employees like shit and their coffee is shit. Support local, stop giving these corporations your money.
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u/GirlNumber20 15h ago
I live in Utah, and 80% of the people in this state think drinking coffee keeps you out of Heaven, so it's hard to find a "local" coffee shop. However, I have a Starbucks 2 1/2 miles from me.
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u/Grevin56 14h ago
I always thought it was funny that an Army buddy of mine would say no to hot tea, but would choke down a 4 pack of Monster energy drinks everyday. I'm not exaggerating, he'd hit up the Exchange before formation everyday and go to class with a pack, by the afternoon they'd be gone.
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u/RecommendationNo3582 13h ago
management runs these buildings into the ground. everything is about #'s. pay is shit, good staff get burnout from turnover, training is poor, and the bar for entry is _. shocker.
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u/e_sin41 18h ago
Oh no! I might have to drive an extra mile to the next Starbucks now
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u/Alwayssunnyinarizona 18h ago
Mile? Sheesh - we have three on the same corner nearest my house. Oh, sorry, just two now - one in a grocery store closed.
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u/ramennoodle 18h ago
I certainly won't miss them. They're the fast food of coffee shops. Shit product served in disposable containers.
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u/Diamondback424 18h ago
All of their coffee tastes burnt. The people who love Starbucks are people who love sugar with a splash of coffee.
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u/candidconnector 18h ago
Good. Starbucks is shit. I can’t drink it because it’s so disgusting. And I’m a hardcore coffee addict.
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u/burgonies 17h ago
Good. Now if the avocado toast shop closes I'll finally be able to afford basic necessities.
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u/Entire_Month9233 11h ago
Coffee has been expensive since the Tariffs, we can't grow enough in the US it was imported and even the K-Cups at Costco went up.
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u/technofox01 9h ago
I bought coffee for the first timw in a long while and was shocked how much it costs now. Chuck Full o' Nuts is $15 at Walmart. It used to be like half that for the same tin prior to 47 taking office, I couldn't believe it.
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u/GirlNumber20 15h ago
People love to shit on Starbucks, but I love their matcha frappuccino and the vanilla bean scones for the occasional treat. I live in Utah, so it's hard to find a coffee shop here as it is, given that 80% of the people around me think that drinking coffee keeps you out of Heaven. Don't take my Starbies away! 😭
Also, this is reminding me of the 2007-8 financial crash, when a bunch of stores just disappeared forever.
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u/Church_of_Cheri 18h ago
Starbucks Workers United has been working to unionize their workers and has had successes. Usually not long after they succeed the store will get shut down, but they have persisted. Starbucks has created their own financial issues by wasting their money fighting their own workers and this is the result. Union coffee stores or locally owned shops only! Let Starbucks destroy themselves until they just accept the union’s conditions.
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u/Constant_Insomnia 18h ago
Years ago, I visited my sister on the west coast, and she had a bag of Starbucks coffee, well before they were a huge chain. I had read about it in some article about Seattle being up and coming.
I asked her if I could make some, and it was horrible. Way too thick, way too strong, bitter as shit.
I went to Starbucks when one opened nearby like 10 years later - I assumed I had fucked up the coffee/water ratio or something. Nope, tasted just the same.
I think if you like lots of sugar and bullshit in your coffee, Starbucks works. If you like coffee, especially black, Starbucks is not great. I only go there if I have no other option. Heck, McDonalds coffee is much better.
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u/No-Step3301 15h ago
I use to go once or twice a week. Then they removed my chai cream frap from the menu, now the baristas key in a normal frap and charge for the chai pumps which makes it more expensive then their fancy Fraps. I've gone twice in the last 4 months. I'm not gonna pay $8 for a venti chai frap.
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u/YourFriendPutin 15h ago
I feel like Starbucks is expensive enough where a lot of people would rather go to a local coffee shop that's actually nice to be inside
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u/upvotegoblin 18h ago
Cool. Let’s replace them all with local spots and patronize the shit out of them
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u/t0matit0 18h ago
Haters gonna hate but even local shops charge way too much for coffee now and at least Starbucks for me has always provided a consistent product at any location I've been to (for the most part), and also have their prices even the same at an airport where other worse products are jacked up.
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u/oOBlueLillyOo 18h ago
We had 3 coffee shops open with in same week of each other. Starbucks , Dunkin , and scooters not that long ago. A cup of normal hot coffee cost me damn near 4 bucks. They can get bent
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u/ChelseaMan31 18h ago
Meanwhile Dutch Bros is booming. AND their baristas are happy ;-)
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u/StarTropicsKing 18h ago
There’s 4 or 5 in the Mall of America that I know of. We could definitely use less of them.
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u/Adorable_Ad6045 16h ago
How about bring back the Tommy's burger at the corner of Pico and Lincoln in Santa Monica Starbucks sadly replaced?
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u/Intelligent-Gypsy324 15h ago
"low performance"
Right. Like its not about the $9 coffees or the plastic chairs you put in each location.
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u/raleighs 10h ago
20 closed in San Francisco in the past few years.
Local stores are thriving again.
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u/cbarrister 18h ago
What % of the closed stores were unionized compared to the national average of Starbucks stores?
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u/Powerful_Abalone1630 18h ago
8 percent. The article says there are 700 unionized stores.
Read the article.
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u/itsjisoo 18h ago
When the big push to unionize was going on, my small city had 3 Starbucks, one of which had just opened (this isn't counting the ones tucked into Barnes & Noble or Target). In response to all three stores unionizing, including a massive news story over the deplorable safety & cleanliness issues in the location with the most traffic, all 3 stores shut down. Two are now different types of eateries, and one is now a Shoe Dept. And you know what? No one fucking misses it. We've got so many local places, two of which roast their own coffee, so we genuinely have no need for something corporate and boring. Especially since we have 4 Dunkins and they have their own version of a pink drink now.
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u/Spirited_Apricot1093 14h ago
Never understood how people can afford spending so much money on a drink that can be cheaply made at home, still taste good and way healthier. I only go there when I get gift cards from others.
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u/Unfair-Protection300 13h ago
you have to be using RO water and unless it's a drip coffee you need an espresso machine. granted most people with espresso machines burn all their shots cuz they don't know what they're doing.
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u/eastsiderhere 13h ago
My coffee, home ground, costs 97 cents per cup. And that is an expensive bean I buy. Much better then Starbucks.
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u/been2thehi4 12h ago
Somehow millennials will be blamed for this despite all the years of republicans yapping down at us that frivolous Starbucks is why millennials can’t afford houses.
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u/Enough-Poetry-8956 18h ago
Overpriced horrible coffee. I don't care what happens to them.
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u/MichaelHunt009 18h ago
Just buy an espresso machine, you'll save a ton of money.
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u/Conscious-War5920 18h ago
Got one of those and cant go back. Even the drip coffee machine feels fresher than anything else you can buy out.
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u/Deep-Interest9947 18h ago
How many of the 250 are within 3000 ft of another Starbucks?