Starbucks will close 250 stores, about 1% of its North American cafes, the coffee chain announced Thursday. Under CEO Brian Niccol, Starbucks is revamping its US business, focusing on improving the customer experience. Starbucks expects to close underperforming North American cafes that “do not deliver coffeehouse experiences and the financial performance expected from the brand.” Starbucks chief operating officer Mike Grams wrote in a letters“Every year we close some coffeehouses and open others as part of managing our portfolio. We have carefully reviewed our North America coffeehouse portfolio and identified locations where we do not believe we can consistently deliver the experience we want for customers and partners or where we don't see a path to acceptable financial performance.”
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For fiscal 2026, Starbucks is now projecting net new openings of 440 cafes, down from its prior outlook of 600 to 650 locations. Those new cafes will come from its international markets. “The Company continues to see significant longer-term growth opportunities ahead in North America and is actively developing a strong pipeline of new coffeehouses,” Starbucks said in a regulatory filing.
Most of the planned closures are expected to occur before the end of fiscal 2026. According to Mike Grams, employees at the closed stores will be given “transfer opportunities wherever possible”, but he also noted, “For partners we are unable to place in another coffeehouse, we will provide severance support.”
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The news of new store closures comes about one year after Starbucks announced a $1 billion restructuring effort as part of its ongoing “Back to Starbucks” revitalization plan, which included planned store closures and planned renovations at about 1,000 stores. Previously, in 2025, the company also cut roughly 2,000 corporate jobs, as well as about 500 in two different rounds in 2026.