SEATTLE — Starbucks Coffee has announced that it will be eliminating roughly 900 non-retail U.S. jobs, with additional plans to close several hundred underperforming company-operated stores, as part of a broader $1 billion restructuring effort. The company’s store count will decrease by about 1 percent, which translates to roughly 500 closures for the company, as reported by CNBC. Starbucks plans to end its fiscal year with almost 18,300 North American locations, including both company-operated and licensed cafés. Brian Niccol, chairman and CEO of Starbucks Coffee, stated that baristas from closing locations will receive severance packages or will be transferred to nearby locations. The latest store closures and layoffs at Starbucks are part of Niccol’s wide-ranging turnaround strategy in his first year at the company. Starbucks has reported six consecutive quarters of declining same-store sales, as well as a previous round of 1,100 corporate layoffs in February.
