Starbucks to close 16 St. Louis-area stores

To the many complainers who have posted comments - Businesses that treat their employees well tend to charge more, and Starbucks treats its employees well. Fair trade goods tend to cost more also, and Starbucks has featured fair trade goods. I enjoy their coffee and wish them well as they restructure.

The one @ Telegraph & Erb hasn’t been there very long, but it seemed like it was *never* busy…except kids going there after school. Just as well..there is a little coffee shop right down the street called “Perk It Up” that has much better and less expensive coffee than Starbucks anyway.

All yuppies should burn! Close them all……

As an owner of a ‘mom & pop’ I appreciate the people who buy local and within their community. It is annoying that Starbuck’s seems to have set the lingo for the coffee shop industry. Not everyone serves ‘tall’, ‘grande’, and ‘venti’. Nor do they serve ‘frappachinos’. The same can also be said for the convenience store cappuccino drinkers who look at you like you are crazy when you hand them a cup with two shots and foam. All my complaining aside, Starbucks is a good employer that offers their employees excellent benefits should they choose to take advantage of them. Hopefully many of their displaced employees will find a place in the stores that remain open.

I am really not surprised they are closing the one at Hwy N, seeing as how there is one RIGHT NEXT DOOR inside target. Also that is the fourth one they opened within a 5 mile radius in a year in that area. We went from not having any in St. Charles county to having almost 10. Besides all the good drinks there are loaded with calories and fat, and not to mention I do not drink caffiene.

That’s just…sad. And pathetic.

The St. Charles store opened up a little over a year ago, and stayed open just long enough to put the other coffee shop across the street (It’s A Grind) out of business. That one had been there ever since that area started building up several years back, and it offered more selections for non-coffee drinkers as well.

Now they are closing that Starbucks. So there are two empty buildings out there now. Way to go, corporate America. And people wonder why folks are so disenchanted with big business these days…….

While it’s fun to be smug, commenters like Ken Kase demonstrate their ignorance when they chortle about the Starbucks stores closing. Starbucks is actually good for independent coffee shops and other small businesses because they have (had?) a good reputation for picking up-and-coming neighborhoods for development; therefore, banks were more willing to loan money to start-up businesses in that neighborhood. (For example, see here.) Impending economic doom for Starbucks is, I’m afraid, a sign of impending economic doom for us all. Whatever your opinion about Starbucks coffee might be, the closing of their shops is certainly nothing to celebrate about.

Keep in mind that the ‘Starbucks’ locations in Target, the airport and many hotels are not company-owned but licensed ventures – similar to the cafes in Barnes and Noble. So though Starbucks did ramp up market expansion in the last 5 years, the company didn’t necessarily inspire a portion of the growth. Also, consider that some of these newer stores were built for brand awareness and strengthening, and not meant to sustain long-term profit.

Starbucks is a great employer with an unparalleled benefits package and hopefully will take care of the employees. Best wishes to the employees at these stores.

Noooooooooo…my Starbucks is on that list!

I find myself amused that they are closing one of the Washington stores - it’s rather silly that they opened a stand alone location in the same parking lot as they have one inside of the new Target here.

Somebody in corporate planning should have paid attention to that.

I’ve only been in a Starbucks once and that was to meet someone for a job interview.