Report: Starbucks closing 16 stores due to employee-safety concerns

Citing reports by employees of drug use and other disruptive incidents, Starbucks Corp. will permanently shutter some locations.

The coffee giant will permanently close six stores in the Seattle area, six in the Los Angeles area, and two in Portland, Ore., by the end of July, reported The Wall Street Journal. It also will close one store each in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., The company plans to transfer employees from shuttered stores to other locations,

In a letter to employees, Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelson, senior VPs of US operations, discussed safety in Starbucks stores.

“We read every incident report you file — it’s a lot,” they wrote. “We want you to know that creating a safe, welcoming, and kind third place is our top priority. Because simply put, we cannot serve as partners if we don’t first feel safe at work.”

Stroud and Nelson went on to say that Starbucks will be “modifying operations, closing a restroom, or even closing a store permanently, where safety in the third place is no longer possible.”

The news came the day after Starbucks interim CEO Howard Schultz cited the need to reinvent Starbucks for the future. 

“Today, we find ourselves in a position where we must modernize and transform the Starbucks experience in our stores and recreate an environment that is relevant, welcoming and safe, and where we uplift one another with dignity, respect and kindness,” Schultz wrote.