Starbucks closed 250 more North American stores in its second Niccol-era cull
A year after shutting 627 stores, Starbucks closed 250 more underperformers, took a $300M restructuring charge, and kept retrofitting 1,500 stores.
What was changed
Starbucks planned to close 250 North American stores in the last week of September 2026 — the second big round of closures under Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who joined in 2024. In September 2025 the company had closed 627 stores across North America and Europe and laid off 900 non-retail employees; in May 2026 it cut another 300 corporate roles and shut some underused US offices.
Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams told employees the targeted coffeehouses either were not delivering acceptable financial results or could not provide the experience Starbucks wants for customers and employees. The company did not name the locations or say how many were in the US. Starbucks Workers United, which represents workers at the 700 company-owned US stores that have voted to unionise, said 20 unionised stores — 8% of them — were among the 250, and demanded information and bargaining at every unionised location.
The rationalisation runs alongside reinvestment: Starbucks is retrofitting North American coffeehouses to be cozier and more inviting, expecting 1,500 done by the 30 September fiscal year-end, and Grams said the company remains committed to growing store count in the region — 18,371 at the end of June. Employees are to be transferred where possible, with severance otherwise. The company booked $300 million in restructuring charges: $200 million cash, mostly leases and separation benefits, and $100 million non-cash from asset disposal and impairment.
Why it worked
Retrofit progress gave Starbucks 'a clearer view of the performance of every coffeehouse', isolating stores that still underperformed.
Locations were cut on two criteria at once — financial results and experience quality — keeping the cull aligned with the 'Back to Starbucks' store standard.
Transfers and severance, rather than pure redundancy, limited the internal damage of a second closure wave in twelve months.
A $300 million charge was accepted to exit a weak tail while the company kept promising net store growth in North America.
What can be applied
Rationalise in published waves, not one silent purge: naming the criteria in an employee letter let Starbucks keep cutting the tail while still promising store growth.
Aftermath
Starbucks Workers United sent a formal request for information about the closures and said it would engage in bargaining at every unionized store; the two sides had still not reached a labor agreement since organizing began in late 2021. Shares fell less than 1% on the announcement.