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Starbucks closes Thayer St. shop along with hundreds of other locations, lays off 900

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PBN Staff

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10/01/2025

THE STARBUCKS on Thayer Street has closed just a week after the coffee chain announced it was closing hundreds of locations and laying off 900 people. This is a photo of the Medical Arts Building where the Starbucks was located. / COURTESY WARREN JAGGER PHOTOGRAPHY AND PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY

PROVIDENCE – The Starbucks on Thayer Street has closed just a week after the coffee shop chain announced it was closing hundreds of locations and laying off 900 people. The signage has been removed, and the windows are covered at 218 Thayer St., where Starbucks was located in what is historically known as the Medical

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PROVIDENCE – The Starbucks on Thayer Street has closed just a week after the coffee shop chain announced it was closing hundreds of locations and laying off 900 people. The signage has been removed, and the windows are covered at 218 Thayer St., where Starbucks was located in what is historically known as the Medical Arts building, a Moderne-style structure built in 1938 with a distinctive curved storefront. A phone call to the number listed for the store went unanswered and officials from Starbucks corporate offices in Seattle did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Sept. 25, Starbucks said it’s closing hundreds of stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe and laying off 900 non-retail employees as it focuses more of its resources on a turnaround. The company wouldn't disclose the number of stores that are closing, but the bulk of the closures appear to be in the U.S. and Canada. Starbucks said it expects to have 18,300 North American locations when its fiscal year ends on Sunday. As of June 29, the company had 18,734 locations. In a research note dated Sept. 25, TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles estimated that Starbucks will close around 500 North American stores in its fiscal fourth quarter. In a letter sent to employees, Starbucks Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol said a review of the company's stores identified locations where the company doesn't see a path to financial stability or isn't able to create the physical environment customers expect. Those stores are being closed. “Each year, we open and close coffeehouses for a variety of reasons, from financial performance to lease expirations,” Niccol wrote. “This is a more significant action that we understand will impact partners and customers. Our coffeehouses are centers of the community, and closing any location is difficult.” Starbucks said it expects to spend $1 billion on the restructuring, including $150 million on employee severance benefits and $850 million related to the physical store closing and the cost of exiting leases. It was not immediately clear how many of the stores that are closing are unionized. Workers at 650 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since 2021, but they have yet to reach a contract agreement with the company. Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing workers, said that the closures were made without input from Starbucks' baristas. The union said it intends to engage in bargaining at every union-represented store that is closing to ensure workers can be placed at another store they prefer. “Fixing what’s broken at Starbucks isn’t possible without centering the people who engage with the company’s customers day in and day out,” the union said. Starbucks will end its 2025 fiscal year with 124 fewer North American stores than its previous fiscal year. It’s rare for Starbucks to shrink its store count during a fiscal year. Starbucks plans to increase its North American store count in its next fiscal year, Niccol said. The company said it also plans to redesign more than 1,000 locations in the next 12 months to give them a warmer, more welcoming feel. This is the second round of layoffs at Starbucks this year. In February, Niccol announced the layoffs of 1,100 corporate employees globally and eliminated several hundred open positions. At the time, Niccol said Starbucks needed to operate more efficiently and increase accountability for decisions. Niccol is a turnaround specialist who was brought into Starbucks a year ago this month to give the brand a jolt. Under Niccol's leadership, the struggling Chipotle chain, where Niccol was CEO for about six years, essentially doubled its revenue and its profit, and its stock price soared. In July, Starbucks reported its sixth straight quarter of lower same-store sales, as weak U.S. traffic continued to be a drain on the company. Niccol is trying to turn that around by adding staff, making stores cozier and introducing software that helps prioritize orders and make sure customers can get their drinks within four minutes. Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.