Starbucks is closing 250 stores. Read the memo it sent to staff.

• Starbucks says it will close about 250 underperforming North American stores.
• The coffee giant is returning to its roots and pushing to get more customers back into its stores.
• Read the memo Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams sent to staff in full below.

Under CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company from Chipotle in 2024, Starbucks has sought to return the chain to its roots as a neighborhood coffeehouse, placing a greater focus on the in-store experience, faster service, and coffee-making.

As part of its “Back to Starbucks” strategy, the company has restored ceramic mugs, handwritten cup messages, and free refills, while adding seating and updating stores to make them feel warmer and more welcoming.

Starbucks has also simplified its menu, removing less popular or complicated items to reduce wait times and improve consistency.

Read the full memo sent to employees below:

Partners,I want to share a decision we’ve made in support of our Back to Starbucks strategy.We have carefully reviewed our North America coffeehouse portfolio and identified locations where we do not believe we can consistently deliver the experience we want for customers and partners or where we don’t see a path to acceptable financial performance. As a result, we will close approximately 250 coffeehouses later this week. This represents approximately 1% of our more than 18,000 North America coffeehouses.As we shared on our most recent earnings calls, our North America business has returned to strong growth. Customers are receiving faster service, a more consistent experience, and warmer, more welcoming coffeehouses. We’re accelerating our pace toward completing 1,500 coffeehouse uplifts, and Green Apron Service has become our defining standard. Our Back to Starbucks strategy is working.This progress has given us a clearer view of the performance of every coffeehouse. While most are benefiting from this overall momentum, some coffeehouses continue to underperform despite the hard work and commitment of all of you.Every year we close some coffeehouses and open others as part of managing our portfolio. And as we shared previously, we remain excited about the significant long-term growth opportunity ahead in North America. We are actively developing a strong pipeline of new coffeehouses and remain committed to growth in North America.Closing any coffeehouse is a difficult decision, and we know today’s news will be hard for the partners, customers and communities affected.We’re speaking directly with impacted partners and will support them through this transition, including transfer opportunities wherever possible. For partners we are unable to place in another coffeehouse, we will provide severance support.To the partners in those coffeehouses impacted by today’s news, I want to say thank you on behalf of Starbucks for the work you have done. We’re committed to supporting you through this transition.We’ll also help customers continue their Starbucks routines and connections by directing them to nearby coffeehouses.We’re making this decision for a simple reason: we want every Starbucks coffeehouse to be a place customers love and partners are proud to work.Thank you for everything you’re doing to help us get Back to Starbucks.Mike Grams
Chief Operating Officer