Starbucks to Close Seven San Francisco Stores

Starbucks plans to close seven of its coffee shops in San Francisco, effective Oct. 22, Starbucks said in a statement shared with The Messenger.

The move drops the number of Starbucks coffee shops in the City by the Bay from 59 to 52, a spokesperson at the company said.

Six out of the seven stores the coffee giant is closing are located in San Francisco's downtown, CBS Bay Area added.

The move to shut down the stores is part of a yearly portfolio review that a spokesperson at Starbucks told The Messenger is "standard course of business."

“This includes opening new locations, identifying stores in need of investment or renovation, exploring locations where an alternative format is needed and, in some instances, re-evaluating our footprint,” Jessica Borton, the regional vice president for Northern California at Starbucks, said in a memo to San Francisco district managers.

“No one will lose their jobs,” the company spokesperson told The Messenger, adding that all employees at the shuttering Starbucks locations will be offered the option to move to different stores. 

Over the past six months, the company opened or reopened three stores in downtown San Francisco. Starbucks also invested $2.5 million at four locations in the city, the spokesperson added. 

Borton added that the company remains “dedicated to investing in” San Francisco, in the memo to managers. 

This move comes as San Francisco is seeing retailers exit the city. A Whole Foods in the city’s downtown closed citing safety concerns and Nordstrom shuttered its flagship San Francisco store.