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Starbucks announces layoffs, more store closings

Found in: Store Openings & Closings
Thursday
January 29, 2009
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As speculated last week, Starbucks has announced layoffs and another round of store closings. For the quarter ending December 28, the coffee retailer announced a 69% drop in net income and a 10% drop in same store sales.

These store closings are on top of the 600 company-owned stores the chain closed in 2008. 200 of the closings will be in the United States with 100 closing oversees.

CEO Howard Schultz also announced that he is reducing his base pay to $10,000 from $1.2 milllion.

Follow reaction to the announcement in the comments posted over at Starbucks Gossip.

More Retail Layoffs

Found in: Bankruptcy, Store Openings & Closings
Monday
January 26, 2009
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With the disappointing Holiday season behind us, the layoffs and retail store closings are continuing to mount:

Today, Home Depot has announced that they are closing their line of Expo home design centers and trimming support staff, resulting in 7,000 reduction in staff. With both home sales and the economy down, shoppers aren’t looking for high end home design solutions right now. The retailer is quick to note that the layoffs will not impact any customer service positions at the Home Depot proper chain.

It appears that their Expo stores weren’t performing well during the housing boom, so it’s no surprise that they would be doing even worse during the current economic conditions.

Another victim of the housing slump is Williams-Sonoma. On Friday, the retailer announced an 18% reduction in their workforce. In addition to stores being effected by the layoffs, the retailer will also close a call center in Pennsylvania and a distribution center in Memphis. I think the high end housewares stores have been hurt badly by both the economic downturn and mid-market retailers like JCPenney and Kohl’s.

Starbucks, who closed 600 stores in 2008, is expected to eliminate 1,000 jobs at their corporate headquarters and reducing district managers and field employees. The published report, prepared by investment firm McAdams Wright Ragen, speculates that these layoffs will happen in early February and won’t effect store-level barista positions.

And don’t forget that last week Circuit City announced that they are closing all US operations with job losses effecting up to 35,000 people.

Express Lane for 8/6/2008

Found in: Express Lane, Social Media
Wednesday
August 6, 2008
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A few of the stories I’m reading and wanted to share today:

John Zogby’s got a very insightful look into the political trends of retail consumers and dives behind the numbers to make sense of it all. He looks at presidential election polling numbers, the retailers the customers shop at, and how this relates to the retailers’ branding.

J.Crew’s website has had their share of mistakes and downtime lately. Church of the Customer is talking about the apology e-mail that the retailer sent out to their customers and what this means for the company.

Matt at A New Marketing presents a clean, easily digestable definition of what social media is.

.. and finally – Starbucks is offering a $2 discount on iced beverages in the afternoon when you buy a drink in the morning. I think this is a smart move that should drive repeat business throughout the day. Besides that, I’m selfish and now look forward to saving a little bit of money on my second trip to Starbucks every day.

NYC Chain Stores, By the Numbers

Found in: Retail
Friday
August 1, 2008
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Let’s play a game. I’ll name two retailers and you guess which one has more locations in the five boroughs of New York City. Ready?

Starbucks vs. Dunkin’ Donuts

McDonald’s vs. Burger King

Rite Aid vs. CVS

Coach vs. H&M vs. Pinkberry

Best Buy vs. American Apparel

According to a new study from the NYC-based think tank, Center for an Urban Future, the numbers are suprising.

Dunkin Donuts has more locations (341) in the five boroughs than Starbucks (235). Though Starbucks’ has more than double the amount of Manhattan locations (186 vs 78). McDonald’s has 248 locations compared to Burger King’s paltry 92. Rite Aid has 209 locations to CVS’s 108, but not as much as NYC-favorite Duane Reade (with 216 locations). Coach and H&M have as many NYC locations as California upstart Pinkberry (all with 12 locations in the city) and would you believe that American Apparel has more locations than Best Buy (16 vs 9).

The details revealed by the study are interesting, with a thorough breakdown of how many locations each retailer has in each borough. It is worth downloading the PDF and taking a look at their results.

Couple of interesting commentaries on the report from the New York Daily News, the New York Observer, and the New York Post.


Photo above from Flickr user lab2112, used under Creative Commons.

Express Lane for 6/15/2007

Found in: Express Lane
Friday
June 15, 2007
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Entering the weekend, here’s some things that I’m reading tonight:

Starbucks is pulling Jones Soda out of their stores in order to create room for more salads. Interesting.

Kelly Clarkson has cancelled her summer tour and one Consumerist reader has found out that Ticketmaster’s non-refundable fees are, well, non-refunable.

Margaret Brennan at CNBC is talking about how critical the next few days are going to be for retailers. Get rid of the clothing now or else you’re selling it marked down in July.

Finally, Canadian retailer Futureshop will be opening forums on their website next week. Allowing customers to interact with employees, it will be a very interesting website to watch. Will parent company Best Buy follow suit?