Starbucks just announced today that it's closing 600 stores and laying off 12,000 workers. Most analysts point to this as a long-awaited reaction to the rapid growth of the company, which has opened 11,000 stores since the 80s, and whose sales decreased last year. Seventy percent of the closures will be new stores - ones that just opened since 2005. Overall, the baristas seem to be taking the news calmly.

Less lattes in the future but for now, some numbers:
- Google maps lists 1,824 Starbucks in PDX - including eight within a mile from our office.
- The 12,000 baristas who will be nixed by the cut is 7% of Starbucks's overall workforce. That means Starbucks employees 171,428 people, which is slightly more than the entire population of Tasmania African penguins in the world.
- Research shows that the most expensive drink at Starbucks a a $13.76 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel, which comes to 670 calories and is slightly more expensive than the six pints of delicious blueberries I bought on sale yesterday.