Two weeks after Starbucks announced that it will close 600 stores this year, the list of doomed stores is out!
PDX is losing five. Here’s the hit list:
20th and Division
18th and Hawthorne
Clackamas Town Center
Cornell and 188th (Hillsboro)
18000 NW Evergreen Pkmy (Beaverton)
The Division store isn’t a surprise – it had hard times before it even opened, when someone threw molotov cocktails through its windows in anti-corporate protest the eve of its grand opening.
Starbucks promised it would try and reassign as many baristas as possible to other stores but, still, they’re going to lay off 12,000 people and I’m concerned with how many baristas could be out of a job here in Portland. Each of the five PDX stores employs about 20 people, but the Starbucks media person Brooke Dale tells me, don’t panic!
We expect to place many of the affected partners into available positions at nearby Starbucks stores. Those partners who are not offered a comparable position within a reasonable distance of their current location will be offered a severance payment to aid in their transition. All affected partners — including full-time and part-time — are eligible for severance based on job title and current pay rate.
She adds, “Throughout the history of Starbucks, we have always aspired to put our people first.” Well, they didn’t put the baristas first on this one: When I called to get the reaction from a barista at the Division shop, she hadn’t even heard the store was closing — I had to break the news.
Starbucks baristas across the country have been upset about the company leaving them in the dark about whose store would shut. Read their raging debate at Starbucks Gossip.
Induced scarcity. Genius!
Grrr. That evergreen parkway used to be a coffee people. Coulda just left that one open. I’m still angry about that.
VELVET HAMMER RIP
Whatever will we do, there are only five more Starbucks within a mile or two of the one on Evergreen Parkway…
I’m surprised the one on Holgate & 39th stays open.
soccer mom’s gotta get up, gotta drop the kids off at school, gotta get started on them household chores!
It’s not like they’re really baristas. They just pop a cartridge into a machine and put whip cream on milkshakes.
They probably don’t even ride the right kind of bike.
Yeah, it’s not like they have rent to pay or buy groceries.
%@$&ing non-baristas sitting around not working giving the real deal a bad name.
I wish I could tell them all myself. And their kids, if they have them.
18th & Hawthorne? Really?! Hallelujah! Now maybe someone will open a cafe or something I really want to go into in that space.
Don’t count on anything useful going in on 18th and Hawthorne. The last four businesses to open up on that stretch (Castagna, Curves, Barefoot Sage, Sel Gris) are all pretty useless to anyone that isn’t 50ish. Plus, the rent there is ridiculously high.
Also, I heard that everyone at the 18th and Hawthorne store is being given the option of working at the new Starbucks opening up on 9th and Morrison.
I’m gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you regarding Castagna. I get lunch at the Cafe about once per month and it’s always delicious and reasonable.
Yeah, admittedly I go about once every 2-3 months for dinner, and it is pretty delicious. Definitely special-occasiony for my budget though. Cute servers too.
I’ve been watching so much Battlestar that I thought this post was about something totally different…
I was that barista. I was told to play dumb, but I’ve known we we’re closing for a couple weeks.
Sir:
When can we expect the rest to close?
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus
The question is, would I rather go to Starbucks where I know my coffee will taste ok? Or do I go to Stump Town so I can be treated like I am interrupting their hipster day? I am all about local, but I also am about Customer Service. Atleast I get that at Starbucks.