12,000 jobs affected as Starbucks to close 600 stores in US
2/7/2008 15:47
As many as 12, 000 jobs will be affected under a Starbucks plan to close
600 stores in the United States, the coffee shop operator said yesterday.
The
move would be taken to reverse declining customer visits, said Seattle-based
Starbucks, the world's largest chain of coffee shops.
Both full- and
part-time retail positions in the closed stores will be "eliminated," the
company said in a regulatory filing.
About 7 percent of its global workforce,
or 12,000 workers, will be affected by the planned closure, but the company said
many of the affected employees are expected to be moved to nearby stores.
No
specific figure of lost jobs is available. The closure is expected to take place
between late July and the middle of 2009, it said.
Starbucks, headed by
Howard Schultz since January, has slowed its expansion in the US after doubling
the number of stores in the past four years.
Starbucks' sales slowed and
earnings dropped in the second quarter due to declining visits by cash-strapped
customers facing record gasoline prices.
Xinhua
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