Starbucks Shutting 7 Downtown San Francisco Locations

Starbucks (Seattle) has joined the exodus of retailers in downtown San Francisco, with plans to close seven of its shops there over the next several weeks, report a variety of publications, including SFGate.com. The closures, which will leave San Francisco with 52 Starbucks stores, follow similar decisions by Target, Nordstrom and others to shutter their outlets in the city’s center.

In a letter sent to the workers at the affected outlets, Starbucks Regional Vice President for Northern California Jessica Borton wrote:

“Determining how and where we invest is done through a standard process of evaluating our store portfolio annually to determine where we can best meet our community and customers’ needs. This includes opening new locations, identifying stores in need of investment or renovation, and exploring locations where an alternative format is needed. It also includes making hard decisions about where our stores are located. This year those discussions have resulted in making the very difficult decision to close seven of the stores in our area.”

Starbucks spokesperson Sam Jefferies declined to comment to SFGate on whether crime in the downtown area factored into the decision to close the stores.

Employees at the seven stores were notified Tuesday that the locations are closing, Jefferies said. All affected employees will be given the option to transfer to a different store, he added.

On the plus side, Starbucks recently opened a pickup-only location at 333 Market St. and will invest over $2.5 million in renovations at four other stores across the city, Jefferies told SFGate.