Is this the end of the old Starbucks-on-every-corner joke? It should be. It’s time to stop thinking about Starbucks as a hot growth company and more like a (sorry, Howard) McDonald’s-like blue chip that posts strong numbers, suffers through hard times, and, yes, fires folks sometimes.
In an aggressive move to boost profitability, Starbucks just announced it plans to close some 600 under-performing stores in the U.S. over the course of its fiscal 2008 and 2009. We knew some store closures were coming, though not this many - CEO Howard Schultz originally said only 100. Now, some press reports estimate it could mean the elimination of as many as 12,000 jobs.
