LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Your neighborhood Starbucks may be closing its doors as soon as Saturday. The coffee chain is closing hundreds of its stores nationwide, and at least 20 of them in the Los Angeles area.
The company is also laying off hundreds of employees.
While Starbucks wouldn’t provide a list of total stores it’s closing in Southern California, it appears there are at least 20 in Greater L.A. – including seven Starbucks on Wilshire Boulevard alone – that’ll serve their last latte Saturday.
On Friday, customers stopping at a Monrovia location on Foothill Boulevard and Myrtle Avenue were met with a sign on the door informing them the store was closing.
“I was like there’s no way,” Carrie Sacks said. “I came down, and I saw my friend who works here, and I just said, ‘Are you closing?’ and she said, ‘Yes, we just found out yesterday, and we’re closing on Saturday.'”
In a letter to employees, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said the company is aiming to create a warm, cozy environment and looked at all 18,000 locations.
“During the review, we identified coffeehouses where we’re unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we don’t see a path to financial performance, and these locations will be closed,” the statement said.
In Redlands, a location in the Citrus Plaza shopping center is also closing.
For the employees who will be left without a place to work in 48 hours, Starbucks is offering transfers to nearby, busier locations.
While Starbucks is trying to relocate the employees who work at shops closing, there will also be layoffs. About 900 non-retail employees, the behind-the-scenes people, will be cut as part of the company restructuring.