Starbucks has had a tough 2025, no two ways about it.
Remember the mass layoffs earlier this year?
What about all the popular drinks they discontinued?
It’s not been fun for sure.
And unfortunately – it looks like things could be about to get quite a bit worse.
Coffee prices are rocketing up as tariffs on Brazil take effect…
American consumers are tightening their belts and trying to reduce spending as recession fears continue to increase…
(The combination of those two issues – costs increasing and demand decreasing – is pretty much the perfect storm for destroying margins at a premium place with a premium price point like Starbucks…)
And of course that’s all piled on top of the longer-standing issues of inflation, labor shortages, and the increasingly volatile unionization movement at Starbucks.
So it’s not totally shocking that Starbucks has elected to cut costs.
In this case, that means roughly 400 stores are closing by the end of the fiscal year (that’s September 30th, for those keeping score) – and Starbucks is also laying off 900 corporate employees.
That’s a whole lot of people about to be out of a job.
Not because they did anything wrong – but just because Starbucks needs to reduce costs.
And that’s the real tragedy of it all – while this is a perfectly logical decision for Starbucks to make, given all the economic headwinds it’s facing, it’s still a raw deal for everyone who loses their job over it.
They deserve better, and I sincerely hope their next chapter is kinder than this one has been.
If you have thoughts or ideas on employment opportunities for all the folks who are losing their jobs at Starbucks, please share them in the comments!
We’re all in this economy and country together – let’s support each other in every way we can.
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