Starbucks intends to close about 250 cafes across the country this week, and at least two Portland-area locations appear to be on the list: a store at 2880 S.E. Powell Blvd. in Portland and another at 14585 S.E. McLoughlin Blvd. in Milwaukie, both of which are listed as closed after Saturday.
Starbucks spokesperson Mike Grams shared the closure plans in a Thursday statement, saying the company had identified locations that could not consistently deliver the customer and partner experience it expects, according to OregonLive.com. Grams also said some of the targeted stores simply lacked a path to acceptable financial performance. The 250 closures represent roughly 1% of Starbucks' roughly 18,000 North American cafes, and the company has not specified which coffeehouses will close, how many are in the United States, or exactly when the affected stores will serve their last cups.
A KGW report cited in the same coverage had identified several dozen locations that appeared to be closing cafes as of Thursday, though the full scope of the closures nationwide remains unconfirmed. Starbucks Workers United, which represents employees at nearly 700 U.S. stores, said that 20 unionized stores are among the 250 slated to close, according to reporting from the Associated Press. The union has not reached a labor agreement with Starbucks.
A Pattern That Stretches Back a Year
This week's closures aren't an isolated event. Starbucks closed nearly 500 U.S. coffeehouses in September 2025, including more than a dozen in Oregon, while also laying off approximately 900 corporate employees that same month. Those cuts were part of a broader $1 billion restructuring effort that included shuttering underperforming North American stores, as virginiabusiness.com reported at the time. The company said the reductions would primarily hit its support teams, and it also planned to close many open corporate positions rather than fill them.
CEO Brian Niccol, who took over as Starbucks chairman and CEO in 2024, has framed the closures as part of a turnaround plan focused on rebuilding the brand. Niccol said the company had identified coffeehouses where it was unable to create the physical environment its customers and partners expect, or where it saw no path to financial performance, per the same account. Starbucks, based in Seattle, expected most store closures tied to that earlier restructuring to be completed by the end of its fiscal year, trimming its company-operated North American footprint by about 1% and leaving the chain with nearly 18,300 total locations across the U.S. and Canada, down from the 18,734 locations disclosed in a July regulatory filing.
Severance and Transfers for Affected Workers
Baristas at stores that close are typically offered severance packages and transfers to other locations where possible, according to reporting from the Idaho State Journal on a similar round of closures. Starbucks has also said union representation was not a factor in deciding which stores would close. TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles had estimated the company would close around 500 North American stores in its fiscal fourth quarter, and Starbucks ended its 2025 fiscal year with 124 fewer North American stores than the year before. In Pocatello, Idaho, the East Benton Street Starbucks closed for good on a recent Saturday, one example of the closures playing out store by store around the country.
The closures come even as Starbucks points to signs of recovery. The company has posted six straight quarters of sales decline in the U.S., but comparable North America and U.S. store sales rose 4% in the fiscal quarter that ended December 28, 2025, and Starbucks has said it expects global same-store sales and revenue to grow 3% or more in fiscal 2026, according to finance.yahoo.com. The turnaround effort under Niccol, dubbed “Back to Starbucks,” began when he became CEO in August 2024, and it has paired store closures with investment elsewhere: about 200 stores have already been redecorated, with more than 1,000 slated for updates by fall, and the company expects to open as many as 650 locations worldwide this year.
Reaction among baristas has been raw on social media. One post to Reddit's r/starbucks community read, “Just got told my store is closing THIS SATURDAY! ITS FUCKING THURSDAY!!” Another commenter wrote, “6 years I've worked here and now my jobs is a jeopardy.” Those posts are anecdotal and don't confirm specific store locations or employment details, but they capture the anxiety rippling through staff as the list of closures takes shape this week.
