Starbucks is laying off 51 employees across its Seattle corporate office and various coffeehouses in Washington.
Eight employees who work at headquarters will be laid off from Nov. 14 through Dec. 4, per a state filing received Wednesday by the Employment Security Department.
The notice confirmed the closure of five Washington stores, which resulted in job losses for 43 retail workers. The majority of affected positions are baristas.
Starbucks pointed The Seattle Times to a recent letter by Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams.
“We have carefully reviewed our North America coffeehouse portfolio and identified locations where we do not believe we can consistently deliver the experience we want for customers and partners or where we don’t see a path to acceptable financial performance,” he wrote on Sept. 24. “As a result, we will close approximately 250 coffeehouses later this week.”
Workers at two of the affected coffeehouses — one in Spokane and another in Redmond — are represented by Starbucks Workers United, a union that represents around 5% of baristas across over 10,000 company-operated stores in the U.S.
“These outrageous closures prove again that ‘Back to Starbucks’ is nothing more than a betrayal of what workers and customers loved about the company, the union said Wednesday. "Union baristas are proud to have negotiated an enforceable agreement through effects bargaining to make sure union partners are treated fairly whether they transfer or get severance pay.
The Times reported on the closures of those five coffeehouses in Seattle, Redmond, Spokane and Vancouver last month.
Starbucks still has not confirmed the shuttering of a sixth site at 1700 Seventh Ave. in Seattle, though the coffeehouse is closed and missing brand signage, as of Wednesday.
Another coffeehouse shuttered at the Docusign Tower on Third Avenue over the summer.
A slew of layoffs and store closures, including in Seattle, have taken place over the past year. The changes come as CEO Brian Niccol pushes ahead with the “Back to Starbucks” plan. It focuses on reviving the company’s traditional coffeehouse experience with upgraded stores, more staffing, smoother operations and reduced consumer wait times.
The company recorded $9.3 billion in revenue for its third quarter, which ended June 28, down 1% compared with the same period a year earlier. An earnings report at that time showed Starbucks' North American store count slipped to 18,371 at the end of that quarter, down from 18,734 in 2025.
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