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Starbucks will be closing ‘many more’ stores, Howard Schultz says in leaked video footageStarbucks will be closing ‘many more’ stores, Howard Schultz says in leaked video footage

‘This is just the beginning,’ the interim CEO said to colleagues during an internal meeting, blaming lawmakers for not taking care of issues of crime and homelessness

Joanna Fantozzi, Senior Editor

July 15, 2022

3 Min Read
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Joanna Fantozzi

Starbucks announced the closure of 16 stores across the U.S. this week because of health and safety concerns, and according to leaked videos of interim CEO Howard Schultz, these closures will not be the last. The video footage of an internal meeting at Starbucks was initially obtained by conservative Canadian blog, the Post Millennial, and shows Schultz talking about the issues facing his employees, concluding that “this is just the beginning” and that there will be “many more” Starbucks store closures to come, including profitable stores.

“It’s shocked me that one of the primary concerns our partners have is for their own personal safety. […] We’re facing things the stores were not built for,” he said, adding that the major safety concerns are issues of homelessness, drug use and crime in and around many Starbucks stores.

Schultz then goes on to blame local government leadership that has “abdicated their responsibility in fighting crime and addressing mental illness” for many of the health and safety issues and said that “we are going to have to transform and modernize” to meet changing needs of the customers, though in the footage shown, he did not give more details on what those changes might be.  

A Starbucks spokesperson confirmed that the video footage is authentic and was part of a larger, regular staff meeting as a follow-up to the letter sent announcing the imminent store closures.

“We regularly open and close stores and we’re always looking for better ways to serve customers,” the Starbucks spokesperson said as a response to the footage.

The 16 store closures happen to all be in cities run by Democrat leaders, though Schultz never explicitly made a bipartisan political connection during his critical remarks. Two of the stores that are slated to close in Seattle had unionized and one of the Portland stores was supposed to have held a union vote soon.

“Every decision Starbucks makes must be viewed through the lens of the company’s unprecedented and virulent union-busting campaign,” Starbucks union SBWorkers United said in a statement. “Starbucks claims that  they are closing the stores because they are 'unsafe,' yet, the closing of the popular college town store in Ithaca, NY, followed a strike over unsafe conditions. Starbucks’ response was not to fix the problem but to punish the workers who had recently unionized. Yet, Starbucks still argues that this was not a response to the growing union movement spreading across the country.

Although Starbucks did say they would transfer the employees at soon-to-be-shuttered locations to new Starbucks stores and would reopen to “new locations with safer conditions,” employees and customers at the Los Angeles-area stores to be closed were “baffled” at the upcoming closures, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“There [are] countless times that I have been yelled at, cursed at, thrown things and harassed,” said one employee, who spoke to the Los Angeles Times on condition of anonymity because staff were not permitted to talk to the press. Staff were given two options: to either be transferred or to quit. The Starbucks spokesperson clarified that the company is working hard to assure that employees will be relocated to nearby stores.

Contact Joanna Fantozzi at [email protected]

Follow her on Twitter: @JoannaFantozzi

About the Author

Joanna Fantozzi

Senior Editor

Joanna Fantozzi is a Senior Editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. She has more than seven years of experience writing about the restaurant and hospitality industry. Her editorial coverage ranges from profiles of independent restaurants around the country to breaking news and insights into some of the biggest brands in food and beverage, including Starbucks, Domino’s, and Papa John’s.  

Joanna holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature and creative writing from The College of New Jersey and a master’s degree in arts and culture journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Prior to joining Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group in 2018, she was a freelance food, culture, and lifestyle writer, and has previously held editorial positions at Insider (formerly known as Business Insider) and The Daily Meal. Joanna’s work can also be found in The New York Times, Forbes, Vice, The New York Daily News, and Parents Magazine. 

Her areas of expertise include restaurant industry news, restaurant operator solutions and innovations, and political/cultural issues.

Joanna Fantozzi has been a moderator and event facilitator at both Informa’s MUFSO and Restaurants Rise industry events. 

Joanna Fantozzi’s experience:

Senior Editor, Informa Restaurant & Food Group (August 2021-present)

Associate Editor, Informa Restaurant & Food Group (July 2019-August 2021)

Assistant Editor, Informa Restaurant & Food Group (Oct. 2018-July 2019)

Freelance Food & Lifestyle Reporter (Feb. 2018-Oct. 2018)

Food & Lifestyle Reporter, Insider (June 2017-Feb. 2018)

News Editor, The Daily Meal (Jan. 2014- June 2017)

Staff Reporter, Straus News (Jan. 2013-Dec. 2013)

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