Starbucks Shocks New York With Overnight Closures of Dozens of Stores

30 September 2025

Some 54 New York City Starbucks stores are closing. Niyi Fote/TheNEWS2 via ZUMA / SplashNews.com

In a sudden and dramatic move, Starbucks quietly shuttered 54 of its locations across New York City in the span of a single night, leaving landlords, employees, and patrons reeling from what many are calling a chaotic downsizing. The closures are part of a sweeping national restructuring in which the company plans to close over 400 stores across the U.S. and cut 900 corporate roles as it grapples with declining sales over six straight quarters.

What makes these shutterings particularly jarring is how they were executed. Rather than giving advance notice or negotiating with building owners, Starbucks posted signs overnight on storefronts many landlords and building managers say they found out only the next morning. “There was no outreach to landlords in this case,” said Newmark Retail vice chairman Jeffrey Roseman, describing the move as highly irregular for a company not in bankruptcy. In districts from the Upper East Side to Midtown, from Greenwich Village to the Financial District, once-bustling coffeehouses went dark without warning.

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol defended the decision, saying the company had identified cafés that were underperforming or failing to deliver the “physical environment our customers and partners expect.” In a blog post, he stated that the closures would be targeted to where there was no clear path to sustainable performance. Still, critics argue that the abruptness particularly in such prime locations suggests poor planning at best, or disregard at worst.

One of the most contentious points is whether Starbucks may have run afoul of New York City’s Fair Workweek Law, which mandates that laid-off employees must be offered roles at nearby stores first. The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection sent Starbucks a warning letter giving the company until Friday to explain how it plans to comply with the law, noting that workers impacted by the closures should have access to job opportunities within the same borough.

Union pressure is also mounting. Starbucks Workers United reports that 59 of the unionized stores are among those being closed. Some advocates suspect Starbucks is targeting unionized sites under the cover of broader corporate cuts. The company insists, however, that union status did not influence closure decisions.

The implications for local communities are immediate. Landlords who once negotiated lease terms in collaboration with tenants were blindsided. Retail corridors missing Starbucks’ ubiquitous green signs now face gaps in foot traffic and retail synergy. For regular customers, favorite morning stops may simply vanish. Time Out’s reporting confirms that 34 of the closed locations were in high-visibility areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

Starbucks’ nationwide plan is part of a larger reorganization: a $1 billion plan to restructure U.S. operations by trimming management, reducing wait times, and rethinking store design. Despite the disruption, the company foresees only a 1 percent decline in the number of U.S. stores by year end, counting in new openings offsetting closures.

Analyst Mark Kalinowski drew comparisons to Starbucks’ cuts during the 2008 recession, when the chain shuttered hundreds of stores. But today’s move, he says, reflects deeper structural challenges: weakening demand for premium beverages in a more cost-sensitive consumer climate, and intensifying competition from fast food chains and local cafés.

For Starbucks staff, the fallout is immediate and painful. Some will be offered transfers to other locations nearby, while others are eligible for severance. How smoothly that transition can happen under tight timelines and with so many closures at once remains an open question.

This episode also highlights how corporate restructuring in big retail plays out in the public eye. Closing dozens of stores overnight especially in a dense, high-rent city like New York carries reputational cost. It signals how urgent Starbucks believes its turnaround needs to be, even if it means taking heavy collateral damage in communities that once hosted its cafés.

As Starbucks rolls out its restructuring plan, communities, workers, and city regulators are watching closely. The abruptness of these closures has ignited pressure for accountability, scrutiny of labor practices, and an urgent conversation about the changing face of how we buy coffee in cities.