Coffee mega chain Starbucks announced that they will be shutting down 16 stores in several major US cities.
The news from the fairly liberal leaning company comes after an internal review found it has become impossible to operate in those areas due to increasing crime.
“After careful consideration, we are closing some stores in locations that have experienced a high volume of challenging incidents that make it unsafe to continue to operate,” a spokesperson told CNN Business in an email.
The new closures will be happening at stores in Seattle, WA; Los Angeles, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Washington, DC, and Portland, OR. Starbucks announced that all 16 stores will be closed by the end of July.
All of the cities above are well known for pushing “woke” politics concerning criminal justice reform. Since voting in extremist liberal District Attorneys and leadership in the area, most the the listed metropolises have all but stopped prosecuting non-violent crimes and theft under $1000.
Starbucks announced the closures on Monday in a letter to their employees from 2 senior vice president of US operations, Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelson.
Stroud and Nelson discussed safety issues at their stores, saying that employees are “seeing firsthand the challenges facing our communities — personal safety, racism, lack of access to healthcare, a growing mental health crisis, rising drug use, and more.”
The VPs added that “with stores in thousands of communities across the country, we know these challenges can, at times, play out within our stores too.”
They also announced in the email that Starbucks will begin offering active shooter training as well as other types of safety training programs to their staff going forward.
Starbucks is considering closing their restrooms to public use as well, a key policy for the company since 2016. This is likely due to people using them for drug use and other elicit activities.
The major changes to the company come as former CEO Howard Schultz steps back in in an interim role to try and correct course for the brand. Do you think these new changes will help Starbucks revive their brand? How often do you buy drinks from there?
