Starbucks pulling plug on 9 BR coffee shops

• By CHAD CALDER
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Jul 19, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Starbucks Corp., which said earlier this week it will close two Baton Rouge coffee shops by the end of the month, will close seven more by March 2009.

The Seattle-based coffee giant’s closure plan appears to hit Baton Rouge harder than most cities, leaving only four locations open.

Its pullback in Baton Rouge leaves market share for competitors, which include Baton Rouge-based Community Coffee’s CC’s Community Coffee House, PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans and local mainstays such as Perk’s Coffee & Tea on Perkins Road and Highland Coffees near LSU.

Starbucks announced its plan to close 600 underperforming stores nationwide earlier this month. It named 50 of them on Monday, a list that included two in Baton Rouge — one at 6556 Siegen Lane (Interstate 10 and Siegen) and the other at 14241 Coursey Blvd. (Coursey near Hickory Ridge Boulevard).

On Thursday evening Starbucks named the other 550 it will close, a list that included:

• 5720 Corporate Blvd. (Corporate and Energy Drive)
• 8729 Siegen Lane (Siegen and Perkins Road)
• 19970 Highland Road (Airline Highway and Highland)
• 7777 Bluebonnet Blvd. (Perkins Rowe at Perkins and Bluebonnet)
• 5565 Essen Lane (Essen and Mancuso Lane)
• 8183 Airline Highway (Airline and Harry Drive)
• 9837 Bluebonnet Blvd. (Bluebonnet and Burbank Drive)

It’s exit leaves only stores at 3009 College Drive (College and Bennington); 7415 Corporate Blvd. (Corporate and Jefferson); 3880 S. Sherwood Forest Blvd. (South Sherwood Forest and Lake Sherwood); and 18169 Highland Road (Highland and I-10).

Starbucks also is closing one Lafayette location, at 115 Verot School Road (at Verot and Pinhook), and one each in Monroe, Shreveport and Kenner, bringing the total number of Louisiana closures to 15.

The closures do not appear to affect stores that are licensed to third parties, such as those in Target and Barnes & Noble locations.

The company had no information on when stores will be closed, just that the 600-store plan will be carried out over the next nine months.

It has said it expects 12,000 workers will lose their jobs chainwide, though it will try to reassign some workers to other locations.

Asked why Baton Rouge had so many locations closed for a city its size, the company issued a general statement unrelated to the question.

It appears, however, that Starbucks is pulling back significantly in the Gulf Coast.

Sharon Zackfia, an analyst who tracks Starbucks for William Blair & Co., noted that Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana were the top three states for store closures as a percentage of the chain’s total presence.

In Louisiana, Starbucks is closing 23 percent of its 57 stores. In Mississippi, it will shutter 41 percent of 17 locations, and in Alabama it is closing 24 percent of its 51 locations.