Starbucks Slashes 600 Jobs

[marmar]

from Reuters, via HuffPost:



Starbucks Slashes 600 Jobs
Reuters | February 21, 2008 05:09 PM


Starbucks Corp said on Thursday it would eliminate 600 jobs as it works to cut costs and reignite growth.

The coffee seller has been battered in recent months by slower consumer spending, higher milk and labor costs and concerns that it may have saturated its domestic market.

Shares in Starbucks were down 2.3 percent, or 41 cents, to $17.85 on the Nasdaq.


The Wall Street Journal additionally reports:

The Seattle company said that 220 people lost their jobs in the restructuring. The remaining 380 jobs are open positions that won't be filled. The cuts are happening in Starbucks's so-called field operations, or offices that support Starbucks cafes, and won't result in job losses at the retail stores. Nearly all of the jobs are based in the U.S. Starbucks employs about 170,000 people.
"We have to step up to the challenge of being strategic as well as nimble as our business evolves," Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said in an email to employees. The company also increased by two the number of regional divisions it has in the U.S., for a total of four.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/21/starbucks-slashes-600-job_n_87869.html

[originalpckelly]

1. Absolutely shocking!

You mean to tell me a company that has locations right across from one another in Downtown Denver is over-extended?

:scared:

[marmar]

2. LOL....So true.

At the Somerset Collection mall in suburban Detroit, there are 4 Starbuckses - in one shopping mall!

[Sarah Ibarruri]

3. Actually, what they have is staffing problems.

There are times when Starbucks is busier and times when it isn't. They seem to need lots of people when busy, and not when it's not so busy. What I'd do is offer discounts on coffee on off times rather than let people go. That will get people in at times when there isn't a huge crowd.