At least five Wisconsin Starbucks locations in the Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and Wausau areas will close as part of global reductions announced Sept. 25 by the coffee chain. The confirmed stores are in Fox Point, Wauwatosa, Rothschild, Madison and Ashwaubenon.
Starbucks has not released an official list of stores set to close as of early afternoon Sept. 26, but phone calls to several Wisconsin locations confirmed that at least three locations would close on Sept. 27: 383 W. Brown Deer Road in Fox Point; 151 N. Mayfair Road in Wauwatosa and 10204 Park Plaza in Rothschild.
And according to the Starbucks website, the locations at 1896 E. Washington Ave. in Madison and 2883 S. Oneida St. in Ashwaubenon have no hours listed after Sept. 27. These locations would not confirm or respond to calls from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, with one employee saying staff were instructed by the company to not speak with media.
When asked for a list of the Wisconsin locations closing, a Starbucks media representative said, “While I don’t have specifics on locations, I can confirm that we’ll have signage up and an email to notify customers.”
The five Starbucks locations are some of the hundreds of spots, about 1% of the company’s stores, closing across the U.S., Canada and Europe, as part of Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol’s strategy to transform the company, according to a Sept. 25 announcement sent to employees and posted on the Starbucks blog. Starbucks is also laying off 900 nonretail employees.
In the blog post, Niccol said the company would close specific locations “where we’re unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we don’t see a path to financial performance.”
The company told USA TODAY that the Starbucks app will be updated on Sunday, Sept. 28 to reflect the closures.
In a statement issued after Niccol’s announcement was released, Starbucks Workers United, which represents 12,000 baristas across 45 states and the District of Columbia, said it would formally request information about the planned closures.
Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Starbucks locations to close in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and Wausau areas
Reporting by Claudia Levens, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
