Starbucks closing 5 high-traffic Seattle stores amid labor disputes, corporate restructuring

Starbucks plans to close five Seattle stores in early April, including four unionized locations, marking the latest sign of the coffee giant shrinking parts of its retail presence in its hometown during a period of corporate restructuring, labor conflict, and expansion outside Washington.

The company confirmed that the unionized locations will close at 1101 Madison St., 4147 University Way NE near the University of Washington, Seattle Center/Armory, and Seattle Children’s Hospital. A fifth, non-union store at 1730 Minor Ave. will also close.

Most of the stores sit in high-traffic areas, including near the Space Needle and in major employment and hospital corridors. The coffee giant has previously closed multiple high-profile locations near high tourist areas, including the Pike Place Market, due to reduced foot traffic and spiking crime.

Workers were given 30 days’ notice of the closures. Starbucks said it will attempt to transfer employees to nearby stores when possible, and if transfers are unavailable, workers will receive severance packages.

The closures add to a growing list of Starbucks locations that have shut down in Seattle during the past year. In September 2025, Starbucks closed its Seattle Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill, ending a nearly 11-year run for the flagship café. Another Reserve Roastery in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood was also closed.

According to KOMO News, those shutdowns were part of a larger restructuring effort in which Starbucks closed about 1 percent of its North American stores, reducing its store count from 18,734 locations to roughly 18,300. The five new Seattle closures are expected to take effect in early April, further reducing the company’s retail footprint in the city where Starbucks was founded more than 50 years ago.

The store closures followed significant corporate changes at Starbucks. In October 2025, the company laid off 1,100 corporate employees globally, including more than 900 in the greater Seattle area, as part of a broader effort to streamline operations and address declining sales.

Seattle has also been the center of a prolonged labor dispute between Starbucks and unionized workers. In November 2025, employees from unionized Starbucks stores across the country launched a strike on Red Cup Day, one of the company’s busiest sales days of the year. Workers demanded higher wages, improved staffing, and progress toward a collective bargaining agreement. Later that month, protesters claiming to be Starbucks employees set up an encampment outside the company’s Seattle headquarters, escalating the dispute. The demonstrations drew support from several prominent Democratic politicians, including Rep. Ro Khanna, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, and Sen. Bernie Sanders. Jayapal visited the Seattle encampment and called for wealth redistribution, urging corporations and wealthy Americans to “pay their fair share.” Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson also joined the strike early, appearing on a picket line shortly after her election victory speech.

At the same time Starbucks is closing stores locally, the company has announced plans to open a corporate operations office in Nashville, Tennessee, shifting some supply-chain and sourcing roles out of Seattle as it expands its presence in the southeastern United States.

Sources previously told The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI that Starbucks has already paid out the remainder of its lease on one Seattle-area office location and vacated the building in preparation for the Nashville expansion. Starbucks has not publicly confirmed that report.