Starbucks closings

Business was brisk this morning under the sign of the mermaid at 42nd Street and Grandview Avenue as Starbucks employees went about business as usual, brewing up their trademark cappuccinos, lattes and iced coffees for a steady stream of customers.

In the wake of the announcement that Starbucks would be closing 600 underperforming stores nationwide, official word still had not yet filtered down to Odessa about the status of the two local coffee outlets.

Dean Coats, manager of the Starbucks at 2016 E. 42nd St., declined comment on the status of the store, referring questions to the national chain's media relations department.

Company spokesman Sarah Hoffman said in an e-mail that Starbucks would not be releasing a full list of the stores being closed out of respect to the store employees affected by the move.

The e-mail also indicated that the stores will be notified by their district manager and/or regional director approximately 30 days prior to the anticipated closure date. Also, the approximately 6,600 remaining U.S. company-operated stores will be notified that they're not affected by this announcement.

In a news release posted Tuesday on the Starbucks website, company officials said 600 of the store's company-operated outlets would be closed in coming months. The release did not pinpoint the store locations to be closed.

The release noted that about 70 percent of the stores targeted for closure have been opened since the beginning of 2006.

The 42nd Street location has been open since January of 2004.

Starbucks also has a location in the lobby at Medical Center Hospital, but that store is a licensed operation and should not be one of the stores closed, said manager Roger Walker-Wheatley.

"From what I've heard, Starbucks people still consider West Texas to be underdeveloped as a market, and so I wouldn't expect any stores in this area to be closed," Walker-Wheatley said. "I would imagine they'd be looking at urban areas where there's a lot of redundancy, a lot of stores that are close to other stores."

Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Pete Bocian told the Associated Press that a "vast majority" of the stores to be closed had been opened in recent years near an existing company-operated Starbucks.