Starbucks will shut its Seattle retailer at Broadway East and Denny Approach subsequent month, the corporate instructed employees Monday night time. The closure of the Capitol Hill retailer will take impact Dec. 11, in accordance with the corporate.
Seattle-based Starbucks stated its makes an attempt to deal with security considerations on the location weren’t efficient. Incidents included theft, vandalism, property harm, drug use, threats of bodily violence, verbal harassment and assault, in accordance with Andrew Trull, a Starbucks spokesperson.
“Sadly, regardless of a number of mitigating efforts, security and safety incidents at our Broadway and Denny retailer have continued to escalate,” Trull stated.
In July, Starbucks introduced the closure of 5 shops in Seattle and 16 nationwide, citing security considerations. One of many Seattle shops was additionally on Capitol Hill, on Olive Approach. The Starbucks Employees Union countered the corporate’s declare, saying it’s a tactic to decelerate unionization campaigns.
There have been 97 incidents at that Broadway and Denny Starbucks location between Jan. 1, 2020, and July 10, 2022, in accordance with the Seattle Police Division. By comparability, there have been 68 incidents on the Union Sq. Starbucks and 157 on the Central District retailer. Each closed in the summertime.
In a press release, the union representing Starbucks employees, Starbucks Employees United, stated the closure of the shop is a type of retaliation. The union famous that Dec. 9, simply earlier than the shop will shut, marks the anniversary of the primary union being shaped in Buffalo, New York.
“The Broadway and Denny location was the primary retailer to unionize in Seattle, and one of many first places to arrange within the nation,” a union spokesperson stated.
Employees at Broadway and Denny filed a union petition in December, and votes have been licensed in March.
Rachel Ybarra, a barista on the retailer for 3 years, stated they noticed different baristas and prospects being assaulted and knew of peers who obtained dying threats.
Employees requested Starbucks managers for safety guards and social employees. Assist by no means got here, Ybarra stated.
“There’s undoubtedly a security difficulty on the retailer,” Ybarra stated. “It’s a utterly preventable one, and it’s one which the corporate has by no means bothered to deal with.”
Baristas don’t have sufficient sources, coaching or time to take care of potential violent conditions, Ybarra stated, leaving employees and prospects weak.
Starbucks’ mitigation efforts included closing patios, modifying retailer codecs and interesting with native legislation enforcement and the group, in accordance with the corporate.
Starbucks stated it evaluations employees’ and prospects’ experiences in its shops to judge issues of safety, and decides to shut a retailer if considerations persist.
The corporate will discount with the union relating to how the closure will have an effect on the employees, together with potential transfers to different shops.
Ybarra stated the union won’t let Starbucks shut the shop with no struggle.
Broadway and Denny retailer employees walked out throughout final Thursday’s “Crimson Cup Insurrection,” becoming a member of employees at greater than 100 Starbucks shops who went on strike. The walkout passed off the identical day as an annual occasion by which prospects can purchase reusable pink cups.
Ybarra feels linked to the shop and to common prospects, together with those that come into the shop for water or to hunt refuge from the rain, they stated.
“Starbucks is usually a place for the group to assemble, to be protected for everybody and to supply sources,” however the firm is eliminating these areas, Ybarra stated.
Starbucks modified from a “Third Place” group house to concentrate on comfort as a part of its Reinvention plan disclosed in September. In an try to fulfill market demand, the corporate is concentrating on extra drive-thru-only shops whereas slowing down the tempo of cafe-only retailer openings. The Reinvention plan will start rolling out subsequent yr via 2025.
