Starbucks closing 600 stores

[bchris02]

Starbucks announced today it is closing 600 stores, spread across all markets. I imagine we could lose quite a few because as a market we are way over-Starbucked for our size. Anybody have any insight as to which ones might be closed? I hope the one on Kavannaugh in the Heights stays.

[LRguy21]

In Little Rock:

Downtown

Cantrell & Mississippi

Heights

Chenal Parkway & Embassy Drive

Cantrell & Sam Peck

Kroger (Chenal)

Target (Chenal).........Being built as we speak.

Midtowne Shopping Center

Airport (but that's private)

...................................................Did i forget any?

Barns & Noble Cafe.................Serving Starbucks.

I dont know outside of Little Rock.

I would see the one on Chenal & Embassy being one of the main ones in LR to be closed. Its hard to get to, and not very convenient. Others, it would be hard to say.

[Gavdog28]

In Little Rock:

Downtown

Cantrell & Mississippi

Heights

Chenal Parkway & Embassy Drive

Cantrell & Sam Peck

Kroger (Chenal)

Target (Chenal).........Being built as we speak.

Midtowne Shopping Center

Airport (but that's private)

...................................................Did i forget any?

Barns & Noble Cafe.................Serving Starbucks.

I dont know outside of Little Rock.

I would see the one on Chenal & Embassy being one of the main ones in LR to be closed. Its hard to get to, and not very convenient. Others, it would be hard to say.

[LRU1967]

In Little Rock:

Downtown

Cantrell & Mississippi

Heights

Chenal Parkway & Embassy Drive

Cantrell & Sam Peck

Kroger (Chenal)

Target (Chenal).........Being built as we speak.

Midtowne Shopping Center

Airport (but that's private)

...................................................Did i forget any?

Barns & Noble Cafe.................Serving Starbucks.

I dont know outside of Little Rock.

I would see the one on Chenal & Embassy being one of the main ones in LR to be closed. Its hard to get to, and not very convenient. Others, it would be hard to say.

[Stormcrow]

I personally don't think LR area will lose too many. My opinion of this is that they are closing mostly the locations that are more or less right across the street from other locations in major metro areas. Can't count the number of times I've seen that in So. Cal. I think we might lose or two at the most.

[ArkansasTraveler]

I think maybe it might be at most a couple, as well. Little Rock just doesn't suffer from the situation of occurrences like, say, two Starbucks stores opposite the same circle from each other in downtown Indianapolis. And that's not even a particularly congested city (from a tourist's perspective, anyway). My total count for Little Rock alone is 11 stores, complemented by two in North Little Rock, two in Conway, and one each in Benton and Jacksonville.

The Chenal Parkway store has always been a real pain to access

[Sammy00]

In Benton there is one in the Target parking lot, and another inside Target about 300 feet away.

[Stormcrow]

In Benton there is one in the Target parking lot, and another inside Target about 300 feet away.

[bchris02]

One of those sounds like a prime candidate!

[turboturtle]

I spoke with a Starbucks manager tonight who said the store closings are not effecting any of the Arkansas stores.

[LRguy21]

Thats good! I only thought we would loose a couple stores. But places like San Fransisco, LA, Seattle, NYC where there is one on every block. Those will have some adjustments, as they should.

[Arkansas Student]

I worked for Starbucks as an assistant manager for a brief time as they were expanding in the NWA Market (had to leave that job for health reasons). Curiously NWA is part of a different "region" within the company than the LR area, but I did find out from speaking with some of the people higher-up than me that Starbucks as a company was starting to set its sights on expansion in the less-served, middle-of-the-country markets, like Arkansas & Missouri. In fact, one of the training managers told me that the plan was to have approximately 40 stores operating in each of the NWA and Central AR markets by the end of the decade (2010). There expansion policy seemed very weird to me, and I could never get a straight answer as to how locations are chosen.

Mentioning locations in our area, there are currently 3 in Conway: one along Harkrider, one on East Oak, and one in the Target @ Conway Commons (very close to the East Oak location). Also construction has begun on an addition to the UCA Library that will house both a Starbucks and Quizno's, similar to the setup currently found on campus at the UA in Fayetteville. I wouldn't be surprised to see another location or two pop up in west Conway in the coming years.

[xivinrah]

Starbucks announced today it is closing 600 stores, spread across all markets. I imagine we could lose quite a few because as a market we are way over-Starbucked for our size. Anybody have any insight as to which ones might be closed? I hope the one on Kavannaugh in the Heights stays.

[theman]

I spoke with a Starbucks manager tonight who said the store closings are not effecting any of the Arkansas stores.

[Architect]

I'm not a coffee drinker, but my wife who is spoke with someone at the Maumelle Starbucks and they said that central Arkansas locations to be closed are the one on McCain and the location in Malvern. This could be just speculation by this employee. Who knows.

[hogwash]

Last time I was in Malvern, it already appeared closed. At least it appeared that way from the opposite side of 270.

The starbucks is/was in a development brought in by a local car dealer in Malvern I believe. He is one of the types that believes running a successful business means he knows how to develop land too. Its just unfortunate his first go-around came at the expense of one of the last largely undeveloped exits along I-30. He brought in a crappy metal building car dealership (an unusually ugly one at that) and Wal-Mart.

[ArkansasTraveler]

That Malvern location sounds more like a licensed limited-offering Starbucks, in the mode of those you'll find inside especially Kroger stores and airports. But if Malvern is a surprise, the fact that Blytheville has a Starbucks came as a complete shock to me, and is by all indication a company owned-and-operated location.

[LRguy21]

I'm not a coffee drinker, but my wife who is spoke with someone at the Maumelle Starbucks and they said that central Arkansas locations to be closed are the one on McCain and the location in Malvern. This could be just speculation by this employee. Who knows.

[hartford]

Apparently, that employee was right. I was at the starbucks in the Heights today and was talking to one of the store attendants. She said the news came the other day. She said she thought her store was going to be closed. She said of all the Little Rock stores, The Heights has the lowest income or whatever its called, Its the lowest store. And she said that the store with the highest income is the one on Chenal by the embassy Suites, which surprises me. She said it's the store in Central Arkansas that always gets the new stuff first, almost like a tester store. That blew my mind.

But this is good news.

[bchris02]

I don't know why everyone on this forum is so surprised at the success of the Starbucks on Chenal. It is probably the most visible store in Little Rock being on Chenal Parkway, and it has a built in customer base being next door to Embassy Suites. Every time I am in there it is always busy and most of the tables are full.

However, I am surprised that the store on Kavanaugh is the slowest in the metro area. I would have guessed the one on McCain would do the worst because it is hard to access and is in a terrible building. BTW, that building is the worst use of a prime corner I have ever seen.

I am surprised that Starbucks has not put in a store in the River Market area yet. There are more tourists and overall foot traffic in that area than anywhere else in the state. I think they are missing out by not being down there.

[LRguy21]

The Heights Starbucks has probably slowed down since they put Starbucks in the Kroger on Cantrell, about a quarter mile from that Starbucks. I really hope the Heights Starbucks doesn't go, but I think its probably the most likely to go out of any in the metro area.

[Aporkalypse]

The attendant i talked to said that its slower because it doesn't have a drive through, and then plus the Kroger one. She was telling me that people come in with drinks made in the Kroger store and ask if they can get them remade in her store.

As for the Chenal one, i just hate the parking lot! its a cluster!

[gmariam]

Starbucks.com has a list of store closings for the month of July on it's website. (says it will continue on til first half of FY09) It lists 2 in Arkansas, Van Buren and Lowell. I counted 50 stores listed with the most being in California with 8, followed by Minnesota with 7.

[gmariam]

Also read an article that said...."Starbucks stated that the highest percentage of store closings are stores that opened in 2006 or later and were deemed to be underperforming stores, according to a statement from Starbucks. "

[bchris02]

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/USStoreClosureInfo.pdf

It looks like the only Little Rock metro store being closed is the one at 67 and McCain. That is surprising, I sort of figured the one west on McCain would be the one to go before the one there at that high-profile intersection, but I am glad we are keeping most of our Starbucks.