By Bob Seidenberg
Of all the local Starbucks stores in the area, the Starbucks located just east of Chicago Avenue at 519 Main St., was among the most union-active.
Shift supervisor and barista Connor Brennan said Friday he thinks that may have been its undoing and reason for landing on a company list of impending closings.
The store’s last day of operation will be Saturday. It’s being shuttered as the coffee giant announced Thursday it’s closing hundreds of stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe and laying off 900 nonretail employees so it can focus resources on its turnaround plan.
Around 20 Starbucks locations in the Chicago area and suburbs are slated for potential closure.
“I think it’s not a coincidence that many of the stores to be shut down are not only unionized, but particularly active union stores,” said Brennan, who is a bargaining delegate in Starbucks Workers United.
Starbucks did not respond to comment before publication about the reason for the Main Street’s location’s closure. However, Starbucks spokesperson Sam Jefferies told Block Club Chicago on Friday that “represented (unionized) status is not a factor when we consider whether to close a store.”
Didn’t see a path to ‘financial performance’
Starbucks announced Thursday it would be closing about 1% of its 1,830 stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, making the “difficult decision to eliminate approximately 900 current nonretail partner roles and close many open positions,” said Brian Niccol, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement Thursday.
The move grew out of a review the company conducted of its North America coffeehouse portfolio in line of the company’s “Back to Starbucks” plan.
“During the review, we identified coffeehouses 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, and these locations will be closed.”
Brennan said employees at the Main Street store saw news stories about stores closing, “but we didn’t know it was going to be us.” They only learned that the Main Street store was on the list from a union representative, who had gotten the information from Starbucks, he said.
On Sunday, staff will gather at the store and pack up, Brennan said. Although the store won’t be open, employees will continue working at the location in paid shifts through the next week, putting things in order.
After that?
“Hopefully, most of us will have the opportunity to transfer to like nearby stores,” Brennan said, “but the company has not been able to guarantee that for us at this point.”
The matter is expected to be a bargaining issue between the company and Starbucks Workers United, the worker-led unionizing effort involving employees of which Brennan said 13 Main Street store employees are members.
Workers United issued this statement on Friday: “This announcement makes it clear things are only going backwards at Starbucks under Brian Niccol’s leadership … “Fixing what’s broken at Starbucks isn’t possible without centering the people who engage with the company’s customers day in and day out.”
First in Evanston to unionize
The store will become the third of six Starbucks in Evanston to close in recent years, with the Starbucks in the Dempster and Central Street neighborhoods closing in 2022.
In 2023, the Main Street store was the first Starbucks in the city to successfully unionize, and the first among 200 to 250 nationwide to take that step, Brennan said. That number is now up to roughly 650, he said.
A variety of factors go into a decision to close a store from underperformance to location, Brennan acknowledged. The union is close to the finish line in its bargaining for workers first contract, with better hours and higher take-home pay and resolving hundreds of unfair labor practice charges still on the table.
“Obviously, the company closes stores all the time, but this is a mass closure like this, of hundreds of stores all at once. It’s very unusual,” Brennan said.
With the company’s latest restructuring, as many as 434 stores may be closed, according to one estimate, Brennan said. Of the 7,000-8,000 baristas to be laid off, he estimated something like 1,000 are union members or supporters.
‘I’m going to miss this place’
The Main Street store draws a variety of people from the immediate neighborhood, both commuters and middle school students.
Different from other Evanston Starbucks, staff at the store has always dealt sensitively with the delicate issue of unhoused people using the location to warm up and rest. Albany Care, a facility for individuals suffering from chronic mental illness is located about two blocks away.
The Starbucks Company transitioned earlier this year from an “open door” policy that allowed nonpaying customers, including unhoused individuals, to use the store to rest to a new policy that says people who use the store to go to the bathroom or hang out must make a purchase.
Brennan said corporate was aware of that special feature of the store but he thought it only a partial factor in the closing.
Noa Roland was one of a number of Nichols Middle School students on Friday, who used the word “sad” to describe their reaction to the closing.
“It’s fun coming here after school to be with my friends and stuff.”
Salma Alhamwi, an eighth grader at Nichols, liked the fact that the store was an easy place to walk to after volleyball practice. The next closest is near Evanston Township High School “so it’s pretty far away,” she said.
Addie Canes said, though home schooled, “I come here with my friends, and it just feels really bad because I love coming to Starbucks.”
Sadie Koo, another Nichols student believes the closing may have an effect on her homework.
“I come here twice a day to get caffeine in the morning and to do my homework (in the afternoons), and it makes me really responsible,” she said.
Taking the L or the Pace Route 213 bus, Christopher Lindholm said he has been regular customer of the Main Street Starbucks for at least five years. “I’m going to miss this place. It was a nice little cafe to come to and I’m going to be hard-pressed to find some place as nice.”
“It [was] quiet compared to others until 3 in the afternoon,” he said about the arrival of the middle schools students. “It’s been a pleasant place for Lisa (a friend) to hang out. I’m going to miss it.”
He approached the register, and sang a few bars from the song that completed each episode of The Carol Burnett Show.
“I’m so glad we had this time together.”
