The starbucks store closing list is out. Are your stores closing?

Starbucks Corporation, which owns 16,000 stores, decided to cut costs and close up 600 of its shops for good. The move was announced a few weeks ago, but today the full list of which stores will be closed was released. The locations are expected to all be closed by the middle of the year in 2009. A quick breakdown of the store closing list shows us the following:

States with most closings:

California- 88 Starbucks locations be closing in California. This represents 5% of the total number of stores in CA.

Florida- 59 locations will be closing in Florida. This represents 14% of the number of stores in FL.

Texas- 57 locations will be closing in Texas. This represents 11% of TX Starbucks stores.

States with high ratio of stores closing:

Mississippi- Starbucks had 17 locations here, but is closing 7 of them.

North Dakota- Only 12 locations were here, but 4 of them are now being closed.

Which Cities are most hard hit?

-Las Vegas, NV will see 13 of its Starbucks locations shutting their doors by mid-2009.

-Baton Rouge, LA is expected to have 9 Starbucks shops close.

-San Diego, CA is expected to have 10 locations closed.

-Indianapolis, IN will see 7 of its locations closed.

-Dallas, TX is expected to have 9 of its locations closed.

Why are these store closings taking place?

Starbucks said that the 600 store closings are a real effort to cut costs by closing the shops that are performing the worst and dragging down company profits. The store closings are expected to cut its workforce by 7% worldwide. Some of the employees at stores that are being shut down will have the opportunity to move to other stores in the region.

For several years Starbucks had been growing like weeds and its profits were consistently topping even the most optimistic expectations, but this has changed of late. The company seems to have hit some sort of a wall. Maybe it was that people decided they can't spend $5 for a cup of coffee very often with the economy the way it is? Maybe the company got a little too aggressive with its new store openings? It is clear that in many cities Starbucks has saturated the market by opening stores very close together.

What are your thoughts about these Starbucks store closings? Do you think the move will help the company in the long run?