Musings at Altitude

When you travel as much as many of us do, Starbucks can be a very relaxing stop on a journey and a very important place to do business at a destination.  I’ve joked many times how I should plot on a map the number of Starbucks I visit, because that’s what I look for, even overseas.  Starbucks seemed to be everywhere…and unfortunately they were…and even more unfortunately, evidently they were in markets that weren’t nearly as profitable as they needed them to be so now they are closing some stores.

Starbucks announced that they would be closing stores a few weeks ago.  Then the waiting began as to which ones would be closed.  Kudos to Starbucks for now giving us the list of all 600 stores that will be closed weeks in advance of the closing.  Here’s the list if you want to see if any are closing that you visit – http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/USStoreClosureInfo.pdf.

When I talked about change and the need for open communications, this seems to be a great example of being both open and very honest, knowing that team members’ lives will be affected by the loss of jobs and knowing that people will need time to adjust if they are directly impacted.  I know I’ve been to quite a few of those on the list – Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Wichita Falls, Fredericksburg, Federal Way, Mobile, Loveland, probably San Francisco and San Diego (don’t remember the addresses), and at least 3 of them in Baton Rouge.  Closing the stores in Baton Rouge doesn’t surprise me because always right nearby were Community Coffee stores which is the hometown brand, and incredibly good coffee, and what my wife and I drink at home (we live in Colorado so we have it flown in from the South).  But some of the others seemed to be pretty hopping stores at the times I visited – maybe that wasn’t the case.

Any change that requires closing facilities, shutting down locations, or eliminating organizational structure (or even entire companies) is hard.  I’ve seen first hand the gut wrenching debate before making such decisions and then also the heart breaking pain in those decision makers when the changes take place.  Obviously there are some that can make such decisions and then execute those changes with no feelings at all about those impacted, but I believe those are few and those aren’t the executives that I’ve been closely associated with in my past. 

With Starbucks, I appreciate their transparency.  I appreciate them letting both their teams and their customers know in advance that change is coming.  I appreciate them now telling us specifically what change will occur.  And I appreciate them knowing that these changes will cause pain and also feeling that pain themselves.

Though I don’t know all the details and I’m not sitting in all their meetings, they sure seem to be doing things better than most as they approach these changes.