Friday, July 18, 2008

Manhattan Losing 6 Starbucks Stores

link
Maybe fancy news outlets like the Wall Street Journal are too hot stuff to cover local news, but I think New Yorkers should expect to get at least as much consideration as Baton Rouge.

Right? Here's the PDF list of closings. Note that Manhattan and New York are listed separately. And here's the quote from the Journal:
The list reads like a cross section of the U.S., with closures planned inside shopping malls, near beach resorts, in college towns and off highways. Las Vegas will lose the most stores of any U.S. city, with 13 expected to close. It is followed by San Diego, with 10; Dallas and Baton Rouge, La., each with nine; and Houston, with eight. Starbucks's hometown of Seattle is scheduled to lose seven cafes.

Now, I can't name every neighborhood in Queens, but I can name some. So, here are the boroughs or Queens neighborhoods that I can identify with their closings:
Brooklyn: 1
Douglaston: 1
Glendale: 1
Manhattan: 1
New York: 5
Staten Island: 1
The Bronx remains unscathed. But, the point is, we match San Diego at 10. There are only two in Los Angeles, a municipality of comparable size. I've mapped the Manhattan closures, because I'm compulsive. You'll notice they're bordered by 7th Ave or Broadway to the West, 54th Street to the North, Madison to the East and 34th Street to the South -- the box would actually be much tighter if it weren't for the store in the Herald Square Macy's.

I don't tend to pass any of these locations, but the 9th closest Starbucks (according to Google Maps) to my office and the 50th closest Starbucks to my apartment are closing up shop. So, my options for confusing drink sizes, misleadingly named concoctions and smooth jazz will be slightly more limited by "early next year."

1 comment:

Beth said...

I know I tend to take things too personally but THREE of them are the closest ones to my office! And Starbucks just bought Pinkberry. I was looking forward to that :(