REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. - Starbucks is closing its location at 301 Rehoboth Avenue as part of a larger corporate effort to restructure and redirect company resources, employees confirmed Thursday.
The Rehoboth Beach shop is among potentially thousands of stores across the U.S., Canada and Europe that the Seattle-based coffee company said will be shutting down, starting immediately, according to the Associated Press. Starbucks also announced it is laying off 900 nonretail workers and focusing on what it calls a “turnaround” strategy.
Baristas at the Rehoboth Beach store told CoastTV they were informed of the closure during a staff meeting Thursday. Employees said the company may attempt to transfer affected employees to other locations where possible, but employees will not know for certain until Sunday.
In a statement, Starbucks' CEO said, "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."
Starbucks did not provide a full list of locations closing or confirm the Rehoboth Beach location's closing, however, the company said it expects to end its fiscal year Sunday with around 18,300 North American locations, down from 18,734 as of June 29 and the closures will be reflected in the company's app.
This comes after the MidAtlantic company Iron Hill Brewery suddenly closed its remaining locations, including one in Rehoboth Beach. Employees of this location tell CoastTV that they were not made aware of the restaurant/brewery closing until Thursday morning.