Starbucks to close 250 stores: 'Difficult decision'

Starbucks announced plans to close roughly 250 stores across North America this week, company COO Mike Grams revealed Thursday. Grams announced the closure in a public statement, saying that while most of its 18,000 North American stores were profitable, a small portion has been struggling. "We have carefully reviewed our North America coffeehouse portfolio and identified locations where we do not believe we can consistently deliver the experience we want for customers and partners or where we don’t see a path to acceptable financial performance," Grams said in the announcement, which was in the form of a letter to "Partners."