Starbucks Closing 600 Stores

Press Release: Starbucks Increases Number of U.S. Company-Operated Store Closures as Part of Transformation Strategy

Starbucks has announced ... a decision to close approximately 600 underperforming company-operated stores in the U.S. market.
...
Starbucks now expects to open fewer than 200 new U.S. company-operated stores in fiscal 2009.

In April Starbucks had announced plans to expand by about 400 net stores per year through 2011. This is a substantial cut from that plan.

This is more bad news for strip mall owners ...

UPDATE: more details from Reuters: Starbucks to cut up to 12,000 jobs, close 600 stores and Bloomberg (hat tip Argento, Cooking ramen in my percolator)