Is Starbucks closing stores in California

1. What Starbucks officially announced and why

Starbucks told employees and the public it would refine its portfolio by closing a portion of underperforming stores and ending certain pickup-only concepts as part of a roughly $1 billion restructuring intended to “refine our portfolio” and improve overall customer experience; the company indicated about 1% of North American locations would close while more than 1,000 sites are slated for remodels and some new openings are planned ^{[1] [2]}.

2. How many California closures do reporters find — and why numbers differ

Local and national outlets report different tallies: some coverage cites about 36 California locations affected with roughly 20 in Los Angeles (ABC10) while other trackers and local TV stations compile lists that suggest dozens to hundreds of possible California closures, with one unofficial Google Sheet and media roundups listing as many as nearly 200 California entries though those lists were compiled and verified to varying degrees ^{[4] [5] [6]}.

3. Confirmed closures on the ground: examples and patterns

Multiple local outlets have verified individual store shutdowns—San Jose reporting four closures, KTLA noting at least 29 California locations already shuttered (including clusters in L.A., San Francisco and San Diego), and other local stations confirming at least 20 closures in Greater Los Angeles—demonstrating that closures are real and concentrated in large metropolitan areas where Starbucks has historically been saturated ^{[7] [8] [9]}.

4. Pickup-only and mobile-only formats are a distinct, announced cut

Starbucks separately announced the end of its pickup-only and mobile-only storefront experiment, a change that will shutter some of those specialized sites; outlets report up to 90 pickup/mobile-only locations nationwide will close, including about 20 in California, a distinct category from the broader portfolio pruning ^{[2] [3]}.

5. National context: the “400 stores” headline and pushback

Many stories summarized the action as “about 400 U.S. stores” closing as part of the plan, and reporting tracked hundreds of closures across major metros, but some broader summaries and follow-ups noted that earlier reports and interpretations were mischaracterized — Starbucks and some outlets pushed back that the 400 figure had been misrepresented in certain contexts even as the company acknowledged portfolio refinement ^{[1] [10]}.

6. How reporters verified closures and where uncertainty remains

Local stations and newspapers often verified closures by checking store hours on Starbucks’ website or reporting from community tipsters, while other compilations relied on crowdsourced Google Sheets and Reddit threads; Starbucks has not published a single definitive public list of every closing store, which leaves room for discrepancies between verified closures and widely circulated unofficial lists ^{[11] [5] [4]}.

7. Stakes for workers, customers and local markets

Starbucks said it will try to relocate retail employees and offered severance for affected corporate staff, but reporting also documents layoffs of roughly 900 non-retail roles and localized impacts where competitors and new entrants have moved into vacated footprints, underscoring that the closures have labor and market consequences beyond a simple pruning exercise ^{[1] [7]}.

Conclusion: the simple answer

Starbucks is closing stores in California — dozens have already closed and dozens more were announced or flagged in local reporting — but exact statewide totals vary because the company has not released a definitive public list and media tallies rely on a mix of company updates, local verification and unofficial crowdsourced trackers ^{[1] [5] [4]}.