As mall traffic drops, Starbucks is shuttering all of its tea-centric Teavana stores.
The company announced on Thursday that all 379 Teavana stores are set to close in the coming year, with the majority shuttering by spring 2018.
According to Starbucks, the 3,300 employees impacted by the closures will “receive opportunities to apply for positions at Starbucks stores.”
In April, the coffee giant announced it was “evaluating strategic options” for its struggling Teavana stores, the vast majority of which are located in malls across the US.
“Over the last several years many mall-based retailers have been adversely impacted by reduced foot traffic, resulting from the accelerating shift of consumer behavior away from brick-and-mortar retail and changes in consumer retail activity overall,” Scott Harlan Maw, Starbucks CFO, said in a call with investors at the time. “Our Teavana mall stores have not been immune, with many reporting negative comps and operating losses for some time.”
While Starbucks has invested in new store designs and updated merchandising, Maw said that the rate of decline at mall-based Teavana stores over the last six months has been worse than forecast, and that the company expects further declines.
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