Why Starbucks Is Shutting Down 250 North American Stores

The coffee times, they are a-changing.

I'm no business-planning expert, but it seems like the days of simply throwing up another location or 20 every time a popular coffee joint becomes popular may be coming to an end, at least when it comes to America's best-known coffee purveyor.

Starbucks is closing approximately 250 coffeehouses across North America this week, and unfortunately for coffee drinkers here in Rockford, one of them is right in our backyard...depending on which part of the city you live in.

One Rockford Location Is Either Already Closed, Or Is Closing Down This Week

The Starbucks at 2137 S. Perryville Road is on the closure list, meaning its final days are here. The Starbucks app shows the location closing after Saturday. And if you've ever driven that stretch of Perryville, you know Starbucks hasn't exactly been shy about putting locations around the Rockford area.

In fact, the Perryville location is one of just two Illinois Starbucks identified for closure in this round. The other is a store on Houbolt Road in Joliet.

Closing 250 Stores Is A Lot Of Stores, But There Are A Few Starbucks Stores Still Left

Starbucks says this isn't a sign that it's getting out of the coffeehouse business. The company has more than 18,000 locations across North America, so these 250 closures represent roughly 1 percent of the total. Starbucks says it is closing stores that aren't delivering the financial performance or customer experience the company expects, while continuing to open new locations and renovate about 1,500 existing coffeehouses.

Still, there's something a little ironic about Starbucks closing stores because it has too many underperforming locations after spending decades seemingly putting a Starbucks on every other corner.

And this isn't the company's first big round of cuts. About a year ago, Starbucks closed 627 stores in North America and Europe, including several in Illinois.

For the people who regularly stopped at the Perryville Starbucks, the good news is that other Rockford-area locations aren't going anywhere, at least for now.

Because apparently, even Starbucks has finally decided that sometimes you can have too much coffee.

LOOK: 20 Discontinued McDonald's Menu Items You'll Never See Again

Discontinued McDonald's items tell the story of eight decades of quiet experiments, from a pizza that took too long to cook to a lobster roll that never made financial sense. Some disappeared overnight with no explanation, others were cut to streamline operations, and a few became cultural phenomena long after they were gone.

Gallery Credit: Stacker

Filed Under: Illinois business closings