BIZNOTE: Another West Seattle Starbucks closes

| West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news | WS beverages

Ten months after Starbucks closed on Alki (where Alki Coffee Co. and Ben & Jerry’s are now), another Starbucks in West Seattle has shut down. Thanks to Cindi for the photo and tip; shopping at Jefferson Square Safeway today, she noticed that sign, saying the in-store coffee stand was closing permanently as of last Saturday. Starbucks fans of course have other nearby options, like the QFC across SW Alaska and the standalone Starbucks a block west (not to mention local indie options like Sound & Fog just a block east). As far as we can tell from checking the company website, this is the only shutdown within city limits in our area – we’ll doublecheck that with the company tomorrow.

ADDED 9:31 PM: We don’t know how long this one’s been closed, but we just checked Roxbury Safeway and it’s now Starbucks-less too.

Oerthehillz June 18, 2025 (8:06 pm)

The drinks at Sound & Fog are excellent in case anyone reading hasn’t tried them before.

Cookie Monster June 19, 2025 (5:32 am)

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Good cookies, too!
John June 19, 2025 (5:02 pm)

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Good squash bread, too!

Alki resident June 18, 2025 (9:11 pm)

This will be good for small business coffee shops.

Paul June 18, 2025 (9:20 pm)

Roxbury Safeway Starbucks is also closing.

WSB June 18, 2025 (9:27 pm)

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We actually went there just now to check on it since it wasn’t coming up on the Starbucks website. It’s gone – the area where it was is now ringed with plywood. Don’t know how long it’s been that way – I haven’t been in that store in some weeks. The now-closed BECU mini-branch is boarded up too, so there’s a lot of space to repurpose in there. – TR
- K June 19, 2025 (6:47 am)
  
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  It hasn’t been long. I was in the other day and there was no plywood. The way they reconfigured other parts of the store it was hard to stop there and get coffee anyway.
- Erika June 19, 2025 (8:27 am)
  
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  When I was at the Roxbury Safeway on Saturday, the checker I had told me the Starbucks closure there was happening in the next couple days, as was the QFC site closure.

Jake June 18, 2025 (9:35 pm)

Oh no! Anyway… kidding aside, I hate this for the workers, but I despise the company

John A. June 18, 2025 (10:46 pm)

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I imagine you despise everything.
Jimmy Jazz June 19, 2025 (1:58 am)

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Why the hate Jake?
- Kt June 19, 2025 (4:54 am)
  
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  Maybe the disparity of the army of part-time, unbenefited workers versus the Howard Schultzes?
- CW June 19, 2025 (6:22 am)
  
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  Union busting.
  - James June 19, 2025 (10:55 pm)
    
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    Exactly. North of 300 NLRB violations pushed Starbucks into IRRELEVANCE for me. Love unions or hate them, utter disregard for pur societies laws is below the standard I set when choosing where to spend my hard earned cash.
  - J June 20, 2025 (7:25 am)
    
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    Has nothing to do with Union Busting. The stores inside super markets are Licensed Stores, therefore are not owned by Starbucks but by Safeway. They are Safeway employees, specifically hired to run the stand. Do a little research.
- helpermonkey June 19, 2025 (8:00 am)
  
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  How about they’re paying their new CEO an ungodly amount of money, so he can live in Huntington Beach and fly up to his offices in Seattle in his private jet? Wrecking the environment, and opting to do a mass layoff of longtime corporate employees to pay for it. Oh, and their coffee is terrible, their food is barely a step above McDonalds. There’s more than one reason to hate Sbux.
  - Bradley June 19, 2025 (9:46 am)
    
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    When you’re the best in the business you get to call your shots. Look what he did for Chipotle. Besides I thought this was huge WFH crowd?
    - helpermonkey June 20, 2025 (8:42 am)
      
      LOL @ WFH. Starbucks just mandated that everyone (corporate) come back into the office at least 3 days per week. Except the CEO of course. He can still do whatever he wants, rolling around in the salaries of the long time employees he axed for jet fuel. Tell me what tastes better – starbucks coffee, or corporate boot?
- Robert Schmidt June 19, 2025 (7:10 pm)
  
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  After what that ingrate did to the Sonics I wish all his business and financial dealings nothing but I’ll will. But I’m not bitter.

Lucy June 18, 2025 (9:45 pm)

I don’t get all the Starbucks hate. It’s a local company that made it big. What is the issue?

Cassie June 19, 2025 (1:23 am)

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Because Howard shultz suckkkssssss, and they union bust, and more
- Rob June 19, 2025 (4:56 am)
  
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  Are all the other small coffee shops union?
- Jay June 19, 2025 (7:41 am)
  
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  And now Brian Nichols is even worse.
- Eldorado June 19, 2025 (7:43 am)
  
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  Thank you for saying it out loud. My thoughts exactly.
- Shay June 19, 2025 (8:05 am)
  
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  This store is inside a Safeway, which means they were Safeway employees, not Starbucks employees. Starbucks corporate likely had very little to do with the decision to close.
N June 19, 2025 (5:36 am)

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The Sonics basketball team’s history and Starbucks hate go together like peanut-butter and jelly.
Derek June 19, 2025 (6:55 am)

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Union busting mostly… and bad coffee
Brian June 19, 2025 (7:34 am)

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Who cares if they’re local if they are anti-labor? Garbage company.
Jeff F. June 19, 2025 (8:06 am)

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I’ll never forgive Howard Schultz for what he did to the SuperSonics. There’s a lot of blame to go around for their move to OKC, but Schultz is top of the list for selling them to an out of town ownership group that had been trying to get a professional sports team in Oklahoma for decades. UNFORGIVABLE!!!
D June 19, 2025 (8:47 am)

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Because the coffee is terrible.
Robert Schmidt June 19, 2025 (7:11 pm)

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And sold the Sonics.

HTB June 18, 2025 (9:48 pm)

What is the rationale for this? There is no way in-store Starbucks are losing money

Kt June 19, 2025 (4:56 am)

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The in-store stores are licensed to the operators so those were Safeway run stores not owned by Starbucks. Likely Kroger wants out of the coffee business. Could be hard to get employees for those positions.
- WSB June 19, 2025 (12:31 pm)
  
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  Safeway is owned by Albertsons, not Kroger (which owns brands including QFC and Fred Meyer).
Thinas June 19, 2025 (8:04 am)

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Oh I’m sure they are losing money. Starbucks in general isn’t very profitable these days, and outlets that aren’t especially pleasant to spend time in like the corner of a grocery store don’t offer any of the vibe that people want to pay for. It’s a last-resort coffee option at best. I would bet that Safeway Starbucks was selling less than a thousand dollars of product a day or so. The rent on the space was probably huge plus staffing is expensive. These Starbucks in stores always felt more like brand advertising to me than profit centers. I’m surprised the QFC counter is still there too.
Bradley June 19, 2025 (9:50 am)

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Might have more to do with Kroger merger. How many QFC Starbucks closed?

CoffeeDrinker June 18, 2025 (11:34 pm)

My mother told me yesterday that she had recently asked a Safeway employee who had worked in the Roxbury Safeway Starbucks and now was a regular Safeway employee, why it had closed. She told her that they used to make $10,000 a week at that Starbucks but it had dropped to $5,000 a week.

Shawn June 19, 2025 (1:42 am)

It probably doesn’t help that the Jefferson Square Safeway allows drug use and homeless folks camping out in front of the main entrance. I live across the street and there’s always a weird situation going down every night.

Derek June 19, 2025 (6:56 am)

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What are you talking about? “Allows” what? People are homeless, where do you want homeless people to go? By the way most on this comment thread are one or two paychecks away from being in the exact same position so how about some empathy Shawn?
- Bradley June 19, 2025 (9:52 am)
  
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  Really? Just making stuff up about the readers here? This is their jam? How about less drama.
- spooled June 19, 2025 (10:46 am)
  
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  Shawn is right. People with a choice take their business elsewhere when the customer experience gets too grungy or unsafe. I avoid Jefferson Square & Roxbury Safeways and the Westwood QFC. I will drive farther. As for “allowing” well, presumably the storefront and parking lot are private property, and a more active loitering/trespass/safety enforcement policy would be welcome but costly.
  - Jake June 19, 2025 (1:17 pm)
    
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    Spooled, maybe we need to care more about homeless and less about Starbucks and business “who move away from the poor?” Just a thought.

Mellow Kitty June 19, 2025 (6:28 am)

Makes sense. Why have three Starbucks one minute away from each other. And their coffee is horrible.

Eldorado June 19, 2025 (7:41 am)

Happy seeing this news. I’ve been boycotting Starbucks for 24 years now, still going strong.

Oliver June 19, 2025 (7:53 am)

Yeah crappy local company that provides any employee working more than 20 hrs, a 401k, health insurance, tuition reimbursement, hired 20,000 vets, 10,000 refugees, and created the market for good coffee in the US. The list is longer, but it’s one of the rarest entities that is successful while treating their partners well.

Sillygoose June 19, 2025 (7:55 am)

Starbucks announced several months ago it was closing these satellite locations. McDonald’s has excellent coffee for $2.00.Jefferson Square is owned by Seattle Public School under a 99 year lease. I believe managed by Kimpton Properties. Who refuses to give video footage to SPD for crimes in parking lot. I spent about 49 min on phone with corporate Safeway about the crime in parking lot. BECU closed as announced due to the new 3,000sq ft BECU in White Center on 107th.

WSB June 19, 2025 (12:27 pm)

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No, they did not announce they’re closing licensed locations. There have been scattered closures, like these, but not an overall plan to close them all. As for these closures, I haven’t heard back from the company yet, possibly because of the holiday.

Pays for college June 19, 2025 (8:22 am)

I’ve had four friends that have gone to college for free that are baristas at Starbucks on their college program. That’s $100,000 given to them and I know of two baristas because of the stock options they were given have made down payments on homes in West seattle.I feel sorry for you haters your heart must be really hurting. The world is about love and I hope you hear heal

New Deal June 19, 2025 (12:08 pm)

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My 21 year old niece boycotts Starbucks because of the way they treat employees (she says not me). I asked her if she would boycott Facebook because of their corporate greed and bad things they do for society. She was silent. The answer is no because it would require a sacrifice. Starbucks boycotters just walk down the street to another coffee shop. Bitching about Starbucks on Instagram. Hypocrisy? I think so.
- M June 19, 2025 (1:29 pm)
  
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  No conscious consumption under capitalism, as they say. If I boycotted every business that was evil, I wouldn’t leave the house. I wouldn’t HAVE a house. We are all hypocritical. I appreciate people making their stands where they want to, and also enjoying life a little. Better approach than ignoring it all!
- Jay June 19, 2025 (3:34 pm)
  
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  Things are changing. Hours aren’t consistent, and they’re changed arbitrarily to strip benefits. Starbucks wasn’t growing fast enough and started to cannibalize internally to increase growth. The union efforts and boycotts are meant to stop this backsliding and improve some areas that have gotten bad. Starbucks is also leading a national effort to legally strip away labor organizing rights from Americans in general, not just their workers, and this impacts everyone. People fought and died in literally armed conflicts to secure union rights in America, it’s as patriotic as baseball and apple pie. Weekends, minimum wage, the 40 hour work week, etc. were paid for in blood and it would be disrespectful to the fallen to just let those rights disappear because we happen to be (or perceive others to be) comfortable at work today.
- Scarlett June 19, 2025 (6:40 pm)
  
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  Bingo. Everyone is a big talker about their ideals and principles – until they have to actually sacrifice of something for them.

Anonymous June 19, 2025 (8:26 am)

It just means Safeway had a license to sell Starbucks coffee. They could have lost that license if they weren’t up to code. Pretty dirty Safeway that smells bad if you ask me!

Brandy June 19, 2025 (8:37 am)

This feels like a step before they close the actual Safeway. Wasn’t there a closure list released sometime last year?

brandon June 19, 2025 (9:57 am)

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Jefferson Square is actually a big eyesore to the Seattle Public Schools budget crisis, along with several other properties SPS leases at large, below market leases that they fumbled years ago.

Erik June 19, 2025 (10:00 am)

For those of you that do not understand how these licensed store based Starbucks work…They are licensed stores, not corporate. Starbucks does not employ the people running them. The individual store does. I worked at a couple of Target licensed Starbucks. They have a district manager that is on the licensed side of Starbucks (but they aren’t involved in the corporate side of operations). But that’s it. These district managers cover all licensed Starbucks in their territory. That includes target, QFC, Safeway, Etc. These employees that were running the Starbucks kiosks will likely be retasked to other areas of the stores they are in. Any union activity was likely not the reason for their closing. Because Starbucks does not employ or pay these employees. The paychecks come from Safeway. They are Safeway employees who have been trained to make Starbucks drinks.

Jeff F. June 19, 2025 (11:28 am)

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Thank you for explaining this. I knew this was the case but wasn’t sure how to articulate it.

PDiddy June 19, 2025 (1:29 pm)

Good riddance. Support the real Seattle coffee shops like Ladro, Vita, Uptown etc. No more overpriced bitter push a button coffee. I feel bad for the staff but the corporation is rotten and the CEO even worse. There is no soul in that company for years.

Bradley June 19, 2025 (9:12 pm)

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“real Seattle coffee shops”? Remind me who began this Seattle coffee trend that circles the world

D Martin June 19, 2025 (5:19 pm)

No loss for me. I remember when QFC had Cafe Venetos (Not sure if I spelled it right ) and then it was changed to a Starbucks. I was not happy. Does anyone know if it was when Kroger bought out Qfc and Fred Meyer that it changed? After that, I would drive to Cafe Ladro to get my early morning caffeine fix.