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April 10, 2009

Unclear when Walnut Avenue Starbucks will close

Jamie Jones

The Starbucks at the corner of Walnut Avenue and Market Street is closing after just 13 months of serving coffee, food and drinks.

The company-owned store at 1521 W. Walnut Ave. is among 11 stores in Georgia and 200 across the country set to close, according to company officials. Locations inside Kroger on Walnut Avenue and on Cleveland Highway will remain open. A store at 1935 Battlefield Parkway in Fort Olgethorpe is also closing.

In the past nine months Starbucks, the Seattle-based coffee giant, has announced plans to shutter 900 stores around the world and cut almost 7,000 jobs in an effort to lower costs. Company officials said the affected stores are either underperforming or poorly located, which led to saturation in some areas.

Starbucks officials declined to say how many people the company employs at the Dalton store set to be closed. The company will close some stores by the end of April, with the rest closing by the end of the fiscal year. Company officials would not say when the Dalton store will close.

“The decision to close stores and impact partners is extremely difficult,” a company statement said. “We recognize the impact this has on many members of the Starbucks family who have directly contributed to our success over the years. The contribution, spirit and energy of these partners will be missed.”

The company plans to place many of the affected employees in available positions at nearby stores. Employees not offered a comparable position within a reasonable distance of their current location will be offered a severance payment.

The Starbucks inside Kroger opened in February 2007. Thirteen months later, the freestanding store a few blocks west opened. Other store closings in Georgia include Metro Atlanta, Macon, Madison and Monroe.

On a busy Friday afternoon, some Starbucks customers hadn’t heard the news of the Walnut Avenue location closing. Melinda Roberts said she buys coffee there several times a week on her way to work in Dalton from Calhoun.

“I guess I’ll just have to find somewhere else, maybe down the road at the other Starbucks,” Roberts said.

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