Starbucks to fire 12,000 employees

Starbucks will close 600 stores in the United State of America, most of them opened after the start of fiscal 2006.

 The Seattle-based company said in a
release that it is taking the action to improve its long-term
profitable growth.

The roughly 600 stores marked for
closing represent about 8 percent of the 7,257 company-owned U.S.
stores Starbucks had as of March 30. Each store has an average of 20
full- and part-time employees, the spokeswoman said, so the roughly
600 stores to be closed employ about 12,000 people, or 7 percent of
the company's roughly 171,000 U.S. employees.

Company plans to open fewer than 200
new company-operated stores in fiscal 2009. According to press
informations the store closing doesn't disturbs Starbucks'
East-European plans to open units in Hungary, Czech Republic and
Poland.

Howard Shcultz, Starbucks' CEO