The Starbucks on 910 Manhattan Avenue is closed for business.
Customers were unceremoniously greeted by a note left on the door announcing the closure and thanking them for their support over the years.
Last year, Starbucks closed its Williamsburg location in what many feared was part of a wider pattern of retaliation against unionized stores (that location unionized in 2022). This time around, the closure is just one of more than 400 stores that Starbucks has recently closed as of September 29, part of CEO Brian Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” strategy. Niccol, former Chipotle CEO who took over in 2024, has focused on streamlining the Starbucks experience and closing underperforming locations.
Starbucks laid off 900 workers as part of the wave of closures and said they would focus on trying to transfer them to other locations.
amNY notes that “[a]lthough some locations are unionized, a Starbucks spokesperson said it ‘was not a factor’ in the decision-making process.”
You can find a full list of closures here.
This is unreal. So at this rate there will be no Starbucks locations in the Williamsburg area.
Lordy, lordly, no Starbucks! Must I now resort to snorting coke for my morning jolt? For the youngsters, hipsters & hucksters new to the neighborhood, this Starbucks was once the entryway into the American Eagle movie theatre, a medium sized venue whose only remaining vestige, besides the re-purposed Starbucks canopy, is the large stone American eagle sculpture perched precariously two stories above the Starbucks entrance. I wonder what will happen to it. One of our local parks should adopt it before the inevitable wrecking ball comes. Kids & pigeons will love it! Or will it go the way of the huge lighted disco ball that graced the ceiling of our Rite Aid – a remnant from when was a Roller Rink, and prior to that a spacious movie theatre (now condos and a restaurant)m whose unique circular entryway still remains next to Peter Pan. Greenpoint had quit a few movie theaters and burlesque houses in its day, which sometimes faced the wrath & visits of angry local parish priests who objected to bawdy shows in “their” neighborhood. Rumor has it that Mae West performed there and once lived at the Astral on Franklin Street in her youth. Stars such as Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis would occasionally come on stage before a film to attract movie-goers. We’ve gained some things with streaming, smart phones and the internet of course, bur we might have also lost some valuable aspects of human contact, culture & community in the process.
I am jealous. I thought was the oldest Greenpointer here but you seemed to have topped me! Yes in the late 1950s, the iteration of the theatre there, forgot its name showed scandalous B. Bardot flicks there that the catholic tablet condemned. Dark humor was that they caught a priest incognito watching the film. Nowadays her films would be rated G for all audiences,
Gee, where are we gonna get our outrageously overpriced coffee drinks. Oh wait a minute there are options 1 block away in all directions.
Feel sorry for the workers. Will not miss the outrageous coffee prices. I get Tasters choice big jar at costco and its costs me like 20-30 cents to make it a home instead of $3 and up at Starbucks and I get it exactly the way I want. Yes sometimes the Starbucks coffee is better and sometimes not. It ain’t worth the outrageous price.
We need a Nathan’s to move in. All the wannabe Brooklynites can buy a hotdog and take a picture of themselves in front of the place like they do in front of Peter Pan’s!
You have a “Nathans” in Greenpoint. Blue Collar, premium Hebrew national hot dog, sabrett sauerkraut and a New England bun for $5 bucks. It’s around $9 bucks at Nathans depending on the toppings.