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Starbucks closures are brutal

Tuesday, 30 September 2025 06:30

Starbucks is cutting back - and fast.

The Seattle coffee giant has announced a global cost-saving program, axing 900 jobs at headquarters and shuttering hundreds of cafés worldwide, including in Switzerland.

Staff in Zurich and Basel say they were blindsided. Just a day after the company insisted no decisions had been made, workers were already pulling down the signs at the busy Stauffacher branch in Zurich and scraping logos from the Schifflände outlet in Basel. 

Customers found only taped-up windows and a QR code pointing to surviving cafés. With 57 locations in Switzerland and still 11  in Zurich, more closures seem inevitable.

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