Death of a Starbucks

100_0927
Originally uploaded by violabee918

You've all heard by now about Starbucks closing 600 stores nationwide... well, it's unfortunate, but the one that J just happens to work at will be closing. The employees were assured that they would have 30 days notice. We had no reason to believe that they won't give the notice, until today. The original prognosis was "we don't know anything." Then we were told "sometime in the next nine months," and now the story is "we're releasing a list at the beginning of each month. If your store is on the list, you'll get more information." Last week, a random construction worker told a friend of mine that he is on the crew that is scheduled to "demo" J's store - next month. Next month is August. August 1st is a week from yesterday. There was originally no cause for alarm, until this showed up.

It's a dumpster. A large, blue, dumpster. Why on earth would there be a dumpster in the parking lot of Starbucks? Oh, wait. This is a construction dumpster. The kind they use when they're gonna throw away a LOT of stuff. There is a sandwich shop about to go in next door. Maybe they'll use it for the buildout of that shop. But somehow, since there is no lumber, no raw material, no paint, not even a sign of anything about to start being built inside the other space... I seriously doubt it's for the sandwich shop. I think it's for the soon-to-be demise of J's Starbucks. Somehow, I don't think it's common practice to rent a ginormous dumpster and just leave it sitting in a parking lot for a month. I'm hoping they will remember the 30-day notice promise. I could go on and on about how J will probably get screwed out of any kind of severance package (that they also promised - either that or a comparable job at a store within 10 miles... but they didn't guarantee 40 hours per week).. but I'll try not to. I'd rather just wait and see what happens. In fact, that's been my mantra this whole time since we found out about the closings. "Let's just wait and see. They will take care of us." Oops. I hope they will take care of us.
It would be really nice if the upper management would let us know what the heck is going on. Oh wait. They "don't know anything" either.

I'll update more as I know more. Monday should be interesting, to say the least. I hope I'm wrong about all this and I'll just say "I'm sorry! I was wrong! Forgive me!" I hope I get to say that.