As of now, a Starbucks store in Fair Lakes is the brand’s lone Fairfax County location on the chopping block.
The last day of business for the cafe, located at 12599 Fair Lakes Circle in East Market, will be tomorrow (Saturday), an employee confirmed to FFXnow.
The brand’s two other Fair Lakes cafes, located at 12957 Fair Lakes Shopping Center and inside the Target at 13047 Fair Lakes Shopping Center, are expected to remain open.
Staff employed at the shuttering store are expected to be reassigned to nearby locations, the employee said, though plans aren’t completely clear.
The Fair Lakes location is one of hundreds of North American stores — approximately 1% of Starbucks’ total portfolio — that the international coffeehouse chain plans to abruptly shutter as part of a restructuring effort.
“We identified coffeehouses where we’re unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we don’t see a path to financial performance, and these locations will be closed,” CEO Brian Niccol wrote to employees yesterday (Thursday).
Though a specific number of store closures hasn’t been shared, Niccol said Starbucks will have nearly 18,300 locations across North America by the end of this year. As of June 29, the company had 18,734 locations, suggesting roughly 400 will be cut, according to the Associated Press.
Northern Virginia will reportedly lose at least three other locations, including two in Arlington and one in Alexandria. Barring any additional cuts, Fairfax County will still host dozens of Starbucks cafes, which can be found not only as standalone locations, but also inside area grocery stores, hotels and more.
News of the store closures arrived just over a week after unionized employees in three states sued Starbucks over its new dress code, saying the company refused to reimburse workers who had to buy new clothes.
Starbucks said it used a consistent set of criteria to determine the stores that are closing and union representation wasn’t a factor.
Workers at 650 company-owned U.S. Starbucks stores have voted to unionize since 2021, but they have yet to reach a contract agreement with the company. The Merrifield cafe at 3046 Gate House Plaza became the first Fairfax County location to unionize in April 2022.
Starbucks Workers United, the labor group organizing workers, said Thursday that the closures were made without input from Starbucks’ baristas. The union said it intends to engage in bargaining at every union-represented store that is closing to ensure workers can be placed at another store they prefer.
