The location debuted in December 2017 (Image: CHS)
Labor activists say it is “the most clear-cut case of retaliation” yet in the Starbucks unionization battle. The coffee giant said this week it is closing another store on Capitol Hill, with plans to shut down the Broadway at Denny location, the first of the company’s Seattle cafes to unionize in its home city.
The closure is slated for December 9th 11th — five years after the company “moved” its Broadway at Republican cafe to the space in new construction across from the Capitol Hill Station light rail facility and mixed-use development.
The company has not yet responded to CHS’s inquiry about how the unionization efforts factored into the company’s decision to close the 101 Broadway E store.
UPDATE: Starbucks says it will pay its Broadway/Denny workers through December 11th but the shop’s final day of serving the public will be December 9th. In a statement, the company tells CHS the latest shutdown is about making “every effort to ensure our partners feel safe and supported at work so they can focus on providing our customers the safe, welcoming experience they’ve come to love and expect.”
“Unfortunately, despite several mitigating efforts, safety and security incidents at our Broadway and Denny store have continued to escalate,” a company spokesperson said adding that Starbucks remains “committed to our hometown and look forward to continuing to serve our customers at one of our nearby locations.”
The company says it has tried to address the safety concerns at the shuttered stores including theft, vandalism, property damage, drug use, threats of physical violence, verbal harassment and assault through smaller steps including closing patios and changing store setups as well as working more closely with police.
The move at Broadway and Denny follows this summer’s wave of closures that shut down five Starbucks stores in Seattle including at 23rd and Jackson and on E Olive Way over what the company said were concerns about public safety in the neighborhoods around the cafes. Those closures were part of a wave of shutdowns across six states blamed by Starbucks on safety that has continued across the rest of the country with more shops being shuttered one by one in recent weeks including this recent Tacoma closure.
The union busting accusations loom even larger in the most recent closures. In Portland, Maine, the company is being criticized for its shuttering of a cafe there after workers voted to unionize only weeks before.
“The Broadway and Denny location was the first store to unionize in Seattle, and one of the first locations to organize in the country after Buffalo baristas won the first Starbucks union,” Starbucks Workers United said about the planned Broadway closure. “Now, Starbucks is closing the store on the anniversary of that day. This is the most clear-cut case of retaliation this company has shown closing a union store yet. This is an outrage. Starbucks & Howard Schultz are playing petty games with worker’s lives. They lack respect not only for the rights of their workers, but for the law of this country.”
The Broadway and Denny cafe has been a center of unionization efforts with workers there in March becoming the first at the company to unionize in Seattle. CHS talked with workers from the Broadway shop about the organizing efforts before the vote. “It’s really about everyone’s fundamental right to have representation at work,” Starbucks worker Rachel Ybarra told CHS. “It’s bigger than just our store or just Starbucks. It’s really about what we can do for not just the industry but workers everywhere when we all stand together and demand fairness.”
Starbucks has continued to battle the unionization effort saying it already offers strong benefit packages and wages to its workers. In the wake of the Broadway and Denny closure decision, the company says it is meeting with Starbucks Workers United representation as it has with other closed stores where workers had unionized to negotiate new jobs for affected employees.
This summer, the company said it was addressing a different concern when it launched a series of closures across the country that the chain said was due to public safety concerns for its customers and its workers. The expensive and hard to maintain E Olive Way location was part of the shuttering and still stands empty and plywood-covered.
But the company’s campaign also became politics with the closures pressuring Seattle’s mayor and, especially, the city council as well as fueling campaign advertising from a right wing MAGA-friendly candidate for Senate.
The Broadway at Denny closure now seems to tweak one defense of the E Olive Way closure as a real estate issue. The Broadway and Denny shop has a modest footprint in a brand new space in new construction on the Broadway frontage of a six-story apartment building constructed on the site of the neighborhood’s old US Post Office.
Safety issues also haven’t driven the company fully from the Hill as it continues to operate in the area but under a new real estate strategy. Beyond its Melrose Starbucks Roastery investment, all of its area presence will soon be made up of counters inside busy grocery stores and hospitals.
What is left is the labor issue and the ongoing battle as unionizing workers try to grow their cause and take legal action to halt further closures. Capitol Hill will remain a center of activity for unionization efforts for the chain. The national effort to unionize Starbucks rooted in Kshama Sawant’s District 3 and on Capitol Hill poured into the neighborhood’s Cal Anderson Park and onto Broadway this summer with a rally and march to support workers and the councilmember has continued to pledge political and financial support for the effort.
The spaces are also left behind.
Broadway and Denny will soon need a new tenant. The Capitol Hill commercial leasing market has remained relatively robust and demand continues. One example of what comes next can be found at Broadway and Pike where Starbucks shuttered its standalone cafe during the pandemic in a much quieter fashion. COMEBUYTEA, the latest in a bubble tea wave on Capitol Hill, is lined up to open there in coming months.
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Crybaby Amazon and Starbucks CEOs. Good riddance!!!!
First off, I can’t stand starbucks and don’t drink their coffee…
People gnashing their teeth over this though? Do they need permission to close a shop? They aren’t welcome in the area anyway, right? Corporate oppressor or something?
I think people care about the workers, not their crappy coffee or profits. Nuance is hard apparently.
Where’s the nuance for smashing the windows and shutting the store down keeping them from working?
We’re talking about union busting not windows
To my knowledge, that store has never had significant damage and I walk by it every single day on my way to the light rail. It already closes early for being on Capitol Hill and right across from the light rail station. It would be a great place for a corner bar. Would be a great place for a coffee shop that stays open later than 5 or 6 pm.
Back in 2020 during a BLM march, black bloc tried setting this Starbucks on fire (there are apartments above it). Between that nonsense and the constant stream of mentally ill people in the area, it’s no surprise.
Nonsense…like police brutality?
No James, nonsense like setting fires in mixed use residential buildings to protest police brutality. Can you see why that is problematic ?
We’re talking about union busting not 2020
So, no then.
With attitudes like these its clear why SBUX is closing shops in deep blue neighborhoods. The residents that agree with you would rather see a business building burned than see or support a “third place.”
wrong. it was union busting, pure and simple.
I know many people hate Starbucks but truth is many people like it and I went to this location a few times a week and I’m very bummed to hear they are closing. It’s hard to know whether it really is union busting as the safety complaints are real and valid. Either way, it’s pretty heartless to lay-off employees right before Christmas. Starbucks should pay them through the end of the year.
They say they are negotiating with the union to find jobs at other stores for the displaced workers. That sounds appropriate, and way better than just paying them through the end of the year.
But those stores won’t be union so will those workers still have union rights. If not, it’s pure nonsense.
Just when I had that restroom code memorized. Where am I going to take a dump now?
Cal Anderson. Apparently that’s an acceptable use.
I can think of at least 3 instances of Starbucks closing stores on Capitol Hill, so it’s not exactly uncommon. But who can blame them from closing stores due to safety concerns. The Hill has become a refuge for zombies and feral animals. It is too bad the employees have had to pay the price, but, really, it’s not hard to get a job these days, and there are likely plenty of coffee shops that could use an experience barista.
What nearby locations? They’re closing them all. And the grocery store ones are a franchise. Glad for the local shoppes in the area like Cherry Street or Ghost Note.
I read a story where a barista that worked at the Broadway one said that their company wasn’t doing anything to address the issues when they complained. So they just closed it. SMH
Also I don’t really see other businesses closing lime this for safety concerns.
I support unions and workers rights and I think unions are important to keep workers safe in perilous working conditions, such as in coal mines or on assembly lines. However, coffee makers and baristas are not usually in danger, they don’t have to work long hours, they aren’t risking life and limb and these jobs are easy to get with no training, education or experience. These positions are often temporary jobs for those in school or other training. They’re not usually “careers” for most people. These workers are paid well, get great health insurance, opportunity for advancement and free college. What exactly are they striking for? What do these workers want that they aren’t getting now, that’s reasonable and makes sense? There seems to be a shortage of workers right now…. seems to me if they don’t like working at Starbucks they can just move on to greener pastures without making a bunch of trouble for everyone involved. These strikes and calls to organize seem more like a misuse of the goodwill that unions have earned through past actions when the workers really were being mistreated. It’s almost insulting to those who came before us, who really were overworked, mistreated and underpaid. This does not seem to be the case with these coffee shop employees.
“I support unions…however” stopped reading at the “however”
Of course you did. Because you have no interest in considering anything other than your own rigid opinions.
Exceptional curiosity about divergent points of view, James. You would make a fine demagogue.
These unions are fighting against wage theft, unfair scheduling, and myriad of other important issues.
Also, I don’t know about you, but I think all work should be dignifying and pay a living wage. As MLK said, the sanitation worker is as important as the physician, because both are responsible for the spread of disease. This city functions on caffeine, and I think the people that serve it should e able to live here and not be a “transitionary position”. If the people working in the community cannot live their, it’s not a community, it’s become something else….
Starbucks offers “free college”? That’s a stretch. It offers tuition assistance, like many companies that recruit heavily among young people. In most cases it’s a far cry from a full ride scholarship.
But be that as it may, the main reason people organize unions — especially at big corporations whose real decision-makers are far removed from the workplace — is to have the ability to engage with upper management with a collective voice whenever an issue arises that is in some way detrimental to their well-being on the job (e.g., understaffing, unreliable scheduling, unreasonable additional tasks, workplace health/safety hazards, lack of security, etc.). This is an important ability for workers to have even in the best of companies, as conditions and employment policies/practices can change at any moment. As individuals, workers at large firms generally can’t ever interact with anyone above their immediate supervisor. Unions (and only unions) make escalation to corporate possible whenever such confrontation becomes necessary. When this is not necessary, the mere existence of a union serves to deter management from making changes detrimental to workers.
Yes, Starbucks is far from the worst corporate employer in terms of wages and benefits. But the criticism it receives for its heavy-handed interference with union organizing is fully deserved. In a country where freedom of association is an enumerated constitutional right, it’s really none of the company’s business whether its employees organize or not. (Workers don’t get a say in whether their employer joins a trade association, now do they?) Wages and benefits, while certainly important, are not always — and don’t have to be — the main reason why workers choose to organize.
Classic neoliberalism, a company draping themselves in the concept of a “community” coffee shop and then running for the hills the moment their community needs real help and cannot line their pockets…
Capitol Hill Activists have made it quite clear how much SBUX is wanted. I cannot blame them for quitting this neighborhood one bit. I am surprised it took them this long. When “neighbors” regularly assault the property and the prevailing view of the area is “they deserve it,” I can fully understand their closure. Stay out in Suburbia and airports. Places they’re still wanted.
We have plenty of neighborhood restaurants and coffee shops that are actually part of the community and give back to it. If Starbucks started using their size and profits to provide services like social workers in some of their stores (a non-profit idea I’ve been kicking around myself) I would totally start going there. Instead they are selling fast food and coffee in a coffee-shop like atmosphere. As you said, I can find that in any Suburbia, shopping mall, or Airport… you have to go to real communities for community businesses 🤷🏻♂️
It’s hard to know who to believe (Starbucks vs union activists) on this issue, but I tend to believe Starbucks. They are not making up the security incidents, which are common. And why would they close a store for union activity when the store was unionized many months ago?
I am saddened to learn of yet-another closure of a business in our neighborhood for security concerns caused by homeless and drug-addicted and mentally ill people, especially one which serves as a community gathering space. I have lived on Capitol Hill since 1977, and it is certainly not the safe, vibrant neighborhood it once was.
Sorry the poor people are making it hard for you to drink the worst coffee in the world. Must be tough.
It really bothers me when people say the poor people. Having grown up poor and experiencing good hardworking people that never committed crimes while they strived for a better life is far different than those committing these crimes, hanging out on the streets doing drugs or mentally ill people that aren’t getting the help they need because of bad politics from all sides. It’s time everyone faces the reality of the situation.
You moved here just to neg on long term residents. Go you.
It always amuses me when people say seattle used to be safer when crime stats from the police show that at least in the 80s/90s the crime rate was much higher than it currently is.
If you compare the current rate to say 00s/10s it’s higher but this so-called peaceful time in the good old days seems to be a false narrative.
For those saying Starbucks are in the right because cap hill is dangerous etc, spoke to a friend yesterday who works in a building on 7th Ave that has a Starbucks on the first floor. THEY have security, despite the fact that area of downtown is calmer than the Broadway location.
So for them to cite security as the reason their closing without even trying to support the store with a security guard…smells like union busting.
Sources confirm!
I work in that building. Not familiar with security in the Starbucks. Adjacent building yes. But not the store which has a separate entrance.
The security could be at certain times or what have you? I know a number of places that do have security but don’t have it every hour they’re open.
As someone who lives right across the street from here. I understand and since I started grad school I tried utilizing starbucks to study. However, after multiple times of being stared at by different men who just gave off chilling vibes and one time I had to call my husband to come meet to make sure the guy didnt follow me. The reason for this was this guy didn’t know my music was off but i had my headphones on and I could hear him say pretty concern things towards me.
If you are trying to turn a barista job at Starbucks into a long term career and expect that job to be able to support you as you grow in life, and this city continues to grow and evolve, I am very sorry that no one has informed you of this yet, but better late than never, you have already lost.
Anyone not advancing and growing in this city of massive opportunity and generosity has no one but themselves to blame. I arrived in this city 25 years ago as a high school drop out and I got a job as a barista in Wallingford making $8 an hour. I shared at 2 br apartment on Phinney with 3 people, paid my rent and put myself through community college with nothing but my own hard work and frugalness. Afterwards I went to UW while working nights in a pizza joint and carefully managing my federally subsidized student loans. I chose to study business, not feel good BS, and eventually went on to get an MBA and became a Seattle home owner with a wife and 2 kids that participates in my community and volunteers in the public schools.
It’s has only gotten easier since when I did it. The city, state, and community colleges are practically begging people to attend for free. With the expansion of UW Bothell and Tacoma campuses to offer 4 year degrees there are more options than ever to get educated.
You can choose who you want to listen to, the activists community that is living off the wages of others selling you the easy solution (‘it’s not your fault, everything is unfair and that’s why you have less than others’), or someone like me that advocates hard work, sacrifice, and investing in yourself to get ahead.
Anyone working at a Starbucks wanting a union to come save them has to know in their heart of hearts that their is no future in that work. The job is basically taking a name, pressing a button to fill a cup, and calling out the name. No matter what anyone tells you, especially those who’s own income depends on selling you a dream, a Starbucks barista job is unskilled labor and will never provide you with long term financial stability and income growth. The job will probably be 50% automated within 5 years and gone in less than 10 and the only people that will have benefited from all this is union bosses and activist organizers.
Beware the snake oil salespeople getting rich themselves selling you a fantasy of easy solutions. Take control of your own destiny instead of waiting for handouts from the government or your corporate overlords.
nah.
All too true. Thanks for a voice of reason.
I would like to live in a world where the person who serves me coffee occasionally, and whom I have a pleasant conversation with, makes more money than whomever wrote some lines of code to skim tip money from restaurants towards some delivery app, is that so much to ask 🤷🏻♂️
You’re making an awful lot of unfounded assumptions about the people who work frontline jobs at Starbucks. It’s safe to say most are well aware that it’s not a career, and they don’t want it to be. They simply want some say in their working conditions for the year or two that they plan to stay there. Having done my share of food service work in my youth, I don’t think that’s unreasonable.
Damn, your hands must be pretty chafed from all that self congratulation you just did