{"id":171276,"date":"2025-09-26T19:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T19:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/171276\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T19:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T19:30:09","slug":"victorias-first-starbucks-location-among-wave-of-international-closures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/171276\/","title":{"rendered":"Victoria\u2019s first Starbucks location among wave of international closures"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first Starbucks to open in Victoria is set to close its doors, as the coffee giant shutters hundreds of locations around the world.<\/p>\n

A note posted to the front door of the Starbucks location at the corner of Fort Street and Blanshard Street does not list an exact closing date, but confirms the store\u2019s exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made the incredibly difficult decision to close this Starbucks location,\u201d reads the message.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know this may be hard to hear \u2013 because this isn\u2019t just any store. It\u2019s your coffeehouse, a place woven into your daily rhythm, where memories were made, and where meaningful connections with our partners grew over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re deeply grateful for the community that\u2019s been built here,\u201d the note adds.<\/p>\n

This specific location in downtown Victoria first opened in 1994.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Starbucks Canada celebrated its 20th year of operation on Vancouver Island, describing the opening of the Fort Street location as one of its \u201cmost successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember it like it was yesterday. We opened the doors on Friday, March 11th, 1994 and over that weekend, we served thousands of customers,\u201d said Kerry Busheikin, then-vice president of operations for Starbucks Canada and former store manager of the location.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarbucks Fort Street store opening was one of the most successful store openings for Starbucks at that time and it was all thanks to the incredible welcome the community gave us,\u201d she said in a release at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe years I spent on the Island are some of of the best years of my career and my life with Starbucks,\u201d said Busheikin.<\/p>\n

In a release Thursday, Starbucks said it was laying off about 900 non-retail employees.<\/p>\n

It also said it was closing hundreds of stores across the U.S., Canada and Europe, though the company was tightlipped about exact figures.<\/p>\n

The company did say that it expects to end its fiscal year this weekend with 434 fewer stores in North America than it had at the end of June.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the review, we identified coffeehouses where we\u2019re unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we don\u2019t see a path to financial performance, and these locations will be closed,\u201d said Brian Niccol, Starbucks chairman and CEO, in a statement Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach year, we open and close coffeehouses for a variety of reasons, from financial performance to lease expirations. This is a more significant action that we understand will impact partners and customers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The note posted on the front door of the Starbucks location at Fort Street and Blanshard Street in Victoria is shown on Sept. 26, 2025. (CHEK News)<\/p>\n

READ PREVIOUS: Oak Bay Starbucks workers file to unionize: United Steelworkers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first Starbucks to open in Victoria is set to close its doors, as the coffee giant shutters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-171276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}