Is Starbucks hanging up the green apron in Montreal?<\/p>\n
The caf\u00e9 chain that dominated Canada\u2019s coffee market for decades shuttered more than 200 locations across North America in September 2025, according to its annual report. Eight of these closing were in Quebec.<\/p>\n
Although only one of said closings was in Montreal, dozens of Starbucks locations have disappeared in the region over the last decade, raising questions about whether the company is on the decline in the metropolis.<\/p>\n
\u201cMontreal in particular is a tougher market for Starbucks than elsewhere,\u201d said Robert Soroka, a professor at John Molson School of Business.<\/p>\n
Starbucks does not publish data on specific store closings and did not return The Gazette\u2019s request for comment. But a review of internet archives by The Gazette found at least 30 Starbucks locations in Greater Montreal have closed in the last 10 years, outpacing the opening of new locations. A handful of those shuttered locations had operated for less than five years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Layoffs and closings were also widespread for the company in May 2021, when the company laid off employees at 16 Starbucks locations in Quebec amid the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Soroka said because of the strong \u201cEuropean flavour\u201d in Montreal\u2019s coffee industry, \u201cwe will actually evaluate the quality,\u201d pointing to Italian-style and third-wave coffee shops like Olimpico, Caf\u00e9 Myriade, and Caf\u00e9 Milano.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the spectrum is fast-food coffee, like Tim Horton\u2019s and McDonald\u2019s, which are both cheaper than Starbucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Tim Hortons market would be perhaps a less discerning palate, the Myriade and Columbus a more discerning palate. And then you\u2019ve got Starbucks. You\u2019re still doing well, but they\u2019re sort of in-between,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s becoming harder to distinguish yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local coffee roasters will have a \u201cfresher taste\u201d and \u201ca better quality product.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who want that know who makes (specialty coffee),\u201d Soroka said. \u201cThen you\u2019ve got the ones who don\u2019t do it right, like the Tim Hortons and McDonald\u2019s. So where does Starbucks fit into this? Are they as good? Are they perceived as good as the specialty guys in Montreal, and can they compete effectively?\u201d <\/p>\n
He added Starbucks would not be closing stores if it didn\u2019t have a problem. \u201cEvery organization has to do a rationalization to assess whether stores are underperforming or have reduction in traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
While the company may be struggling against an oversaturated coffee shop market, Soroka said there is still demand for recognizable brand names.<\/p>\n
\u201cConcordia University, you have a couple of Starbucks within throwing distance. And they do very well, because you\u2019re drawing from, from a wider range of people. And you know, there are Montrealers that like it, but there\u2019s also people from outside who recognize the brand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starbucks in Montreal is mainly concentrated downtown, where there are more than a dozen locations, but becomes more sparse in residential neighbourhoods where Soroka said specialty caf\u00e9s thrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go to, for example, the east end of Montreal, you\u2019ll see a Starbucks, but you\u2019ll see a lot more of the other kind,\u201d closer to places like Caf\u00e9 Milano, Olimpico, Myriade or Caf\u00e9 Fame.<\/p>\n
As Starbucks winds down in North America and the U.K., which lost 76 locations last fiscal year, the company is looking toward expansion in Asia and Latin America.<\/p>\n
According to the company\u2019s 2025 annual report, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines gained hundreds of locations, and Latin America gained more than 100 last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact is, is that you\u2019re seeing more and more Western influences in Asia. And it strikes me at, probably the right time,\u201d Soroka said, pointing to the saturation levels in North America. \u201cIt\u2019s only natural to be looking outward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is Starbucks hanging up the green apron in Montreal? The caf\u00e9 chain that dominated Canada\u2019s coffee market for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-597007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597007","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=597007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}