Nashville Starbucks aficionados can breathe a sigh of relief, but Murfreesboro residents didn't dodge the coffee bean.
None of the Seattle-based retailer's Music City locations will be part of the chain's plans to close 600 underperforming stores nationwide, according to a list of store closures posted on the company's Web site.
But Starbucks will close 13 stores in Tennessee, including two Murfreesboro locations near Stones River Mall, according to the company's list.
Others to be shuttered in the state include three stores in Memphis and one in each of the following cities: Jackson, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Oakland, Collierville, Bartlett, Harriman and Covington.
Starbucks said it would take "significant steps" to place affected employees into available positions at nearby stores.
Customers cut backStarbucks announced earlier this month that it would close 19 percent of its U.S. company-owned stores opened in the past two years. The stores were considered underperformers and were not expected to be profitable in the future, the company said.
Starbucks sales and earnings have declined as cash-strapped consumers facing record gasoline prices pull back on buying gourmet coffee and other luxuries.
The world's largest coffee-shop chain provided a complete list of the hundreds of stores slated for closure. The stores are in 44 states and Washington, D.C., and include 88 in California, 59 in Florida and 27 in Minnesota.
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