Starbucks to close 3 Pittsburgh locations

Barista Josh Nicklow showed up Thursday at Starbucks’ South Side location for work as usual. By noon, the district manager told him he’d be out of a job by the weekend.

After four years behind the counter, Nicklow joined countless employees caught in Starbucks’ sweeping shutdown of stores across the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Saturday marks the final day customers can grab their fall menu favorites at three Pittsburgh Starbucks locations — South Side (1400 E. Carson St.), Lawrenceville (3931 Butler St.) and North Side (4 W. North Ave.) — before the company closes them.

“I guess we’re not making enough money. Like, too much money to keep the lights on, not enough money in return,” Nicklow told TribLive. “Everyone’s pretty pissed off about it.”

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol announced this week that the company will cut 900 jobs in the U.S. and Canada and close about 200 shops by the end of the fiscal year.

“Over the next 12 months, we also plan to uplift more than 1,000 locations to introduce greater texture, warmth and layered design,” Niccol said in a letter addressed to Starbucks’ partners.

Nicklow began his employment at a Starbucks in Morgantown, W. Va., but was transferred to South Side around March 2024. He had planned to go back to school at a college in the Pittsburgh area in the spring, but losing his job might complicate his financial situation.

“I just signed a lease on a new place,” he said. “I have zero money saved up. I just bought a bunch of furniture and everything.”

Starbucks spokesman Sam Jefferies told TribLive on Friday that he did not have any specifics about which locations were closing. However, a sign posted on the South Side location’s door read, “We’ve made the incredibly difficult decision to close this Starbucks location … We know this may be hard to hear — because this isn’t just any store. It’s your coffeehouse.”

The Lawrenceville location that is closing opened about a year ago.

In March, Arsenal 201 mixed-use development agreed to a lease with Starbucks at one of its vacant storefronts in Lawrenceville on Butler Street between 39th and 40th streets.

TribLive reporters confirmed on a phone call with employees that both the Lawrenceville and North Side locations will close on Sunday.

“We’re working hard to offer transfers to nearby locations where possible and will move quickly to help partners (employees) understand what opportunities might be available to them. For those we can’t immediately place, we’re focused on partner care, including comprehensive severance packages,” Jefferies said in the statement.

It was unclear on Friday what is included in the severance package.

Alayna George had been a Starbucks employee for over two years, but just started working at South Side in August. She said she wasn’t the only new employee hired and trained within the last two months.

“I’m just confused as to how this came about so fast and maybe I would have gone to another location if I knew that this was gonna happen,” she said.

George said she was told to apply to another location as soon as possible.

“I applied to two or three locations last night … But like, honestly, everything’s just so up in the air right now.”

On Friday, District Manager Nicholas Nury was at the South Side shop, carting cases of supplies out of the store.

He declined to speak with reporters.

Samantha Gaton and Amanda Mills both work down the street from Starbucks’ South Side location.

The coffee shop has become a major part of their weekly routine.

Starbucks was one of the only coffee shops in the area that had options for people with dietary restrictions, Gaton said.

”I’m a non-dairy girl, so there’s just a lot of good non-dairy options here, which you don’t get at a lot of places,” she said.