Having said all of that though, distance from headquarters (located in the Northwest) certainly could be a factor. It could certainly look bad if Starbucks were to close a good number of stores near the headquarters. Possibly the strategy for creating new locations changed as the company got larger and expanded nationwide into already saturated markets. This would mean that the placement of newer stores in newer markets did not have to meet the same requirements as older stores in older markets had to. This article says that 70% of the stores closing are ones that have been opened since 2005 perhaps confirming that there was poorly managed growth recently.

Other reasons could exist too…maybe older stores have a more loyal customer base, newer markets had increased competition from the boom in coffee shops, regional economical differences, cost of doing business, ….

Like I said before, it would be an interesting analysis to do.

Based on the rumors, it looks like most closed will be in the south and on the east coast. Was distance from headquarters a big criteria?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/businesstechnology/locationsofstarbucksstoresclosingacrossthenation.html