Starbucks in Fig Garden Village, near Fresno State are closing. Where else?

Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
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• Starbucks will close Fig Garden Village and Fresno State-area shops on Saturday.
• A Starbucks at G and 23rd Street in Merced is also slated to close.
• Starbucks said 250 stores will close after a North America portfolio review.

Starbucks is closing 250 of its coffee shops – and two locations in prominent spots in Fresno are among them.

The Starbucks in Fig Garden Village will close, along with the one across the street from Fresno State at Shaw and Woodrow avenues.

A Starbucks at the corner of G and 23rd Street in Merced is also closing. Several locations in Sacramento are also slated to close.

Each of the locations’ last day will be Saturday. Closing stores will have notices posted this weekend, according to the company.

In a letter to employees, chief operating officer Mike Grams said: “We have carefully reviewed our North America coffeehouse portfolio and identified locations where we do not believe we can consistently deliver the experience we want for customers and partners or where we don’t see a path to acceptable financial performance.”

The Fig Garden location – in the center since 1997 – does not have a drive-thru.

Starbucks is increasingly emphasizing drive-thrus as it builds new locations – 90% of them have them, according to the Wall Street Journal. Only 28% of purchases come from customers walking into a coffee shop and ordering from a barista, Starbucks said in an August earnings call.

The Starbucks across from Fresno State is in the same shopping center as Redwave Liquor and Pearl Tea House. Its drive-thru line often backs up into the tight parking lot.

“The approximately 1% of coffeehouses affected by today’s announcement reflect locations where we do not see a path to delivering the customer experience or long-term performance Starbucks expects,” a Starbucks representative said in an email to The Bee.

A sign on the door of the Fig Garden Village location thanked customers.

“We know this may be hard to hear – because this isn’t just any store. It’s your coffeehouse, a place woven into your daily rhythm, where memories were made and meaningful connections with our partners grew. We’re deeply grateful for these moments, and for the community that’s been built here.”

The closure leaves Fig Garden with several locally owned gathering places to get coffee, including the newly reopened Uncle Harry’s NY Bagelry & Coffeehouse and La Boulangerie.

The company has 18,000 locations in North America and has opened 60 locations so far this year.

One of them was in Fresno, when the first Starbucks in southwest Fresno opened earlier this month. It’s at the southwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Church Avenue.