Starbucks closed its flagship Reserve Roastery in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, nearly 11 years after the location opened as an especially technical and geeky ode to the coffee-making process.
Windows at the large facility at 1124 Pike St. were already boarded up on Thursday morning, following news of the Seattle-based coffee giant’s major restructuring, announced by CEO Brian Niccol in a blog post. The company plans to lay off approximately 900 non-retail employees and close underperforming stores in the U.S. and Canada.
Starbucks is also closing the Reserve store at the base of its corporate headquarters building south of downtown Seattle.
The $20 million Roastery, housed in a 1920s-era building which was once home to an auto showroom, opened in December 2014, just minutes from Starbucks HQ. Then-CEO Howard Schultz referred to it at the time as the “Willy Wonka of coffee.”
GeekWire toured the facility just before it opened to see how Starbucks planned to give customers a better understanding of the roasting process. For a city and a company steeped in coffee tradition and appreciation, the Reserve was a chance to experiment. Drinks at the mixology bar were created via processes such as Clover, pour-over, coffee press, Chemex, siphon or cold brew.
Technology was packed into the space, from sensors that prevented cross contamination of coffee beans to a 4K projector that showed footage of Starbucks’ coffee farms on a smart glass window display. The two roasters were programmed to heat different types of beans at optimal amounts of time and temperature to ensure peak aroma, acidity, body, and flavor.
A company sign posted at the location on Thursday, captured by KIRO7, was addressed to “Cap Hill neighbors and friends” and called the Reserve a “destination of coffee lovers from down the block and around the world.”
Workers at the Roastery voted to unionize in April 2022.
Niccol, who joined Starbucks after six years in the top job at Chipotle, has been charged with turning around the struggling company, which is dealing with slumping sales and criticism over everything from its complicated menu to wait times, prices, and more.
In his post Thursday, Niccol said Starbucks will end fiscal year 2025 with nearly 18,300 total Starbucks locations – company operated and licensed. He said non-retail employees whose roles are being eliminated will be notified on Friday morning.
Starbucks has previously leaned heavily into its technology as a competitive advantage. It was early to mobile ordering, but this summer announced it was sunsetting smaller-format tech-driven pickup only stores. Niccol called them “overly transactional and lacking the warmth and human connection that defines our brand.”
Starbucks cut 1,100 corporate workers in February in one of the largest layoffs ever at the company.
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