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Jul 22, 2008 9:35 am US/Central
Starbucks Fans Fight Coffee Shop Closures Online
Coffee Retailer Set To Shut Doors Of 600 Stores
(CBS)
Competing coffee shops may be celebrating that 600 Starbucks coffee shops are closing, but die-hard Starbucks junkies are steamed and they are not going down without a fight.
Tech-savvy java lovers have launched a campaign on the Internet called "Save Our Starbucks," CBS station WBBM-TV in Chicago reports.
The site wants to share comments with Starbucks from those upset about the closures, hoping to convince the company to reverse its decision.
"I'm all for it, you know," said Starbucks fan Dionnea Seals. "There's a lot of power in the voices of the people."
She's a customer at the Starbucks in the Burnside neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. It's one of the coffee shops on the company chopping block.
At the eyeglass store next door, employees are talking about joining in the protest.
"I talked to the manager and I told her and she said if they actually had the Web site we can go online and petition and everything and let them know," Kourtney Valentine said.
Valentine has good reason to be concerned about the closing next door.
"What am I going to do every morning?" she said.
Company officials say Starbucks simply overbuilt and that's why some have to close. Twenty-five will shut down in Illinois, 17 of those in the Chicago area.
"I'm not happy about it at all," said Jelnor Robinson. "It's the only one in our community."
If the petition drive is unsuccessful, 600 Starbucks shops will be out of business early in 2009.
About 12,000 jobs in various cities will be lost because of the closings.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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