Starbucks Corp. said Thursday it has laid off about 220 support staff who worked at the coffee retailer's headquarters and in field operations, and will leave about 380 open jobs unfilled.Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Schultz announced the 600 job cuts in an e-mail to Starbucks' more than 170,000 employees, calling it a difficult decision aimed at sharpening the company's focus on customers.
"We realize that we are operating in an intensely challenging environment, one in which our customers and (employees) have extremely high expectations of Starbucks," Schultz wrote. "And we have to step up to the challenge of being strategic as well as nimble as our business evolves. Unfortunately, we have not been organized in a manner that allowed us to have a laser focus on the customer."
The vast majority of laid-off employees worked in the U.S. — about one-third at the company's Seattle headquarters and the rest in regional field offices. Support staff include people who work on marketing, finance and supply-chain management.
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