Starbucks is cutting hundreds of its corporate workers as part of a restructuring that began in May.
The Seattle-based coffee giant is laying off 224 workers across the company’s Seattle headquarters and remote positions, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification reviewed by The Seattle Times.
The layoffs include 120 corporate employees who refused offers to move to its new Nashville office and 104 employees on a team that oversees the design and construction of its shops. Employee cuts will take effect on Oct. 19 and be completed by Nov. 1.
The company said the layoffs mark the end of a global restructuring announced in May that involved laying off 252 corporate employees.
In January, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol promised to pursue steep cost savings, including $2 billion in cuts over the next two years.
“We’re going to be unrelenting” on cuts, Niccol told investors at the time.
The 104 layoffs on the stores’ design and development team follow a leadership shake-up as the company pursues its “Back to Starbucks” transformation plan, which includes reviving the company’s traditional coffeehouse experience with upgraded shops and reduced wait times.
Niccol, who joined Starbucks in 2024 after serving as Chipotle’s CEO, tapped Chipotle’s former chief development officer, Stephen Piacentini, in April to lead its shop renovations as Starbucks’ chief coffeehouse design and development officer.
The other 120 layoffs involve a separate issue: Starbucks clearly wants to transition some of its Seattle-based employees to Nashville, and those workers refused offers to move.
The company announced in March its plans to open a new corporate office with 2,000 employees in Nashville, in addition to its Seattle headquarters at the Starbucks Center in the Sodo neighborhood, where 2,800 of its employees work.
The company said at the time many Nashville roles will be new jobs connected to future growth, while others will be jobs now handled in Seattle or by outside contractors and firms.
A Starbucks spokesperson refused to say how many of its Seattle workers will leave Starbucks’ headquarters for the new office.
Tennessee offered Starbucks $30 million in incentives for a commitment to bring jobs and investment. In turn, Starbucks has promised to bring around $250 million in annual salaries and $100 million in office leases to Nashville over the next five years, according to the state’s economic and community development department.
Although Starbucks has insisted that its headquarters will remain in Seattle, the new Nashville office has fueled fear that a major business in the state might be shrinking its local presence.
“The Nashville acquisition and continued Washington layoffs and closures continue to raise public questions about whether (Starbucks) is gradually shifting its center of gravity,” noted an April 10 briefing on Starbucks by Gov. Bob Ferguson’s staff.
These most recent layoffs follow several restructuring efforts that included job cuts and shop closures since Niccol took over two years ago.
Since February 2025, Starbucks has laid off more than 2,500 Washington-based employees between corporate and retail roles, according to state data. Nearly 1,000 of those cuts occurred last October, when Starbucks laid off a batch of primarily corporate employees in Seattle and Kent as part of a $1 billion restructuring plan.
The company has also closed shops nationwide, including more than 31 in Washington.