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Video calls are the new battlefield 0:47
(CNN Business) - Starbucks is changing the model of hundreds of North American stores that helped the brand become ubiquitous and will expand its pickup and delivery business - a change in strategy that illustrates how much consumer behavior has changed during the pandemic.
The company said it plans to close up to 400 stores in the US. USA and Canada for the next 18 months, while also adding take-away locations only.
In its latest filing with the SEC, the company said it ultimately hopes to open some 300 new North American stores that specialize in transportation and pickup options.
"This repositioning will include the closure of up to 400 company-operated stores over the next 18 months along with the opening, eventually, of a greater number of new and repositioned stores in different locations and with innovative store formats," they wrote.
Starbucks said its retail strategy is designed to "enhance the customer experience, expand our presence and enable profitable growth for the future."
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The company said it was re-evaluating how it sells coffee before the covid-19 pandemic because customers in major cities already show a greater tendency to order take-out coffee.
In an email sent to CNN Business, the company said that about 80% of transactions at nearly 15,000 stores in the United States are "on the go" purchases.
"We were already thinking about what that future state looks like in those metro areas," said a Starbucks spokesman. "The covid-19 has actually allowed us to accelerate the plans that we already had in the books."
Starbucks said its new pickup stores will better serve "on the go" customers while limiting the size of the crowd in their cafes.
"Our vision is that every major city in America will finally have a mix of traditional Starbucks cafes and Starbucks pickup locations," the company said in the email.
Starbucks also said Wednesday that it estimates it earned $ 3.2 billion less in revenue in its third quarter year-over-year.
In an investor call on Wednesday morning, Starbucks confirmed that it has reopened 95% of its stores in the United States after closing them in March to comply with mandates of social distancing.
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Sales at the company's same store plunged 43% in May compared to the same month last year. The decline in April sales year after year was even worse.
Starbucks' sales outlook is improving a bit. Sales at the same store in the last week of May fell 32% compared to the same week in 2019, marking its “sixth consecutive week of sequential improvement from a weekly low of -65% in mid-April,” the company.
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