Starbucks to lay off 224 corporate and remote staff

Starbucks is proceeding with a series of corporate layoffs as part of a broader restructuring effort led by CEO Brian Niccol. According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice, the company will lay off 224 employees between October 19 and November 1, 2026.

The cuts consist of 104 remote workers and 120 employees at the Seattle headquarters who declined to relocate to a new corporate office being established in Nashville. The Nashville location is expected to eventually house approximately 2,000 workers.

These recent reductions are part of a larger cost-cutting initiative aimed at saving US$2 billion over two years. Since last year, the company has eliminated more than 2,300 corporate roles. This restructuring follows a period of declining sales, which the company has recently worked to reverse through increased staffing, worker retraining, and technological implementations.