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A Starbucks shop in the heart of the Pearl District will close permanently come Friday, Oct. 21.
The closure is posted on the coffee shop’s door at the corner of Northwest 11th Avenue and Lovejoy Street. Reached by phone and then in person on Monday, two baristas confirmed the impending closure to WW, saying management told them the closure is due to safety concerns. Starbucks’ corporate office did not respond to WW’s request for comment.
It is perhaps yet another signal of a city reeling from homelessness, mental illness and addiction. Those social ills regularly confront workers at retail establishments like Starbucks. But the closure of a location in the city’s prime shopping neighborhood is significant.
This July, Starbucks announced a slate of 16 store closures in big cities across the county, citing safety issues, including two in Portland: one in downtown Portland and another in deep Southeast in the Gateway neighborhood. At the time, union organizers accused the company of union-busting. (While only 1% of stores nationwide are unionized, 19% of the stores that shuttered were union shops.)
The Pearl storefront closing this week was not included in that batch of summer shutterings. And there’s no indication it is part of a national wave of closures.