March 4, 2024

Starbucks closes Boulder location on Pearl

BOULDER — Starbucks quietly shuttered its Boulder location at 28th and Pearl streets last week. 

The closure at the 2770 Pearl St. coffee shop, which was effective as of Feb. 28, is permanent. 

“As part of Starbucks standard course of business, we continually review and evaluate our locations to ensure a healthy store portfolio,” a Starbucks spokesperson told BizWest in an email. “… We will continue to serve the Boulder community and encourage our customers to visit us at our other locations in the area.”

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The Seattle-born coffee giant, which closed another Pearl Street location near downtown Boulder several years ago, did not elaborate on the closure decision.

While workers at the Pearl Street location had yet to join the growing number of unionized Starbucks employees, labor activists and members of the Starbucks Workers United union  “gathered outside (the coffee shop last November,) handing out pamphlets and holding signs” in support of the national unionization push, according to a Daily Camera report from the time. 

The Starbucks location at 2400 Baseline Road became the first in Boulder to unionize in January 2023 and employees at the Superior Starbucks on Rock Creek Circle were the first in Colorado to join a union the year before. Around the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado, there are other unionized Starbucks operations in Longmont, Greeley and Westminster.

Lucas High
A Maryland native, Lucas has worked at news agencies from Wyoming to South Carolina before putting roots down in Colorado.
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