Starbucks to end pickup-only stores, bet on warmer new formats

Starbucks is backing away from the pickup-only stores it introduced in 2019 and replacing them with formats that ask more from the people behind the counter. The company plans to phase out roughly 80 to 90 pickup-only locations and lean into a 32-seat standalone prototype with a drive-thru, plus a smaller urban store with about 10 seats, a shift that puts workflow whiplash at the center of the job.

The move reflects Brian Niccol’s argument that the pickup-only model felt too transactional and stripped out the warmth and human connection Starbucks says defines the brand. Starbucks said the new standalone prototype should open in fiscal 2026 and cost about 30% less to build, while the small-format version was under construction in New York City and expected to open in the next few months. The company also said it would uplift more than 1,000 locations over the next 12 months to add texture, warmth and layered design.

For baristas and shift supervisors, the bigger issue is not just what gets built, but how work gets done inside it. Pickup-only stores compress labor into high-speed, digital production. Coffeehouses with seats, a drive-thru and more face-to-face traffic demand a different rhythm, with more customer interaction, more sequencing between café and mobile orders, and more pressure to hold service together when the line backs up. Some of the pickup-only stores may be converted into traditional coffeehouses instead of closed outright, which means the company is not abandoning the sites so much as changing what it expects workers to deliver there.

Starbucks is making that bet while still under strain. In its fiscal third quarter ended June 29, 2025, the company said it had 41,097 stores worldwide, including 17,230 in the U.S. and 7,828 in China, even as North America comparable store sales fell 2%. Starbucks said its “Back to Starbucks” turnaround had produced three consecutive quarters of improving U.S. transaction comps by July 29, 2025, and later told employees that some stores would close if the company could not create the environment customers and partners expect or if locations lacked a path to financial performance.

The company has paired the redesign push with a promise to invest more than $500 million in additional labor hours for U.S. company-operated stores over the next year. That matters because Starbucks Workers United and the Strategic Organizing Center said a survey of 737 current baristas and shift supervisors found 91% reported understaffing in the previous three months, 93% said that led to long waits for customers, and 88% said it created an unsustainable pace or unsafe working conditions.

Starbucks has been telling managers to think more like hosts. At Leadership Experience 2025 in Las Vegas, more than 14,000 North America coffeehouse leaders gathered around the company’s renewed focus on hospitality, craft and four-minute wait times without losing warmth and connection. The company wants coffeehouses that feel less like handoff stations and more like destinations, but workers will judge the reset on whether the labor standards change along with the seating plan.