A Center City Starbucks is closing due to safety concerns among workers

Citing safety concerns among the workforce, the coffee giant Starbucks has announced it will close its store at 10th and Chestnut, along with one in Washington, D.C., and 14 on the West Coast.

The company did not provide details of the safety issues: A statement posted to the Starbucks website by Debbie Stroud and Denise Nelson, senior vice presidents of U.S. operations, said only that employees had filed “a lot of” incident reports.

The statement added that the challenges the stores were confronting were related to larger social issues, including “racism” and “rising drug use.”

» READ MORE: Starbucks will let employees close bathrooms, modifying policy prompted by 2018 Philadelphia arrests

Starbucks and other businesses have had persistent problems with drug users in restrooms, said Paul Levy, president and chief of the Center City District.

The store is on the ground floor of the historic Victory Building, and police said they responded to 21 “calls for service” at the building’s address in the last year, primarily for fights and quarrels. Most of the 13 crimes reported in the vicinity of 10th and Chestnut since Jan. 1 were related to thefts, rather than violent incidents, police said.

The Center City Starbucks and stores in Seattle, the company’s home base; Los Angeles; Santa Monica, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Everett, Wash.; and Union Station, in Washington, D.C., will be closing by the end of July, the company said.

The company, one of the world’s largest coffee chains with an estimated $29 billion in annual revenue and 383,000 employees in 2021, has prided itself on its corporate values. Its website says it aims “to inspire and nurture the human spirit — one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time. ... We call our employees partners.”

However, employees at five Philadelphia locations and up to 180 nationwide have voted to unionize, according to Starbucks Workers United. The 10th and Chestnut store — one of several clustered in Center City east of Broad Street — was not among them, and the company said the unionization drives had nothing to do with closing decisions.

In a letter posted to the Starbucks website, CEO Howard Schultz said that the company would need to “modernize. ... It is not designed for the future we aspire to for ourselves and the communities in which we serve.”

As safety concerns intensify among Starbucks stores, the company said, some policies are being revisited, including giving employees the option of closing a restroom, or even the store, in the interest of safety.

The company had opted for an open-bathroom policy after a 2018 incident in which two Black men waiting for their friend were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks at 18th and Spruce Streets. The viral video of the arrests sparked national outrage and prompted companywide change, with the company closing all of its 8,000 stores for one day for “racial-bias education.” The company also agreed that its restrooms would be available even to non-customers.

Levy said that people using drugs have been occupying restrooms in Center City walk-ins. The 10th and Chestnut Starbucks installed blue lightbulbs in the bathroom designed to deter intravenous drug users. The lights would make veins less visible.

» READ MORE: Center City’s shoppers and diners are back — almost to pre-pandemic levels

Le Pain Quotidien, a cafe nearby at Eighth and Walnut Streets, opted for a bathroom lock with a keypad after someone left a needle on the bathroom sink, manager Trey Cordell said Wednesday. Issues have persisted. Several months ago, a person got high in the bathroom, couldn’t unlock the door, and began yelling. An employee called the police. Cordell said the restaurant did not have a “bathroom manager.”

The Center City District’s Levy said that hiring an employee specifically to monitor a restroom would be just “an added cost” for the owner. Rather, he said, “We have to deal more broadly with addiction in the city.” Overdose deaths have hit record levels in recent years.

Levy said that the “broader context” of retail and restaurant occupancies in Center City is healthy — 88% occupancy before the pandemic and 82% now.

He added that he “reached out directly” to Starbucks real estate officials to see if his organization could do anything.

Likewise, the office of Mark Squilla, the City Council member who represents the district, has contacted Starbucks seeking “a better understanding of the closure,” said Anne Kelly King, his chief of staff.

Employees at the store declined to comment Wednesday.

In addition to thefts, the incidents that police reported this year included vandalism and three minor assaults. Of those 21 “calls for response,” four were for “thefts in progress,” said Philadelphia Police Cpl. Jasmine Reilly.

Kevin Lessard, Mayor Jim Kenney’s spokesperson, said the administration was working with police and others to ensure that people feel safe across the city. While acknowledging the difficulties businesses have navigated during the pandemic, he called the 10th and Chestnut closure “disappointing.”

The closings were announced Monday, coinciding with the opening of a hearing in New York on the National Labor Relations Board’s request for a federal court order preventing Starbucks from interfering with unionization efforts.

This marked the third time the board filed a case in federal court against Starbucks since December, when a store in Buffalo, N.Y., became the company’s first location in decades to unionize. Also in June, Starbucks announced it would be closing a store in Ithaca, N.Y., after the store had voted to unionize.

Employees at four Philadelphia shops — 3401 Walnut St., 3400 Civic Center Blvd., 600 S. Ninth St, and 1900 Market St. — voted to unionize in May, and fifth store, at 12th and Walnut Streets, in June, the union reported.

Staff writers Ryan W. Briggs, Ximena Conde, and the Associated Press contributed to this article.