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Because of underperforming stores in the U.S., Starbucks Corp. has announced its plan to stop the operation of its 600 branches as part of reorganization to increase profitability.

Starbucks Corp. did not mentioned which stores to be closed, they’ve just said that 70 percent of the branches opened after the start of 2006 will be closed.

Howard Schultz - CEO of Starbucks said that “We committed to transforming the company through a series of critical and strategic initiatives to improve the current state of our U.S. business and build the business for the long term”.

According to Valerie O’Neil, Starbucks spokeswoman - the closing of some branches will take place between late July upto the middle of 2009 and almost 12,000 workers will be affected - 7 percent of Starbucks’ global work force.