Yes they are closing stores and laying off workers, SO IS PRACTICALLY EVERYONE ELSE!!!! What would you expect a company whose business is run on disposable income to do when people stop spending disposable income. It's common sense. Plus they are only closing underperforming stores. General Electric annually cuts any program that doesn't grow by 10% that year, yet no one hates them like they do starbucks.
And even besides this point, they are still annually rated as one of the best companies in the world you can work for. I know a lot of people who work there, and they love it, you can't really beat the benefits and flexible schedules, find me another company that has spent more money on health care for employees than they did purchasing their product, (starbucks in recent years has spent more money on health care than on anything else, so their employees, part time and full time, can have great benefits)
Yet so many people hate starbucks, if you don't like $5 coffee, don't go there,
I don't like $50k escalades, so i don't buy them, but I don't hate them for it,
If you don't like the taste of their coffee, buy a different kind,
I don't like coffee period, i buy other stuff, yet i don't hate starbucks because i don't like THEIR coffee if you don't like the people who go there, well, then you're profiling, if you don't like the people who work there, why? people call them snobby, i call them nice, you try working in customer service everyday, people are assholes, and the workers at starbucks are always really nice to me, or at least you can tell they try, and of course there will be a rude one every now and then, you'll find this at EVERY DECENT SIZED BUSINESS IN THE WORLD the only bad thing i've heard from employees