The Evanston Starbucks crew wants to give a special thanks to all the regulars that made Starbucks part of their daily lives. Standing left to right are Morgan Lewis, Store Manager Justin Allred, Josh Biernacki, Courtney Smith, Matt Zufelt and Ryan White. Seated is Assistant ManagerTrever Goick.

Starbucks served their final cups of coffee Friday in the Evanston community. Starbucks shut down Friday afternoon at 5 pm., after being part of the Evanston family for two-and-half years.

The closure is one of 200 U.S. Starbucks store closures announced by the company Jan. 28. and was posted online in April according to www.starbucks.com. This year’s closures also included about 100 overseas stores and follows 600 store closures announced last summer after Starbucks posted lower-than-expected earnings.

Justin Allred, store manager, said employees do have a choice to be transferred to other stores outside of Evanston so they would not lose their jobs.

“That is up to them whether they want to relocate. Starbucks has made large leaps and bounds to help them with such things as severance pay,” Allred said.

For the complete article see the 08-11-2009 issue.

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