The Starbucks at the end of my street (a block away) is closing.

I think they are to blame for their own failure. You can never find a parking spot - its a stand alone building shared with a WaMu and there are only 14 spots shared between both businesses - by the time the employees take up 4 or 5 of those and the regulars from the med school and the mommies in the neighborhood each park for 2 to 3 hours at a time, there is no where for the rest of us to park. I'll go up there if I'm home and want a cup - but if I'm on the road and going somewhere, I hit the drive-thru a few blocks in the other direction.

For all the news of the 600 stores closing in the US, however, I haven't seen much mention of how many NEW stores they are opening. I've run across four under construction just in DFW in the last month - and I've seen others in my US travels. We are thrilled to be getting one near our office as our local (and much better) Kona Coffee closes at 2 pm which isn't good for afternoon caffeine fixes!