Published: July 18, 2008 11:05 am      

Danville on list of Starbucks closures

Employees not told when store will close

DANVILLE — The Danville Starbucks is one of about 600 coffee shops slated to close nationwide.

The Seattle-based purveyor of coffee released its full list of store closures on Thursday. In addition to Danville, the Starbucks inside Market Place Mall in Champaign also is scheduled to close.

Danville Salvation Army Captain Tammy Whitney, a regular customer of the local Starbucks, said Thursday she learned from employees about the store’s fate.

The Danville store at 3100 N. Vermilion St. opened a year ago in July 2007.

According to Whitney, employees told her that the Danville store was a successful location.

“There are always people there when I’m there,” she said.

Two weeks ago, when Starbucks Corp. first announced it planned to close hundreds of stores, Kelly Mattran, regional marketing manager for Starbucks Coffee Company, said store closures would begin this month and continue through March 2009.

Mattran said “individual stores would be notified by their district manager and/or regional director approximately 30 days prior to the closure date.”

The only Illinois stores scheduled to close by the end of the month are in suburban Elmhurst and Country Club Hills.

Whitney said the Danville store employees were not told when exactly this location would close.

On its Web site, the coffee company said “the determination of each store’s closure date is dependent on several operational and contractual factors and events.

“Store partners will receive advance notice and more details from their leadership team once a specific closure date has been confirmed,” the company’s Web site said.