Starbucks shut two Philadelphia cafes in late September, and Pennsylvania’s October list of mass-layoff notices shows 18 workers affected, with an effective date of Dec. 6, 2026. The stores are at 2201 South Street and 1018 North Second Street. The company announced the closings on Sept. 24 as part of a cut of about 250 stores across North America.
What the state notice lists
The state Department of Labor and Industry’s WARN notice list carries one entry for October: Starbucks, with addresses 2201 South Street (ZIP 19146) and 1018 North Second Street (ZIP 19123), both in Philadelphia County. The list shows 18 workers affected, an effective date of 12/6/2026 and the type of action as a closure. The page does not show the date Starbucks filed the notice.
WARN requires employers to give 60 days’ notice before a plant closing or mass layoff, the state’s WARN page says. The notice goes to affected workers, the state’s dislocated worker unit and local government. Employers with 100 or more employees are generally covered, which includes a company the size of Starbucks.
What Starbucks has said
The stores closed ahead of the Dec. 6 date. The Inquirer reported that the stores were to close later in the week of Sept. 24 and appeared closed in Starbucks’ store locator that Sunday. A report in The Sun Papers put the closing at or about Sunday, Sept. 27.
Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams told employees in a letter that some coffeehouses “continue to underperform despite the hard work and commitment of all of you,” ABC7 reported. Starbucks said it will transfer employees to other stores where it can, and will offer severance support to those it cannot place.
The state notice does not say how many of the 18 workers were moved to other cafes and how many are leaving the company. Starbucks has not said. The Dec. 6 date is the one the state lists, and it falls roughly two months after the stores went dark.
For a worker at either cafe, the question is what Dec. 6 means for a paycheck and whether a transfer offer or an unemployment claim comes first.
The Dec. 6 date on the state notice is the one that catches the 18 Philadelphia workers it lists, and Pennsylvania starts an unemployment claim on the Sunday of the week it is filed.
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Filing for unemployment in Pennsylvania
The state’s unemployment compensation page says to file as soon as a layoff or cut in hours happens. A claim is effective on the Sunday that starts the week it is submitted, no matter what day of the week it is filed. Backdating is allowed only in very limited cases, generally when a late filing was through no fault of the worker.
Claims can be filed online at benefits.uc.pa.gov, by phone at 1-888-313-7284 on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., or in person with help from UC Connect at PA CareerLink locations, which are scheduled by calling 1-855-284-8545. The page asks for the last employer’s name, address and phone number, the dates of employment and the Initial Claims Requirements Checklist, called UC-23.
The first week of a benefit year in which a worker is unemployed and otherwise eligible is a waiting week, and no benefits are paid for it. The worker must still file the weekly certification for it to count. Eligible claimants generally receive 18 to 26 full weeks of benefits, and eligibility requires at least 18 credit weeks in the base year, a credit week being one with earnings of at least $116, the page says.
Other Starbucks closings
The Philadelphia stores are not the only ones. The WARN Act aggregator site lists a Starbucks closure in Washington state affecting 51 workers, effective Nov. 14. The same Pennsylvania list shows a Starbucks entry from October 2025 for six Philadelphia locations, effective Dec. 5, 2025, with the number of workers listed as unknown. The Inquirer also noted that Starbucks closed six Philadelphia stores last year.
The third Philadelphia-area store on the Sept. 24 list, at 4380 Route 130 in Willingboro, is across the river in New Jersey, so it falls under that state’s rules and not Pennsylvania’s.
What a Starbucks worker can do before Dec. 6
The free route is the state itself. Workers can find support through the PA CareerLink network, the state’s WARN page says, and questions about the notice go to the state’s rapid response contact listed there. A worker who has not heard from a manager should ask for a transfer offer in writing, along with the last pay date and any severance terms.
Anyone who plans to file for unemployment should gather the employer details, the dates worked and recent pay stubs before sitting down with the state’s claim page. With the stores already closed, a worker without a transfer has no reason to wait for Dec. 6 to start a claim.
A worker who takes a transfer should still keep the notice and the offer letter. Both show the dates on which the job at the old store changed.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
