Gainesville Starbucks Store to Close Sunday

Thursday's Independent Florida Alligator reported that the Starbucks on 3822 Newberry Road will be closing this Sunday, the 22nd. I was surprised to read this, considering that almost every time I go there, it seems overcrowded and noisy. Its location is perfect, next to several upscale eateries and a large cinema complex. True, the interior seating is a bit cramped, and I usually have to look for an outdoors seat when I go there. I haven't visited this Starbucks much in the last couple of years, but there was a time when I was a daily customer there.

As a matter of fact, many of my blog articles from 2007 and 2008 were written at this soon-to-be-defunct Starbucks, usually at one of the outside balcony tables. Sometimes I would first go to the Coldstone Creamery a couple of doors down and enjoy some cheesecake-flavored ice cream while reading whichever Stephen King novel I was working on. Ah...those were the good old days! But I've read all of King's novels, I have found better locations to do my writing, and that Starbucks just seems out of my way nowadays. Still, although the newspaper article hinted as a reason of the closure that Starbuck's relatively slow business, I was never there when it wasn't annoyingly packed.

I don't know who has been managing that Starbucks lately, but I liked the former manager Marty Bower, who incidentally was the one who suggested to a couple of LifeSouth employees who stopped by while jogging that a local marathon sponsored by LifeSouth would be a good idea. It's a shame that this part of our local history will end.

As for the employees at the 3822 store, they are being relocated at other Starbucks in town, similar to the way that the Postal Service handles its closures. And much unlike what happened to the employees at my local Hooters restaurant who showed up to work one day and found the doors locked, the business permanently closed, and themselves abruptedly without jobs, without any advance warning. Tacky...and very unrefined!