NJ Starbucks sudden closure leaves workers blindsided

I’ve heard of this kind of thing happening too many times to not recognize a sad truth. As much as corporations claim you’re a “valued employee” and “we’re all family” and try to convince you how much you matter, you don’t. The moment you’re not useful to them they couldn’t care less.

Recently, you heard about several Starbucks locations in New Jersey closing down. It’s part of a corporate shakeup across the country.

What’s as troubling as it is typical is how workers who have given perhaps years to a company get treated in the end. According to nj.com, the Morristown Starbucks location may have closed, with some employees not even receiving 48 hours' notice. A customer named Kris Lott, who was a 20-year daily regular and who got to know the workers, was quoted as saying that a lot of the employees were given barely any notice.

“That’s not how to run a corporation,” Lott said. “These are human beings. They have lives. They have commitments.”

SEE ALSO: New Jersey layoffs in 2025: Nearly 10000 and counting

Businesses close without any notice to workers

We have heard this scenario all too often.

In 2019, a couple of Houlihan’s locations in New Jersey closed so abruptly that it took their employees by complete surprise. There are documented cases of businesses closing for good that simply allowed their employees to show up for work, only to find a note left on a locked door stating that they were unemployed.

Hey, at least there was a note. I knew a truck driver who worked for a company that had their drivers show up to the yard one morning, only to find a locked gate. Nothing more. Management wouldn’t answer calls being made from the parking lot. The company went out of business and didn’t even bother with a note, let alone a phone call. Oh, this was a week before Christmas, too.

CEO-to-worker pay disparity tells the story

In the 1980s, the CEO-to-worker pay disparity was around 20 to 30 times the average worker’s pay. By 2024, that ratio was 290 to 1. CEO pay has soared 1,085% since 1978 compared with a 24% rise in typical workers’ pay.

They don’t care about you. You are a means to an end, and God help you when you outlive your usefulness. In the words of Taylor Swift, you’re on your kid, always have been.