I haven’t been by there in a few years, but there is/was an intersection south of Market in San Francisco with a Starbucks on three out of four corners. Since taming all of my other addictions, caffeine is the only one left. As such, I make my own espresso at home, and don’t really mess with Starbucks unless I’m out of town and can’t find anything else.

I pity the poor fools who might have to start crossing the street to get their burnt coffee:

Starbucks Corp. said Tuesday that it will close 600 of the 7,257 coffee shops it operates in the United States over the next year, affecting as many as 12,000 employees.

Starbucks would not disclose which of its Bay Area locations will be closed, saying it wants to notify employees first. Most of the closures will involve fairly new stores, with 70 percent of the cafes being closed having opened since the start of 2006.

This is just unbelievable. They are closing 420 brand new stores, all opened well after it became obvious that the US economy was in for a rough time. I’m sure their shareholders are overjoyed at this news.