Business & Tech

Locals Unhappy With Closure of Orchard Park Starbucks

Coffee shop won't renew its lease, closes its doors

Karon Cook stops in at the Starbucks at Orchard Park every day, sometimes three times a day, for her caffeine fix.

When she heard the popular neighborhood coffee shop was closing, she got on her phone right away and sent a text to the manager of the store to see what the deal was.

“It really is upsetting,” she said. “It’s like a community spot.”

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The has less than a week left until it shuts its doors one last time.

The store, which opened ten years ago, announced a few weeks ago that it will be closing its location on Dunwoody Club Drive on Sunday, June 26.

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It isn’t clear why the store is closing, though on a message from the store, it says Starbucks would not be renewing its lease at that location.

Starbucks did not return calls or emails requesting comment on the closure Tuesday.

For the coffee shop’s regular customers, the news was hard to take.

“I’ve been coming here since it opened ten years ago,” said Lillian Ackaway of Dunwoody. She and two friends come to the Starbucks just about every day, she said, even Sundays after church.

“We’re all pretty sad about it,” she said.

Employees found out in early June about the closing, and will all be moved to other Starbucks locations of their choice.

“They really treat their employees well,” said Barista Chris Bischoff, who travels from south Atlanta to work at the location. He’s moving to the Perimeter Mall store.

Still, he said he’ll miss the community that has made the location a local meeting spot.

Bischoff said he’s got many regulars and knows their orders before they make them.

“Every day at 1:30 I have a couple that comes in,” he said. “I have their pastries set aside in a bag so they don’t get sold and as soon as their white Dodge Durango pulls up, I start making their drinks.”

“You get to know everyone who comes in,” he said.

The store will be holding a closing party on Sunday.

For some, it will be a bittersweet end to their local hangout.

“I’m going to bring my thermos of coffee, a folding chair and sit out here anyway,” joked Bridget Mastrogiovanni, of Dunwoody. 


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