Citing pandemic, Starbucks asks landlords for year's worth of rent breaks

Multinational coffee roasting company Starbucks is asking landlords for a year's worth of rent concessions in order to help shore up its finances during the economic crisis wrought by the coronavirus, according to a company letter that leaked this week. 

The corporation has asked numerous landlords to offer rent reductions for the next twelve months, starting June 1, "to support modified operations and adjustments to lease terms and base rent structures." The company cited what it called the "staggering economic crisis" of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Chief Operating Officer Roz Brewer in the letter referred to the economic calamity as "the worst recession since the Great Depression and far more devastating than the global financial crisis" of 2008. Most states have shut down significant chunks of their economies in the hopes of slowing the spread of the disease. 

The company's earnings this quarter tumbled 50% compared to that of 2019 as stores shut down at the beginning of the outbreak in the United States. Starbucks began closing down its U.S. cafes in the middle of March, just as most states began shutting down; sales had begun dropping earlier in the month as consumer habits changed during the heightening pandemic. 

The coffee chain stayed current with its rents through March and April. It said in the letter that the "psychological and economic scars" of the economic shock associated with the virus "will last for months, if not years."