Starbucks Axing 6,700 More

American consumer confidence is at an all-time low, which is very bad news for Starbucks. The coffee giant today announced a huge new round of layoffs and store closings—6,700 employees and 300 stores in all this year—after reporting drooping first-quarter profits. Most shocking of all, CEO Howard Schultz is taking a huge pay cut himself, slashing his salary from $1.2 million to $10,000 a year. Starbucks is closing 200 US stores and 100 overseas, on top of the 600-plus locations it shuttered last year. “The slowdown in traffic is reflective of less frequent customer visitation patterns due to the economy,” an analyst with William Blair & Co. in Chicago wrote in a Jan. 26 note.