Willingboro’s Starbucks Closed After a Year and a Half and Millburn Is Next
Willingboro got a Starbucks back last year after a 16 year wait. It lasted about 18 months.
The Willingboro Town Center Starbucks at 4380 Route 130 North closed its doors for good on Saturday, September 26, part of a national wave that is shutting down about 250 Starbucks stores across North America. A second New Jersey location, at 343 Millburn Ave in Millburn, is also on the closure list, with both stores among 25 locations across New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania being cut at the end of September.
For Willingboro, the closing stings a little more than usual, because this was supposed to be the comeback. The town's previous Starbucks, in a space across an entranceway from the new one, closed in 2008 after only a few years. That space is now a B-Unos. When the new store opened in February 2025, it ended a 16 year absence. Now the town is back where it started.
Why this one didn't make it
The Courier Post reports the Willingboro store was seldom busy, and the math was not kind to it. There's a busy Starbucks about 5.2 miles away at the Hartford Corners shopping center in Delran, plus another standalone store five miles away in Burlington Township at Towne Crossing. Customers had options, and they mostly chose the other ones.
The company wasn't shy about the reason either. In a letter to employees announcing the closures on September 24, chief operating officer Mike Grams said the company had reviewed its North America coffeehouse portfolio and identified locations "where we do not believe we can consistently deliver the experience we want for customers and partners or where we don't see a path to acceptable financial performance." About 250 stores made the list.
Customers of the Willingboro store got an email confirming it. "We've made the very difficult decision to close the Willingboro Town Center Starbucks location by the end of the day today, Sept. 26," it read, before inviting them to use the Starbucks app "to find your new favorite coffeehouse."
This is the second big round of cuts
This is not the first time Starbucks has swung the axe. It's the second major round under CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in 2024. About a year ago, Starbucks closed roughly 627 stores across North America and Europe and cut 900 non-retail jobs.
Niccol came in with a plan he calls "Back to Starbucks": free refills on drinks enjoyed in the cafe, the return of the condiment bar, a tougher code of conduct, and a simplified menu. Grams said in the letter that the strategy is giving the company "a clearer view of the performance of every coffeehouse," and while most stores are benefiting from the momentum, "some coffeehouses continue to underperform despite the hard work and commitment of all of you."
Translation: the turnaround is working for most stores, but the ones that aren't pulling their weight are done.
What it means for New Jersey
The bigger picture is actually a story about the coffee wars in New Jersey. Starbucks operates more than 41,000 stores worldwide and over 18,000 in North America, so two NJ closures are a rounding error to Seattle. But in Willingboro and Millburn, it's real life. Willingboro's store sat right next to a Tropical Smoothie Cafe, across the lot from a Pizza Hut, and near the library, the amphitheater, and a cluster of state and medical offices. It had foot traffic. It just didn't have enough of it buying coffee.
Meanwhile, the independent and regional shops keep multiplying across the state. Every Starbucks that closes leaves a gap, and in New Jersey, someone local always seems ready to fill it.
The Millburn store at 343 Millburn Ave is expected to close with the rest of the end of September wave. If you're a regular there, this week is your last call.