Starbucks will stop selling newspapers in September
If you want to read the paper at Starbucks, you’ll have to start bringing your own.
The Seattle-based coffee giant, beginning Sept. 1, will no longer sell The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or USA Today at its 8,000 shops nationwide, The Post has learned.
According to a source, Starbucks is trashing newspapers partly because of a chronic problem with “shrinkage” — industry lingo for lost and stolen goods.
While Starbucks has been selling the papers for years, many Starbucks customers take them off the rack, read them while they finish their lattes, then either leave them the table or walk off with them without without paying.
“Some may have thought it was free, like USA Today in hotels,” said the industry insider.
Starbucks confirmed the decision on Thursday.
“As part of our continuous efforts to enhance the overall experience in our stores for both partners and customers, we are removing select fixtures from our retail lobby in September,” a Starbucks spokeswoman said.
Newspapers are not alone in getting the boot.
“In addition to newspaper stands, we will also remove shelving fixtures that display whole bean coffee and different grab-and-go snacks,” the spokeswoman said.
There’s no word on how many copies were actually sold through Starbucks, although anything that disrupts single-copy print sales certainly cannot be welcomed by the hard-pressed newspaper industry.
“We work with many retail partners to ensure that copies of The Wall Street Journal are available for purchase,” said a spokeswoman for the paper, whose parent News Corp. also publishes The Post. “While Starbucks made the decision to no longer sell print copies, we are actively discussing other ways that their customers can access WSJ.”
“We were informed by Starbucks that they will no longer sell print newspapers in their stores as of the end of August,” said a Times spokeswoman.
“Although disappointed by the decision, we’re confident that given our wide retail distribution, readers will have no trouble finding The New York Times for sale at nearby outlets.”
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