The Starbucks location at 8595 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood will close on July 31. (photo by Edwin Folven)

The Starbucks location at 8595 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood is among six scheduled to close in the Los Angeles area on July 31 due to safety and security concerns, according to a Starbucks spokesman.

The move comes as Starbucks employees in several cities are attempting to unionize. However, the spokesman said the scheduled closures are “unrelated.”

“These come out of conversations we’ve been having with our employees and local leaders over the last few months,” the spokesman said. “We’ve heard from them that they’re really being challenged in their ability to both ensure safety for themselves, for partners in the store and also for customers. We’ve really come to expect [a] safe and welcoming and kind environment as part of the Starbucks experience.”

The closures also include two locations in Hollywood – at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street and Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue. Two downtown L.A. locations will close, as will one in Santa Monica.

The spokesman said the company considered an array of options, but it came to the “tough decision” to close six L.A. locations permanently. At other locations, Starbucks is considering altering its store hours or changing its layouts so employees have a “line of sight” throughout the café, he said.

Residents are already lamenting the closure of the Santa Monica Boulevard location.

“It’s sad honestly,” West Hollywood resident Jerry Plummer said. “It used to be a place where you could go and meet people outside of the bars. I could sit there for hours and someone would always talk to me. I studied for my real estate license there. I’d see so many people I knew. It became a place where there was one incident after another. The amount of transients and drugged out people seem to have taken it over. I stopped going there regularly years ago. It just got so bad. I hope down the road a bigger, gayer Starbucks emerges where we can gather and not be fearful of the next crazy person walking in to cause a scene. I met some good friends there.”

An employee at the West Hollywood location on Santa Monica Boulevard said the store has witnessed “quite a few” criminal incidents in recent years.

The Starbucks spokesman, a resident of Seattle who asked to not be named, said stores in his city are closing despite being well-frequented. He said no particular incident led to the stores closing.

“It really just comes down to there’s this combination of factors and incidents – crazy, sustained challenges – and these are things that we’re all familiar with,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman cited chronic homelessness, the mental health crisis and substance abuse, as well as social and economic unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“[It was] just a very clear communication from the folks who are actually working in these stores that the change would need to be made regarding safety,” the spokesman added.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz issued a message to its partners on July 11.

“It’s clear we’re living in a changing world where economic, societal and operational pressures are colliding,” the statement read. “We’re seeing unprecedented cultural division and economic trauma – all while navigating a pandemic, and it seems as though every day there is a new crisis to address.

“All of this affects our partners. All of this affects Starbucks as a company. And all of this deeply affects millions of customers who visit our stores every day. Our stores serve as windows into America, and through them we see the magnitude of the hardships and the ways in which people’s needs are changing.”