Despite our efforts and great media coverage of our campaign, Starbucks closed our store on August 30.

We knew it would be hard to change a corporate decision of this nature. Our hope was in creating a very public opportunity for Starbucks to show its commitment to community. We succeeded in creating that opportunity, but clearly Starbucks did not see the value in it.

Nevertheless, Starbucks has expressed interest in contributing to our community as a result of our campaign. We're working on putting them in touch with local charities. Hopefully there will be some good news to share on this topic soon.

Below you can read the original text of our petition.

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Starbucks plans to close our store in Hillcrest Village on August 30.

This store is an amazing hub for our community. In fact, our Hillcrest store truly represents what Starbucks promises to be: an inclusive place where we gather to share great coffee and deepen human connection.

We urge Starbucks to live up to its promise by keeping our store open.

Please sign the petition, add a comment about what this means to you, and share!

(After you sign, the iPetitions website that is hosting our petition will ask for a donation because it's a free service. Don't worry, you don't need to pay anything - you can simply close and you're done.)

Follow the campaign: Twitter @SaveOurStarbcks / IG saveourstarbcks
Contact us: savehillcreststarbucks@gmail.com

This message will be sent to Starbucks Canada President Michael Conway:

To Michael Conway, EVP and President of Starbucks Canada

From the patrons of Hillcrest Village Starbucks Store

Dear Michael,

We are very surprised and dismayed to learn of your decision to close our neighbourhood Starbucks store. This store is an important hub and meeting place for our community. It's a meaningful place and its closing would be a loss for so many. We urge you to keep it open.

Our store is valued for many reasons. For starters, it’s on the corner of the main intersection in our neighbourhood. It's a popular place to stop on our way to and from errands and work -- it’s right by the streetcar and bus stops, and it’s easy to park the car here for a brief or longer visit.

But this is much more than a commuter store. It’s a place where local residents from diverse backgrounds, of different ages, abilities, occupations, identities -- people who would not typically share a common social space -- get to meet and feel connected as a community.

This community includes parents who find the store an easy and enjoyable place to bring their babies and infants. It includes teenagers who visit the store in lively groups on their school lunch breaks. Children and youth are regulars here. For those of us who are older, who come here to work, to read, to knit, to chat with friends, it’s really meaningful to be in this vibrant family environment. People come in from local businesses and from events at the nearby community centre. On any given day, you’ll find tradespeople sitting next to mum’s groups sitting next to professionals meeting clients. You’ll meet people who are differently abled and neurodiverse -- one of the best things about our store is that it’s accessible and inclusive. On evenings you’ll see couples on dates and international students working on assignments with friends and tutors. On weekends you’ll meet parents whose kids are in the Japanese school, families coming in after karate classes or on their way to festivals, and you can tell the time by the coming and going of crowds from the fitness clubs. Adding to this rich social atmosphere, the staff in the store are consistently wonderful, remembering so many of us and our interests, and the whole store experience is enhanced by an abundance of natural light.

There's no other place like this in our neighbourhood.

In fact, our Hillcrest store is exactly what Starbucks, in its mission statement, promises to be: a “third place” where “we can gather, as a community, to share great coffee and deepen human connection.” This is where many of us discovered Starbucks, and this store made us loyal.

But we don’t just want to tell you this. We want to show you.

We understand that it's easy for company executives to lose sight of what's happening on the ground.

So here’s our suggestion. Why don’t you come down to our store and meet us for a coffee? We’ll help you to see the place from our point of view.

You’ll be our guest, Michael. Coffee’s on us.

(We’ve got the points!)