The Department of Redundancy Department previously announced Starbucks will close 600 company-owned stores. The precise stores getting the ax now are listed online.

On my last business trip to downtown Seattle, I was tickled to discover Starbucks has stores operating on three of the four corners adjacent to the block occupied by the Federal Building. Even then I wondered: weren’t they oversaturating the market? Apparently not – none of the three stores is on the hit list.

Something else I will never forget about that trip is that my hotel was only three blocks away. Why is that memorable? It looked like a short little jaunt on Mapquest, but I should have consulted a topographic map – it was three blocks straight up the side of a mountain. The locals helped teach me the dodges: walk a block over to a commercial building, take its escalators to the next street level, cross into the Seattle Public Library, take its elevator to the public reading area, leave out the back door, then hoof uphill to the hotel entrance. Never mind Starbucks, they could have sold me bottled oxygen on every corner.