Store Closure Watch recorded 438 closure and distress events across 45 states in the week of September 19–25, 2026, down 5 percent from 463 the week before. Part of that fall is this week's cleanup: repeat and summary rows that had been counted again were taken out. Two companies account for about four in ten records: Starbucks, which began closing about 1 percent of its North American cafes on Thursday, September 24, and Meritage Hospitality Group, the Wendy's franchisee that filed for Chapter 11 on September 17. Take those two out and the week looks ordinary.
By the numbers
Starbucks closes cafes in 25 states as a Wendy's franchisee's bankruptcy widens: 438 closure and distress events this week
Store Closure Watch recorded 438 closure and distress events across 45 states in the week of September 19–25, 2026, down 5 percent from 463 the week before. Part of that fall is this week's cleanup: repeat and summary rows that had been counted again were taken out. Two companies account for about four in ten records: Starbucks, which began closing about 1 percent of its North American cafes on Thursday, September 24, and Meritage Hospitality Group, the Wendy's franchisee that filed for Chapter 11 on September 17. Take those two out and the week looks ordinary.
The big story: Starbucks' second round
Starbucks announced on Thursday, September 24 that it will close about 1 percent of its North American cafes, roughly 250 coffeehouses, as part of the turnaround under CEO Brian Niccol. It is the company's second round of closures in a year. Local outlets published the affected stores over the weekend. The file now names 147 Starbucks cafes across 25 states and Washington, DC. Of those, 58 are in California. No single list covers every store: some outlets reported lists of the closing locations, the Starbucks app showed stores as closed, and elsewhere cafes became public one at a time, so the count will move as the remaining stores are named.
The franchisee story: Meritage Hospitality Group
Meritage Hospitality Group, which operates 314 Wendy's restaurants in 15 states, filed for Chapter 11 protection in the Western District of Michigan on September 17. The filing puts the future of individual restaurants in play rather than closing them outright: local coverage this week named 13 Wendy's in northern Indiana alone as uncertain. The file carries 40 Wendy's records in five states tied to the filing, plus six Morning Belle records in Michigan (the sources say Meritage operates five Morning Belle restaurants).
Sector breakdown
Restaurant & Food Service led with 286 of the week's 438 records. On the early-warning series, which counts new events by week, the sector logged 287 against a trailing eight-week average of 125. Starbucks and the Meritage restaurants supply 191 of the sector's records; without them the sector sits below its usual pace. Elsewhere the week was mostly quiet on the same series: Retail 73 against an average of 133 and Industrial/Manufacturing 17 against 30, while Logistics/Warehouse (19 against 12) and Healthcare (9 against 8.8) ran above trend.
Other restaurant news the file caught this week: TIG Reaper, a Dave's Hot Chicken franchisee, filed for Chapter 11 in Pennsylvania on September 21.
By the numbers
- 438 events in 45 states, down from 463
- 326 closures, 91 bankruptcies, 13 layoff notices, 5 restructurings
- 23 events carry a WARN filing
- Top states: California 82, Connecticut 39, Texas 28, Florida 23, Virginia 22, Washington 18
- 228 distinct businesses; 261 events confirmed, 124 effective, 51 announced
Notable individual events
- Avid Medical, Toano, Virginia. Owens & Minor's surgical-kit brand notified the state on September 16 that it will close its Toano plant; 419 jobs are affected, with separations expected to begin on or about November 25.
- Regional Acceptance Corporation, Tempe, Arizona and Arlington, Texas. Truist Bank's near-prime auto-loan subsidiary filed WARN notices in both states on September 15 covering 120 jobs in Tempe and 205 in Arlington, tied to the sale of certain assets.
- Ozark Materials, Greenville, Alabama. PPG Industries will close the Greenville plant; layoffs of about 52 employees begin November 30 according to the state's WARN list.
- Cato Fashions. The women's apparel chain, with more than 1,000 stores in 31 states, said it will close 120 stores by the end of its fiscal year.
- Bristol Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey (265 jobs), Elevance Health, Metairie, Louisiana (216) and PeaceHealth, Vancouver, Washington (150) filed layoff notices; these are workforce reductions, not site closures, and are carried as layoff events.
Methodology
Store Closure Watch compiles closure, bankruptcy, layoff and restructuring events from news coverage, state WARN notices, federal court dockets, SEC filings and retailers' own store lists, then verifies each record against its source before it enters the weekly file. The count above is the edition of record for the week of September 26; corrections to individual records are made in later editions rather than to this page. Restaurant-sector counts include franchisee bankruptcies as one event per named location. A closure date is printed only when a source states it.
Correction, October 13, 2026: 2 records in this week's count came from FDIC filings we had read as bank branch closings. They were branch openings. We have relabeled them, and FDIC branch closings now come from the correct filing code. The counts above are as published.
Get the data
The full file for this week, with addresses, dates, WARN cross-references and court links, is available to subscribers every Monday. Samples for a state or metro are free on request.