Millions of people across the country are asking their landlords for rent relief.
Now businesses are doing the same.
Starbucks’ CEO sent a letter to landlords of stores all over the country recently asking for a break on rent for a year starting June 1.
The coffee company says social distancing because of Covid-19 has battered sales.
The rent relief demand comes one day after the company announced it would reopen 90% of its nearly 9,000 company-owned stores here in the US by early June.
The letter asked the landlords to “adapt to new realities” including an anticipated $225 billion hit to the American restaurant industry over the next three months.
Since last year Starbucks’ quarterly earnings have fallen by half.
In fact all of America’s retail sales took a nosedive, hitting a historic low last month.
The Census Bureau showed US retail sales plummeted by 16.4% in April.
That’s the largest drop since the data series began in 1992.
It’s also significantly higher than the more than 8% sales drop in March.
Clothing and accessories stores saw the biggest hit, down a whopping 89.3% in April.
Several retailers have filed for bankruptcy in recent weeks including Neiman Marcus and J.Crew.
Posted – 5.15.20