Starbucks closures heaviest in Calif, Fla, Texas

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California, Florida and Texas, the U.S. states with the most Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) stores, will see the most shuttered as the coffee chain axes more than 600 underperforming outlets in the coming year.

Starbucks is closing 88 locations in California, a loss of 5 percent based on store counts as of the end of March.

According to a list of store closures released on Thursday, Florida will lose 59 stores, or nearly 14 percent of overall outlets, while the coffee seller's move to shutter 57 Texas locations will lower store counts there by 11 percent.

The company, which expanded so aggressively that it is not uncommon to have two stores within view of each other, previously said 70 percent of the targeted stores were opened since its fiscal year that started October 2005 and that many were in close proximity to another outlet.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz had said that company's move into up-and-coming real estate markets had hurt the company as rising foreclosures left customers with less money to spend.

California, Florida and Nevada, where 18 stores will be shut, are among the states with the highest rates of foreclosure.

"Texas is probably overstored," independent restaurant consultant Dean Haskell said.

But it's not just the slumping markets that are losing stores.

Manhattan, where the company's green and white signs dot the landscape, is losing a handful of stores. California's upscale Laguna Beach is losing its store in the famed Pacific Coast Highway and San Francisco is losing two downtown stores.

A list of state closures follows:

Alabama 12

Arkansas 8

Arizona 1

California 88

Colorado 9

Connecticut 5

Washington, D.C. 1

Delaware 1

Florida 59

Georgia 13

Hawaii 5

Iowa 7

Idaho 2

Illinois 25

Indiana 23

Kansas 3

Kentucky 6

Louisiana 13

Massachusetts 7

Maryland 12

Maine 2

Michigan 18

Minnesota 27

Missouri 17

Mississippi 7

North Carolina 10

North Dakota 4

Nebraska 7

New Hampshire 1

New Jersey 5

New Mexico 4

Nevada 18

New York 39

Ohio 9

Oklahoma 15

Oregon 6

Pennsylvania 21

South Carolina 1

Tennessee 13

Texas 57

Utah 4

Virginia 5

Washington 19

Wisconsin 6

West Virginia 1

(Additional reporting by Jennifer Martinez; Editing by Brian Moss)