For the past decade it appeared as if the nation had developed an unnatural addiction to Starbucks coffee, with multiple stores populating single malls and streets. Now it seems the nation has gone cold turkey, as Starbucks Corp. announced Tuesday it will close 600 company-operated stores in the next year.

A faltering U.S. economy combined with the company's own rapid expansion were the major contributing factors in bringing on the closures. Following the announcement the company's stock prices jumped by 72 cents, or 4.6-percent. For nearly two years stock prices had been falling.

The Seattle-based company did not specify which stores would close, however it did indicated that stores would close throughout the country, with 70-percent of closures taking place at stores that had opened after the beginning of 2006. When all is said and done, the company will have closed 19-percent of all U.S. company-operated stores that opened in the last two years.

Closings are expected to begin in late July and run through to the middle of 2009, with nearly 12,000 workers, or 7 percent of the company's global workforce being affected. Estimates put severance costs at $8-million, however the company said that most employees will be reallocated to other stores.

Total costs for the company's closures are forecasted to be in the $348-million range, $200-million of which came in the fiscal third quarter that ended on June 30. Official results will come at the end of July.

Initially only 100 stores were scheduled for closure, with the 500 others being listed under an internal watch list for an unspecified period. According to the company these 500 were either not profitable, not expected to be profitable in the foreseeable future and the "vast majority" had been opened near an existing company-operated Starbucks.

Prior to Tuesday the company would not acknowledge heavy saturation as a cause in poor market results, even though many analysts had suggested as much. The closure of nearby stores is expected to bring in a 25 to 30-percent increase in sales at the company's remaining stores.

Along with the closures, the company has cut the number of planned 2009 openings in half, which comes out to be fewer than 200. 2010 and 2011 store opening figures have not yet seen any adjustments.

Aside from the company's own saturation, executives noted that higher food and gas prices contributed to the 28-percent drop in profits from U.S. consumers.

16,226 stores operated worldwide at the end of March, with the company itself controlling 7,257 in the U.S. and 1,867 abroad. The remaining 7,102 locations are run as franchises by partners who license the Starbucks brand.

Five Starbucks stores, that's independent store fronts, currently operate throughout Alaska.