Starbucks Corp. may rise in Nasdaq trading today after the coffee retailer, which has doubled in size since 2004, announced plans to retrench, including cutting 7 percent of its workforce and closing 600 stores.

Seventy percent of the stores to be shut are less than three years old, the company said. Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Peter Bocian said the stores were taking 25 percent to 30 percent of sales from nearby locations.

The closings will hurt long-term revenue projections while helping the company achieve its profit goals, Bocian said on a conference call yesterday, without elaborating.

Other Starbucks stores may recapture $180 million to $360 million of the roughly $600 million in sales lost from the closures, DiFrisco said.

Starbucks’ sales and earnings have declined as cash- strapped consumers facing record gasoline prices cut back on gourmet coffee and other luxuries. The company still plans to open 200 other company-owned stores through September 2009.

Most of the 600 stores set to close were opened in late 2005 and 2006, Bocian said on the call with investors and analysts. During that time, more than 50 percent of the new stores had drive-through service, he said.

Consumers are driving less because of gasoline prices that have soared to more than $4 a gallon, according to separate surveys in the past two weeks by Mastercard Advisors analyst Michael McNamara and JPMorgan Securities Inc. analyst Himanshu Patel.

Since some of Starbucks has been unionized, just how many of the layoffs and closures will effect those in the new union?  Since Starbucks has fought the unions tooth and nail, I would guess that those units with the unions will be the first to get the ax.