Radio Host Blames Seattle Mayor's Starbucks Boycott Call for Company's Nashville Shift

A Seattle radio host accused Mayor Katie Wilson of angering Starbucks by urging a boycott of the hometown company before it decided to open a new hub in Nashville.

Starbucks has reduced its presence in Seattle. The company said in March it would close five more stores there. That follows several closures in 2025, including the Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill. Starbucks plans to add or relocate 2,000 jobs to Nashville.

Last year, Wilson told baristas on a picket line, "I am not buying Starbucks, and you should not either," according to The Seattle Times. The paper called it a gaffe to urge locals to boycott the local company. KIRO Newsradio host Gee Scott agreed.

"The comment about, ‘I’m not buying Starbucks, and neither should you,’ should have never happened. That should have never happened with the leader," Scott said on "The Gee and Ursula Show."

"I’m not saying that the mayor of Seattle is the reason that Starbucks is doing this," he added. "I’m saying that there should have been a grown-up discussion and conversation."

Scott compared Seattle's treatment of businesses to that in cities like Nashville and Austin. "Sometimes when you are in a relationship, and some of you maybe have been in a relationship where you could not afford to move, and somebody just talked bad to you any kind of way, or you’re at a job where you have to constantly come in and you don’t feel appreciated, but you don’t have another job or other options, so you have to stick it out in that job. You have to be careful the way you talk to somebody that actually has an opportunity to leave," he said.

KIRO host Ursula Reutin said, "There are other cities that are waking up, or have woken up, and have said, ‘Hey, we’re going to compete for this business.’"

Wilson's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Wilson also dismissed reports that millionaires are leaving Washington state because of taxes and far-left policies. At a forum at Seattle University earlier this month, the Democratic mayor said, "I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are like super overblown."

"And the ones that leave, like, bye," she added, waving her hand and laughing. The remark drew laughs and applause in the auditorium but drew criticism online from conservatives.

"The Nashville office will be a complement to our global and North America headquarters in Seattle where we will maintain a large presence," Starbucks chief partner officer Sara Kelly told Fox News Digital.

"Over the next five years, we expect to have 2,000 support jobs located in Nashville. The majority of our support teams continue to be based here in Seattle," Kelly added. "Nashville-based roles will include a combination of net new roles being created to support growth, some in-sourcing as we move some work from contract workers and professional service providers to full-time Starbucks partner roles, and in some cases, moving select teams from Seattle to Nashville as we did recently with our Sourcing teams."

Wilson shocked observers when voters elected her Seattle mayor last year.