Starbucks has announced that it will close 600 stores and cut up to 12,000 jobs in the United States, validating critics who feel that the coffee house chain has been overexpanding in recent years.

Starbucks had previously announced that 100 underperforming stores would be closed, but it's this latest decision that reveals the extent to which business has been affected by the economic slowdown.

Some analysts have praised the chain for finally taking drastic but necessary measures, but I think this doesn't take away the fact that even a global brand name like Starbucks is vulnerable to market forces. After all, why should people continue to pay for overpriced lattes when they can barely keep track of how fast fuel prices are rising?

Could this be the beginning of the end for Starbucks? Only time will tell, but I can't help wondering if the same thing could soon happen to other household names like McDonald's...