Starbucks Middle East and North Africa stores will lay off nearly 2000 employees. Retail giant Al Shaya Group, which owns Starbucks operations in the Middle East, announced on March 6th that the company has decided to reduce the number of employees in Starbucks Middle East and North Africa stores due to the continued severe trade conditions in the past six months. AlShaya confirmed that the scale of layoffs was nearly 2000 people.