When Starbucks announced early this month that 600 of its franchises would be closing, local caffeine addicts worried where they'd find their morning fix.

So far, Pennsylvania has dodged the bullet.

But some bitter news filtered out of Starbucks headquarters over the weekend. Business will grind to a halt for one New Jersey franchise by August 1.

The Seattle-based coffee giant released a list of the first 50 franchises slated to close.

And on the hit list is the Starbucks kiosk at the Cherry Hill Mall food court. Employees, so-called "baristas," were given notice on Friday. Another Starbucks at the Mall, located inside Macy's, will remain open.

A shift manager who answered the phone at the Cherry Hill kiosk this morning declined to answer any questions posed by a reporter.

"We've been asked not to the speak to the press," he said.

A Starbucks employee said the shop was not closing because it was underperforming, but because of a reconstruction project at the Mall that would have forced the coffee stand to move to a less desirable location.

Coffee drinker Ernie Alejo wasn't surprised that the kiosk was closing up. Mall renovations have disrupted dozens of businesses, he said.

"Usually a lot of people walk around exercising in the morning," Alejo said. "They stopped because of all the inside construction. A lot of things have closed. Even the news stand is gone."

Starbucks, which operates more than 16,200 franchises, announced July 1 it would close about 20 percent of all its U.S. company-operated stores that opened in the last two years. The shops slated for closing have been deemed "underperforming."

About 12,000 workers, or 7 percent of the chain's global work force, will be affected by the closings, which are expected to take place between late July and the middle of 2009.

A Starbucks spokeswoman said employees will be transfered to nearby stores.