Starbucks (SBUX) and the Economy

Starbucks (SBUX) published a list of stores it is closing across the United States. The WSJ published an interactive map of the store closings:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-STARBUCKS_080718.html

PDF file of store closings here:

http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/USStoreClosureInfo.pdf

I'm not a huge fan of Starbucks regular coffee (I prefer Peet's, especially the Guatemala blend), but it occurred to me that an economist or potential real estate buyer could use Starbuck's information to assess how well a local economy is doing. Starbucks would not be closing stores in a particular place if it believed growth was imminent.