Are more businesses closing — or do we just know about them faster?

Starbucks is closing its East Pasadena location near Best Buy in the Hastings Ranch area.

Pavilions on California Boulevard closed. Rite Aid disappeared. A business shuts its doors, and before you know it, somebody is posting the picture on Facebook or Nextdoor.com.

So here’s my question: What’s happening to Pasadena?

My answer?

Maybe nothing that hasn’t been happening for the past 50 years.

‘What’s happening to Pasadena?’

Restaurants have always gone out of business. Coffee shops have always closed. Grocery stores have come and gone. That’s business. The difference is that today we know about it before dinner.

When my father, Elmer Dills, reviewed restaurants, a place could close and you might not know for three weeks. Unless you drove by and saw the sign on the door, how would you know?

There was no Facebook. No Nextdoor.com. No Instagram picture of an empty storefront with 150 comments underneath it asking, “What’s happening to Pasadena?”

News traveled a little slower. Today, a restaurant can put a “Closed” sign in the window at 9 a.m., and by noon half the San Gabriel Valley knows about it.

So are more businesses really closing? Or are we just seeing every single one?

About a year ago I asked another question: Does Pasadena have too many restaurants and coffeehouses?

My friend, author and Dr. Michael Higgins, gave me an answer I’ve remembered.

“No. We have choices.”

I think he’s right.

Pasadena isn’t just feeding Pasadena residents. Thousands of people come into the city every day to work. Add tourists, shoppers, students, Rose Bowl visitors and people coming here specifically to eat, and we have a pretty interesting marketplace.

But having choices also means competition.

And that’s what made the Starbucks announcement interesting to me.

It wasn’t simply that another Starbucks is closing. We’re not exactly going to have trouble finding a cup of coffee.

It was the company’s explanation. Starbucks said it was closing some stores because it couldn’t provide the experience it wanted for customers and employees. It also cited locations where the financial future didn’t make sense.

What’s better than stamina? Experience.

Forget the corporate talk for a minute. The word that jumped out at me was experience.

I’ve been talking about that for years. I call part of it “table touching.” Somebody comes by. Somebody asks how you’re doing. Somebody notices when your drink is empty. In other words, somebody acts like they’re happy you walked through the door.

Remember when going to Starbucks was actually an experience? Meet a friend. Sit down. Have a conversation. Read the newspaper. Open your laptop and pretend you’re working.

Today it’s often: order on your phone, walk in, find your name on a cup and walk out.

That’s efficient. But is it hospitality?

I’m not saying that’s why this particular Starbucks is closing. Starbucks hasn’t told us whether the Hastings Ranch decision was sales, location, costs, customer experience or some combination of those things. But the company’s own use of the word “experience” should get the attention of every restaurant and coffeehouse owner in town.

Because Pasadena has choices. Lots of them. You can get coffee almost anywhere. You can get a hamburger, taco, pizza or steak without leaving town.

So what makes you go back?

Sometimes it’s the food. Sometimes it’s the price. And sometimes it’s because somebody remembered your name.

My dad used to say, “Sell to the masses and you’ll eat with the classes.”

Businesses have always opened and closed. That’s not news. What’s changed is how quickly we hear about it.

The real question isn’t whether Pasadena has too many restaurants and coffeehouses. It’s whether they’re giving us a reason to come back.

Because with all these choices, if you don’t give customers a reason, somebody else will.