Starbucks locations temporarily closed

Several Starbucks locations in the Jacksonville area were closed briefly Wednesday morning, not a welcome sight for some craving their morning cup of Joe.

A Starbucks employee at the Riverside location said over the phone that the closures were the result of a filtration problem and inspectors would be at all area locations.

The employee said the Riverside store was to open by 9 a.m. The San Marco Square location opened for business about 9:30 a.m.

"I like to start my day with Starbucks, so I don't really know what to do," customer Kelly Furnet said.

Jim Olsen, of Starbucks corporate communications, gave a statement that a small number of stores opened late because of a "maintenance issue with a water filtration system in the stores." Olsen didn't specify what kind of maintenance, but said that service people were sent to the stores as a precaution and that there was never a threat to customers.

Olsen said they tried to service as many locations as possible overnight and apologized for the inconvenience to customers at the stores that opened late.

According to a Tuesday night post on the Facebook page of the Jacksonville Beach location: "We won't be opening tomorrow until between 7-9AM. Sorry for inconvenience but there is something that we have to fix to be more awesome."

In addition to the closures in Jacksonville, Starbucks in other parts of the country also opened late Wednesday by the same issue. Channel 4 found reports of temporary closures in other parts of Florida, Indiana and Ohio.

The closures meant other coffee shops must have hit the jackpot.

"I think I'm going to have to go grab some McDonald's coffee. I mean, I'm going to have to settle," Furnet said.

"Maybe Dunkin' Donuts. I might have had to sacrifice a little bit," customer Vince Dipasqua said.