Now that Starbucks Corp. has disclosed the 600 locations (13 in Georgia) it wants to shutter, a phenomenon is taking hold: the Save Our Starbucks campaign.

In towns as small as Bloomfield, N.M., and metropolises as large as New York, customers and city officials are starting to write letters, place phone calls, circulate petitions and otherwise plead with the coffee company to change its mind.

"Now that it's going away, we're devastated," said Kate Walker, a facilities manager for software company SunGard Financial Systems who recently learned of a store closing in New York City.

It is an unusual twist in the saga of Starbucks, one of the fastest-growing retailers of the past decade. For years, Starbucks gained attention when a town didn't welcome it. Independent coffee shops complained about the big-muscled competition, and residents bemoaned the erosion of local character.

But ever since Starbucks announced this month that it would close 600 stores by early next year, as its business struggles, the rallying cause has switched to saving these endangered locations.

Walker is in charge of consolidating 525 people from seven of her company's New York offices into a new building in January. The Starbucks inside that building, at Madison Avenue and 44th Street, "was something that we were using to psych people up" about the move, she said.

Her hopes were dashed last week when Starbucks released the list of the stores it plans to close. She jumped on the Internet to find a phone number for the company's main office so she can ask officials to reconsider.

"Knowing Starbucks, there's probably [another] one within a few blocks," she said. "But that's probably two blocks too far."

Starbucks spokeswoman Deb Trevino said company officials are discussing how to handle such pleas; she wouldn't give details of what they are considering. "It's not a simple answer," she said.

Online, several "Save Our Starbucks" petitions have popped up for stores across the country, including locations in San Diego, Dallas and New York City.

The closures mean Starbucks will eliminate about 12,000 jobs.