“Our focus remains on two key priorities: caring for the health and well-being of our partners and customers, and playing a constructive role in supporting local health,” Rossann Williams, president of company-operated business in the United States and Canada, said in the statement.

One would-be customer at the closed store, Terry Murphy, said he thought the response to the outbreak has gone beyond the reality of the risk.

“I honestly think this is being exaggerated,” said Mr. Murphy, 65, who was dropping off his daughter for her job at the Seattle Art Museum, just opposite the Starbucks, before starting his own job as a driver for Lyft, the ride share company. “I went to another Starbucks yesterday and I have a cup that I bring in, and they made the thing, and then made me take their cup and pour it into mine,” he said. “I said, ‘What?’ But apparently that’s the policy now.”

Cindy Fisher, 57, a nurse who works in electronic medical records at the University of Washington, said her office was now empty, like much of the rest of the university, with people there working or taking classes remotely.

Ms. Fisher, who stopped by what Starbucks calls its original location, at Pike Place Market, said she was not terribly worried about the virus — frequent hand-washing and keeping your hands from your face goes a long way, she said — but she feared the economic effect of people staying home and avoiding crowds.

“I’m in Pike Market today to support the local vendors,” she said.

RoShaine Perry, a car salesman from Sacramento, Calif., who was visiting Seattle with his wife, Yna — and posing for photos in front of the glass windows of the 1970s vintage Pike Market Starbucks — said his religious faith was a strength at times like this.

“There’s risk in everything you do in life,” said Mr. Perry, who is 34. “But there’s a bigger eternity, we feel like, out there,” he added. “So we just believe, have faith and keep moving.”