Weekly News: Starbucks, Fast Food Coffee, Adele + Beauty, Skincare M&A, & Sephora

Send to KindleTweet It’s all food and beauty here for the weekly roundup. First up, the food. Starbucks is adding Hazelnut Macchiato to its list of standard espresso drinks. Meanwhile after last year’s few acquisitions, the West Coast coffee giant is prepping to extend its loyalty card program to Teavana. The rollout would allow cardholders [...]

The Skinny on Evolution Juices

Send to KindleTweet I’m going to tell you a story about how a woman just spent $13 at Starbucks. It’s not hard. I was sucked in by the new offering of juices from Evolution Fresh, their new subsidiary, thanks to the $30 million acquisition in November 2011. I must confess I knew this wouldn’t hold [...]

Starbucks’ Plan: Better Foam & More DIY Options

Send to KindleTweet The coffee wars are in full effect. McDonald’s is undercutting everyone with the $1 promo and Starbucks revealed last month plans for its own single cup brewer. What’s interesting here is 1) that Starbucks is competing with Green Mountain, which owns Keurig and has a deal with Starbucks for coffee pod distribution, [...]

Is A Kahluaccino Coming Soon?

Send to KindleTweet I’ve dreamt of the day Starbucks would get a liquor license and now it’s here. Although not quite in the form I’d desired, it’s here. I’d imagined a world where hedonism was part of mainstream lifestyle and a frothy sugar-laden coffee drink came spiked to quell that oncoming hangover one would fear [...]

Beverage Trend – Single Brew Coffee

Send to KindleTweet The latest beverage trend is about the medium not the product. Single brew coffee. It’s ironic that if you hold onto something for long enough it will once again be en vogue. When I moved to NYC in 2004, I was staying with my aunt and uncle, who had been in the [...]

Starbucks Makes Wellness Push With Acquisition – Retail & Raw in One Buy?

Send to KindleTweet Starbucks Coffee Company recently announced it acquired Evolution Fresh as part of a continued push to bank off of “healthier menu options.” Starbucks’ press releases cites statistics including that of a “$1.6 billion super-premium juice” sector and “a $50 billion health and wellness sector,” both of which it aims to take a [...]

Starbucks Unveils Its Big Gulp + India Plans

Send to KindleTweet Starbucks Coffee Company has inked a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Coffee, a unit of Indian conglomerate Tata, to collaborate on sourcing and roasting green coffee beans. Tata is a holding company with subsidiaries in nearly every industry, from steel and autos, to chemicals and beverages. Most recently known for creating [...]

Coffee 2.0

Send to KindleTweet Is it possible New Yorkers are so much busier than everyone else in the world that prepaid lattes are necessary? This is a theory Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks is testing out, with a new service available in NYC and Long Island. Available at 300 locations to start, the Starbucks Card Mobile App [...]

Even Gang Members Love Starbucks

Send to KindleTweet Friday morning was pretty eventful since I learned that even gang members like Starbucks. In the East Village and Alphabet City, even in a post-Rudy Giuliani New York, one expects their fair share of shady folks, grifters and junkies. But in Gramercy Park, one expects a bit of suburbia in the city. [...]

Starbucks Gives Seattle’s Best Branding Freedom

Send to KindleTweet Starbucks is letting subsidiary Seattle’s Best Coffee do its own thing, with a recent rebranding initiative that cuts it loose from the siren and continues on the partnership sales models. The rebranding, which started with the logo, is aimed at creating a distinct brand because SBC is about retail partnerships, as opposed [...]

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