Starbucks Coffee Co.

Inspired by the history of Hollywood, Starbucks has set up shop at Universal Boulevard, a new main street-styled retail destination at Universal Studios Hollywood.

The façade of the 5,000-sq.-ft. store is broken up into multiple buildings, as if it had originally been the site of several small shops. The interior is fashioned as one grand space. A banquette made of reclaimed black walnut wood curves like a siren’s tale, creating seating eddies.

Starbucks Corp. reported profit for the second quarter that exceeded expectations, but it disappointed on sales. The chain also offered a third-quarter earnings outlook that was shy of forecasts.

For the quarter ended March 27, Starbucks reported $4.99 billion in sales, up 9% from $4.56 billion in the year-ago period. Although sales set a new record for a non-holiday quarter, they but still fell short of analyst estimates of $5.03 billion.

Net income rose 18% to $575.1 million on strong U.S. sales.

Starbucks has brought its small-sized store format to the Windy City.

The coffee giant has opened a 635-sq.-ft. Starbucks Express cafe in Chicago's Union Station. This is the company’s fifth location to date for its Express concept, which features a streamlined menu that focuses on brewed coffee, espresso beverages and select food items.

The other Express stores are located in New York and Toronto.

Conlego is the name of a new consulting practice established by several former Target executives who hope to leverage their experience to help companies create value through negotiations, partnership and corporate social responsibility.

The name Conlego means “unifying people for a common purpose,” according to the pair of former Target executives who founded the firm on the premise that more value can be created by finding collaborative ways of working together on solving the business and social challenges every organizations faces.

Starbucks will open its largest location in the world, a 20,000-sq.-ft. store, in one of Manhattan’s trendiest areas.

The coffee giant is bringing its new Roastery store format to the Meatpacking District, opening at 61 Ninth Ave., a new nine-story building that is currently under development. The building is close to Chelsea Market.

Starbucks is one of the first brands to leverage a new music and entertainment media platform from PlayNetwork.

To further increase both customer and employee engagement, Starbucks can now enable partners (employees) to select in-store playlists and provide a uniquely curated listening experience for customers. The chain is using the platform in more than 7,500 U.S. stores.

Starbucks Corp. is extending its payment platform to extend its reward program beyond its own stores.

The coffee giant announced at its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday that it will launch the Starbucks Rewards Prepaid Card from Chase by the end of this year.

Democracy Works, a non-partisan, non-profit organization, said on Wednesday it is teaming up with an array of companies, including Starbucks, Target and Westfield Corp., in an effort to boost U.S. voter turnout to 80% by 2020.

The project, called the TurboVote Challenge, is ambitious. The last time the U.S. achieved a voter turnout rate over 80% was in 1888. An estimated 57.5% of eligible citizens voted in the 2012 presidential election.

Starbucks knows a thing or two about developing business across channels, and on-demand, app-based grocery delivery service Shipt is bringing that expertise in-house.

Birmingham, Alabama-based Shipt has named Joe Manning, former Starbucks director of business and channel development, to lead business development. Shipt is looking to Manning to establish and grow partnerships with grocers and CPG companies as the company expands.

Starbucks Corp. announced a major initiative to help the nation’s neediest citizens.

The coffee giant is launching FoodShare, a program to donate all leftover ready-to-eat meals from its 7,600 U.S. company-operated stores to food banks. In the first year alone, the program will be able to provide nearly 5 million meals, according to company estimates.