Starbucks Coffee Co.

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 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.

Starbucks on Monday opened a store in the Jamaica section of Queens, New York, which has a strong job training component.

The location is the first in a nationwide initiative Starbucks announced last summer to open stores in at least 15 diverse urban communities across the United States by 2018, with the aim to create new jobs, engage local women and minority-owned vendors and suppliers, and collaborate with local nonprofits to support training opportunities for youth in the individual communities.

Michael Reed has been promoted to VP real estate for Stater Bros. Markets.  
 
Reed joined Stater Bros. in 2014 as senior director of real estate, a position he held until his recent promotion. He will report to president and CEO Pete Van Helden.

Prior to Stater Bros., Reed served as real estate store development manager for Starbucks where he was responsible for growing the company’s Mid-West and Western Mountain regions.  

Stater Bros. operates 168 supermarkets in California.

Michael Reed has been promoted to VP real estate for Stater Bros. Markets.

Reed joined Stater Bros. in 2014 as senior director of real estate, a position he held until his recent promotion. He will report to president and CEO Pete Van Helden.

Prior to Stater Bros., Reed served as real estate store development manager for Starbucks where he was responsible for growing the company’s Mid-West and Western Mountain regions.

Stater Bros. operates 168 supermarkets in California.

Starbucks is giving customers a front-row seat on the famed Las Vegas Strip.

The coffee giant has opened a 3,200-sq.-ft. location in Grand Bazaar Shops at Bally’s Casino complex. The store is unusual in that, instead of the typical tables with chairs, it offers theatrical stadium seating (for 30 to 40 people) in the center of the store and surrounding bench seating.

Starbucks Corp. has lost one of its veteran executives.

The coffee giant revealed in a regulatory filing that former COO Troy Alstead will not return to the company following a year-long unpaid leave. Alstead, whose resignation was effective February 29, 2016, had long been seen as the company’s number two executive and an eventual replacement to current CEO Howard Schultz.

Photo: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz at Milan’s Duomo Cathedral