Starbucks Coffee Co.

Seattle -- In collaboration with Disney, Starbucks Corp. has opened its first company-operated store at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida, a nearly 4,000-sq.-ft. location at Downtown Disney West Side. This past March, Disney opened its first company-operated café at Downtown Disney, Anaheim, California. 

New York -- Starbucks Corp. plans to bring its La Boulange Bakery café chain to Los Angeles, opening a location with extensive food offerings. The eatery is scheduled to open June 11, and will also serve beer, wine, cocktails as well as milkshakes, the Associated Press reported.

Seattle -- Starbucks Coffee Company is expanding its presence in Latin America, with plans to open locations in Colombia, Bolivia and Panama.

Starbucks said it is on track to open its first store in Colombia, in the city of Bogota, in mid-summer 2014 through a joint venture between two of its longest-term business partners in the Latin America region – Alsea and Grupo Nutresa. During the next five years, the joint venture plans to expand aggressively in Bogota and to other major cities in Colombia.

The Neiman Marcus Group has added Adam Brotman, Phillipe Bourguignon, and Vivek “Vic” Gundotra to its board of directors.

Brotman is chief digital officer for Starbucks and is responsible for Starbucks’ core digital businesses, including mobile and mobile payments, Web, card, loyalty, e-commerce, wi-fi and the Starbucks Digital Network. Prior to joining Starbucks in 2009, Brotman held key leadership positions at leading digital media companies including Corbis and PlayNetwork.

Seattle – Starbucks Coffee Corp. plans to open 1,500 new stores worldwide during 2014, including 600 in North America. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said that Starbucks is under-stored in many markets, including North America, during a conference call discussing the company’s second quarter financial results.

Seattle – Starbucks Coffee Company reported generally strong performance in the second quarter of fiscal 2014, compared to the same period a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 10% to $0.56, from $0.51.

Consolidated net revenues grew 9% to $3.87 billion from $3.55 billion, while consolidated same-store sales increased 6%.

The retailer cited its Teavana business, partnership with Oprah Winfrey, and new payment and loyalty technology as all contributing to overall fiscal growth.

Seattle – Starbucks Corp. has filed building permits to open a La Boulange bakery location in Los Angeles. The permits do not specify a time when Starbucks plans to open the new store.

Starbucks purchased the La Boulange chain in 2012 and currently sells La Boulange-branded baked goods in U.S. Starbucks outlets. However, while there are 22 La Boulange stores in San Francisco, this would be the first location outside that market. Starbucks has previously said it wants to expand La Boulange nationally.

Back in October, I commemorated my six-month anniversary as technology editor of Chain Store Age with a column looking at how retail IT has been disrupted in recent years. Now that I have a full year under my belt, I thought it would be interesting to look at how customer expectations of retail IT have been disrupted in recent years (and don’t worry, there will be no 18-month anniversary piece). Three paradigm-shifting changes in how retailers must now engage with customers using technology stand out.

Every Man is an Island