STARBUCKS

"I can't reschedule when I put my dog down for Starbucks," Auralee Smith, who worked at the company for over two years, told her boss in a text.

The moment I took a sip of my Starbucks iced coffee mixed with lemonade I immediately wanted my $4.75 back.

Labor unions have formed at more than 200 Starbucks, an Apple store, Google and elsewhere. Here's how it happened and why it's unusual in retail and tech.

As the baseball metaphor suggests, the Bullpen consists of stocks in reserve that we might consider buying and adding our portfolio.

The store is the fifth in Chicago to unionize.

And Oreo isn't the only brand expected to make a fall flavor announcement this month.

Starbucks said morning traffic was also picking up as more people returned to offices.

The stocks making the biggest moves in premarket trading include CVS, Under Armour, Moderna and more.

Starbucks reported record revenue in the April-June period, benefitting from hundreds of new stores and higher prices.

Shares of Starbucks have fallen 27% this year, dragging its market value down to $98.37 billion.

Baristas nationwide are remarkably organized. Is the company’s C.E.O., Howard Schultz, using firings, store closures, and legal delays to thwart them?

The National Labor Relations Board has dismissed a charge Starbucks filed against union organizers in Phoenix.

With pay hikes set to kick in at Starbucks cafes around the U.S., labor organizers are asking the coffee giant to extend the benefits to unionized stores as well without going through the bargaining process.

TipRanks analyst ranking service pinpoints Wall Street's best-performing stocks, including Starbucks and Block.

Nearly 75% of retailers are planning to enable payments with digital currencies within the next 2 years according to a June survey conducted by Deloitte.

Ten Starbucks stores in Michigan have already voted in favor of unionizing

A Hadley, Massachusetts, store will be the first unionized location at the 500-store grocery store chain.

Workers at a Starbucks in Mount Pleasant have announced their intent to file for a union election.

The movement among Starbucks employees to unionize continues to spread across Michigan. A Starbucks store at 5655 Pickard St. in Mount Pleasant petitioned to form...

It was the first Chipotle store to file a petition to hold a union election.

As a result of the strike, the Partridge Creek Mall store closed early

Chipotle is closing a Maine store that had been leading efforts to unionize the chain.

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, suggested that major cities are neglecting the crime issue to the detriment of commerce and community safety.

The closures come after a series of "challenging incidents" at these locations brought employees' and customers' safety into question.

Coffee chain Starbucks is closing 16 locations – including six around its home city of Seattle - due to safety concerns at the stores and revisiting its open bathroom policy. The closures were based on the number of crime-related complaints logged at each store and whether efforts to lower the number of incidents worked, the Seattle Times reported. The safety concerns included drug use, theft and assault. “With stores in thousands of communities across the country, we know these challenges can, at times, play out within our stores too. Other options include adjusting store formats, furniture layouts, hours of operations, staffing or new security measures, such as bathroom symptoms.

Starbucks is shuttering a handful of stores because of concerns that workers don't feel safe.

Workers in large cities have encountered problems with "personal safety" and "rising drug use," a company memo says.

Starbucks says the closures are in advance of moving the stores to new locations where conditions will be safer for customers and employees.

Emergency call hotlines, hospitals and government agencies are affected by the nationwide issue.

Businesses across multiple industries are making it clear where they stand, but many of them don't have other family planning benefits.

Businesses across multiple industries are making it clear where they stand, but many of them don't have other family planning benefits.

Workers say they've been raising concerns about understaffing for months.

A Kissimmee pastor who teaches online ministry classes was arrested Monday for exposing and pleasuring himself at a Starbucks.

Rossann Williams, Starbucks’ North America president who’s been a prominent figure in the company’s push against worker unionization, is leaving the company after 17 years.

A vote by Apple store employees in a Baltimore suburb marks the latest labor drive at big companies in recent months.

With Starbucks threatening to limit use of its facilities, our options will dwindle. The reasons for that are tangled up with the history of sex, race and class.

Over the last year, Williams has been one of the public faces of the company's efforts to curb unionization efforts by its baristas.

Of the 12 Starbucks stores that voted to unionize in Michigan, only two voted against it

The Bucktown location is the fourth unionized Starbucks in Chicago.

Starbucks union alleges the company is threatening to take away gender-affirming health care for unionized cafes

The formal reason for her termination was in response to a disagreement with another shift supervisor almost two months earlier. Eight weeks after her termination Whitbeck’s store went on to win its election and legitimatized the union she helped build. “Instead of like turning us away from it, that has burned the fire underneath us,” said Emily Grasel, shift supervisor in East Lansing. In response to MLive’s request for comment on Whitbeck’s termination Starbucks sent the following statements:“Hannah is no longer with Starbucks for safety and security policy violation. In Michigan, 15.2% of wage and salary workers were union members in 2020, up from 13.6% in 2019.

Howard Schultz, CEO of the coffee giant, said business leaders have to do more to protect their workers.

The decision to close the store on College Avenue has left workers with less than a week's notice and resulted in them calling for a boycott of other Starbucks stores around the city.

The Clinton Township store within the mall at Partridge Creek was among the five stores holding union elections in Michigan on Thursday. Clinton Township was among four of the five stores voted to unionize including locations in East Lansing, Lansing and Flint. Related: Four Ann Arbor Starbucks stores vote to unionizeEmployees at the Partridge Creek location started crying and cheering after the vote tallied eight to three in favor of the union. Momentum picked up quickly throughout the state shortly after employees in Buffalo, New York became the first to unionize at Starbucks in December. Their store in East Lansing was the only group to vote unanimously to unionize on Thursday.

The stores join a growing labor movement at the coffee juggernaut

Let Dad choose what he wants with these gift cards to Amazon, Apple, Grubhub and more.

Corrections and clarifications for June 9

Let Dad choose what he wants with these gift cards to Amazon, Apple, Grubhub and more.

Five more Starbucks in Michigan are set to vote on unionizing on Thursday

Four Starbucks stores across Ann Arbor voted to unionize on Tuesday, June 7. The Seattle-based coffee giant has sought unsuccessfully to prohibit Starbucks workers from organizing their stores individually, arguing that all locations in an area should be required to vote together. A shortened work schedule was among the “100 little things” that added up to Ann Arbor barista Elizabeth Blackwell signing her union petition card. The Ann Arbor stores have received community support from both county commissioners and the University of Michigan The Graduate Employees’ Organization, who attended the watch party in solidarity. And if it doesn’t then we’re going to do something about that.”The following locations voted in favor of unionization:4585 Washtenaw Ave, Ann Arbor MI, 48108300 South Main Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104120 S. Zeeb Road, Suite 101 in Ann Arbor MI, 48103222 S State, Ann Arbor, MI 48104More on MLive:Ann Arbor-area Starbucks union drive gets support from Washtenaw County leadersRemote work boomerangs tech workers back home to MichiganMichigan sends out absentee ballots soon.

Tuesday’s losses in Chicago were atypical, particularly in a city often referred to as a union town.

Starbucks' next CEO will come from outside the company, interim leader Howard Schultz told the Wall Street Journal.

The growing labor movement is sweeping across the coffee industry

Employees at a Starbucks store in New Orleans are the first in Louisiana to unionize.

Starbucks gave the employees at the College Ave. location in Ithaca, N.Y., a one-week notice of the closure, the union says, with the store slated to permanently close on June 10.

It's the latest escalation between a rapidly growing national labor movement and the coffee giant.

Let Dad choose what he wants with these gift cards to Amazon, Apple, Grubhub and more.

As of early this week, 100 Starbucks locations have voted to unionize under Workers United.

Starbucks has until later this week to file objections after workers at a shop in Birmingham became the first of the company’s outlets in Alabama to vote to organize.

Fewer Americans applied for jobless aid last week as the number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits remains near five-decade lows.

Starbucks says it will pay travel expenses for U.S. employees to access abortion or gender-confirmation procedures if those services aren't available within 100 miles of a worker’s home.

A group of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish leaders is asking Starbucks to stop charging extra for vegan milk alternatives.

The number of Americans applying for jobless aid ticked up slightly last week but the total number of Americans collecting benefits remained at its lowest level in more than five decades.

Actor and activist James Cromwell glued his hand to a midtown Manhattan Starbucks counter to protest the coffee chain’s extra charge for plant-based milk.

Federal labor officials are accusing Starbucks of unfair labor practices at its stores in Buffalo, New York, including retaliation against pro-union employees.

Starbucks’ sales climbed to a record $7.6 billion in its fiscal second quarter, but its profits took a hit from climbing labor costs.

Starbucks employees in Ann Arbor are the latest to join a national effort to unionize.

Longtime Starbucks leader Howard Schultz returned to the company as interim CEO Monday.

I recently asked a handful of people to do a little one-word free association with me. When I say “cryptocurrency,” you say...?

Baristas and other employees at a Seattle Starbucks have voted to unionize, the first such vote in the city where Starbucks originated and the latest in a nationwide push to organize the coffee shop chain.

From the time he bought Starbucks in 1987 to the time he stepped down as chairman in 2018, Howard Schultz successfully fought attempts to unionize Starbucks’ U.S. stores.

Longtime Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is returning to lead the company on an interim basis after the coffee giant’s current CEO announced his retirement.

Employees at three more Starbucks stores in suburban Buffalo have voted to form unions.

McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and General Electric all announced Tuesday they were suspending their business in Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Employees at a Starbucks in suburban Phoenix voted Friday to form a union, becoming the first store outside New York to organize.

Starbucks has fired seven employees who were leading an effort to unionize a Memphis, Tennessee, store.

Starbucks had a strong holiday season in the U.S., but those results were offset by higher labor and commodity costs and weaker sales in China.

Starbucks is no longer requiring its U.S. workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, reversing a policy it announced earlier this month.

A second Starbucks store near Buffalo, New York, has voted to unionize.

Companies that would be affected by a Biden administration vaccine-or-testing requirement for workers have largely remained on the sidelines while the Supreme Court considers whether the rule can be enforced.

Employees of a Starbucks store in upstate New York who voted to unionize last month have walked off the job.

Starbucks says its U.S. workers must be fully vaccinated by Feb. 9 or face a weekly COVID testing requirement.

The union vying to represent Starbucks employees is objecting to the results of elections at two Buffalo-area stores.

Starbucks is fighting an expanded effort to unionize its stores.

Strong U.S. sales helped make up for weakness in other markets in Starbucks’ fiscal fourth quarter.

Starbucks saw record sales in its fiscal third quarter as the impact of the pandemic receded and customers flocked to its stores.

Woman who was violently assaulted with a chair in 2019 at an Ann Arbor coffee shop says something good has come from the experience.

On Tuesday (June 22) Starbucks reintroduced reusable cups across company-operated stores in the United States.

The only Black Woman to hold the CEO position of a Fortune 500 company at this current time has ties to Detroit.

After four straight quarters of sales declines, Starbucks returned to growth in the January-March period.

More than 400 companies __ including Tesla, Pfizer, Delta Air Lines and Amazon __ have signed on to support civil rights legislation for LGBTQ people that is moving through Congress.

FILE - Starbucks COO Roz Brewer talks about the proposed redesign of a Starbucks store in New Jersey as she speaks Wednesday, March 20, 2019, during the company's annual shareholders meeting in Seattle. Walgreens has tapped Roz Brewer as its new CEO, which will make her the only Black woman currently leading a Fortune 500 company. Brewer will take over as Walgreens CEO on March 15, 2021 after a little more than three years as Starbucks' chief operating officer. At Starbucks, Brewer revamped stores, taking out clutter and cutting down on administrative work so employees could focus on customers and speed up service. Prior to joining Starbucks, Brewer served as president and CEO of Sam’s Club, the members-only warehouse channel of Walmart Inc. She also grew membership and improved merchandise there.

Starbucks said its business in China, its second-largest market after the U.S., has largely recovered, with same-store sales up 5% in the first quarter. Starbucks said it’s seeing fewer customers in China, but they’re spending more when they visit. The company opened almost 160 stores in China during the first quarter, for a total of more than 4,800. But in the U.S., same-store sales were down 5% for the quarter despite the holiday drinks that usually draw customers. Starbucks said it's confident U.S. same-store sales will rise between 5% and 10% in its fiscal second quarter as the pandemic's impact continues to fade.

Xi is asking former CEO Howard Schultz of Starbucks to help repair U.S.-Chinese relations that have plunged to their lowest level in decades amid a tariff war and tension over technology and security. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)BEIJING – President Xi Jinping is asking former CEO Howard Schultz of Starbucks to help repair U.S.-Chinese relations that have plunged to their lowest level in decades amid a tariff war and tension over technology and security. A letter from Xi to Schultz reported Friday by the official Xinhua News Agency was a rare direct communication from China's paramount leader to a foreign business figure. In a statement issued Friday, Schultz didn't directly address Xi's request to help repair relations, instead saying it was “a great honor” to receive the letter from China's president. The Cabinet press office didn’t immediately respond to questions about what Xi wanted Schultz to do and whether he contacted other American business leaders.

There is a lot that has changed about society over the past few decades, but one thing that has stayed constant is people’s love for fast food.

BANGKOK – Starbucks said Monday it plans to open an outlet in Laos as it expands its network of more than 10,000 stores in Asian countries. “We are pleased to introduce the Starbucks brand into Laos, which further builds on our 20 year relationship with Starbucks to grow the coffee industry across Asia,” said Michael Wu, Chairman and Managing Director, Maxim’s Caterers Limited. Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, Laos was drawing growing numbers of foreign tourists, with more than 4 million visiting in 2018. “We will take a thoughtful approach to driving sustainable growth in Laos and look forward to contributing to the country’s vibrant coffee culture," Starbucks said. Starbucks said it was monitoring the coronavirus situation but is still aiming at an opening in summer 2021.

Walmart says it will give its 1.5 million U.S. workers up to three hours paid time off to vote. Then, he formed A Day for Democracy, which asks employers to give workers time off to vote and distribute voter registration information. Once this election is over, Paladjian plans to advocate for a federal election holiday. A little over 400 companies participated last time; Time to Vote says 700 have joined so far this year. Gilbert said even if people vote early, they can still take time on Election Day to drive people to polls, work at polling stations or provide child care so someone else can vote in person.

DETROIT – Starbucks is extending its offer of free brewed coffee for first responders and front-line workers through May 31. That includes police officers, firefighters, paramedics, doctors, nurses, hospital and medical staff and medical researchers. The coffee giant has already served more than 1 million cups of free coffee to first responders of the coronavirus outbreak. Also, customers looking to recognize the heroes in their lives ahead of National Nurses Week and National Law Enforcement Week in May can choose from specially designed Starbucks gift cards, available in digital form.

We get that there are much bigger problems in the world, but we couldn’t help but laugh at some of these hilarious posts people are making about how much they’re missing Target. If you’re a Target lover, we feel confident you will enjoy these posts just as much as we do. — Rory (@rcdaly95) March 31, 2020I had a dream that I went to target & woke up thinking my dream was real. Now I'm upset #imisstarget — KCB (@kaseytheginge) October 31, 2014I miss the days of wandering aimlessly through the aisles of Target. #TARGET pic.twitter.com/KuPF3EAblD — jess (@jess_arabie) April 3, 2020Getting dressed up to go to #Target cause that’s one of the only places I’m allowed to go in this free world.

(CNN) - McDonald's McRib is back again. For example, when the weather turns colder, Starbucks customers habitually get excited about Pumpkin Spice Lattes. When Starbucks announced the return of the Pumpkin Spice Latte last year, it also unveiled the Teavana Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea Latte. And Chernev pointed out that seasonal menu items mean brands have something new to talk about every quarter. Hottovy explained that sales typically rise for a short time when companies unveil seasonal items.