Starbucks announced the expansion of its Starbucks Card Mobile payment test to nearly 300 company-operated stores in New York City, and Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island. This builds on the successful launch of Starbucks Card Mobile App for select BlackBerry® smartphones, iPhone® and iPod® touch, and the Starbucks mobile payment test which started in fall 2009. Now, Starbucks next mobile move will offer customers in the New York City area an enhanced Starbucks Experience, including the ease and convenience of paying for their favorite Starbucks® beverage with their mobile phone.

Barneys New York, a luxury specialty retailer, announced its upcoming national holiday campaign «Have a Foodie Holiday,» Barneys’ celebration of foodie culture. Barneys, in partnership with Food Network, Cooking Channel, and illycaffe, will kick off the holiday season with the unveiling of the Madison Avenue flagship’s windows on November 16.

On October 20, Starbucks launched the Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo! in nearly 6,800 U.S. venues of the chain. Serving up a collection of hand-picked premium news, entertainment and lifestyle content along with local insights and events, the Starbucks Digital Network, is powered by free Wi-Fi and available only in the chain’s stores. Developed for screens big and small, customers with Wi-Fi enabled laptops, tablets or smartphones can visit the network while in line or while enjoying their favorite beverage in the café.

Igor Aronov was named the winner of illy’s international photographic competition, “AuthentiCity— Revealing purity and authenticity in urban life,” which was held in collaboration with the NYC-based School of Visual Arts. He along with four other finalists, Matthew Baum, Caroline Shepard, Giselle Behrens and Carlos Alvarez Montero, took bespoke photo works, exploring the life of Big Apple, to the closing exhibition of the project, arranged during the New York City Wine & Food Festival on October 4–10.

Starbucks is serious about making recycling an integral part of its stores’ activity. “By 2015, we plan to have recycling available in all of our stores where we control waste collection and serve 25% of beverages in reusable cups,” stated the global coffee retailer last year, and now it is making small steps towards the huge goal. This summer, the brand hold the Betacup competition sourcing customer-generated ideas focused on reusable, recyclable or compostable cups, and this time the Starbucks is into nine-week tests of its recycling initiative in NYC.

Starbucks introduced a new feature to the Starbucks Card Facebook® App that makes it possible to buy a friend a treat from Starbucks without ever leaving Facebook. Available in the U.S. and Canada, users of the app now have the ability to load $5 to $500 directly onto a friend’s registered Starbucks Card as a gift. The “Give a Gift” update to the Starbucks Card App takes the honor of being the 100th launched idea from the popular community site, My Starbucks Idea.

Starbucks is investing into the future of the company through providing professional training opportunities to its staff. In partnership with Ashridge Business School, the British division of the global coffee chain is to offer its employees a range of training opportunities for amplifying their working experience and earning a range of NVQ qualifications as well as management skills to be further used in their work at Starbucks.

London based brand design consultancy, Ziggurat Brands is in the final stages of a significant two year packaging redesign project for Tetley tea, which concludes with a new brand architecture and unified brand identity that will be introduced to Tetley’s international markets, commencing in September 2010. The first territories in which the new branding will appear are the UK, USA, Australia and India.

Starbucks announced the results of its Vote, Give, Grow in-store donation program. Hike for KaTREEna, a non-profit organization whose aim is to replant trees that were lost during the disaster, received the greatest number of votes, which entitles it to the top-valued $50,000 grant. Two other local organizations, Young Leadership Council, which engages young professionals in community projects, and KaBOOM!, whose mission is to create play spaces within walking distance of every child in America, will each receive $25,000 grants.