Bellingham's Haggen Inc. has named its Lake Tapps TOP Food & Drug store as the winner of its best store award for 2009. The Lake Tapps store shared that honor with the company's Woodinville store.

Haggen operates 33 supermarkets under the TOP and Haggen names in Washington and Oregon.

Four of the Lake Tapps store's department managers, Angela Moore, Lynette Barth, James Chapin and Mike Heath, were tops in their categories in the internal contest.

A warm, dry September followed by similar weather thus far in October bodes well for Washington's wine industry, the Washington Wine Commission reports.

The weather is creating what the commission called, "beautiful quality" fruit and an early start to harvesting.

"It looks outstanding. The weather has given us both plenty of sugar and good acidity," said Dick Boushey of Boushey Vineyards. "Also, the color in the reds is great. Cabernet and Syrah has some of the earliest veraison that I've ever seen." Veraison is the telltale color changing that indicates grapes are ripening.

Jim McFerran of Mibrandt Vineyards said Cabernet should the be the vintage's star performer. "When Caberent is the star, all other varieties tend to be great as well," he said.

Jim Donald, former Starbucks president, has been named president and chief executive officer at Northwest grocery chain Haggen Inc.

Haggen owns 33 TOP Food & Drug and Haggen Food & Pharmacy stores. The chain is headquaretered in Bellingham.

Before joining Starbucks, Donald served as president and CEO of Pathmark stores, a 143-store regional supermarket chain on the East Coast. He was also president of Safeway's Eastern Division and as vice president of food merchandising at Wal-Mart Stores.

Donald, who grew Starbucks to more than 15,000 stores in 43 countries, left his job when the coffee chain rain into difficulties in 2008. Starbucks, now under the leadership of Howard Schultz radically downsized itself and cut costs to cope with the recession.

Work begins Wednesday on Stadium Thriftway's expansion, owner Mike Hargreaves said today.

"Everybody's in moving mode," he said, describing how the adjacent auto body shop is moving most of its operation across Division Avenue.

Hargreaves has said he's investing between $1 million and $2 million into the expansion of his store at 618 N. First St., sandwiched between Wright Park and Stadium High School. The store will go from 15,000 square feet to more than 21,000 square feet.

Hargreaves initially believed construction would begin Sept. 1, but getting all the ducks in a row - the lease, a Small Business Administration loan and permitting - proved to take a little longer.

He has a meeting today for the final building permit from the city. The work that starts on Wednesday is electrical, he said.

"You really won't see a lot for the first week or two," Hargreaves said.

The first section of the new store is schedule to open right before Thanksgiving, he said. It'll have the new meat, produce, wine and frozen food departments. The construction is planned so customers can shop without trouble.

"When we move some of our commodities into the new section, that frees up space for the next phase," Hargreaves said. "Everywhere we're working we'll be out of the customer's way."

Stadium Thriftway plans a construction celebration for Friday from noon-7 p.m., where customers can see the expansion plans.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Monday reaped a paper profit about $14 million on stock options he exercised in the coffee retailer.

Schultz reportedly purchased 982,792 shares of Starbucks stock using options that set his price for the shares at $5.81 a share. Starbucks closing price Monday for shares on the open market was $20.08 million.

Schultz returned to Starbucks in 2007 after the retailer began seeing its profits erode as a result of overexpansion and a declining economy.

Under his leadership, the company has closed more than 800 underperforming stores and trimmed its costs and staff.

A company that left town a decade ago, Bruegger's, is now talking about reestablishing itself in the Puget Sound area with two dozen or so of its bakery cafes.

Chris Cheek, vice president of franchise development for the Burlington, Vt., company, was in town recently to scout out the prospects of re-entering the Northwest market.

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Yes, that's my drink. Almost every day. I no longer feel that pretentious about ordering it, though I would say it is indeed a "hard-to-make" beverage.

The Associated Press reports that Starbucks Corp. is raising prices on certain harder-to-make beverages — and cutting the costs for simpler ones like a plain cup of coffee.

It's unclear if it's happening locally, yet. But my pretentious latte doesn't appear to be affected.

Here's AP's story:

The price hikes, on average between 10 and 15 cents and as much as 30 cents, went into effect Thursday.

“This is as a part of our comprehensive approach to providing the value while balancing our business responsibilities,” said spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil.

The increases will be added to “complex” drinks, like the company’s frothy blended frappuccino.

More basic beverages — the latte and plain coffee, among others — will see prices decreased by 5 to 15 cents.

Still, more prices will increase under the plan than will be lowered or remain the same.

Starbucks won’t say how many cities were affected by Thursday’s increase but said the price hikes will eventually roll out nationwide in the coming months.

Officials at the Seattle-based coffee giant said prices will vary by region to cover higher labor and material costs.

Starbucks shares rose 10 cents to $19.22 in trading Thursday.

Green Mountain Coffee Roaster plans to relocate Tully's roasting operation from Seattle to a distribution and manufacturing facility in Sumner, Green Mountain announced today.

The Vermont-based company bought Tully's wholesale division in March. Tully's has been roasting its own coffee at its headquarters in the old Rainier Brewing Company building right off of Interstate 5.

The brewery building will continue to house Tully's headquarters.

Jon Wettstein, Green Mountain's vice president of supply chain operations, said the Sumner operation allows the company to "accommodate both the significant growth and expansion we are planning for the Tully's business, as well as for the expansion of our other brands on the West Coast."

The new facility will be housed in leased space in White River Building.

The Sumner site will roast and distribute the beans used in Tully's cafes as well as the Tully's coffee sold in grocery stores and elsewhere, according to Amina Suchoski, the company's spokeswoman.

Tully's wholesale business employed 75 people. New owners Green Mountain offered those employees jobs with their company and said they plan to add another 50 jobs to the new Sumner plant, Suchoski said.

Green Mountain produces coffee, tea and hot cocoa from its family of brands including Tully's, Green Mountain Coffee and Newman's Own Organics coffee. The company also manufactures gourmet single-cup coffee brewing systems.

Bruegger's Bakery-Cafes, which once had nearly two dozen stores in the Puget Sound area, is scouting the area for new locations.

Bruegger's pulled out of Western Washington as the company changed hands repeatedly in the late '90s. The company shrank its nationwide profile as it struggled to cope with debt and to revitalize its business.

According to a press release from the chain, the company wants to open 25 franchised locations in the Puget Sound area and 15 in the Portland area.

The bagel chain said it is seeing evidence that business in lower-cost restaurants is growing as families adjust their dining budgets to cope with the recession.

Before Boeing runs out and builds a second assembly line for the 787 Dreamliner in South Carolina, it might consider consulting two "Best for Busines" lists.

One, just issued by CNBC, lists Washington 16th among the states as the best place to do business. That same survey ranks South Carolina as 37th.

Boeing recently bought the Charleston, S.C. plant of its major 787 supplier Vought. And rumors have been flying in recent weeks that the company will build a second assembly line for its 787 there too.

The oft-cited reason is that South Carolina is a right-to-work state with unions less powerful than in the Northwest. Boeing says it's weary of its production being interrupted by strikes as it was last fall for 58 days by a Machninists Union strike.

But cheaper and more compliant labor may be only part of the story. While South Carolina earns high marks in the CNBC study for low-cost labor and an available non-union workforce, the state ranks 48th in quality of life, 47th on the strength of its economy, 41st in transportation and 39th in education.

Washington ranks 11th in quality of life, sixth in technology and innovation, fifth in access to capital and 18th in the strength of its economy.

A survey issued by Forbes magazine last summer ranked Washington third overall among the states as a good place to do business.

Washington followed Virginia (first in the CNBC survey) and Utah of Forbes list.

The newest duo of developers eyeing downtown Tacoma's historic Elks Temple with plans for its resurrection, first tried and failed to buy the nearby Old City Hall for an updated reuse.

Grace Pleasants, a Tacoma developer and her development partner, Rick Moses of California, say they first focused their energies on the Old City Hall.

That building was scheduled for conversion to condominiums, but that plan ran aground when two office tenants declined to give up their favorable leases and leave the building without considerable compensation.

Pleasants and Moses said they thought they could solve the office issue and convert the old building with the Italianate clock tower into residential units. The owners, Stratford Co., declined their offer.

Thwarted on Old City Hall project, they turned their energies to the nearby Elks Temple at 565 Broadway.

They now plan to buy the temple and the lots adjacent to it, resell the temple to Portland's McMenamins for use as a brew pub hotel and build a five story apartment building with a ground floor grocery story on the next door lots. Under their plan, the City of Tacoma would build a five-story garage as the foundation for the apartment and retail building.

The News Tribune has confirmed that members of Tacoma Elks #174 last night approved the sale of its property at South 23rd and Union streets.

A few weeks ago, we reported that the lodge turned down Wal-Mart's bid to buy the 17-acre property but that the group was close to an agreement with another developer.

A member told us this morning that the developer is planning office space, a McDonald's and a Starbucks.

Check here for more details as we confirm them.

UPDATE: Lodge members on Wednesday night approved a contract with Opus, a Minneapolis-based real estate developer who in 2008 finished Federal Way Crossings, a 21-acre retail development on South 348th Street.

Gary Giambrone, the Elks' special representative who is in charge of the lodge, said Thursday that the contract comprises two phases of development, and that the Elks' Grand Lodge trustees still must approve both phases.

Opus has a four-month contingency on both phases, Giambrone said, which gives the developer and the Elks the flexibility to assess the market before breaking ground.

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