While Starbucks announced planned raises for employees and a loosened dress code, those changes came in the middle of rampant chain-wide unhappiness among baristas. More pay per hour doesn’t help if you can’t actually get scheduled to work, and employees complain that hours have been cut at the stores where they work. [More]
Food & Personal Care
6 Things We Learned About The Test To Become A Certified Cheese Professional
By 7.27.16
Today I learned that there’s an entire group of people to envy that I was unaware of: Certified Cheese Professionals. To become one of these special cheesemongers, there’s a very demanding test that I was a little sad to find out isn’t so much like tasting samples at the supermarket, but more akin to taking a grueling, standardized test in high school. [More]
Meijer Recalls Fresh Salads, Sandwiches Over Possible Salmonella Contamination
By 7.27.16
If you recently stocked your fridge with fresh salads and sandwiches from Meijer in hopes of grabbing an easy lunch, you might want to find other plans — unless you want a side of Salmonella. [More]
Cold Brew Craze Continues: Starbucks Selling Pitcher Packs To Make It At Home
By 7.27.16
Starbucks’ love affair with cold brew coffee doesn’t appear to be slowing down. In addition to selling a traditional version of the cold beverage – along with a nitro version – at stores and bottles of the drink at retail partners like Target, the company is now providing customers with the option of making the beverage at home with new pitcher packs. [More]
Anyone Can Make & Market A Dietary Supplement, Including Consumer Reports
By 7.27.16
When you see ads for dietary supplements, there are often scientists in lab coats looking at beakers and flasks, saying science-y things. In the real world, just about anyone with a credit card can make and market a supplement, even one that contains potentially unhealthy ingredients. Just ask our colleagues at Consumer Reports, the creators of the new (totally fake) weight-loss supplement Thinitol. [More]
Starbucks CEO To Step Back, Concentrate On High-End Coffee Roasteries
By 7.26.16
A few years ago, Starbucks started a mini-chain of higher-end shops within their regular chain with fancier, “small-batch” coffees in an effort to compete with a new generation of coffee shops. This week, the company’s founder and CEO, Howard Schultz, announced that he’ll be stepping back from day-to-day management of the main business to think about the company’s overall strategy and concentrate on the high-end Reserve business. [More]
General Mills Flour Recall Expands, Linked To Four More Illnesses
By 7.26.16
Nearly two months after General Mills first recalled flour linked to an E. coli outbreak, leading to hundreds of products being pulled from shelves in stores and homes, the company once again expanded the recall after four additional illnesses were linked to the outbreak. [More]
Starbucks Employees Can Now Match Green Hair To Their Green Aprons
By 7.25.16
Nearly two years after Starbucks allowed employees to get a bit more graphic behind the counter — showing some visible tattoos for the first time — the coffee giant is once again revamping its dress code, this time allowing baristas to wear more color — even if that happens to be in their hair. [More]
To Investors, Dunkin’ Donuts Is Stuck Between A McRock And A Starbucks Place
By 7.25.16
For those of us of a certain age, especially those of us that age who grew up in and around Boston, the Dunkin’ Donuts brand identity might seem indelible. But it’s been almost 20 years since the last time Fred the Baker intoned, “Time to make the donuts!” on TV, and those decades — and a national expansion in the face of some stiff competition — have left the iconic sugar-and-caffeine chain in a bit of a slump. [More]
Chipotle Sales Still Down: Customers Have Come Back, But Don’t Return As Often
By 7.22.16
Chipotle Mexican Grill founder and co-CEO Steve Ells told investors, analytsts, and reporters in a conference call late yesterday that the company’s sales recovery “continued at a modest pace” over the last few months. Translation: as polls before this earnings release predicted, customers still aren’t coming back. Comparable store sales are still low, but the company is profitable again, and it has great hopes for its summer rewards program. [More]
Bar-S Recalls 186 Tons Of Hot Dogs And Corn Dogs For Possible Listeria Contamination
By 7.20.16
Time to check the box of hot dogs or corn dogs before your next cookout: if it comes from the brand Bar-S, you’ll have to get some new wieners from the store and either bring the Bar-S ones back to the store where they were purchased, or call the company for a refund. The hot dogs may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, a nasty foodborne pathogen. [More]
FDA Investigating Hair Loss Claims Linked To “WEN By Chaz Dean” Products
By 7.19.16
Haircare products are supposed to do just that — care for your hair. So when consumers start reporting hair loss, balding, itching, and rash associated with using a certain product, the Food and Drug Administration is going to take those reports seriously. [More]
Oreo’s New Choco Chip Cookie Flavor Is Tasty, But Isn’t Chocolate Chip Cookie Flavored
By 7.18.16
Two years ago, cookie dough flavored Oreos hit the market, with standard chcoolatey Oreo wafers and cookie dough flavored creme. The thing is, both of these cookie flavors have names that avoid one important word: chocolate. That’s because the FDA has specific rules for what can legally be called “chocolate,” and the choco-nuggets in these cookies don’t fit the definition. [More]
Starbucks Joins McDonald’s In Blocking Porn Access On Free WiFi
By 7.18.16
You won’t be able to watch a skin flick with your morning latte at Starbucks anymore: the coffee chain says it’ll join McDonald’s in adding a pornography filter to its in-store WiFi. [More]
Pizza Hut Pushing Patriotism By Way Of A 2-Foot-Long Pizza In A “Go USA” Box
By 7.18.16
Pizza Hut knows that many Americans will be glued to various screens this summer, watching their team compete in the Rio Olympics. All that cheering and patriotism can be hungry work, so Pizza Hut has come up with an answer: a two-foot long pizza in a patriotic box. [More]
Taco Bell Employee Fired After Denying Service To Sheriff’s Deputies
By 7.18.16
A cashier at an Alabama Taco Bell was fired after two Sheriff’s deputies were refused service on Saturday night. [More]
Starbucks Brings Back Iced Sampler Cards Program, Separate From Star Rewards
By 7.18.16
While recent changes to the rewards program at Starbucks drew some complaints, the app remains popular and customers still have massive amounts of money stored away in their accounts. However, the company has brought back a very analog promotion for the summer, which uses a card with stickers for customers to rack up free drinks. [More]
ConAgra Expands P.F. Chang’s Recall To Include 6 Additional Frozen Meals
By 7.18.16
After a long day, it can be nice to come home and grab a frozen meal from the fridge for a quick and easy dinner. If you’ve been stocking up on P.F. Chang’s frozen meals, you might want to double-check they aren’t included in a recently expanded recall of more than 195,000 pounds of frozen dinner product that may contain metal fragments. [More]
