Once upon a time, if you were unfortunate enough to get gonorrhea, it could be treated with penicillin or several other widely used antibiotics. Not only are those drugs largely ineffective in treating the sexually transmitted disease, but a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a worrisome recent increase in resistance to the drugs that still can be used to treat gonorrhea. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Polls Show Chipotle’s Customers Still Haven’t All Come Back
By 7.15.16
Burrito eatery Chipotle needs something very important to recover financially from its recent food safety crisis: it needs all of its customers to come back, and keep coming back. Since eradicating foodborne pathogens from its restaurants, Chipotle has tried offering everyone free burritos, buy-one-get-one promotions, and a loyalty program to bring customers in. It’s sort of working. [More]
Deaf Customer Sues Taco Bell For Discrimination, Claims She Was Denied Service
By 7.15.16
A New Jersey woman is suing Taco Bell for discrimination, claiming that she was denied service at two separate drive-thru locations because she’s deaf. [More]
Starbucks Invests In High-End Italian Bakery, Princi
By 7.14.16
Starbucks has its hands in a lot of different products outside of the coffee it serves up in stores — cold brew coffee, coconut milk, juice, to name a few. Now the company is expanding its portfolio with the acquisition of a company specializing in Italian baked goods.
[More]
CDC: Rio Olympics Won’t Increase Risk Of Zika Transmission
By 7.13.16
If you’re planning on traveling to Rio de Janeiro in August for the Olympics, you can worry about your team winning or whether or not you’ll catch a glimpse of a famous athlete, but the Centers for Disease Control says you probably shouldn’t be concerned about an increased risk of catching the Zika virus. [More]
Taco Bell’s Boozy “Cantina” Restaurant Concept Is Headed To Vegas
By 7.13.16
For those who may have questioned Taco Bell’s decision to open its first boozy Cantina restaurant in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood, the location for the fast food chain’s next Cantina outpost – its third – makes a bit more sense: the Las Vegas strip. [More]
Pizza Hut Has Hired A Chatbot To Take Online Orders Via Twitter, Facebook Messenger
By 7.13.16
If I had a pizza for every time I had a conversation about pizza, no one would see me again because I’d be buried under a pile of pizzas. To capture the essence of that experience, sans pizza burial, Pizza Hut is launching a chatbot that will allow customers to order food in a “conversational” way. [More]
Starbucks Price Increases Go Into Effect Today
By 7.12.16
Two weeks after a computer glitch pushed out Starbucks’ annual price increase early, the day has finally come when your morning cup of joe will actually cost more. [More]
Taxis Still Provide More Rides Than Uber In New York City
By 7.12.16
Since bursting onto the transportation scene, Uber has served as a contentious rival for traditional taxis, with the industry arguing that the ride-hailing service has taken away business and depleted driver’s take-home pay. But a new report suggests that simply isn’t the case, at least in New York City, where traditional cabs continue to dominate the streets. [More]
Starbucks Will Give U.S. Front-Line Employees And Managers Raises Of At Least 5% In October
By 7.11.16
If you’ve heard rumblings in the news recently about Starbucks employees complaining that they’re underpaid and not being scheduled for enough hours, the coffee chain wants you to stop worrying: they’re giving hourly employees and managers raises in October, and making unspecified dress code and benefits changes as well as doing something about scheduling issues. [More]
Superbug Gene Found For Second Time In U.S.
By 7.11.16
Weeks after federal researchers confirmed the first discovery in the U.S. of a particular gene plasmid that can make bacteria resistant to an important antibiotic of last resort, a new report has turned up a second stateside instance of the gene. [More]
Starbucks Introducing Its First Beverage With A Coconut Milk Base
By 7.11.16
If you’re the kind of person who’d rather get your milk from a plant than an animal, Starbucks has some news for you: the chain will be selling its first-ever espresso beverage with a coconut milk base for a limited time this summer. [More]
Here’s How AstraZeneca Is Trying To Block Generic Crestor For 7 More Years
By 7.8.16
How long should a drug company be allowed to be the exclusive manufacturer and seller of their product? Crestor, a best-selling statin (cholesterol-lowering drug) that has enjoyed exclusivity for the last 12 years, is due to lose that protection today. AstraZeneca, the maker of Crestor, is fighting that decision, hoping to squeeze a little more time as the drug’s exclusive manufacturer before generics hit the market. [More]
Target And CVS Still Not Really Sure How Sales Work
By 7.7.16
When retail pricing defies common sense, that’s what we call Target Math. Sometimes it’s putting an item on sale for more than the original price, and sometimes it’s making items cost more per unit to buy in bulk than to buy just a few. They aren’t exclusive to Target, but for some reason these errors happen very often there. Here are some examples, which aren’t all from Target. Most of them are, though. [More]
How One Tweet May Have Caused Chipotle’s Stock To Sink
By 7.7.16
Over the past several months, Chipotle has worked to rebuild its reputation, sales, and stock figures after enduring several high-profile outbreaks of E. coli and norovirus. All of those efforts may have been undone, however, with one simple Tweet alleging that the burrito chain may be responsible for sending a New York City customer to the hospital. [More]
Walgreens-Rite Aid Merger Still On Track, CEO Says Only 500 Stores Would Close
By 7.6.16
Walgreens and Rite Aid are the biggest and third-biggest pharmacy drugstore in this country, and they want to join forces to become a pharma-Voltron. The companies are waiting for regulatory approval, but the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance told shareholders today that the deal will probably go through by the end of 2016, and that it will result in the closing of only about 500 stores. [More]
U.S. Now Has Highest Death Rate For Car Crashes Among Comparable Countries
By 7.6.16
The motor vehicle death rate in the U.S. has dropped 31% since 2000, which may sound impressive until you see that these deaths dropped by an average of 56% in 19 other comparable countries during the same period of time, leaving America as the country with the highest vehicle crash death rate among these high-income nations. [More]
Starbucks Annual Price Increase Showed Up Early Thanks To Glitch
By 7.5.16
For the third year in a row Starbucks will dig its hands a little deeper into customers’ wallets, once again raising the prices for many drinks on its menu. [More]
