Walgreens isn’t just doing away with its “Be well” campaign, the drugstore now also plans to shutter 200 of its 8,232 stores in the U.S. over the next two years. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Sabra Recalling 30,000 Cases Of Classic Hummus Over Listeria Fears
By 4.9.15
Whether you like to dip pita chips or veggies, pretzels or just your fingers, check that hummus package before you go snacking: Sabra is recalling 30,000 cases of its classic flavor of hummus sold nationwide over fears that the product could be tainted with listeria. [More]
Chipotle Still Doesn’t Know When Carnitas Will Be Available Everywhere Again
By 4.8.15
It’s been nearly three months since a vendor-related issue led Chipotle to stop selling carnitas burritos at 1/3 of its stores, but the company still doesn’t know when it will be able to meet the full demand from pork fans. [More]
Blue Bell Expands Recall Again After Tests Find Listeria Bacteria In Additional Products
By 4.8.15
It appears that grocers who removed all Blue Bell Creameries’ products from their shelves earlier this week may have had the right idea, as the ice cream company once again expanded the scope of its recall after further testing found a link between additional products and an outbreak of listeriosis. [More]
Here’s How You Get A Fast Food Chain To Foot The Entire Bill For Your Wedding
By 4.7.15
Want a fast food chain to sponsor your wedding, provide gifts and generally shell out a bunch of cash so you don’t have to? It’s simple! Just be born with one half of a chain’s name, meet and fall in love with someone who has the other half and voila! You’re getting hitched for free, courtesy of Burger King. [More]
Starbucks Expands Tuition Reimbursement Program To Cover Four Years Of Online Schooling
By 4.7.15
After more than 2,000 Starbucks workers headed to college through the company’s tuition reimbursement program with Arizona State University, the mega-coffee company announced it wouldn’t leave those student high-and-dry after just two years. Now, the company plans to expand the offering to cover a full four years of tuition at the college for eligible employees. [More]
Escaped Pig Snaps At Customers While Blocking Burger King Drive-Thru
By 4.2.15
This just in: Word of fast food restaurant’s use of bacon has apparently spread beyond the human realm to the farm, where the news apparently prompted one pig to escape his confines and head for Burger King to disrupt mankind’s quest for animal products. [More]
Pizza Hut Menu Additions Failing To Generate Additional Sales
By 4.1.15
A few months back, Pizza Hut announced a complete menu revamp, adding a bunch of new crusts, drizzles, toppings and whatnot to their regular slate of pizzas. We sampled 21 of these additions ahead of their release, though we weren’t exactly blown away, and it looks like we weren’t the only ones unmoved by the changes. [More]
How Did The Hot Dog Get Such A Bad Rap?
By 4.1.15
When I was but a wee MBQ, I’d often sit in front of the refrigerator when no one was watching and eat hot dogs straight out of the package. “Gasp!” friends would later say when I recalled that guilty pleasure. “Do you even know what’s in hot dogs?” That widespread urban caveat of hot dogs as tubes of mystery meat has persisted, but is there anything actually scary about the contents of a hot dog? [More]
Court Awards Pizza Hut Customer $2,400 For Denture Damaged While Eating “Excessively Hard Croutons”
By 3.31.15
While the human mouth gets to have all the fun of tasting, chewing and eating delicious food in all its various incarnations, it can also be the portal to pain when something isn’t right. In the case of a man who said he broke a partial denture at Pizza Hut, the weapon of destruction came in the form of “excessively hard croutons.” [More]
Starbucks Finally Gets Around To Selling Yogurt-Based Cups, Smoothies, Parfaits After Two Years
By 3.31.15
The unlikely partnership between Starbucks and Dannon parent company Danone that Consumerist first reported on back in 2013 is finally coming to fruition with the launch of an exclusive line of yogurt-based smoothies, parfaits and fruit cups at 4,300 of the company’s coffee shops. [More]
Home Of Minnesota Twins Enters The Outrageous Bloody Mary Game With Pepperoni Pizza Garnish
By 3.27.15
Perhaps inspired by its neighboring state of Wisconsin’s formidable, pioneering efforts in the category of outrageously over-the-top Bloody Marys, the Minnesota Twins will be offering their own attempt at ridiculous beverage garnishes with a new drink that comes with a slice of pepperoni pizza stuck on a skewer. [More]
Court Throws Out NJ Turnpike’s Lawsuit Against Pizzeria With Lookalike Logo
By 3.27.15
Last summer, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority sued the small Florida-based Jersey Boardwalk pizzeria chain over the restaurant’s logo, which looks remarkably similar to that of the Garden State Parkway. Earlier this week, a federal court in New Jersey dismissed the suit saying that the pizza chain didn’t have enough contact with the state to allow for the Turnpike Authority to file a lawsuit there. [More]
White House Acknowledges Health Risk Of Antibiotics Overuse; Critics Say It Fails To Fully Address Problem
By 3.27.15
In a new White House report on antibiotic resistance, the Obama administration acknowledges the serious public health risk posed by the over-prescription and overuse of antibiotics, and details multi-agency plans to combat the problem. However, many critics of the report say that these plans fail to close a loophole that will allow farmers to continue using medically unnecessary antibiotics on farm animals (who consume 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S.) primarily for the purpose of growth promotion. [More]
Americans Losing Taste For Artificial Sweeteners, Pepsi Retakes #2 Sales Spot
By 3.26.15
Recently released data about the beverage industry tells us some interesting things. Plain old high fructose corn syrup-laden Coke is the top-selling soda in the United States, but its calorie-free cousin has to give up its silver medal: Regular Pepsi is now the #2 seller out of all fizzy non-alcoholic drinks, following an overall trend against diet sodas. [More]
Starbucks Celebrating Frappuccino’s 20th Year With Birthday Cake Flavor
By 3.26.15
When I turned 20 I added an extra package of ramen noodles to the pot and treated myself to some wine coolers that just happened to appear in my refrigerator. But it appears Starbucks is going the more traditional route to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its Frappuccino, by debuting a limited-time birthday cake flavor. [More]
Walgreens Cashiers No Longer Required To Tell Customers To “Be Well”
By 3.25.15
Having someone wishing you well is always nice, but when it’s a pre-ordained phrase that you know the person is required to say as part of their job, well, not everyone loves that. And so it goes that Walgreen Co. says it’s putting an end to its “Be well” campaign that had cashiers bestowing the canned blessing upon customers. [More]
Organic Spinach From Meijer, Target, Wild Harvest, And Cadia Recalled For Possible Listeria
By 3.25.15
It’s not always fun when our predictions come true, especially when that prediction is about how contaminated food from a single vendor is about to trigger recalls in a variety of places across the food supply. On Monday, we predicted more organic spinach recalls to come, and we were right. Packages of frozen organic spinach from four additional brands have now been recalled due to possible contamination with Listeria bacteria. [More]
