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24 Aug 2010 10:15

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Culture: John Boehner throws down gauntlet on Obama’s economic peeps

  • President Obama should ask for – and accept – the resignations of the remaining members of his economic team, starting with Secretary Geithner and Larry Summers, the head of the National Economic Council.
  • House Minority Leader John Boehner • Throwing a grenade into the whole debate on Obama’s economic policies. Great. While Obama’s probably going to ignore this request, the fact tof the matter is that he’s not exactly on steady ground because his economic policies haven’t really turned the economy around as of yet. But his people blame Bush’s economic policies. Which, you know, is totally not a stretch of the imagination. source

24 Aug 2010 02:21

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Biz: Trader Joe’s: Three things you don’t know about the grocer

  • As major grocery chains go, Trader Joe’s is Apple. They’ve built a fervent fan base on high quality control, building anticipation and being very secretive. Fortune Magazine spent a solid couple months trying to figure out some stuff about the buzzed-about chain. The whole story is essentially an awesome read, but here are a few details that raised our eyebrows.
  • oneMost grocery stores have 50,000 SKUs, or stock-keeping units. An average Trader Joe’s has just 4,000. They limit inventory to build appeal.
  • twoWhile nearly 80 percent of products sold have Trader Joe’s branding, they’re secretly produced by big-name companies hidden from view.
  • threeOne of the grocer’s biggest R&D expenses is on travel for finding the next big product. They like to set food trends, not follow them. source