Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

27 Jan 2012 00:03

tags

Biz: Newest reason to sleep in: Taco Bell now serves breakfast

  • “This is a very important launch for our brand”: Taco Bell may like to suggest that you need a Fourthmeal, but in 800 mostly-western locations, now it suddenly wants to focus on your Firstmeal. That’s right, the Gordita grandaddy is moving into the realm of breakfast food, offering up such ideals of morning goodness as the Johnsonville Sausage and Egg Wrap, above. The company, which makes three-fifths of its parent company’s U.S. profits, is assuming that its audience likes sleeping in (having of course eaten their Fourthmeal the night before), and will serve breakfast between 8 or 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. — a later window than McDonald’s, which totally owns the breakfast market. Screw this; we’re sticking with bagels. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Dec 2011 10:17

tags

Biz: McDonald’s, Burger King turn on a dime to beat Happy Meal law

  • problem In San Francisco, it’s now illegal to include free toys in fast-food meals that don’t meet certain standards for nutrition. This is a problem for McDonald’s, which sells a lot of Happy Meals for this reason.
  • workaround So … rather than just get rid of the toys altogether, at least two fast-food outlets — McDonald’s and Burger King — plan to simply charge a tiny nominal fee for the toys. One dime. Boom. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 May 2011 10:27

tags

Biz: Arizona ensures the Happy Meal stays unregulated, unhealthy

  • It’s not that we’re trying to make kids fat — clearly we’re not; it’s about how much government intrusion is really necessary.
  • Arizona Restaurant Association president Steve Chucri • Using the small-government argument to fight for one of his group’s major interests: Keeping Happy Meals unregulated. The group helped push forth an Arizona law that bars local governments from doing what San Francisco did — that is, forcing fast-food places to sell healthier food with their toy-laden meals. Yale’s Kelly Brownell, who leads the university’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, offers a pretty good explanation why the food industry is fighting so hard against the policy: “The companies are fearful these laws will impede their opportunity to recruit new customers,” he notes. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Oct 2010 23:54

tags

Biz: Meet the XXL Chalupa, Taco Bell’s version of the artery-stopper

  • Somehow, we live in a world where eating meat and other toppings in fried flatbread isn’t enough. So, for some reason, Taco Bell has decided to make their Chalupa XXL-sized, which is unnecessary, because you could just buy two and get the same effect. This bad boy has 650 calories. It’s like they needed to compete with the Thickburger and the Double Down, and they did so by combining a traditional Chalupa with a Taco Salad. And the dog’s dead. Based on the need for extra meat in this thing, we think we know why. (Too soon?) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

02 Sep 2010 10:48

tags

Biz: Burger King SOLD! Shareholders have it their way

  • $4 billion for a sale to a private equity firm, hold the pickles source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Sep 2010 10:44

tags

Biz: Burger King to potential owners: Have it your way

  • The fast-food chain of late has been struggling. Why’s that, you ask? Well, its base market of young males has been one of the hardest-hit during the recession, meaning (despite its often immaculate advertising) it’s been underperforming compared to McDonald’s and other fast-food chains. So the company, which has been publicly-traded for just a few years, is considering a sale. They’ve already talked with some buyers. No word on how much they’ll customize the not-broken model after they sell. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Jun 2010 10:44

tags

U.S.: “Eat fresh” questionable slogan for Subway in salmonella outbreak

  • 97 people sickened from an Illinois outbreak; no deaths yet source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

26 May 2010 10:37

tags

Biz: Domino’s Pizza improves their pizza, then their quarterly sales

  • +14.3% the increase in Domino’s
    quarterly sales after starting a
    campaign to improve
    its pizza from the bottom up
    with better ingredients
  • -3% the decline of the pizza-delivery industry in general, due to the recession; this article uses the phrase “vastly improved frozen-pizza technologies” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 May 2010 22:50

tags

Biz: Burger King’s franchisees: A $1 double cheeseburger can ruin us!

  • action In an attempt to stay competitive, Burger King adds a $1 cheeseburger to its value menu, which is a low margin. Consumers rejoice.
  • reaction Believing that the fast food chain made the change knowing it’d hurt them, franchises sue. Now a court says the suit can go forward. soruce
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Apr 2010 20:30

tags

Biz: McDonald’s not very happy with Santa Clara County right now

  • What happened?Santa Clara County, Calif., decided they had enough of the Happy Meal convincing kids to eat crappy food by teasing them with a cheap toy, so they banned selling crappy food with toys inside. “This ordinance breaks the link between unhealthy food and prizes,” the county supervisor claimed.

    healthy food excluded The ordinance really only limits restaurants from giving away toys with crappy food. If your meal has less than 485 calories, 600 milligrams of sodium, 35 percent of calories from fat and 10 percent of calories from sugar, you’re golden.

    Grace period Restaurants have a little over 100 days to make changes to their menus. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
 
top tags
older >>