by Thom Forbes on Feb 29, 7:50 AM
In a coals-to-Newcastle play, Howard Schultz is finally entering the marketplace in Italy after having exported his Seattle coffeehouse concept to 70 other countries and serving more than 90 million people a week worldwide. It is partnering with Italian company Percassi to open its first outlet in Milan next year; they then plan to expand to other cities across Italy.
by Thom Forbes on Feb 26, 7:54 AM
Weight Watchers reported huge losses yesterday but not where investors would like to see them. Quarterly revenue dropped 21%, sending its stock skidding 27% in extended trading, Reuters reports, and "undermining hopes that new investor and media mogul Oprah Winfrey would help boost sales."
by Thom Forbes on Feb 25, 7:40 AM
There has been a snag in what appeared to be a $6-billion done deal Thursday morning between Sharp, the troubled Japanese electronics products brand, and Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer best known as the assembler of most of the world's iPhones.
by Thom Forbes on Feb 24, 7:49 AM
The reaction to the national rollout of Burger King's new menu item yesterday was not a universal "hot diggity dog!" On one front, 7-Eleven tweeted "in the great hot dog war, there can only be one weiner" after issuing a Hot Dog Bill of Rights to the "ladies and gentlemen of the press and social mediasphere" on Monday.
by Thom Forbes on Feb 23, 7:50 AM
Did you know Google had a comparison-shopping site for financial services? Precisely. And soon it won't. Google is pulling the plug on Google Compare, which enabled consumers in the U.S. and U.K. to get competitive quotes from several - but not all - providers for financial products such as car and travel insurance, credit cards and mortgages.
by Thom Forbes on Feb 22, 7:56 AM
Let's talk virtual reality this morning because, if folks like Mark Zuckerberg have their say, just everybody with a discretionary dollar and a yearning to take "social" to the next level will be doing so by the time the year is out.
by Thom Forbes on Feb 19, 7:54 AM
Two stalwarts of the consumer ecology - Procter & Gamble and Walmart - talked about disappointing recent results yesterday, with its leaders characteristically upbeat about the ways they are addressing the landscape even as it mutates.
by Thom Forbes on Feb 18, 7:51 AM
In its ongoing scramble to keep up with consumers - including the folks who ride its elevators - eschewing salt, GMOs, dyes, added sugars, unpronounceable additives and the middle aisles, Campbell Soup yesterday said it is putting $125 million into a Delaware-based limited partnership, Acre Venture Partners L.P., that will invest in food startups.
by Thom Forbes on Feb 17, 7:50 AM
In a letter to customers, CEO Tim Cook says Apple will oppose a "chilling" request by the FBI, backed by a federal judge's order, to use the All Writs Act of 1789 to force it to unlock the iPhone 5C used by Syed Rizwan Farook who, with his wife, killed 14 people in a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., on Dec. 2.
by Thom Forbes on Feb 16, 7:54 AM
In an interview on Bloomberg TV last week, Whole Foods' co-CEO Walter Robb talked about broadening the appeal of the chain to Millennials with its smaller 365 by Whole Foods Market shops, the first of which is scheduled to open in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles in May.