DailyFinance

Plastic Packaging Is Good for the Environment? Rubbish!

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-02-09T15:00:00Z

Sitting in my son's school lunchroom one day after a teacher conference, I mourned the loss of sanity in our food system. I was holding a plastic packet of apple slices and the ingredients were not just "apples" but included a chemical preservative. I could taste it and it wasn't good.

Continue reading Plastic Packaging Is Good for the Environment? Rubbish!

Plastic Packaging Is Good for the Environment? Rubbish! originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:00:00.

Filed Under: Green

The Lorax Speaks for Dr. Seuss, Saying 'Cease and Desist'

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-02-04T14:45:00Z

The Lorax is mossy and bossy and he speaks for the trees. And this week, his voice is a bit of a cacophony.

He is speaking, on one hand, for the estate of Theodor Geisel, Dr. Seuss Enterprises. And then there is the LoraxAg, the startup project intent on "seeking interested investors to provide financing for the development of a 'shovel-ready' coal gasification and chemical production facility to make fertilizer for America's farms."

In an interview with New England technology journal Mass High Tech, company president Mike Farina says Dr. Seuss is the company's inspiration. "The Lorax is the protector of the Truffula Trees," he told Mass High Tech. "We think this is the greenest use of coal."

Continue reading The Lorax Speaks for Dr. Seuss, Saying 'Cease and Desist'

The Lorax Speaks for Dr. Seuss, Saying 'Cease and Desist' originally appeared on DailyFinance on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:45:00.

Filed Under: Company News, Green

Why America Can't Get a Great Cup of Coffee

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-02-02T14:23:00Z

When it comes to ground coffee, blends of beans from two or more regions or countries are the most popular sellers in America. Sadly, this means most coffee buyers aren't getting a great cup of java, says Consumer Reports. In a test whose results were released this morning, none of the 37 caffeinated and decaffeinated varieties tasted by Consumer Reports experts rated as either "excellent" or "very good." The best of the "good," however, was a familiar (and often top-priced) name: Starbucks (SBUX) House Blend. Green Mountain Signature Nantucket Blend Medium Roast was equally good, and 12 other caffeinated blends scored lesser "good" ratings.

Continue reading Why America Can't Get a Great Cup of Coffee

Why America Can't Get a Great Cup of Coffee originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:23:00.

Filed Under: Starbucks, Retail

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey to Staff: Get Slim, Save Money

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-01-30T16:00:00Z

Whole Foods Markets (WFMI) CEO John Mackey (pictured), unsurprisingly, is passionate about health. Leading the country's largest and most respected chain of natural groceries, he's often credited with bringing natural-foods stores to the mainstream. On a personal note, he has been a vegan for many years and has adopted a diet free of vegetable oils, sugars and almost any processed food. So when he launched a plan to give his employees discounts on health insurance if they maintained lower readings for blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass index, it should have barely made a blip in the annals of corporate wellness.

Continue reading Whole Foods CEO John Mackey to Staff: Get Slim, Save Money

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey to Staff: Get Slim, Save Money originally appeared on DailyFinance on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:00:00.

Filed Under: Company News, People, Whole Foods

Starbucks Competes for Market's Mellow Middle

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-01-21T23:45:00Z

Starbucks (SBUX) surprised both Wall Street analysts and skeptics like me Wednesday, by releasing first fiscal quarter 2010 results that were better than expected. Led by a 4% comparable-store sales growth, the company recorded 4% higher revenues of $2.72 billion. Earnings came it at $241.5 million, or 32 cents per share, topping expectations of 27 cents per share. Last year's first fiscal quarter earnings were only nine cents per share, before charges on store closings.

Continue reading Starbucks Competes for Market's Mellow Middle

Starbucks Competes for Market's Mellow Middle originally appeared on DailyFinance on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:45:00.

Filed Under: Company News, Earnings, Starbucks

Do Price Hikes Bode Ill for Starbucks Results?

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-01-20T02:00:00Z

Perking for coffee giant Starbucks (SBUX) are its fiscal first quarter 2010 earnings, due to be reported Wednesday after the bell. All eyes are on the company's same-store sales, whose story over the past 12 months has been along the lines of "hey, we're not declining nearly as much as last year at this time!" The last quarter in which Starbucks experienced same-store sales growth was the first fiscal quarter of 2009, the three months ended Dec. 31, 2007.

Continue reading Do Price Hikes Bode Ill for Starbucks Results?

Do Price Hikes Bode Ill for Starbucks Results? originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:00:00.

Filed Under: Earnings, Starbucks

Starbucks Customers Feel Burned by Surprise Price Hikes

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-01-14T23:40:00Z

Starbucks (SBUX) customers in New York this week could no longer pay for their venti mochas with a five-dollar bill after a 20-cent price hike brought the cost with tax to $5.06. In Seattle, the company's home, a grande mocha is now $3.91, up 10%. In Washington, D.C., an upgrade to new loose-leaf tea bags also meant an upgrade in prices: A 50-cent hike to more than $2.00 for a mug. What's more, the company ended its 10% discount for "Black Gold Card" rewards members on the day after Christmas, leading many loyal customers to complain that demand for Starbucks coffee "is not inelastic."

Continue reading Starbucks Customers Feel Burned by Surprise Price Hikes

Starbucks Customers Feel Burned by Surprise Price Hikes originally appeared on DailyFinance on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:40:00.

Filed Under: Company News, Starbucks

Sarah Palin on Fox: Trashes '60 Minutes' Show on Her She Hasn't Seen

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-01-13T01:47:00Z

Chatting with Bill O'Reilly on FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor on Tuesday was a chance for former Alaska governor Sarah Palin to adjust her chair and pick out her coffee mug: It was her debut as correspondent with the network. And in true FOX News fashion, Palin's interview with O'Reilly was so generous as to swing into granny-pitch territory, in which the often bombastic host let her, unchallenged, "set the record straight" following a critical look at Palin on CBS' 60 Minutes on Sunday.

Continue reading Sarah Palin on Fox: Trashes '60 Minutes' Show on Her She Hasn't Seen

Sarah Palin on Fox: Trashes '60 Minutes' Show on Her She Hasn't Seen originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:47:00.

Filed Under: People, Media, News Corp.

Sarah Palin Heads to Fox News

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-01-11T21:45:00Z

What will Sarah Palin do now? That was the prevailing question among watchers of the former Vice Presidential candidate when she quit her job as Alaska governor in July. With her book, Going Rogue, finished, her prospects on the speaker's circuit dim. Yet the question remained open -- until Monday afternoon, when The New York Times uncovered one answer: She's becoming a contributor to Fox News.

Continue reading Sarah Palin Heads to Fox News

Sarah Palin Heads to Fox News originally appeared on DailyFinance on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:45:00.

Filed Under: People, Media, News Corp.

Curtis Allina, Who Put the Heads on Pez, Dies at 87

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-01-05T19:30:00Z

Curtis Allina, the man whose fanciful packaging changed the face of Pez candy dispensers, died of heart failure Dec. 15 at his home in Olympia, Wash., according to his son, Johnny. He was 87.

Continue reading Curtis Allina, Who Put the Heads on Pez, Dies at 87

Curtis Allina, Who Put the Heads on Pez, Dies at 87 originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:30:00.

Filed Under: People

Chinese Sneaker Giant Li Ning Steps Onto Nike's Home Court

Sarah Gilbert — 2010-01-05T17:10:00Z

The comparisons to Nike (NKE) are impossible to ignore. Even if Chinese shoe maker Li Ning's logo was not extraordinarily reminiscent of the swoosh, its focus on basketball shoes and huge marketing deals with big-name NBA stars would inspire associations with America's biggest shoe brand.

Continue reading Chinese Sneaker Giant Li Ning Steps Onto Nike's Home Court

Chinese Sneaker Giant Li Ning Steps Onto Nike's Home Court originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:10:00.

Filed Under: Company News

Montana's Stimulus-Funded Tennis Courts Draw Hypocritical Volleys

Sarah Gilbert — 2009-12-30T20:55:00Z

The approval of $49,410 in federal stimulus funds to install rubber-tiled tennis courts in the city of Bozeman, Mont. has sparked political infighting in the state of Montana and is furthering the debate about whether or not the country's stimulus funds are actually being put to good use.

Continue reading Montana's Stimulus-Funded Tennis Courts Draw Hypocritical Volleys

Montana's Stimulus-Funded Tennis Courts Draw Hypocritical Volleys originally appeared on DailyFinance on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:55:00.

Filed Under: Economy

U.S. to Capture Cow Farts to Save the Planet

Sarah Gilbert — 2009-12-17T01:00:00Z

In the future, America will harness cow farts to curb pollution and power the grid. What? It sounds like a joke, but it's actually a real promise. By 2020, dairy industry emissions will be reduced by 25%, largely by persuading dairy farmers to capture methane gas, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced at the Copenhagen climate change summit this week. Farmers will be able to buy anaerobic digesters that convert cow, errr, emissions into electricity.

Continue reading U.S. to Capture Cow Farts to Save the Planet

U.S. to Capture Cow Farts to Save the Planet originally appeared on DailyFinance on Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:00:00.

Filed Under: Green

Monsanto's Ever-Stronger Stranglehold on the Seed Industry

Sarah Gilbert — 2009-12-15T20:00:00Z

The seeds of Monsanto Company (MON) are everywhere in the typical American diet; in those corn chips, corn flakes and soy milk, yes, but also in the yogurt, hamburger and sausage McMuffin; in the soda, candy bars, barbecue sauce and sandwich bread.

A new investigative report by the Associated Press, based on a series of confidential licensing contracts, reveals that not only are Monsanto-patented genes in 95% of the soybeans and 80% of the corn grown in the U.S., but that the company's control over the seed industry is so ironclad, prices are sure to rise precipitously in the next several years.

Continue reading Monsanto's Ever-Stronger Stranglehold on the Seed Industry

Monsanto's Ever-Stronger Stranglehold on the Seed Industry originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:00:00.

Filed Under: Company News, Economy, Green

Wendy's fast food chain says 'sayonara' to Japan

Sarah Gilbert — 2009-12-11T22:00:00Z

Wendy's (WEN) will close all of its 71 restaurants in Japan by the end of the month, the chain's Japanese franchisee, Zensho Co. Ltd., announced on Friday. The news arrived just a matter of days after rival McDonald's (MCD) reported that sales in Japan were so poor in November that they offset strong results in Australia and helped weigh the entire Asian region's performance down during the month.

The unexpected Wendy's closings come despite the franchisee's profitable fiscal year, which ended in March 2009, and sales of 6.2 billion yen ($70 million) at its Wendy's restaurants. Zensho, which bought the country's franchises from supermarket chain Daiei in 2002, merely said it was making the move because it needed to focus on its other interests, chiefly the Sukiya beef bowl chain.

Continue reading Wendy's fast food chain says 'sayonara' to Japan

Wendy's fast food chain says 'sayonara' to Japan originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:00:00.

Filed Under: Company News, McDonald's

McDonald's $1 breakfast menu banks on America's love of cheap meat

Sarah Gilbert — 2009-12-11T15:00:00Z

Breakfast for a dollar will become more varied than ever at McDonald's (MCD) restaurants early in January, a company spokesperson said Thursday. The choices, including the sausage McMuffin, sausage burrito, sausage biscuit, small coffee and a hash brown, will complement the eight lunch and dinner menu items currently available for $1 each in the U.S. It's a move that the company's management surely intends to combat a decline in U.S. sales that hit the burger maker hard in November.

The chain had been testing the dollar breakfast menu in Chicago, where Dunkin Donuts is also serving a variety of menu items for 99 cents each. In Kansas City, Mo., and Pittsburgh, Wendy's (WEN) will be testing its own revamped breakfast menu, which will surely include several items joining its 99 cent super value menu, with the intention of rolling it out nationwide in 2011. The chain's 2006 breakfast strategy was retooled due to slack demand. Analysts say these cheap breakfast offerings are a must for the chains in a period of unusually high unemployment. With "fewer people commuting to work, fewer people are coming in for breakfast," writes Paul Ziobro in The Wall Street Journal, logically.

Continue reading McDonald's $1 breakfast menu banks on America's love of cheap meat

McDonald's $1 breakfast menu banks on America's love of cheap meat originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:00:00.

Filed Under: Company News, Economy, McDonald's

Mommies vs. the FTC: Fear and cringing in the pay-to-praise blogosphere

Sarah Gilbert — 2009-12-10T18:00:00Z

Even for someone who gets blessed with free washers and dryers, semiannual boondoggle trips to Los Angeles, New York and Florida, and all the organic yogurt drinks she can consume, $11,000 is a lot of money. For mommy bloggers, Tweeters and Facebookers who post opinions about consumer products, $11,000 is the size of the fine they allegedly might incur for failing to follow the government's disclosure rules on advertising and endorsing.

According to recently revised Federal Trade Commission guidelines, bloggers and other word-of-mouth advertisers are now subject to FTC rules for advertisers and "endorsers" -- anyone who recommends a commercial product or service. Repeated violations of those rules could result in court-ordered monetary penalties. These new additions to the FTC Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising went into effect Dec. 1, and for many participants in the sometimes-lucrative world of social-media-for-pay, the fear is in the air.

Continue reading Mommies vs. the FTC: Fear and cringing in the pay-to-praise blogosphere

Mommies vs. the FTC: Fear and cringing in the pay-to-praise blogosphere originally appeared on DailyFinance on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:00:00.

Filed Under: Technology, Columns, People, Media

Did Gillette's Fusion ad doom Tiger Woods?

Sarah Gilbert — 2009-12-10T17:20:00Z

Sure, a skeptic might say Tiger Woods has created his own downfall through rather prosaic sins of the flesh. But the more mystically inclined agree: It was that Gillette Fusion ad that did him in.

New York Times' writer Robert Mackey thinks the Gillette Fusion "Champions" ad campaign not only cursed Woods, but his two world-class athlete co-stars as well. In the ad, which aired in February 2007, Roger Federer, Thierry Henry and Tiger Woods each walk through a dissipating video image of their greatest accomplishments: for Federer, his win at the 2006 Wimbledon tennis championship; for Henry, his 2003 "Footballer of the Year" soccer award; for Woods, his 2006 Player of the Year honors. Each says something pithy about how the accomplishments of yesterday are nothing, "the only day that matters, is today," says Woods confidently.

Continue reading Did Gillette's Fusion ad doom Tiger Woods?

Did Gillette's Fusion ad doom Tiger Woods? originally appeared on DailyFinance on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:20:00.

Filed Under: People, Media

Gatorade drops Tiger Woods-endorsed drink

Sarah Gilbert — 2009-12-09T17:00:00Z

It's hard to ignore the timing of Pepsico (PEP) brand Gatorade's announcement Tuesday that it would discontinue Gatorade Tiger ® Focus sports drink (just like regular Gatorade, but in special Tiger Woods flavors and with 25% more electrolytes). On the Gatorade press site, several recent releases still announce excitement over the drink's launch; the golf star is quoted as saying, "I've experienced a lot of amazing moments in my golf career, but Gatorade Tiger is taking me someplace I never imagined with this campaign."

Where it has taken him, specifically, is to December 2009, the month in which, thus far, the number of Woods' rumored mistresses continues to exceed the date. (Writing on December 9, we're at 10, according to gossip site TMZ.) In this week's special at local Kroger (KR) Fred Meyer stores --10 32-ounce containers of Gatorade Tiger for $10 --Tiger's eyes stare out from bottles of Cool Fusion citrus blend and Quiet Storm grape blend with the famous steely gaze that now seems a little creepy.

Continue reading Gatorade drops Tiger Woods-endorsed drink

Gatorade drops Tiger Woods-endorsed drink originally appeared on DailyFinance on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:00:00.

Filed Under: Company News, People, Pepsico

How much for the air? As much as half of food packaging is empty space

Sarah Gilbert — 2009-12-08T21:20:00Z

Food manufacturers, like the politicians currently debating health reform, may have a solution to the obesity crisis: Feed Americans a lot of hot air. But this heated air is not just a figure of speech for packaged goods companies including Ralcorp Holdings' (RAH) Post Foods and PepsiCo (PEP) subsidiaries Frito-Lay and Quaker.

In many packaged products, as much as 50% of the contents is just empty space, an investigation by Consumer Reports reveals. And we consumers are buying that nothingness every day.

Continue reading How much for the air? As much as half of food packaging is empty space

How much for the air? As much as half of food packaging is empty space originally appeared on DailyFinance on Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:20:00.

Filed Under: Company News, Media, Pepsico