Oprah-geddon: Winfrey To Quit Show In 2011
Daley Blames - Who Else? - The Media For Oprah-geddon
Chicago Gets Googled
Friday Flashback - Old School Oprah
Today's Transgender Day of Remembrance Honors the Dead
- Current economic conditions aren't only causing dollar stores to increase their prices. High ingredient costs may force McDonald's to raise the prices on its dollar menu. The news comes just as the Golden Arches posted higher than expected second quarter profits and a couple of months after McDonald's said that they would not pass extra costs onto consumers. However, Dollar Menu sales account for 14 percent of the McD's U.S. sales and executives might not be able to hold out for long before reneging on that promise. [Tribune]
- Lots of stories related to Starbucks announcement of their closing of 600 stores nationwide. Where once a Starbucks divided a neighborhood, now there's a "Save Our Starbucks" campaign gathering steam from Walla Walla, Washington to Kalamazoo and an opinion piece on why that movement is misguided. More interesting is how the closings will affect Starbucks reputation as a savant real estate speculator. For years one of the mantras at Starbucks was "location, location, location;" Starbucks often locked down all the primo retail space(s) in their neighborhoods of choice. Decisions that are now coming back to bite them in the ass. [WSJ] [Huffington Post (Max Keiser)] [NYT]
- Mandy Burrell at GB's Drive-Thru has a recipe for DIY Iced Coffee. [Drive-Thru]
- Reluctant camper Mike Sula gives a tentative thumbs-up to REI's "Backpacker's Pantry" sealed-meal-in-a-bag huevos rancheros.[Food Chain]
- Chicago Bites heads to Albany Park to see what the kids at Blue Sky Inn Bakery & Café are doing with their new space. [Chicago Bites]
- A testimonial to using vacuum pumps to preserve open wine. [Chicago Foodies]
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The most telling line in the NYT article about Starbucks gets to the heart of what troubles so many companies that try to cash in with an IPO only to find out what it really means when The Street runs their business.
"[C]ommercial real estate brokers nationwide who work with the chain suggest...that the company was so determined to meet its growth promises to Wall Street that it relaxed its standards for selecting new store locations."
Starbucks played a major role in creating a climate that put a double espresso in walking distance from just about every American urbanite. For that, they should be commended. Despite all that is mock-worthy about the chain, I'm pulling for them this time.
i've got a DIY recipe for iced coffee too. make a pot of coffee, poor in glass with ice. was that a joke?