A lot has been written about the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the U.S. meat industry and sitdown restaurants, but what about the other sectors of the food and beverage industry?
Wan Kim, CEO of Smoothie King, told Cheddar Tuesday that the pandemic pushed him and his team to build a bigger digital presence for its customers.
"When this kind of big disruption happens I think it was kind of a big wake up call," Kim said. "We really started to think of what else we could do, and there's a lot of things we could focus on like our digital stage."
The CEO is so committed to growing the company's digital presence that he announced on Cheddar that Smoothie King is planning to launch a subscription service this summer.
"We are also doing some research about whether we can actually roll out any subscription model and we are looking into it because, once again, changes are hard but actually this is the perfect time for us to do it," he said.
The fitness industry has also been rattled by the coronavirus pandemic. Gyms have been closed to reduce the spread of the virus and more people are taking advantage of at-home workouts, which is why Kim said it was important for Smoothie King to make deliveries.
"I see a lot of people actually getting the virtual workout as we speak and if that's what going to happen in the future, then we need to make sure our products actually get delivered to homes," he said.
The smoothie chain has ramped up its digital presence amid the pandemic by increasing its deliveries and teaming up with DoorDash to get smoothies to more customers. The company is also offering curbside pickup as well.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
