Gasoline prices are hurting Wal-Mart's business as people are driving less. The Wal-Mart Stores CEO Mike Duke said Wal-Mart is seeing declines in buying at end of the month and a spike in the beginning. He said the company wants to move into New York because New Yorkers spent $195 million at the stores outside the city.

Starbucks has becoming the third-largest restaurant chain in the U.S. passing Wendy's and Burger King, per Technomic's new Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. McDonald's is the biggest followed by Subway. Number four Burger King, which is looking for a new agency after severing ties with CP&B saw a 2.2% drop in sales last year, when Starbucks was No. 5.

Chrysler said it will pay its $7.4 billion loans to the U.S. and Canada by the end of June, assuming conditions are conducive. Chrysler says it will use some of the $1.27 billion that it will receive from Fiat to buy an additional 16% stake in Chrysler to pay the loans in full as well as any related fees and expenses. The company also says it plans an IPO this year or next.

Procter & Gamble is launching what it is calling the largest laundry innovation in over a quarter-century with Tide Pods: a highly concentrated SKU of Tide that comes as liquid-filled detergent tablets that will be available in September. The $150 million push includes limited "pre-seeding" sales and sampling starting this summer to build buzz. The company has told retailers that the tabs could take 30% of the $6.5 billion U.S. laundry market. Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi, Digitas and Starcom MediaVest Group handle advertising, digital and communications planning, and media buying, respectively, for the brand.

One hotel near Boston, The Seaport Hotel, is taking a new sustainability-marketing approach by doing its part to help slow Colony Collapse Disorder, a disease among honeybees that has been vastly reducing their numbers. The hotel has included some 90,000 hived bees as long-term guests and is using their honey for dishes.

It appears global tourism is heading back to pre-recession levels as a report released this week shows a sharp increase in travel spend by Visa card holders. Americans with Visa cards spent $31 billion last year in other countries, a 6% growth over 2009. Foreign Visa card holders traveling to the U.S. spent $34 billion, an 18% increase according to the report, "Tourism Outlook USA."

Netflix has 23.6 million customers because of a first-quarter growth that was big enough to push the company past traditional subscription companies like Showtime and Comcast. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company ended March with an additional 3.59 million subscribers.

A new Nielsen survey of U.S. cellphone consumers in the first quarter this year found that 31% will buy a new smartphone and that Android is their first OS choice. Second place was Apple's iOS with 30% of those surveyed saying they wanted an Apple smartphone. BlackBerry was distant third with 11% of consumers saying they wanted one.

Actor and cookbook author Gwyneth Paltrow has inked a deal that makes her the new face of Coach, Inc. The brand, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary, will feature Paltrow in its Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 international campaigns.

Ford Motor reported its best first-quarter earnings since 1998 when it recorded huge profits on big SUVs. But now the results are from the opposite end of the spectrum: cars like Fiesta and Fusion. The company says it is determined to keep that up, gasoline prices and supply issues from Japan notwithstanding. And CEO Alan Mulally says he won't use incentives to do it even if market share drops, which actually happened last quarter. The company earned $2.6 billion, a $466 million increase over Q1 last year, though share slid from 16.5% to 16%. The results beat analyst expectations. Edmunds.com …