San Francisco Chronicle
About half of Starbucks sales are before 11 a.m. So the company wants to expand lunch and afternoon business through non-coffee products like food, juice and Fizzio soda. Now Starbucks will start testing Evolution Fresh smoothies made with Dannon Greek yogurt. The company will test three flavors in 200 Starbucks in San Jose and St. Louis starting Tuesday, and a full line is expected to be in all markets next year.
Detroit Bureau
Preliminary estimates for auto sales in June call for a modest gain for June of perhaps 1% or so. Maybe not for GM. TrueCar.com analysts think the company's sales will be off by as much as 3%. But the company has trimmed back low-profit fleet business, and cut its average incentive by 11% per vehicle last month. Larry Dominique, executive VP at TrueCar, says it's actually good that CEO Mary Barra isn't just pushing volume with incentives.
Consumerist
Sears Holdings Corporation has a lot of real estate. As their business flounders and shrinks, there isn't much need for a lot of it. The company has been closing stores, but like a college student renting out the living room, the company is also renting out space within those existing stores that it doesn't plan to close.
Convenience Store News
The Cumberland Gulf Group, comprising Northeast convenience store chain Cumberland Farms and Gulf Oil LP, has tapped Ari N. Haseotes to serve as the new CEO. He succeeds Lily Bentas, who has been acting CEO and will continue in her role as chairman of the board. Haseotes is the grandson of founders Vasilios and Aphrodite Haseotes.
Red Orbit
A new study on childhood obesity and its tie to unhealthy food branding and marketing finds that the more familiar a child is with logos and other images associated with fast food restaurants, sodas and other unhealthy snack option brands, the more likely the child is to be overweight or obese. The study was conducted by researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Oregon.
Brand-e.biz
Smartphone components are often extracted from "blood" mines in places like the Congo. Fairphone has none of those. It is aimed at raising awareness among consumers and carriers on the issue of conflict minerals in mobile devices. The Android-powered phone uses an open design as a means of influencing fairer sourcing and production practices. Buyers are required to prepay for their phones, which means they help fund the production of the device itself.
NYSportsJournalism.com
Baseball is in full swing, with the All-Star Game fast approaching, which is why MLB is the leading sport of top summer brands named by fans and consumers in a new study from E-Poll Market Research. However, it came in only No. 14 on a list populated by food (Good Humor, Oreos), films and fantasy destinations (Disney World). Sitting atop the list: camping and outdoor gear company Coleman, which is using a 'Celebrate Freedom' marketing mantra to good advantage.
Detroit Bureau
Last year, a sinkhole pulled Corvettes into the abyss at the Bowling Green, Ky., museum. The National Corvette Museum's board of directors has approved a plan to leave the 60-foot deep sinkhole in the museum's Sky Dome as a permanent fixture. The board had planned to salvage the cars and close the hole, but attendance skyrocketed 59%.
Columbus Dispatch
Petco and PetSmart will stop selling cat and dog treats made in China. As of May 1, the FDA has received some 4,800 reports of pet illnesses involving kidney problems, convulsions and gastrointestinal distress. At a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China yesterday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) grilled officials from the FDA about whether the labeling of so-called "Made in the USA" pet products was accurate.
Chicago Tribune
McDonald's is testing a new mobile app that lets customers order their favorite McFoods on their phones. The "McDonald's Mobile Ordering" app requires registration with email addresses and credit or debit card information. Then users can compose orders and drive to pickup. The app is free to download on Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems.