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☆ 'The Idea of You' soundtrack producer says he wasn't thinking about One Direction while writing music for August Moon
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Callie Ahlgrim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

This was just 'great pop songs,' or what we thought were great pop songs." Advertisement"You'll see throughout the movie that he's writing 'Dance Before We Walk' and toying with the idea," Kotecha explains. I'm actually not just a manufactured boy band guy, I'm actually a musician and I want to be taken seriously.'" "For the boy band songs," Kotecha explained, "you don't sacrifice the melody for the lyric." "Nostalgia may be kicking in, but I also feel like it's time for another boy band," Kotecha said.

Persons: Hayes Campbell, Kotecha, —, Nicholas Galitzine, Anne Hathaway, Solène, Campbell, Savan, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Michael Showalter, Cathy Schulman, Robinne Lee, I've, Hayes, Carl Falk, Moon, Simon Cowell, Alisha Wetherill, I'm, Harry Styles, Jackson, what's, sister's, NSYNC Organizations: BI, Service, SXSW, Vogue, Amazon Prime Locations: Coachella, Pixar's

☆ Carl Icahn gets two seats on JetBlue’s board. Here’s how he may help build value
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-17 | by ( Kenneth Squire | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Activist Commentary: Carl Icahn is the grandfather of shareholder activism and a true pioneer of the strategy. While Carl Icahn is not slowing down at all, in October 2020, he reached an agreement with his son Brett Icahn to rejoin the firm as the eventual successor. Carl Icahn is the quintessential, iconic corporate governance investor. On Jan. 19, Carl Icahn started acquiring his position. On Feb. 12, her first day in her new post, she had a Carl Icahn 13D on her desk.

Persons: Carl Icahn, Brett Icahn, Brett, hasn't, Carl, Sargon, Joanna Geraghty, Carl Icahn 13D, Icahn, Robin Hayes, Geraghty, Hayes, Ken Squire Organizations: Apple, Netflix, Forest Labs, JetBlue, Spirit, Investors, U.S, Transportation Department, 13D Locations: Icahn, Delta, United

☆ Subway's CEO eats at the chain 3 times a week. His favorite sandwich is the Turkey Cali Club.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Subway CEO John Chidsey told the WSJ he eats at the chain three times a week. His favourite sandwiches are the Turkey Cali Club and its controversial tuna sub. John Chidsey, who's served as CEO of the sandwich chain since 2019, eats there about three times a week, he told The Wall Street Journal. Chidsey told The Journal that his favorite sandwich on Subway's menu is the Turkey Cali Club, which is made with turkey, bacon, mozzarella, smashed avocado, and salad and released as part of its menu overhaul. He told CNN in 2021 that his other favorite sub from the chain was its controversial tuna sandwich.

Persons: John Chidsey, —, who's, Chidsey, Fries, Chris Kempczinski, Andrew Puzder, Carl's Jr, Greg Brenneman Organizations: Turkey Cali Club, Service, Wall Street, CNN, Burger King Locations: Turkey, Miami

☆ Fast-food drive-thru lanes speed up as fewer drivers wait in line
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-02 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Fast-food drive-thru lanes are speeding up as fewer customers choose to order their meals and milkshakes sitting in their car, according to an annual study by Intouch Insight released Monday. The average total time spent in a drive-thru lane shrank by 29 seconds this year. In other words, Carl's Jr and Yum Brands' Taco Bell and KFC were only speedier because their drive-thru lanes weren't as popular. But across the board, drive-thru lanes have waned in demand since the pandemic began. Despite those efforts, this year's total drive-thru times still lag 2019 times by 15 seconds.

Persons: Carl's Jr, Dunkin, Taco, Wendy's, Carl's Organizations: Intouch, KFC, Taco Bell, Yum Brands, Bell, Taco Locations: Arby's, Burger, Fort Worth, Taco Bell, Brooklyn Park , Minnesota

☆ From taking orders to cutting avocados, AI is solving the labor shortage problem for fast-food chains
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Checkers & Rally'sLast year, Checkers & Rally's became one of the first big chains to implement widespread use of AI-powered voice assistants. Out of the 803 Checkers and Rally's restaurants, voice AI was live in 390 as of August. AdvertisementAdvertisementSoundHound, best known as a music-recognition app, has spent years perfecting its conversational voice AI bots. Sister burger chains Carl's Jr. and Hardee's also announced plans to test Presto's AI voice bots this year. Hardee's and Carl's Jr. are also testing voice AI bots by OpenCity.

Persons: DoorDash, Deloitte, Keyvan Mohajer, it's, Mohajer, Schier, Rally's, Domino's, ConverseNow, SoundHound, SoundHound's Mohajer, Beef, Chippy, Rebecca Harrington, McDonald's, Carl's Jr, Del, Carl's, Hardee's, Presto, Taco, Chris Turner, Turner, Taco Bell Organizations: Service, Chipotle, Industry, National Restaurant Association, Deloitte, Wingstop Tech, Anthony's, Slim, Dialog, Taco Bell, Taco, Yum Brands Locations: White, Wall, Silicon, McDonald's, Texas, California , Texas, Florida, Chicago, Thai, Newport Beach , California, Del Taco, Mexican, Southern California, Taco Bell's

☆ I tried IHOP's new biscuits. It's clear Chick-fil-A and Cracker Barrel have nothing to worry about.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The chain's latest expansion includes its first biscuit menu. We tried the sweet and savory biscuits to see whether they would entice newcomers to the brand. But it is going out on a limb with biscuits, entering a food category with some fierce competitors, such as Chick-fil-A, Cracker Barrel, and Hardee's. The chain's new biscuit lineup includes a breakfast biscuit sandwich, a chicken biscuit sandwich, a strawberries-and cream biscuit, and biscuits and gravy. I even went behind the scenes at Carl's Jr. years ago to learn how it made its scratch biscuits.

Persons: IHOP, it's, Kieran Donahue, Carl's Jr Organizations: Service, Biscuits, Dine Brands Locations: Wall, Silicon, Nashville , Tennessee, Charleston , South Carolina

☆ Chipotle tests robot that can prepare avocados to make guacamole faster
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Avocados sliced, cored and peeled by the Autocado robot created by Chipotle and Vebu Labs. The fast-casual chain developed the collaborative robot, or cobot, in partnership with Vebu Labs, a California-based robotics startup. Chipotle Mexican Grill has developed a robot that can cut, core and peel avocados used in its guacamole as the restaurant industry faces a sustained labor shortage. To prepare avocados using the Autocado, Chipotle employees load up the device with a full case of the ripe fruit. Preparing avocados for guacamole routinely ranks as one of employees' least favorite tasks, Garner said.

Persons: Carl's, Chipotle, Curt Garner, Garner, Vebu, It's, We've, we'll Organizations: Vebu Labs, baristas, CNBC, Employees, guacamole, Miso Robotics Locations: Naperville , Illinois, California, Vebu

☆ Heineken, Sbarro Pizza, TGI Fridays, and WeWork said they would leave Russia in response to its brutal war against Ukraine. Investigators say it's still business as usual.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Heineken, Sbarro Pizza, TGI Fridays, WeWork, and other companies are still doing business in Russia, investigators found. Investigators downgraded a list of companies, including WeWork, Shell, Heineken, tobacco giant Philip Morris, Mondelez — the maker of Oreos —, Carl's Jr., TGI Fridays, and Sbarro Pizza. Huntsman Corporation, a chemical giant founded by the father of Ambassador Jon Huntsman, said it has working hard to leave the Russian market. The entire list of companies that have left the Russian market can be seen here. A condensed list of the companies that have been downgraded after promising to leave Russia can be read here.

Persons: Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, expeditiously, Philip Morris, Mondelez, Oreos, Carl's Jr, Carl's, Shell, Jon Huntsman, Gary Chapman, Sonnenfeld, Vladimir Putin Organizations: Yale, Heineken, Service, CNN, Investigators, Shell, Huntsman Corporation, Huntsman Locations: Russia, Wall, Silicon, Ukraine, Shell, Heineken, Russian, South Africa

☆ The National Guard says it's struggling to hire because workers are being lured in by Wendy's, Amazon, and FedEx instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The National Guard says it's struggling to hire as big private companies boost pay and benefits. Maj. Marco Irenze said, per a press release by the National Guard Association of the United States last month. Across all private nonfarm jobs, workers in production and nonsupervisory roles earned $28.75 an hour in May on average, per preliminary seasonally-adjusted BLS data. "This is the most challenging recruiting environment the Department of Defense has probably ever faced," Col. Anthony Pasquale, the chief of the Air Guard's recruiting & retention division, said, per the press release. As well as high wages in other industries luring workers away from the military, the pandemic also made it harder for the National Guard to recruit in traditional ways such as at high schools, the National Guard Association said.

Persons: it's, —, Carl's, Marco Irenze, Irenze, didn't, Col, Anthony Pasquale Organizations: National Guard, Wendy's, UPS, FedEx, Microsoft, Service, Nevada Guard, National Guard Association of, Nevada Guard's, Battalion, Washington Air Guard's, Mobile, Illinois Army Guard's Woodstock Sustainment Program, Workers, Employers, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Defense, Air, Air Guard, National Guard Association Locations: Amazon, United States, Nevada

Lockheed and Airbus will tout their LMXT tanker at the Paris Airshow this week, bringing U.S. reporters onboard the A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport on which the new plane is based. In 2011, Boeing won the first of a three-phase procurement to replace the Air Force's aging tanker fleet, securing a contract for 179 KC-46s. But Larry Gallogly, Lockheed’s director of LMXT business development, said Lockheed and Airbus "are most definitely still in this competition." Lockheed and Airbus sought a program of at least 120 aircraft, but “the business case can certainly close below that,” Gallogly said. Boeing Defense CEO Ted Colbert said the KC-46 "has proven to be highly capable" and is ready for the threats of the 2030s.

Persons: Lockheed Martin, Larry Gallogly, ” Gallogly, Ted Colbert, Jerry Carl, Carl, Valerie Insinna, Tim Hepher, Mark Potter Organizations: Pentagon, Aerospace titans Airbus, Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed, U.S, U.S . Air Force, Air, KC, Capitol, Air Force, General, Armed Services, Alabama Republican, Thomson Locations: WASHINGTON, PARIS, U.S, United States, Alabama, Georgia, American

☆ AI drive-thrus may be good for business. But not for the rest of us
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New AI technology at the drive-thru at a Carl's Jr. location. In real-world situations, reactions to AI drive-thrus are still mixed. “We expect AI to augment the competitive advantages of restaurants with digital culture.”Short-staffed restaurants may see AI as a way to fill in the gaps. “There aren’t enough at-scale examples of voice AI in action, especially in this use case,” to say that people would prefer AI to an employee, said McAllister. By the time those examples exist, AI in drive-thrus may already be the norm.

Persons: CKE, Carl’s Jr, Wendy’s, Joel Angel Juarez, it’s, ” Thomas Kurian, ”, Christina McAllister, Forrester, upsells, Krishna Gupta, Presto, “, Todd Penegor, Penegor, Yong Suk Lee, “ it’s, Brandon Bell, McAllister Organizations: New, New York CNN, Google, USA, Wall Street, Indiana White, Wall Street Journal, Presto Automation, CKE, Presto, Presto Voice, University of Notre Dame, Intouch Locations: New York, White, Wendy’s, Columbus , Ohio, The Republic

☆ How restaurants such as Panera and Chipotle are dipping into A.I. to streamline food prep and ordering
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Kate Rogers | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

From drive-thru to back-of-house operations to predictive ordering for consumers, restaurant brands are starting to pilot artificial intelligence to streamline food service. McDonald's , for its part, sold McD Tech Labs to IBM in 2021, entering a strategic partnership to help bring AI technology to drive-thru lanes. McD Tech Labs, which was formerly known as Apprente before McDonald's acquired it, used AI to understand drive-thru orders. Del Taco is also using voice-activated AI for orders at its drive-thru, as is Wingstop for orders placed by phone. For Panera, it's a question of, "How do we redeploy our people to higher value, higher quality guest experiences," said Chief Digital Officer George Hanson.

Persons: there's, TD Cowen, Andrew Charles, Cowen, Charles ., Carl's Jr, CKE, Dragontail, McDonald's, George Hanson, Hanson Organizations: National Restaurant Association, Presto, Brands, Tech Labs, IBM, Miso Robotics, CNBC Locations: U.S, Del

☆ Carl's Jr. and Hardee's to roll out Presto's A.I. drive-thru ordering nationwide
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Amelia Lucas | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Carl's Jr. and Hardee's locations will roll out automated drive-thru ordering nationwide using Presto's artificial intelligence software. Together, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's have about 2,800 restaurants across 44 U.S. states. Hardee's locations are mostly in the Midwest and South, while Carl's Jr. restaurants are found in the West. CKE tested the software last year at a handful of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's locations. CKE operates about 250 of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants, while franchisees run the rest.

☆ Cars crash into 7-Eleven stores every day, and the problem just cost the chain $91 million after a man tragically lost his legs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Vehicles crash into buildings with surprising frequency in the US: more than 100 times each day. On average, one of those crashes each day happens at a 7-Eleven. In all, there were 6,253 storefront crashes at 7-Elevens in that period — an average of more than one per day. The once-a-day crash at 7-Eleven is in fact dwarfed by the total number of crashes that take place at storefronts across the US, however. "If you install bollards, you pretty much solve that problem," Storefront Safety Council co-founder Rob Reiter told CBS Chicago.

☆ I tried Taco Bell's Beyond Meat quesadilla at the only place it's available in the US. The meatless 'steak' could've fooled me, and I now want to try it on everything.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Cassy Crabtree | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

I tried Taco Bell's Beyond Meat quesadilla at the only place it's available in the US. Cassy Crabtree tried Taco Bell's Beyond Carne Asada Steak Quesadilla. Cassy Crabtree On October 13, Taco Bell introduced its new Beyond Meat Carne Asada Steak Quesadilla. Taco Bell I visited my local Taco Bell in Tipp City, Ohio (a suburb of Dayton). I tried Taco Bell's Beyond Carne Asada Steak Quesadilla.

☆ Carl Icahn snaps up shares of canning giant Crown. Here’s how he may build value
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Kenneth Squire | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Business: Crown Holdings is a worldwide leader in the design, manufacture and sale of packaging products for consumer goods and industrial products. Activist Commentary: Carl Icahn is the grandfather of shareholder activism and a true pioneer of the strategy. The opportunity to create shareholder value here is relatively simple: sell non-core businesses, buy back shares and focus on the pure-play beverage business. The company announced its acquisition of Signode, a transit packaging business, for $3.9 billion in 2017, and might be reluctant to sell it for less than that now. There is more value in how they use those proceeds (i.e., buying back stock in an undervalued, growing business).

☆ From Chick-fil-A to Taco Bell, these are the fastest and slowest fast food drive-thrus in America
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Nicolas Vega | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

But as fast food connoisseurs know, not all chains are created equal. The fried chicken chain has the slowest average drive-thru experience at 8 minutes and 29 seconds. The fastest, on the other hand, was KFC, which got customers in and out in an average of 5 minutes and 2 seconds. That's according to the 22nd annual Drive-Thru Study from QSR and Intouch Insights, which assessed the 10 top fast food franchises in categories including service, speed and accuracy by analyzing 1,500 orders. In addition to the top chicken slingers, the survey also assessed hundreds of orders from the drive-thru windows of McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Dunkin', Arby's, Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants.

☆ A 20-year-old Marine who makes $3,000 a month from real estate investments shares 6 books that got him started in everything from house hacking to short-term rental strategies
▼ + stars: | 2022-05-10 | by ( Lisa Kailai Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

He shared with Insider six books that helped him get started in his real estate journey. In an interview with Insider, Adesada mentioned six specific books that helped him get started on his journey to financial freedom through real estate investing. "So by the end of that exercise, I had started developing a plan to buy my second property." Adesada hired her team based on the strategies in "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" by David Greene, which instructed investors to choose "rockstar real estate agents" for markets outside of their local area. "It's really all the information you need to run a successful real estate property management company — not just own a property or two," he explained.

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