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☆ Photos: See inside the San Francisco dog cafe serving seven-course meals with blue spirulina cake and chaga mushroom soup
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Dogue is a dog-food brand that offers pastries and five- to seven-course meals at its 'pawtisserie' in San Francisco. Rahmi Massarweh, a classically French trained chef opened Dogue (pronounced like "rogu e''), a dog-food brand serving food and meals out of a cafe in San Francisco last month with his wife, Alejandra. "While operating the daycare, we started to get more inquiries about our dog food," Massarweh. "I'll never forget the very first client who asked us to make food for their dog." In 2015, couple started offering small batch, artisanal meals for their clients.

☆ Walmart and Kroger customers can now buy plant-based Beyond Steak, which company describes as 'seared to perfection' and 'chopped into bite-sized pieces'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Beyond Steak is plant-based food company Beyond Meat's newest product. The product arrives in more than 5,000 Kroger and Walmart stores amid a decline in sales of plant-based meat. The company says the $7.99 product is "designed to deliver the juicy, tender and delicious bite of seared steak tips with the added nutritional and environmental benefits of plant-based meat." It says the product is "seared to perfection and chopped into bite-sized pieces," has 21 grams of protein per serving, is low in saturated fat, has 0 milligrams of cholesterol. The product rollout comes amid declining sales of plant-based meats.

☆ Chinese American movie star Anna May Wong will be the first Asian American on the US quarter
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-22 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Anna May Wong will be the first Asian American to be on a US quarter. The American Women Quarters Program is a four-year initiative that will feature five different women each year on the flip side of the coin. Heads up: The next US quarter will feature the first Asian American to appear on a circulating coin in the US. Starting on Monday, Chinese American movie star Anna May Wong will appear on the reverse side of the quarter, as part of the American Women Quarters Program. The American Women Quarters Program is a four-year initiative, overseen by the United States Mint, that started in 2022.

☆ Ulta, Bath & Body Works, CeraVe, E.l.f. Cosmetics, and SheaMoisture among beauty favorites for female teens, survey finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ulta is still the most popular beauty store for all female teens, according to a semiannual survey. Out of the 6,670 female teens surveyed, 29% of upper-income female teens and 40% of average-income female teens chose Bath & Body Works as their favorite source for fragrances. Upper-income female teens are spending slightly less for perfumes at $62 every year compared with $67 a year spent on perfumes by average-income female teens. While female teens with wealthier incomes spent $93 last fall on hair care products, female teens with average income spent $91 a year. However, Olaplex was the most popular hair care brand for 14% of upper-income female teens, and the second most popular for female teens with average incomes.

☆ Even financial analysts should be interested in delivering pizzas, Domino's CEO says. 'Because our drivers become franchisees.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Domino's CEO Russell Weiner touted career opportunities for delivery drivers in a call with analysts. "Maybe there are people who are listening to the call now who are interested in drivers' positions," Weiner said. 95% of Domino's franchisees started out as employees making pizza or driving, he said. Domino's delivery drivers earn around $31,962 annually, ZipRecruiter estimates, and a Domino's franchise owner in New York City can make a base salary of $88,200 a year, according to Glassdoor. Domino's is primarily a franchiser, with approximately 94% of US Domino's stores owned and operated by the company's independent franchisees, according to Domino's 2021 annual report.

☆ Lululemon is the clothing brand gaining the most popularity among wealthy female teens in the US – by far
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Athleisure brand Lululemon is the clothing brand growing most in popularity among wealthy female teens. Other popular clothing brands for female teens in the upper-income bracket are American Eagle and Zara. The investment bank's "Taking Stock with Teens" report tracks teens' brand preferences, behavior, and habits. Seventeen percent of teens chose Lululemon as their favorite clothing brand during Piper Sandler's fall 2022 survey, as well as during its spring 2022 and fall 2021 surveys. Below are the five "top brands starting to be worn" by wealthy female teens.

☆ CVS lowers prices on store-brand menstrual products by 25% in pharmacies nationwide, covers 'tampon taxes" in 12 states
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The company's initiative also includes paying sales taxes on period products on customers' behalf in 12 states. Advocates are working towards legislation to address sales taxes on period products. People who menstruate require around 40 period products per cycle, according to the Alliance for Period Supplies. The nonprofit group PERIOD., which is partnering with CVS on the initiative, directed a message towards states that still tax menstrual products. "If you are one of the last 22 states to tax period products, it's time to repeal your antiquated law.

☆ For 12 years, Nike has reigned supreme with teens as their favorite clothing brand
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Nike is the most popular clothing brand for teenagers in the US, according to a semiannual survey. Nearly a third of Gen Zers identified the brand as their favorite. The investment banking firm surveyed 14,500 teens about their brand preferences, behavior, and habits for the fall 2022 study, and 31% ranked Nike as their favorite clothing brand, up from 30% in spring 2022. Below are the five clothing brands American teens most prefer to deck out in. A push for 'casualization'In 2019, Insider asked 1,800 young Americans about their favorite places to shop for clothing.

☆ Chick-fil-A remains teens' favorite restaurant chain in US
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Chick-fil-A is teenagers' favorite US restaurant chain, a study finds. Fast-food chicken restaurant Chick-fil-A was ranked by 15% of respondents as their favorite restaurant, the same as in the spring 2022 and fall 2021 surveys. Read on to find out the top five restaurant chains where teens prefer to spend their money. In 2019, Insider asked more than 3,000 readers of our fast-food coverage to tell us their favorite chains. Chick-fil-A ranked third-highest in sales among chain restaurants in the US in 2021, just after McDonald's and Starbucks, according to The NPD Group's 2022 restaurant report.

☆ How Oracle won the carmaker Subaru as a cloud customer by being cheaper than the competition
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Japanese carmaker Subaru is using Oracle's cloud for its high-performance computing. Discounting is also a common tactic to win over those marquee customers — especially as the use of multiple cloud providers has become more common. Subaru completed the move from its data centers to Oracle's cloud in about six months, anticipating a 30% reduction in its technology costs after moving to the cloud, Takekuma said. Subaru is also using other cloud providers in other parts of the company, including Google Cloud for some of its machine learning and artificial-intelligence capabilities. "So it's absolutely critical that our data transfer, our authentication, all of those pieces, are able to smoothly interface with the other cloud providers'."

☆ Walmart expands fertility benefits in US amid rising demand from millennial and Gen Z workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Walmart employees across the US will soon have access to dozens of fertility clinics. Fertility benefits are becoming a weapon in the war for talent, Fortune recently reported. In a Fortune poll, 45% of workers said fertility benefits are an important component when considering a new job. A fertility survey conducted by Carrot, a global fertility healthcare company, found that millennial and Generation Z employees value fertility benefits: 77% of respondents said that they would stay at a company if it offered fertility benefits, and a large majority of them said they would even consider changing jobs for better benefits. Mercer also has found that DEI values are a key motivation in expanding fertility benefits.

☆ AMC CEO Adam Aron asks if he should lead the movement to urge a four-day workweek in the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

AMC CEO Adam Aron recently floated the idea of a four-day workweek on his Twitter. "Should I be out front urging a 4-day U.S. work week?," AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron asked in one of two polls recently posted on Twitter. In his first poll, posted on Sept. 22, Aron asked Twitter users for their thoughts on four-day workweeks. In another post the same day, Aron's polled Twitter users on whether he should be a leading voice advocating for shorter workweeks. More than 70 companies in the UK recently started four-day workweek trials in June, Insider reported.

☆ The biggest new feature on the iPhone 14 Pro — the 'Dynamic Island' — is now available for Android phones too, thanks to a copycat app
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Android developer Jawomo released a copycat version of the iPhone 14 Pro's newest multitasking feature. The 'Dynamic Island' is only available for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The copycat version, called dynamicSpot, was created to fill a need for a 'camera island' on Android phones. They can check alerts, control music, set a timer, manage AirDrop connections, and follow Map directions on the Dynamic Island. Dynamic Island is only on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, which the company described in a news announcement as "a new design that introduces an intuitive way to experience iPhone."

☆ 24 GOP attorneys general warn Visa, AmEx, and Mastercard about using a code that identifies purchases at gun stores
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

AGs from 24 states sent a letter threatening to take action over a new merchant code for gun stores. The attorneys general warned that tracking the data could lead to misuse, whether intentional or unintentional. They said using a merchant code for gun stores would be an inaccurate method for keeping track of firearms purchases. The coordinated move came after the Geneva-based nonprofit International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved the creation of the merchant code earlier this month. Gun rights advocates, including the NRA, have expressed concerns that the new merchant category code would effectively create a gun registry, and put gun owners at risk.

☆ 8 companies Amazon, Microsoft, or Google might buy as they shop for deals amid the market downturn, including Workday, Unity, and Roku
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

That means Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud could be poised for a merger-and-acquisition spree. As for cloud acquisitions, analysts said Amazon's cloud unit didn't often buy companies. Cybersecurity has been a greater focus for Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud after the hack of the IT-software company SolarWinds in 2020. In 2019, Google purchased the data-analytics company Looker for $2.6 billion in cash under Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian. With Kurian at the helm, bringing with him the Oracle acquisition playbook, Google Cloud may now have a bigger M&A appetite.

☆ We just got our best sign yet that Oracle's core business is getting stronger even without spending big cash on acquisitions like Cerner
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-13 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The database giant's overall revenue grew 18% in the quarter from the same period last year, and its cloud revenue grew 45% to $3.6 billion. That's including the contributions of Cerner, the medical-records company Oracle bought for $28 billion in a big bet on the healthcare market. But it still lags far behind Amazon, Microsoft, and Google in cloud market share, which means it can't afford to stop investing in its cloud platform. The capability allows Amazon Web Services customers to use Oracle's database without leaving AWS. Sources said Oracle's cloud group was virtually unaffected by the cuts.

Analysts were skeptical of the Broadcom acquisition from the startFrom the get-go, Broadcom's plan to buy VMware seemed far-fetched. Read more:Customers and employees tell Insider the worst is yet to comeWork at VMware quickly lost meaning for employees under the threat of Broadcom's impending acquisition. Meanwhile, VMware customers are starting to feel the ripple effects. Since the Broadcom deal was announced, VMware employees have reported "aggressive" recruiter outreach from giants like Amazon Web Services, Google, and IBM. They told Insider about their plans to use the buyout to get closer to VMware customers.

☆ Ransomware's new business model enables anyone to extort companies for massive payouts. Some insiders say it's a criminal twist on the strategy that made cloud giants so successful.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-02 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Ransomware is following the business and distribution model that made cloud giants so successful. Experts say it's so easy to buy ransomware tool kits that hackers can make a monthly income from it. In the same vein, ransomware developers are taking care of back-end operations to get hackers up and running. Today's ransomware gig economy includes a network of behind-the-scenes operatorsThe ransomware gig economy behind ransomware-as-a-service programs has also expanded rapidly over the past two years. Record-breaking payouts include a $4.4 million ransom secured by hackers that attacked the fuel-pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline in 2021.

☆ The executive running Oracle's tattered marketing group, called 'the hatchet man' by some employees, is tasked with cutting costs, insiders say
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-26 | by ( Belle Lin | Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Oracle's marketing team "imploded" following layoffs and the departure of its CMO this summer. A source told Insider that means salespeople will be selling products to sectors they never had before, including healthcare, which is now a key focus with Cerner. Plus, products like Oracle's cloud infrastructure face competition from tech giants like Amazon, making marketing a key lever in that fight. That morning, nearly 50% of some marketing groups received phone calls that they were being laid off, including Kelman's senior staff, multiple sources told Insider. Oracle's marketing structure, as it once was, is gone.

☆ How an Xprize-winning group developed an AI assistant to help African farmers increase their crops and adapt to the climate crisis
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-10 | by ( Sarah Belle Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Penn State's PlantVillage uses technology solutions and field teams to increase farmers' crop yield. As warming temperatures spawn more crop pests, groups, including PlantVillage, are increasingly using artificial intelligence to protect agriculture. Each year, plant diseases cost the global economy more than $220 billion, while invasive insects cost at least $70 billion. The climate crisis increases crop diseases and pests — like the desert locust, which could spread because of warming temperatures. Farmers are encouraged to plant trees with biochar, a soil additive that can store carbon dioxide for centuries.

☆ Thousands of Russian tech workers pulled off a perilous escape from their crumbling homeland. Now they face an anti-Russian backlash, reluctant banks, and sky-high rents.
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-14 | by ( Belle Lin | Masha Borak | Kylie Robison | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

While Kristina is leaving Russia soon, she said she has received threatening messages including, "You are the Putin enemy," and "The police are already after you." To staunch the outflow of talent, the Russian government has offered some tech workers favorable loans, mortgage rates, and even income-tax exemptions. Even after securing a precious visa or a flight out, Russian immigration officers closely monitor departing workers' every move. According to Alexandra, Russian workers are also transferring their funds into cryptocurrencies in order to access funds outside the country. As Russian workers establish their new lives in exile, some say they're worried about the costs they've paid.

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