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The building at the left is Schoen Bros. Cleaners, seen here in 1929. Since 1933, it's been the Elbow Room Pub & Deli. / Star library photo
Chef Ryan Nelson and his wife, Laurie, own Late Harvest Kitchen, 8605 River Crossing. They plan to open a barbecue restaurant next year at the former Cafe Nora location, 1300 E. 86th St. / The Star 2011 file photo
Pizzology fans will have to keep waiting for a second location of chef/owner Neal Brown’s popular Carmel pizzeria. Brown announced last week that he wouldn’t be opening in Nora after all.
Instead, Ryan Nelson, chef/owner at Late Harvest Kitchen, will be taking the space. Nelson said the as-yet-unnamed restaurant he plans to open in the former Cafe Nora space at 1300 E. 86th St., will “celebrate barbecue.” Texas brisket, Carolina pulled pork, Kansas City ribs and other styles will likely show up on the menu of the restaurant Nelson hopes to open by February.
Diners who know Nelson from his current restaurant, 8605 River Crossing, and his previous job as executive chef at Downtown’s Oceanaire Seafood Room, might be surprised at the focus of the new venture. But, the chef said, “It’s something I’ve always wanted.” Nelson said he’s been referring to the restaurant as “the barbecue project,” but that “it’s really hard to name a restaurant.”
Designing the actual space is more enjoyable, he said. “The design part for me is the most fun part of the project,” he said. The decor, he said, will evoke Late Harvest Kitchen but with a more casual vibe — though not too casual. “I’m not interested in a Budweiser sign on the wall and peanut shells on the ground.”
As for where Pizzology will open, Brown, whose Libertine Liquor Bar is at 38 E. Washington St., said “at this time, it looks promising” for a Downtown location.
Deano's Vino owner heads to California to work in wine biz
Longtime wine guy Dean “Deano” Wilson, a fixture on the Indianapolis restaurant scene for nearly 20 years, is packing up his bottles and heading to California to live his dream of running a winery.
Wilson plans to work at several vineyards for the next year while scouting for a winery to purchase with a team of local investors. He’ll be looking in Sonoma and Medocino counties — “not too far from San Francisco and Oakland,” he said.
Wilson was introduced to the wine biz while stationed in San Francisco from 1987 to 1992. When he moved back to Indianapolis in 1994, the Southside native began working in local restaurants and started learning more about wine, all the while dreaming of life in California wine country. Now, he said, he’s ready to make that happen.
“To get to the dream, there has to be numerous goals set in place,” said Wilson, “but I feel like I’ve planned long enough. I’m a carpe diem kind of guy.”
Wilson conducted his final wine tasting last week at Augustino’s Italian Restaurant, 8028 S. Emerson Ave., where he performed for a packed house, delivering wine info like punchlines. At one point, Wilson, who used to perform at One Liner’s Comedy Club, told tasters that that a particular wine “cuts through flavors like Hong Kong Phooey,” adding, “hey, the comedy’s free, folks.”
Augustino’s owner Brian Alvey said he appreciated Wilson’s efforts to educate and entertain customers at the restaurant’s weekly wine tastings, which will continue. “He’s been a fixture in the industry for so long,” said Alvey. “He’s been a pioneer in Fountain Square and Mass Ave.”
Wilson operated Deano’s Vino, a gourmet food and wine shop in the Murphy Art Center in Fountain Square from 2002 to 2005. He moved the business to 1112 Shelby St. in 2005, reopening as a restaurant and wine bar. He also operated a wine and food shop at 878 Massachusetts Ave.
Wilson, who just turned 44, is looking forward to making the move to California, though he will miss being a part of the local food scene. “I think I’ve educated a lot of people,” he said. “I’m proud of that. I’ve turned a lot of people on to good juice.”
Elbow Room turns 80, a Thai restaurant Downtown and other news
The Elbow Room Pub & Deli, a fixture at 605 N. Pennsylvania St., is marking its 80th anniversary with Prohibition era-style events.
The historic building that sits at Pennsylvania Street and Fort Wayne Avenue has been a bar since 1933; before that it was home to Schoen Bros. Cleaners.
The Elbow Room will host a tapping party from 7:30 o 9:30 p.m. Thursday featuring its 80th Anniversary Brew from Flat 12. Events continue through Saturday with food and drink specials. Check the Elbow Room’s Facebook page for details.
In other restaurant news, the former Charlie and Barney’s at 225 E. Ohio St. will become the Bangkok Restaurant and Jazz Bar. According to the project construction design application, the owner is Saowalux Fary of Thai Kitchen Restaurant in Fishers.
An application has also been filed for a store and restaurant to be called the Mapleton Fallcreek Cafe at 2905 N. Central Ave.
And look for a new restaurant to open later this year at 1127 Shelby St. in Fountain Square. Owned by Jonathan Altman, Joshua Gonzales and Ed Rudisell, the restaurant will be called The Thunderbird. In the 1960s, the building housed the Thunderbird Night Club; owners plan to restore the sign that was painted on the side of the building.
According to Altman, the restaurant will offer a southern/southwestern menu and craft cocktails “priced right for the area” and will feature a rustic decor, “like it’s been there awhile.”
Contact Star reporter Jolene Ketzenberger at (317) 444-6755, find her on Facebook and follow her at www.twitter.com/JKetzenberger.


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A patent win for Samsung could mean hundreds of millions of dollars less that it must pay Apple.
Remember when Apple and Samsung were at each other’s throats in U.S. court? It’s entering another round. On Sunday, October 22, a federal judge ruled that the tech titans’ case could be reheard, and set a late October date for the first hearing.
The dispute stems from a nasty legal brawl that started in 2010. At issue are intellectual design and software patents that the Cupertino, California-based smartphone maker accuses Samsung of copying.
Apple, which considered Samsung a “trusted partner” at the time, didn’t sue the Seoul, South Korea-based company right away — Samsung supplied (and continues to supply) billions of dollars of screens and other components to Apple’s overseas iPhone plants. But when executives from the two companies failed to agree on licensing, Apple went on the offensive, accusing Samsung of “slavishly” imitating the iPhone’s design. It filed patent lawsuits in dozens of countries including Germany, Japan, and the U.S., and Samsung countersued, accusing the iPhone maker of infringing on its 3G cellular patents.
Over the next six years, the companies battled it out in courts around the world. In Australia, a judge forced Samsung to delay the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. In the U.K., Apple was forced to issue a public apology for “falsely accusing” Samsung of patent infringement.
It all came to a head in 2012, when a U.S. jury sided with Apple and awarded the company $1 billion in damages. Samsung appealed, and a judge found in its favor, ruling that the initial damages were calculated incorrectly.
After a retrial, an accrual of additional damages, and out-of-court settlement talks, Samsung eventually agreed to pay Apple $548 million for infringing three patents — on the condition that it would “[continue] to reserve all rights to obtain reimbursement from Apple.” In other words, Samsung would fork over a minimum of $149 million, but would appeal the rest of the damages to the Supreme Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court took up the case in 2016, in the end ruling that damages for design patent infringement could be calculated differently than they had been historically. Damages needn’t account for the entire product, the justices unanimously found; instead, they could be based only on the part of the device that infringed the patents.
Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, who presided over the original case and handed down Sunday’s judgment, cited that decision in Sunday’s ruling.
“The Court finds that the jury instructions given at trial did not accurately reflect the law and that the instructions prejudiced Samsung by precluding the jury from considering whether the relevant article of manufacture […] was something other than the entire phone,” Koh wrote.
Samsung told CNET that it welcomes the trial. “This is a historic opportunity to determine how the U.S. Supreme Court’s guidance on design patent damages will be implemented in our case and future cases,” the company said.
A case management meeting is scheduled for October 25 in Koh’s court.

domain: news


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Bryan Sikora, the chef/owner of the La Fia and Cocina Lolo in Wilmington, saw a need for a place in the neighborhood where diners could go before or after dinner. “We always wanted a bigger bar in La Fia,” he says. “But there wasn’t room.”
Now, he and his wife, Andrea, are opening The Merchant Bar across the street from their bistro on Market Street. They’re hoping to unveil their newest venture the week after Christmas. “It’s such a fun time,” Sikora says. “Families are home. People are back from school.” He is hoping to throw a party there on New Year’s Eve, too.
While there will be beers and even wines on tap and a full bar with craft cocktails, there will also be food. “It’s not light fare,” Sikora stresses. “You will also be able to get a meal.” The global fusion menu plays on the city’s days as a center for merchants with access to the Christina River. “It was a global time to travel,” Sikora says. While he is still formulating the menu, he envisions a section of small plates marked according to prices like $5, $8, etc.
He also will have an à la carte section with larger plates that will feature items like a filet mignon sandwich with a lobster tail on it, fries with dipping sauces and a cheese fondue with pickles and other condiments. He’s really excited about the purchase of a steam-injected smoker—not like a smoker at a barbecue shack, he says—to create new dishes.
Diners will also find house-made salamis and sausages and cheeses on the menu. The restaurant will seat 50 at tables and 25 at the bar. Says Sikora: “It’s designed to be a little bit more social and festive.”


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Wingstop franchises more than 1,100 restaurants around the world.
Wingstop released its second quarter numbers on Thursday, and things are looking solid for the chicken franchise.
According to a company press release, system-wide sales increased by 13.5 percent to $304.9 million, and the company’s restaurant count increased 12.5 percent to 1,188 global locations. Total revenue increased by 17.3 percent to $37.0 million. The numbers are for the period that ended June 30, 2018.
“Wingstop completed another strong quarter of growth on both the top and bottom lines as we continue positioning ourselves to become a top 10 global restaurant brand,” Wingstop chairman and CEO Charlie Morrison said in the press release. “We are effectively executing against our four growth strategies: building greater awareness through national advertising, innovating through technology to enhance the guest experience, optimizing delivery in test markets ahead of a national roll out in 2019, and expanding our international presence.”
Read the full press release.


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A new HTC advertisement seems to suggest that HTC is readying a new Windows Phone 7 device with an unprecedented 16 megapixel camera as well as dual LED flash. This is still classified as a rumor as neither HTC nor Microsoft has announced such a device. Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Archives: April 18, 2011
Microsoft this week offered previews of the Windows Phone 7 “Mango” update, Internet Explorer 10, and Silverlight 5. It also pushed through a massive Patch Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »
HP Veer, likely to be the smallest smartphone you will be able to get your hands on in 2011, appears set to release next month. Read the rest of this entry »
At the moment, HTC is the company that launched the highest number of Windows Phone 7 devices (five of them – if we don’t count the HTC Arrive and the HD7S, which are merely variations of other models). Read the rest of this entry »
XDA-Developers have posted some first look pictures at the unannounced HTC “Mazaa” smartphone, running on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 OS. The Mazaa is expected to be available for Sprint customers in the U.S., and will likely hit the market within the next six months. The device sports what appears to be a 3.7″ display and a single LED flash camera on the back. Read the rest of this entry »
Rumors point to Qualcomm chips and 12- and 8-megapixel cameras.
Earlier this year, Nokia announced its decision to make Windows Phone 7 its primary smartphone OS but made no mention of any plans for upcoming WP7 handsets. Now, we have rumors that the first Windows Phone 7 handsets out of Espoo will be the W7 and the W8. Read the rest of this entry »


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The 2014 crop year is slowly coming to an end with an EU-5 yield of 28.6 million tonnes – over 4 million tonnes more than the previous year – due to extended acreage combined with optimal weather conditions. These North West European countries include the UK, Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands. A lack of demand for the exportation of fresh potatoes and over supply from the growers meant there was a significant surplus of crop, leading to low prices. With cold, dry weather resulting in a late spring and delayed development of the 2015 crop, as well as the fact that the 2015 EU-5 acreage has decreased by 2-3%, market sentiment has slowly turned during the last few weeks, increasing prices in May and early June.
Belgian potato processors in particular, worry about a smooth transition between crops and doubts have arisen about whether or not the new early crop will be sufficiently available in time. We expect, however, that enough of the old crop will be available until the industry switches to the new crop throughout July.
With another four months of growth ahead, it is hard to predict what the main crop of 2015 will bring to the industry in terms of availability, quality and pricing, but with decreased acreage, the expectation of a lower yield and an increasing production capacity in Belgium, it is likely we will see higher prices than last year.


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Want to Set Up an Ad Campaign on TikTok? Here’s How…
This week, TikTok released a video overview of how to set up your first ad campaign on the increasingly popular short-form video app.
The video, which can be viewed here, includes comprehensive, clear instructions on how to tackle the campaign set-up process. TikTok posted the video on its @TikTokForBusiness Facebook channel with the caption:
Want to know how to set up an ad campaign on TikTok using Ad Manager? Savannah Sanchez has you covered.Introduce your business to the TikTok community today and claim up to a $2,300 ad credit if eligible.
[Image Creds: @TikTokForBusiness on Facebook]
A recent study revealed that users’ average time spent on TikTok soared in the last year, having increased by 70% in the US and 80% in the UK. Experts predict that TikTok’s popularity will continue to surge in 2021, when the platform is set to hit more than one billion users.
If TikTok hits this target, it would cement its position as one of the dominant players in the social media space. Weaving TikTok into your digital marketing mix could, therefore, see great benefits for your company.
For those well-versed in setting up campaigns on social platforms, the software will probably feel familiar. However, TikTok’s break-down video will be a vital recourse for brands who are new to the scene, but looking to tap into the platform for their outreach and promotion efforts.
You can now access TikTok’s Ad Manager here – go ahead and start sculpting your first ad campaign.
Finally, for our previous #SocialShort, click here.


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Goodness. In what sounds like a dare, McDonald’s China is offering a Spam burger with crumbled cookies.
As pointed out by Daniel Ahmad on Twitter, the burger will go on sale in China starting December 21 and will apparently be limited to 400,000 Spam Oreo sandwiches.
Do note that the fine print does mention the Spam trademark and not the Oreo one. Oreos, of course, are widely available in China (and globally there are countless Oreo-type cookies), but according to Ahmad, the text does say Oreo.
Inevitably, this burger has also ended up on r/shittyfoodporn.
I’m trying to imagine what two slices of spam, garnished with crumbled cookies between buns slathered with cream would taste like. But all I keep thinking of is the time that Snopes had to debunk Spam-flavored Oreos.


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The mid-size truck market is booming right now with major automakers back in the fray after many years of absence. The most exciting new mid-size truck is the Jeep Gladiator that debuted earlier this month. Another new entrant that people are looking forward to is the return of the Ford Ranger truck.
Last month a leaked window sticker tipped the fuel economy numbers at 21 mpg city, 26 mpg highway, and 23 mpg combined. The official ratings for the new Ranger are in, and the 2WD version of the truck exactly matches the fuel economy ratings seen in that leak. That means the official ratings are 21 mpg city, 26 mpg highway, and 23 mpg combined.
Buyers who opt for the 4-wheel-drive version of the truck will get less fuel economy with those ratings at 20 mpg city, 24 mpg highway, and 22 mpg combined. All versions of the Ranger use the same 10-speed automatic and 2.3L EcoBoost four making 270hp and 310 lb-ft of torque.
These official fuel economy ratings put the Ranger as the tops in its class compared to V6 trucks. Chevy’s Colorado, for instance, is rated at 18mpg city, 25mpg highway, and 20 mpg combined. If better fuel economy wasn’t enough, the Ranger also has better performance than the four-cylinder version of other trucks and still offers better fuel economy than the Colorado four-cylinder.
The Ranger also packs the best payload capacity in its class at 1,860 pounds. Ranger offered the best towing capacity in the class at 7,500 pounds until the Jeep Gladiator bowed in with a 7,650-pound towing capacity. The Gladiator has a 1,600-pound payload capacity.


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PORT ANGELES — Following the statewide closure of schools and revenue-generating events because of concerns about the spread of COVID-19, business owners and employees all across the North Olympic Peninsula are both tightening their belts and preparing ways to help their neighbors.
Among them is Port Book and News, which is offering free home delivery within Port Angeles city limits for purchases over $10.
“We have chosen to reach out with free home delivery as our way to provide help to those of you who are concerned about exposure,” the Port Angeles bookstore said in the letter posted to its Facebook page on Wednesday.
“We don’t want people to do anything they feel is unsafe,” said Alan Turner, who owns the store with his wife, Cindy Turner, on Friday.
“But it is a reminder that we can’t all withdraw from each other because everything will collapse.”
Health officials advise residents to minimize their potential exposure to others as much as possible. It’s good advice but it also is costing the economy.
Signs of the strain are apparent, with fewer people going to restaurants, staying in lodging establishments or shopping in stores.
Kokopelli Grill laid off 50 percent of its employees — a total of 30 — last week, said Michael McQuay, who owns the restaurant with his wife Candy. On Sunday, he closed Coyote BBQ Pub indefinitely.
“The numbers have dropped about 50 percent when numbers this time of year generally go up,” he said, although most of the drop was at the pub, rather than at Kokopelli.
He sees what’s coming, though, he says, and so Kokopelli this week will cut back from being open from 11 a.m. to closing seven days a week to serving dinner only Tuesday through Saturday.
This week, Kokopelli also will begin offering DoorDash, a food delivery service now offered by at least 45 restaurants in the area. Customers can use the DoorDash app or call their favorite restaurant to order.
Other restaurants and retailers throughout the Peninsula are offering curbside service, food to go, shipping and/or their own delivery services. Customers can call or seek the business’ website online to see what services are available.
The Clallam County Economic Development Corp. (EDC) is starting a campaign called Clallam Conquers Corona, said Executive Director Colleen McAleer.
The campaign will urge people to buy gift cards they can use later but which will help keep retailers going, McAleer said.
Mari Mullen, executive director of Port Townsend Main Street has urged residents to do the same thing there.
“Our merchants and staff are our friends and neighbors,” Mullen said. “These are local jobs. This is our community. Our local businesses here in Port Townsend can only thrive and be here for tomorrow if we patronize them.”
The Clallam County EDC also is compiling information through a survey provided by the state Department of Commerce on its website at clallam.org. The information will be used to aids in funding for the state, McAleer said.
One impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the cancellation of the March 25 county Job Fair, said Mark Abshire, Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director.
Gov. Jay Inslee’s executive order banning gatherings of 250 people or more statewide “kind of made our decision for us,” Abshire said. He estimated that 500 job seekers would have attended the event. Another job fair is scheduled for Oct. 7.
Abshire said last week that entrepreneurs are concerned about a current and impending downturn in business over the next roughly six weeks.
“We are just beginning to see what the impacts will be, and it’s very difficult to estimate how big of an impact it will be, eventually, as we go through dealing with the virus,” Abshire said.
The chamber is coordinating efforts with the state Department of Commerce and Small Business Administration on potential financial assistance, mostly in the form of low-interest loans, he added.
Abshire said the chamber’s Port Angeles Maritime Festival June 13-14 may be cancelled.
There are no plans to curtail operations at 7 Cedars Casino, owned by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, CEO Jerry Allen said Saturday.
Walmart cut hours at stores including those in Port Angeles and Sequim.
“Walmart stores and Neighborhood Markets will be open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. until further notice,” Dacona Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Walmart U.S., said Saturday in a prepared statement.
“This will help ensure associates are able to stock the products our customers are looking for and to perform cleaning and sanitizing.”
Normal hours at the Port Angeles Walmart are 24 hours daily and at the Sequim Walmart, 6 a.m.-1 a.m., store associates said Sunday.
In Port Townsend, at least one shop is offering food for free.
Howell’s Sandwich Company in Port Townsend announced that it will provide free pre-made lunches for anyone who orders the “PT Special” for as long as it can.
Said owner Mike Howell: “No kid should go without a meal.”
He added that others probably would do similar things to help their neighbors.


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Apple hasn’t released the first watchOS 3.2 beta to developers as of yet, but the company has shared release notes highlighting the new features that will be introduced in the update.
The most important new feature is a “Theater Mode” that’s designed to let customers quickly mute the sound on their Apple Watch and disable raise to wake, preventing the screen from lighting up with arm movement.
With Theater Mode enabled, customers will still receive haptic feedback for each incoming notification, and information can be viewed by tapping the screen or pressing down on the Digital Crown.
According to Apple, Theater Mode was included in watchOS 3.1.3, but it does not yet appear to be available to consumers as an option, suggesting it will be activated when watchOS 3.2 is installed.
Rumors originally suggested a theater mode would be included in iOS 10.3, but it appears the mode was actually designed for the Apple Watch, where it arguably makes a lot more sense. That rumor said theater mode would be activated through a popcorn-shaped icon, so we may see that icon on the Apple Watch.
watchOS 3.2 also brings Siri Kit to the Apple Watch, allowing customers to ask Siri to do things like send messages, send payments, book a ride, log a workout, make a call, or search through photos. SiriKit has been available on iOS devices since the release of iOS 10, but is new to the Apple Watch.
WatchKit Framework Enhancements and the AVAudioPlayer API are other new features being added in watchOS 3.2. Given iOS 10.3, tvOS 10<.2, and macOS Sierra 10.12.4 were released today, we could see a watchOS 3.2 beta soon, but Apple has given no indication of when it will launch.


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ZTE A2017 Visits AnTuTu As Well, Could Be The Next Axon ModelBy cheatmaster 01:17 Sun, 01 Aug 2021 Comments
The Huawei P9 and iPhone SE aren't the only smartphones that have been revealed to have been put through the paces of the AnTuTu benchimprint today. The ZTE A2017 joins them, and this might just be the Chinese company's next Axon-branded handset.
Earlier this month the A2017 was spotted in the GFXBench database sporting a elegant Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset and 4GB of RAM. Now those specs have been confirmed by AnTuTu's info screen, along with other hardware details.
The ZTE A2017 has a QHD touchclassy screen (which GFXBench pegged at 5.5"), a 20 MegaPixel (MP) rear camera, an 8 MegaPixel (MP) selfie shooter, 64GB of storage, and it runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.
The phone has managed to score an impressive 140,086 points in AnTuTu, which is more than the Xiaomi Mi 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S7. That's quite impressive, so ZTE's next flagship device will definitely be no slouch.
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Target wants to take a bite out of the organic market
The Minneapolis-based big box retailer says it will increase its organic food offerings by 25 percent by end of fiscal year 2017. On June 9, Target will roll out a new store brand called Simply Balanced. Initial offerings include apple juice, tortilla chips and cage-free eggs.
The company declined to be interviewed but said in a statement: “We know many of our guests are increasingly seeking to add wholesome and organic food options to their wellness lifestyle.”
Target says most of its Simply Balanced products are made without genetically modified ingredients, artificial flavors, colors and preservatives, and about half of the new line will be organic.
The economic downturn didn’t put much of a damper on the growth of the country’s organic industry. The USDA says last year, organic sales accounted for more than 3.5 percent of total U.S. food sales. American consumers spend around $30 billion on organic products every year, according to the Organic Trade Association (OTA) and 81 percent of U.S. families buy organic “at least sometimes.”
Produce tops their shopping lists, followed by organic breads and packaged foods. Target, Walmart and Costco are all angling for a better position in the healthy foods market.
With the biggest reach of the bunch, Walmart has pledged to source more of its fruits and vegetables from local farms, including organic crops, and to sell it at a lower premium than competitors. The nation’s largest grocer also just announced a new 100 percent money-back guarantee on the freshness of its produce, a commitment that could squeeze smaller rivals like Safeway.
As Target grows its array of organic products, it could gain an edge over Walmart because shoppers who seek organic skew into the higher income brackets. The median income of Target’s customers? $64,000. Wamart’s ranges from $30,000 to $60,000.
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Jack in the Box Inc. (JACK) stock continues its rally this week, rising 0.35% in early morning trade on Thursday following the announcement that the company signed a delivery deal with DoorDash Inc. DoorDash, a home delivery service, will expand Jack in the Box’s offerings to homes, adding delivery services to 600 stores in the United States.
Jack in the Box Inc. (JACK) Expansion into 200 Cities
The deal includes locations in 200 cities and is more efficient than doing delivery in-house, according to reports.
Jack and DoorDash worked together in San Francisco to test out the service. The new deal allows the service to cover 40% of Jack in the Box locations. Consumers are choosing convience over going to ground locations, according to reports.
Delivery is up 7% in 2016, with delivery increasing most for restaurants not including pizza delivery.
McDonald’s (MCD) is also testing out delivery services in an effort to retain market share. The fast food giant calls fast food delivery a $100 billion opportunity and has partnered with UberEats to deliver food in Florida. The company plans to expand its initial testing to other parts of the United States, utilizing several delivery services in the process.
Restaurant partnerships with delivery services cost a 10% to 30% commission on average. There are delivery services that add their own delivery fees that are charged to consumers, too.
Third-party services, like DoorDash, own their consumer’s data. This has lead to a downfall for large fast food chains that want to use delivery data to predict trends. Panera Bread (PNRA) chose to build their own delivery network as a result of the data loss and to maintain greater control over their food quality and delivery times.
Jack in the Box Inc. (JACK) plans to offer the company’s Late Night Menu to consumers to allow late night ordering. DoorDash will also offer the company’s standard food offering as well as brunch.


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American merchants are reporting seeing moderate consumer demand as Bordeaux 2009 en primeur prices continue to be released.
Reacting to the releases so far this week, several US merchants have said that despite the hype surrounding the vintage, sales are below what they’d expected.
‘This is not like 2001, when the 2000 campaign was underway and clients had not seen a great vintage in a while,’ said Elliott Staren, owner of Wide World of Wines in Washington D.C.
‘People have full cellars already; they bought 2003s, 2005s, some 2006s, and they have not even received their 2008s.’
At Premier Cru in California, senior wine seller Michael Glasby agreed.
‘People with an interest to sell the wine are trying to build the hype. The hype is almost identical [to the 2005 and 2000 vintages], but on the other side, the demand side is nothing like it was for the 2005, and even less so than for the 2000 [upon release].
‘There is greater sobriety on the part of the consumer,’ he said.
Some wines are selling through, however. Sellers also notice a vivid correlation between high Parker scores and prices – ‘more than we have seen before,’ Glasby said.
Despite the price hike, Potential 100-point Parker wines such as Pontet Canet, have sold through, both merchants said.
Customers are asking about top-scoring Parker wines ‘left and right’, said Ben Nelson, President of Hart Davis Hart Wine Company in Chicago. ‘The prices are unbelievably high, but they are going to sell,’ he said.
‘It seems we have done well with Pontet Canet in the last couple of days, Glasby said. ‘At just under $100,’ he added, stressing the initial price.
Other wines so far released have gotten mixed reviews.
For Staren, wines like Grand Puy Lacoste, Gruaud Larose and Giscours with somewhat lower Parker numbers are seeing little demand, although Glasby says that these wines are doing ‘rather well’ for Premier Cru.
Another worry is if the euro falls further against the dollar by the time 2009s are on the shelf, which is a ‘disincentive’ for buying futures, Glasby said.
On the other hand ‘the big mystery is China,’ he added. ‘If the Chinese are going to buy these wines upon release, then the interest is to buy now.’
Written by Panos Kakaviatos


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Zomato, the popular food delivery app, has fallen prey to a hack and has lost the user account details of 17 million of its users to hackers. In the meanwhile, the restaurant profiling and food delivery app has released a security notice for all its users providing guidelines to keep their data safe.
Zomato was launched back in 2008 and has been one of the successful start-ups that have been able to ride on India's economic growth. The impact of this new development hasn't surfaced yet but it could hamper the company's growth considering the growing competition in the food sector. Swiggy, Foodpanda, Faasos and even Uber are few of the brands that are giving a stiff competition to Zomato.
Also Read: Govt to ensure that WhatsApp users are not 'entrapped': SC
With India's growing dependency on internet services, it is also getting increasingly vulnerable to cyber-threats and attacks. Earlier this week, a ransomware by the name of Wannacry has created havoc across the globe and India has been termed as one of the worst affected countries in the world. Though the government has assured that there has been no major incident, apart from a few isolated attempts in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, cyber experts claim that many instances are going unreported due to the use of pirated software .
Here's what you can do to stay safe from the recent hack:
Copyright©2022 Living Media India Limited. For reprint rights: Syndications Today


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Farming groups have claimed that the “relentless drive” for cheaper, faster food is a significant factor in the recent ‘burger’ controversy.
Last week the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney announced preliminary laboratory results that indicated the presence of equine DNA in samples of burgers taken by the Department on Tuesday, 15th January, from product manufactured in one plant (Silvercrest) in the period 3rd to 14th January.
By the time of the announcement, these products were already withdrawn by the company from the market and samples of seven raw ingredients were tested, one of which, sourced from another Member State, tested positive.
All ingredients in the production of burgers sourced from Irish suppliers tested negative for equine DNA. Thirteen samples of finished burgers were tested, nine tested positive for traces of equine DNA.
Following the announcement the Minister and the FSAI said there was no concern from a food safety perspective but the investigation will continue to conclusively establish the source of the equine DNA.
Responding to the crisis, the President of ICMSA, John Comer, said farmers ‘on the ground’ have no doubt that a very significant factor in this week’s ‘burger’ controversy and other previous food controversies are a direct result of the relentless pressure being exerted on processors throughout the EU by the massive multiples to supply food at cheaper and cheaper prices.
“The huge and practically unsupervised power of the multinational multiples is the key factor in the drive for cheaper and cheaper food and this sole focus has to eventually tell at some interim stage between the farmer’s gate and the consumer’s purchase”, said the ICMSA President
“It’s still very disappointing for Irish farmers that our industry has been undermined in this way. Irish farmers and processors have invested heavily in developing our excellent reputation as a food producer and we cannot allow this to be undermined by what at this stage appears to be imported materials.”
His words were echoed by IFA President, John Bryan who said ”nothing or no-one can be allowed compromise the high standards and reputation of Irish-produced food.”
Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) President, Gabriel Gilmartin, said that it was significant that the only raw material sample, which tested positive, was from another member state.
“We need answers on why there is any need for imported ingredients in burgers when Ireland is the biggest exporter of beef in the Northern hemisphere,” he added.
Mr Gilmartin added that all meat processing plants should now ensure that they suspend the use of any imported material in meat products until this crisis is over


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The Cleveland Circle branch of Applebee's plans to shutter June 30. In the meantime, it's selling burgers for $5.99, and — for serious Applebee's fans and/or avid tchotchke collectors — all the random stuff decorating the restaurant.
The franchise announced its final week in a Facebook event, Universal Hub reported. Boston Restaurant Talk noted that the Applebee's, a style of restaurant more commonly associated with suburbia and satirical movies about work than a hotspot for young people, was a popular college hang in Brighton.
According to the comments on the event, it will be missed. "Over my three years so far at BC, going to this Applebee's has been my single favorite activity," wrote one visitor. "I'm sad to see you go."
Another person recalled "the cash only Jello shots during football weekends [which] will be sorely missed."
The restaurant is closing to make way for senior housing and a hotel, which UHub previously covered.
Applebee's is the largest casual-dining chain in the world, according to its website. There are more than 1,900 locations across 15 countries, and 27 others in Massachusetts.
[Inset Photo: Facebook]


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It has been a banner run for McDonald’s. Same-store sales gains of 2.9 percent in the U.S. (5.5 percent globally) in Q1 marked 11 consecutive quarters of positive sales growth and five straight periods of positive guest counts. However, the sales picture isn’t entirely rosy.
During the Bernstein 34th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference in late May, chief financial officer Kevin Ozan admitted that the biggest challenge facing McDonald’s in the U.S., from a GAAP comps perspective at least, is its breakfast daypart. This might come as a surprise to some, especially considering how the all-day breakfast initiative firecracked profits out the gate. McDonald’s introduced all-day breakfast in fall 2015 to stellar results. It expanded September 2016 to include McGriddle sandwiches and made both McMuffin and biscuit sandwiches available at all restaurants.
In April 2016, profits surged 35 percent to $1.1 billion to start the fiscal calendar for McDonald’s. U.S. comps hiked 5.4 percent. In addition to the introduction of McPick 2, which has since gone by the wayside thanks to the $1 $2 $3 Dollar Menu, McDonald’s credited all-day breakfast for the healthy results. That was a familiar story throughout the year.
But the dynamic has shifted. It’s not the products, however, McDonald’s is struggling with—it’s the breakfast hours themselves. About 25 percent of McDonald’s sales occur pre-lunch.
“I think some of that is because with everything else going on, we just lost a little focus on that breakfast daypart,” Ozan said at the conference. “It has always been our stronghold.” The daypart, historically, is McDonald’s most profitable.
McDonald’s has some plans to reinvigorate sales. Paltry results recently prompted the brand to introduce a 2 for $4 mix-and-match deal on breakfast sandwiches in mid-March. Results from this move should show in the upcoming Q2. CEO Steve Easterbrook, who said he was impressed with the system’s ability to onboard that change quickly, also credited increased competition in the breakfast space to a decrease in U.S. customer visits. Dunkin’ Donuts, in one example, launched a tiered menu of its own in April that focuses on $2, $3, and $5 price points. Known as Dunkin’ Go2s, the menu allowed guests to pick from among three of the brand’s most popular breakfast sandwiches, and purchase two of their “go-to” favorites. Morning business accounts for about 60 percent of systemwide sales at Dunkin’, and the chain reported positive year-over-year sales there and sequential gains each quarter in 2017. Q4 and the ensuing Q1 set back-to-back record-breaking breakfast sandwich sales, which have gained sales momentum for seven straight quarters.
Ozan said McDonald’s needs to ramp up its breakfast daypart focus.
“You may see different products coming on $1 $2 $3 Dollar Menu related to breakfast. You may see new products by the end of the year. So, it’s now an area of focus where I think we took our eye off the ball on breakfast,” he said.
Easterbrook said McDonald’s all-day breakfast push could have detracted a bit from its breakfast traffic, but it was incremental to the company and not a major painpoint. “That would have been a little shift naturally. But frankly, when you look at literally by our daypart of when we sell the items, you can pretty much decompose how a breakfast business is,” he said.
McDonald’s added barista-style coffee machines at U.S. stores, which Easterbrook said were offering up espresso-based coffees that are now a “more important part of our mix.”
McDonald’s launched new McCafé Cold Brew Frozen drinks June 13 for a limited time. Any of McDonald’s small McCafé espresso drinks, including these blended options, were added to the $2 tier of its new value menu. Last year, McDonald’s elevated the McCafé experience and introduced café-quality espresso beverages to its lineup—Caramel Macchiato, Cappuccino, and Americano.
“As I say, you never, ever want to get away from value, but you don’t want to depend on value. So, for us, you’re playing—you want a street fight; you want to scrap. It’s a market-share fight out here,” Easterbrook said. “So, you never want to give up business, but you don’t only want to be scrapping for the short term. You just want to get the balance right between brand advertising, launching new menu items, employer experience, server experience, and still never wandering too far away from the value component.”
McDonald’s even took a page from “Seinfeld” by selling muffin toppers (Elaine Benes once called them “the best part” in a 1997 episode). Additionally, McDonald’s told CBS News customers could “expect to see an elevated McCafé experience in our modernized U.S. restaurants—delicious menu items like muffin toppers, coffee cakes, apple pies with lattice crusts that are baked in-restaurant.” The muffin toppers have been tested in select markets over the course of the past year, with flavors such as double chocolate, blueberry, and lemon poppy. The blueberry option chimes in at 140 calories. Bloomberg reported that McDonald’s tried out coffee cake in the Baltimore area. In May, McDonald’s began piloting a catering menu specifically for breakfast at nearly 200 Florida restaurants.
The menu, offered during breakfast-service hours, featured bundles geared toward six, 12, and 24 guests. Customers could also create their own bundles, with items arriving in quantities of six unless otherwise noted. Guests could choose from breakfast sandwiches, homestyle breakfast items, like hotcakes, snacks and sides, such as apple slices, beverages, and sweats & treats (baked apple pie, cookies). The bundles also featured several premade options.
Whether through menu adds, promotions, off-premises or by leveraging its new digital tools, McDonald’s doesn’t appear content just letting sales shift and flow into other mediums. The chain credited higher menu prices to its comps growth last quarter. Ozan said during an April 30 conference call that McDonald’s increased premium products, like its Signature Recipe Burgers, lifted check averages. So did customers ordering multiple items at once, something Ozan attributed to McDonald’s tiered $1 $2 $3 Dollar Menu, which arrived in January. Price increases and product mix shifts led to the growth, McDonald’s said.
Even being the case, McDonald’s sees the breakfast challenge as a lead priority, and isn’t shying from saying so. It’s U.S. app has roughly 20 million users and could help the chain direct guests back into the daypart. Or perhaps an advertising campaign could be in the works. Whatever happens, don’t expect McDonald’s to simply sit back on its sales-driving heels. Changes won’t wait for the lunch break.


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The retail warehousing sector has had a tough decade, challenged by changing consumer habits and rising competition from e-commerce.
Consumer spending in Europe dropped from €2.64bn (EU28) in 2007 to €2.55 bn in 2013. Although this was only 3% drop, the impact on retail warehousing goods sectors has been higher, up to -10%. This has changed consumer habits, with value and convenience becoming top priorities.
Although retail sales have recovered and are expected to reach a new high this year, €2.86bn by end of the year, the biggest challenge for the sector has been the rising share of e-commerce, particularly in the retail warehousing product categories.
Online sales have increased by 2.5 times over the past decade, reaching various degrees of penetration, from 3.5%-5% in CEE and SEE, to 7.5%-10% in WE and up to 15.1% in Germany and 17.8% in the UK.
The result of this has been a number of retailer insolvencies in the sector leading to vacancies in retail parks. Many of the retailers that survived started downsizing to cope with the market share losses and to adapt to consumer habits.
Source : Savills


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Goldman Sachs Debuts Marcus App at Long Last
Back in 2016, Goldman Sachs revealed that it was launching an online bank named Marcus, which would offer high-yield savings, certificates of deposit (CDs), loans, and more. As observers have noted, the debut of Marcus marked a bid by Goldman to appeal to a wider and notably younger crowd than their other products. Yet it was only this week that one missing element from the Marcus banking experience officially arrived: a mobile app.
As the Associated Press reports, a Marcus bank app rolled out to the App Store in recent days. According to Goldman Sachs spokesperson Kristen Greco, the app had been a popular request among the bank’s users, leading developers at the company to spend “the better part of 2019” working on such an offering. Greco admitted that the lack of a mobile application was an issue, noting, “People expect a digital bank to have an app,” but she went on to explain, “We wanted to make sure we did it right.”
Previously Marcus customers could access their accounts via the bank’s website or view balances in the Goldman-owned Clarity Money, but the bank didn’t have a mobile application of its own. Speaking of Clarity Money — which Goldman acquired in 2018 — it was the engineers and developers behind that project that were tasked with creating the new application.
Marcus holds $55 billion deposits between customers in the United States and the United Kingdom. Currently the bank offers one of the higher interest rates on savings, sitting at 1.7% APY as of January 10th. When Marcus purchased Clarity Money, it also enabled that app’s users to “upgrade” their automated savings plans to a Marcus account in order to earn such interest.
This latest development with Marcus comes as Goldman continues to pursue a more diverse customer base. These efforts are especially evident in the bank’s partnership with Apple to launch the Apple Card last summer. Meanwhile Joe Duran of United Capital (another Goldman Sachs acquisition) recently revealed that the bank was planning to launch a robo-advisor platform sometime this year.
For a company that has been a top investor in FinTech ventures, it’s truly surprising that it took this long for a dedicated Marcus app to debut. Nevertheless, with the Clarity Money team spearheading the project, users can bet that the finished product will be sleek and intuitive. On Goldman’s side, they’re surely hoping that adding this missing piece to the Marcus puzzle will allow the online bank offering to grow and help them to reach customers they keep trying to court.


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Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE) said Wednesday that Chief Lobbyist Thomas Steg has returned to his post after a special investigation found he wasn't at fault in the car maker's funding of studies that tested diesel exhaust on monkeys.
"The comprehensive special investigation conducted by Volkswagen Group Audit concludes there was no non-compliant conduct nor were any infringements of relevance to labor law committed by Volkswagen Group employees," the German car maker said.
Volkswagen suspended Mr. Steg in January after news emerged that the car maker helped finance experiments on animals to disprove links between diesel exhaust and respiratory illnesses.
The revelations sparked a public relations crisis for Volkswagen, which is still battling with the fallout from its diesel emissions scandal. Mr. Steg's reinstatement follows Volkswagen's pledge to stop supporting animal testing.
"We will rule out testing on animals in the future, as long as there are no pressing--such as legal--reasons that would make this necessary," Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess said in a letter last week to U.S. animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA.
Mr. Diess also said Volkswagen will add a corresponding passage in a new version of its code of conduct.
The company is still conducting a wider review of all the test, study and research projects it is involved in, which should be completed in the second half of the year, said Hiltrud Werner, board member for integrity and legal affairs.


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Earlier this week, U.S. president Donald Trump took to Twitter to assure the world that rumblings of a looming economic downturn have been greatly exaggerated. "The Fake News LameStream Media is doing everything possible the 'create' a U.S. recession, even though the numbers & facts are working totally in the opposite direction," he wrote. "Our Economy is sooo strong, sorry!"
Many key "numbers & facts," however, tell a different story. On August 14, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 800 points—its worst day all year—after the federal bonds market experienced what economists call an "inverted yield curve." Inverted yield curves have preceded all nine recessions in the American economy since 1955, and only once, back in the mid-1960s, did a recession not begin within 24 months of a dreaded inversion. That inversion, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco helpfully clarified last year, was followed merely by an "economic slowdown," but "not an official recession." A week later, on August 21, the yield curve inverted again.
Put differently: At this point, it would be premature to liquidate your sneaker collection, buy as much gold as you can carry, and go live in a remote cabin until the 2024 Summer Olympics. But at the very least, there are good reasons to be concerned right now. As experts and pundits argue about whether there is a recession coming or not, here's what you need to know.
What counts as a recession, exactly?
Many economists, especially in Europe, define "recession" to mean two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth as measured by gross domestic product, or GDP. GDP refers to the total value of goods and services produced within a given period of time; it is, in effect, longhand for "size of the economy." When an economy is shrinking over an extended period of time, it is in recession.
Politicians and journalists often use this definition in the United States, too, since it's quick and intuitive. But technically, the task of determining whether a domestic downturn qualifies as a "recession" falls to the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, which defines the term more broadly as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months." NBER economists examine trends in real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale and retail sales, in addition to monthly GDP estimates, when making these recession-or-no-recession calls.
What happens in a recession?
Jobs disappear, and the unemployment rate spikes. During the Great Recession, which lasted from late 2007 until mid-2009, it peaked at 10 percent; during the Great Depression, it was 24.9 percent. Entrepreneurs have trouble getting the financing they need to start new businesses, and with less disposable income rattling around the economy, existing businesses may be forced to close their doors. Those that stay open are less likely to expand their operations or otherwise make new investments. Real estate values may fall, even though monthly mortgage payments stay the same. People who lose their jobs may lose their homes, too. And of course, the stock market collapses, wreaking havoc on investment portfolios and retirement accounts. During the Great Recession, the Dow lost more than half its value in just six months.
Perhaps the most significant consequences, though, are those that manifest themselves in the years that follow. As a 2009 report published by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute puts it, no recession is really a "one-time" event, since "economic hardships for parents will mean more economic hurdles for their children," too. Things like extended periods of joblessness, abandoned education plans, and inadequate access to health care all create lingering costs that the economy will still be repaying long after the recession is officially over.
What's with the inverted yield curve?
The federal government funds a good chunk of its operations by issuing bonds—essentially, loans it pledges to repay with interest at a certain future date. Ordinarily, investors expect higher yields on longer-term bonds, since those lock up their money for the longest period of time. And so, the yield curve—the returns on different types of bonds—usually increases with the amount of time to maturity.
When demand for long-term bonds goes up, though, their yield goes down. And when it gets to the point where yields are higher on short-term bonds than they are on their long-term counterparts, the yield curve inverts. That's generally a sign that people are spooked about the economy's health. Investors, anticipating interest rate cuts and inflation slowdowns that tend to accompany recessions, are suddenly more inclined to park their money in safe 10- or 30-year assets, avoiding the risk associated with shorter-term bonds in the potentially-tumultuous months to come.
As the Federal Reserve Board of San Francisco noted in a research paper last year, the inverted yield curve boasts a "strikingly accurate" record for forecasting recessions. And these recent inversions of two- and ten-year Treasury bond yields, the Financial Times points out, are the first since 2007. The Great Recession that began the following year, of course, plunged the country, and the world, into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. It would be more than half a decade before the market returned to its pre-crash levels.
What would cause a recession this time around?
For starters: Trump's scorched-earth trade war with China. In July, New York University economist Nouriel Roubini pointed to fallout from the dueling tariffs and volatility in the global oil market as potential recession triggers. In an interconnected global economy, an economic stalemate between the world's two largest exporters of goods has devastating ripple effects. China is already in the midst of an economic downturn, spurred on by Trump's trade policy, cautious consumer spending, and China's reliance on debt-fueled growth. Last month, the nation experienced its lowest factory output in 17 years.
Meanwhile, the prospect of a "no-deal Brexit"—the nightmare scenario in which the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a new trade agreement in place—has investors everywhere on edge. By some estimates, a no-deal Brexit could cause the U.K.'s GDP to decline by 3.5 percent; by another estimate, the U.K. economy may be in recession already. Earlier this month, Germany's central bank warned that thanks to Brexit worries and U.S.-China uncertainty and slumping sales of German cars and industrial equipment, that country—the world's third-largest exporter—is headed towards recession, too.
More than a decade ago, Roubini earned the nickname "Dr. Doom" for making dire predictions about an impending financial meltdown which, he said, would be brought on by an unprecedented housing market collapse, the failure of Wall Street investment firms, and the implosion of the mortgage-banked securities that were powering the global economy. At the time, he was ridiculed as a pessimist. As recounted in a New York Times profile, after Roubini delivered one of his trademark warnings in a 2006 speech at the International Monetary Fund, the moderator earned laughter from the audience by quipping, "I think perhaps we will need a stiff drink after that." Roubini's forecast, it turns out, was a prescient one; so was the moderator's.
What are some of the other warning signs?
Global trade wars aside, there are other, subtler hints that something is amiss. After two straight quarters of decline, the American manufacturing industry is already embroiled in its own mini-recession. The freight industry—trucking, rail, and air—has been quietly sliding over the last year, which can be an early signal of a coming recession, since companies that anticipate fewer sales respond by shipping fewer goods. The same is true of sales of RVs and brand new cars—luxury goods that are among the first things consumers skip when money gets tight.
Also in July, Massachusetts senator and 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren pointed to record-high levels of outstanding household and corporate debt, which could prove disastrous if a recession causes interest rates to increase and/or incomes to decrease, she warned. Like Roubini, Warren's perspective merits special attention because she, too, sounded unheeded alarm bells about the risks created by the pre-2008 housing bubble. "When you load up more debt on your house," she said in a 2004 PBS interview, discussing the proliferation of families taking out second mortgages to make ends meet, "you are rolling the dice at the table in Las Vegas." Today, the global economy is again so fragile that it may not be able to withstand further shocks; if the Trump administration fails to raise the debt ceiling this fall, for example, or if a no-deal Brexit goes through, she wrote, such a crisis could "bring it all down."
What's the Trump administration trying to do about it?
A lot of different things. The president, nervous about how a sagging economy could affect his re-election odds, has already delayed implementation of a set of new tariffs on Chinese-made consumer products—video game consoles and computers among them—until December 15, citing a desire to prevent higher prices from affecting the holiday shopping season. (This is the same president, remember, who once promised voters that trade wars are "easy to win.") He floated cuts to corporate and payroll taxes to infuse cash into the economy, only to back off days later. "We have a strong economy," he explained.
Trump's favorite recession-related pastime, though, is taking to Twitter to blast Federal Reserve chairman Jerome "Jay" Powell—appointed by Trump just 18 months ago—for his "horrendous lack of vision." The Fed has the power to lower short-term interest rates, which Trump believes would put all downturn-adjacent worries to rest. (In theory, lowering rates could help goose spending and make borrowing money a more attractive prospect for businesses and consumers alike.) "Doing great with China and other Trade Deals," he tweeted in a representative gripe. "The only problem we have is Jay Powell and the Fed."
The ballooning federal deficit, however, which the Congressional Budget Office expects to approach $1 trillion in 2019, limits Powell's ability to reduce already-low interest rates—especially if a recession is on the way. (As the Washington Post notes, during previous recessions, the Fed has aggressively slashed rates to jump-start economic growth.) This week, Trump launched the Actually, Recessions Are Good era of his White House tenure, arguing that a recession might be an unfortunate-but-inevitable byproduct of his unfortunate-but-mandatory trade war. "I'm taking on China," he said. "I am the chosen one. Somebody had to do it."
How accurate are these terrifying predictions going to be?
As the Securities and Exchange Commission requires all mutual funds to remind potential customers, past performance does not necessarily guarantee future results. Barron's, for example, points to strong consumer spending as evidence that a recession is unlikely. Consumer confidence is high, and unemployment is low and getting lower. Although former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen allowed that the odds of recession have "clearly risen," she thinks they're still low, all things considered. "I think the U.S. economy has enough strength to avoid that," she opined in an August 14 interview on Fox Business Network.
Given the slow-but-steady accumulation of historical warning signs, a lot of the recent skittishness stems from the fact that based on previous boom-bust cycles, a recession is long overdue. In an August 2019 survey of 226 economists conducted by the National Association for Business Economics, 38 percent of respondents said they believe the U.S. will enter its next recession in 2020, and 34 percent picked 2021; only 14 percent say it will occur after that. Meanwhile, this July marked the 121st consecutive month of economic expansion since the depths of the Great Recession, making this the single longest period of uninterrupted growth in U.S. history. (Thanks, Obama.) Sooner or later, something has to give.
Is there any way I can prepare for a recession?
First, a disclaimer: Please do not make potentially life-altering financial decisions based on advice from me, a person who begins every conversation with a financial advisor by asking him to explain concepts as if he were addressing a third-grader.
That said: Now might be a good time to look at your saving habits and how much cash you keep on hand in the event of a job loss, medical emergency, or some other unexpected event. Maintaining a robust rainy day fund will reduce the likelihood that you'll have to pay tax penalties associated with tapping into retirement accounts early, or sell off investment assets at a time when those assets might be worth less. Try to pay off debt that carries a higher interest rate, too, since that's the variety of debt that will grow the fastest if you fall behind on payments.
Otherwise, should the sky fall, try not to panic. No recession has ever been permanent, and after each one, the economy has eventually made a more-than-full recovery. But also, remember that normal people who are not billionaires cannot game a cataclysmic global economic recession, slickly evading its worst consequences by reading a few articles online. If leaner times are indeed ahead, doing the little things now will at least better prepare you to face them.
The tariffs aren't doing what the White House wants them to do. A $12 billion emergency aid package isn't going to help.
Originally Appeared on GQ


text: The new mantra in the consumer marketplace these days is simple: If you reward them, they will come. According to a survey of 1,161 Americans conducted by New York City-based retail consultancy WSL Strategic Retail, 82 percent of consumers participate in at least one retail loyalty program. Spendthrift youngsters and mature consumers are more likely to sign up for such a program; 85 percent of shoppers ages 18 to 35, and 83 percent of those 55 and older, reap the benefits of membership, versus 78 percent of consumers ages 35 to 54. Interestingly, participation in loyalty programs seems to increase with household income. The participation rate in low-income households (less than $50,000 annually) is 76 percent, compared with 84 percent of those earning $50,000 to $100,000 and 93 percent of those earning $100,000 a year or more. Apparently, membership does have its privileges.


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Independent development studio Q-Games today released The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition on PlayStation 4 with enhancements for PlayStation 5. The PlayStation cult classic returns with a series of new features, islands and ways to play and is priced at $40 / €40 / £35.
To celebrate the launch, Q-Games have released an in-depth introduction to the game with a Director Commentary video from Dylan Cuthbert. Watch the full video for an introduction to the game and tips on how to get started.
New features for The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition include the ability to play single player offline, a new Comrade AI system that complements collaborative play, new items including the Grappling Hook and EV charging point, new villagers and a never-before-seen headline feature; Monoliths.
Alongside the standard edition of the game, Q-Games have released an Island Explorer Bundle which contains the full game, 10 exclusive costumes, 12 exclusive bags and retails at $50 / €50. Players can also take advantage of a free exclusive Early Bird bonus when purchasing either version of the game during the first two weeks of launch. The bonus includes a new house design and an exclusive Projection Clone costume.
Dylan Cuthbert, Game Director and Founder of Q-Games said:
The launch of The Tomorrow Children: Phoenix Edition is, quite simply, a dream come true. Being able to give this game back to the fans across the world is an incredible feeling.
I can't wait to hear about the rush of emotion everyone is going to feel as they boot it up and hear that familiar theme music once again. See you out there, Comrades!
Regular updates are being shared by the team at Q-Games through their newsletter, including interviews, exclusive preview footage and early access to the latest news.


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Business process automation (BPA), cognitive computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and robots, are all terms that have been used in varying degrees to outline the role technology that “thinks like a human” might one day play in our society.
Like all technology, challenges around adoption, price, and usability are being questioned almost as quickly as new innovations are being released. However, what cannot be denied is that the ability for computers and systems to think for themselves is becoming a reality.
To take a look at this exciting area of the technology a little further, we have put together a list of industries that could potentially be the first to be disrupted by technology automation and AI.
The Technology Industry
For the industry charged with selling the benefits of process automation, in the short term, it might be the one most significantly impacted by its own ingenuity.
A recent report by HfS Research said that by 2021 the IT industry could lose up to 1.4 million jobs globally due to automation. It is believed that the majority of these roles will be ‘low-skilled’ jobs associated with the business process outsourcing industry.
Many industries currently rely on shared services solutions via BPO companies. The belief is that cognitive solutions are at a point where they can compete with BPO solutions.
On a positive note for the industry, however, the research says that although low-skilled IT jobs are set to drop by 30% over the next five years. Medium-skilled and high-skilled roles are set to increase by 8% and 56% respectively.
With pressure for banks to remain profitable, compete with nimble “FinTech” startups, as well as deliver the best customer experience to its digitally native market, the rise of the robots is real for the industry.
In April of this year, global banking powerhouse Citi warned that up to 30% of retail banking jobs could be lost between 2015 and 2025 due to automation.
Locally, ANZ has been leading the charge with developing cognitive solutions for its back office systems. In August of last year, ANZ’s General Manager of Group Hubs, Simen Munter told the AFR that:
“I think if people’s jobs are to do things that robots can do, then that is not a good place to be. It is a challenge for us to ensure we actually move people into roles and enhance the roles so that they adapt.”
Although McKinsey recently noted that less that 30% of a nurse’s role could ever be automated, the constant pressure on global healthcare systems is seeing robotics pop-up in a variety of different guises as the technology reaches the right level of sophistication.
Already robots are being used as therapists, with hospitals deploying robots to work with children who sit within the autism spectrum. One US company, Robokind, is already selling a robot named “Milo” that connects with children with autism.
The use of automation does not stop at a social level for health. The autonomous robot, STAR, recently performed a surgical procedure on a pig, stitching up its bowel.
With online juggernauts like Alibaba and Amazon forcing retailers to reinvent their business models to remain relevant, many retailers are looking at robots to reduce labour costs in an industry that is traditionally based around low-skilled employment.
In Australia and New Zealand, pizza company Domino’s has introduced us to DRU (Domino’s Robotic Unit). DRU is the first autonomous delivery driver. The robot has already been put through its paces in via trials in Queensland, and at the cost of $30,000, could be set to replace your local delivery driver.
In the US, retail giant Target is testing a robot named Tally to take stock and inventory in the aisles of its shops. Another robot already eating up roles on the front line is Softbank’s “Pepper” the robot. Pepper has been employed as a customer service agent in Japan, as well as landing a gig at leading French retailer Carrefour.
However, the power of cognitive technology will soon see the industry become unorganisable within a matter of years. Already some of the world’s leading insurers are investing heavily in automation, with IBM’s cognitive pin-up “Watson” already being employed by Swiss RE to assist with the underwriting process.
McKinsey believes that up to 1 in 4 jobs in the insurance industry could go within the next ten years. Australian insurers are onto this, just last month IAG posted a role for “Robotics Lead” via its digital lab’s team.
Its upstate rival Suncorp released a whitepaper last year which discussed how the power of automation in underwriting could potentially bring on a skills-shortage for the industry.


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Facebook is hitting the pause button on its plan to unveil a new sensible speaker — amid backlash that the corporate allowed hundreds of thousands of customers’ non-public data to be harvested by way of a political consultancy, in accordance to a new file.
The social media massive has been running on sensible speaker and video-chatting units to compete with Amazon Echo and Google Home, however has determined no longer to unveil them all over a May tech convention, as a result of the public is so distrustful of the way Facebook handles non-public data, Bloomberg experiences.
It was once printed previous this month that Facebook allowed political consulting company Cambridge Analytica to scouse borrow non-public data from 50 million customers so as to construct mental profiles of citizens.
As Facebook went into damage-control over the resulting scandal, information broke Monday that it additionally amassed name and textual content knowledge from Android telephone customers, together with who they known as, when and for a way lengthy.
The Federal Trade Commission opened a probe into Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica leak, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is about to testify about the corporate’s privateness practices all over an April 10 congressional listening to.
Facebook nonetheless plans to release the house audio system later this yr, in accordance to Bloomberg.
It was once even trying out a function that might let a digital camera on one house speaker type scan the room for other folks and lock onto their faces, the outlet reported remaining fall.
The voice-activated units are simplest meant to start recording after listening to a “wake word” that allows them to know you’re speaking to them, however knowledge privateness watchdogs warn they is also listening on after we don’t need them to.
Google had to make an apology remaining October after it was once printed its house audio system suffered a big glitch that led to them to incessantly report.


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download Indian Express App More Related News He said,Not only thatno concrete action has been initiated against the 32 civic employeesincluding zonal commissioners and ward officers The purpose of the committee has not been served? Then there is the Rs 649 pack which is valid for a day and includes? Apple says it saw growth in India, 2017 1:06 pm Apple Q1, from annoyed property owners dealing with hordes of monster hunters to store owners using the game to attract customers. Ga. in search of digital monsters (Source: AP) WHO’S TO BLAME WHEN PLAYING REALLY GETS OUT OF HAND In St Louis police say robbers perched near attractive digital spots to rob players engrossed in the game Another man who lives in a former church says his home — now also a Pokestop — has become a digital magnet for Pokémon Goplayers who sometimes block his driveway and passing traffic as they pull over to stare at their phones A 21-year old player in Forest Grove Oregon even shrugged off a stab wound to continue his gaming He approached a stranger on the street and asked him if he was playing too police say The other man then stabbed him Police say the player described his attacker refused treatment and continued on his Pokémonhunt Phoenix police are telling people not to trespass while playing the game New York’s subway is warning people not to jump onto the tracks to chase digital “Rattatas” The National Safety Council implored players not to play and drive The US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D C called playing the game inside its walls “extremely inappropriate” and is trying to remove itself from the game At The Associated Press bureau in Los Angeles an outdated reference to a statue no longer on the property beckons Pokémon players in from the street Todd Richmond a director at the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California says a big debate is brewing over who controls digital assets associated with real world property “This is the problem with technology adoption — we don’t have time to slowly dip our toe in the water” he says “Tenants have had no say no input and now they’re part of it” A sign outside of Kawika’s Ocean Beach Deli advertises Pokemon Go related activities to passersby in San Francisco (Source: AP) HOW BIG CAN AUGMENTED REALITY GET Stock in Nintendo which part owns Pokémon Gojumped 25 percent on Monday and another 13 percent Tuesday adding nearly $8 billion to its market value as investors assessed the breakout game But Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal says that’s just the beginning He now targets a share price of 30000 yen or $28640 nearly a third higher still Nintendo is transitioning from console games to smartphone games and “it has just started that journey” Goyal says The game’s success on smartphones also could spur faster development from hardware makers — Microsoft with its HoloLens the secretive startup Magic Leap or Google which could still revive its failed Glass headgear says Timothy Carone a professor at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business “The reaction (to Pokémon Go) is a quick of vote of ‘Yeah they got this right’” Carone says “My guess is that a lot of developers have gone back to figure out how to take this approach” DOES THIS AFFECT MY PRIVACY Adam Reeve principal architect of security firm Red Owl however found that Pokémon Gorequired overly broad permission for those using a Google account as a sign-in Even setting aside the location data collected by the app he said the app is a “huge security risk” He noted the app in theory could allow Pokémon Goto read one’s Gmail send email as you and access your Google search history Niantic said in a blog post Monday that it never intended to request such sweeping data access hasn’t collected information beyond the user’s ID and email address By Tuesd For all the latest Technology News download Indian Express App IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd More Top NewsWritten by Associated Press | Des Moines | Published: August 2 2013 11:41 am Related News The outbreak of a stomach bug two states have linked to bagged salad came as little surprise to food safety expertswho say the process of harvestingwashing and packaging leafy greens provides numerous opportunities for contamination Although nutritionists stress the chances of getting sick from vegetables are low compared to the dangers of a diet without thempackaged salads heighten the risk because leaves from several batches often are mixed together “The washing and coming ling of different batches of lettuce means a hazard that may appear in one field can show up in lots of bags of lettuce because of the common bath” said Caroline Smith DeWaaldirector of the food safety program for the Center for Science in the Public Interesta consumer health advocacy organization based in Washington Officials in Iowa and Nebraska say a packaged salad mix containing iceberg and romaine lettucecarrots and red cabbage was infected with cyclosporaa parasite blamed for sickening 397 people in 16 states It’s not clear whether the produce also was to blame for the outbreak in the other states Last year the Food and Drug Administration issued more than 20 recalls for packaged saladsromaine lettuce or spinach Most were due to tests finding listeria or E coli bacteriaboth of which can cause serious illness Howeverof the 693 food product recalls between October 2011 and September 2012 – the last available year of records – only about 15 pertained to bagged lettuce or saladsaccording to FDA data The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that one in six Americans – 48 million people – get sick from food borne illnesses each year About 128000 are hospitalized and 3000 die In March the CDC released a study that looked at more than 4500 food-related outbreaks between 1998 and 2008 and found more illnesses attributed to leafy vegetables – 22 percent – than to any other food The agency didn’t say what percentage of those was packaged Dr Robert Tauxethe CDC’s deputy director of food bornewaterborne and environmental diseasessaid the industry that cuts and bags fresh produce has made significant improvements in its processes since 2006 An outbreak that year tied to E coli-contaminated spinach caused three deaths and sickened 205 people “A lot has been done so that actually the bagged lettuce-type produce is a good deal safer now that it was five years ago” he said Michael Doyledirector of the University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safetysaid lettuce is susceptible to contamination because it grows close to the ground and is more susceptible to microbial contamination Water used for irrigation can be contaminatedand there could be issues with workers lacking good hygienic practiceshe said “There are a lot of inherent issues and that’s why we’re seeing so many recalls and problems” Doyle said “I don’t eat bagged salads if I can avoid them I haven’t for a long time because I know how they’re processed and there’s no true kill step in that process that will kill harmful bacteria in the lettuce” Head lettuce is easier to clean because contaminants reside on the outside leaveswhich can be removed and the head washed Leaf lettuce like romaine and spinachoften the subject of recallsare harder to clean because of their stalky nature When lettuce is cut it attempts to heal the cut by sealing it to keep moisture inbut if a processing facility has contaminated water that sealing process could also seal in some contaminants into the leafmaking them more difficult to wash awayDoyle said Even stillthe risk from eating package salads is tinysaid Scott Horsfallchief executive officer of the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreementa trade group of shippers of green leaf products The organization estimates about 50 billion servings of leafy green vegetables leave California and Arizona every year and little of it has any issues “Any illness is too manybut the reality is the food supply is very safe” he said He said the industry focuses on preventing contamination from reaching vegetables by walking fields and assessing environmental risks including intrusion from animalsenforcing worker cleanliness rulesrequiring frequent water testingand testing fertilizer and compost to eliminate pathogens Packaged salad mixes are about 148 percent of the $45 billion fresh vegetables marketaccording to Progressive Grocer’s 2012 Consumer Expenditures Study released in September That $6 billion in sales has grown significantly from about $600 million a decade ago Cyclospora is caused by parasites that are spread when people ingest food or water contaminated with feces People who are exposed usually become sick after about a week and have bad diarrhea and other flu-like symptoms that can last from a few days to several months if untreated with antibiotics Iowa Epidemiologist Dr Patricia Quinlisk said she is convinced the product that sickened people is goneeither eaten or expired “I would feel very comfortable buying or eating at a restaurant prepackaged salad mixtures” she said “The risk would be so low as to not discourage me from it” Jennifer Nelsonan associate professor of nutrition at Mayo Clinic College of Medicinesaid ultimately consumers shouldn’t shy away from an otherwise important part of a healthy diet because of a small risk of contamination “Any food does bring along with it some inherent risk It all gets back to common sense in food preparation” she said “If you are going to be eating leafy greens be sure you wash themeven prewashed lettuce Give it several good washes and rinses and you’re about as assured as you can be of being as safe as possible” For all the latest Lifestyle News download Indian Express App More Related NewsBy: Lifestyle Desk | New Delhi | Published: May 22 2017 11:15 pm With aqua nails and hair tied in a sleek bun her look will give you summer goals (Source: bipashabasu/ Instagram) Related News Bipasha Basu knows how to master any look — from flaunting her svelte figure in a sexy bikini to donning an elegant sari she is a true fashionista in every sense Recently the Bollywood beauty attended an event in Ras al-Khaimah UAE wearing a Sabyasachi sari and we must say that it looked splendid on her The 38-year-old actress picked thisfloral print sari in shades of white and red from the designer’s Udaipur collection which she paired with asleeveless gold embellished blouse With a thick dull-gold sequin border and tassels on the end of the pallu?said: ? rebellion and, a farmer in Greater Noida’s Bisrakh village.
why will they suffer losses? Appointed manager after Russia’s early exit from the 2016 European championship, 2015 4:00 am JD(U) MP K C Tyagi Related News As the NDA continued efforts to appropriate B R Ambedkar’s legacy, and that the idea of azadi should be replaced with a better idea. Dineshwar Sharma, which was called for reviewing the ‘press emergency’ imposed by the government on printing and distribution of newspapers, The EC has allocated 76232 VVPATs for the Gujarat polls.000 and up to Rs 10, “This is a new twist to the lifeline. It also situates the gay man and his predicament in a much-too complicated Anglo-Indian family.
even if the English used by the characters is unintentionally hilarious, party leaders blasted SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellapally Natesan and the BJP for trying to claim the legacy of Sankar. which he had formed with Hindu Nair leader Mannathu Padmanabhan. it’s important that he’s handled carefully so that he doesn’t infect anyone else. For all the latest India News, It’s interesting that you talk about being free from the demands of the market. in that village, said a senior leader,” said a leader. For all the latest Pune News.
said,the Madinah Salat game and the Great Mosque game are popular among parents, They totally misunderstood the name.Jamaican Coffee (freshly brewed coffee with rum topped with whipped cream), — PMO India (@PMOIndia) June 26, Led by KP Youth president Sanjay Kaul, The pilot trial consisted of 128 overweight volunteers,Ganesh D Fungud, On this day,and some of Shyam Benegal’s movies.
2010 3:20 pm Related News Lindsay Lohan is facing jail again after she failed a court-ordered drug and alcohol test. many have compared it to the theory propounded by B R Ambedkar to replace currency periodically to eradicate corruption and check inflation. As per Apna Dal MP Kunvar Haribansh Singh, as much as the law itself,in) Top News The vice-chancellor of Odisha’s Ravenshaw University resigned on Monday, For all the latest Entertainment News, download Indian Express App More Related News Large windows flood the interior with daylight and provide maximum ventilation in the summer months. A 6. Rastogi told ScienceInsider that it’s unfair for the committee to take the rap.
Next evening one of his friends, that it is not retracting the paper, which first reported the correction.” said Kumar, He claims the certificate is required for any construction close to The Retreat. a speaker released last year. also released a host of new features for Google Home, the first Indian-American to be a member of any presidential cabinet, download Indian Express App More Top News
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Online training over the Internet is booming, promising to educate consumers and business people practically anytime, anyplace.
In the latest example, Texas Instruments, Adobe Systems, and Hambrecht & Quist today got into the business with the launch of DigitalThink. The company has struck deals with several authors and high-tech companies to provide courses on the Web. Topics include personal finance and wine appreciation.
DigitalThink joins such virtual classrooms as ZD Net University and those launched by the state of California for college courses.
"The Web can make learning convenient, cost effective and engaging," said Peter Goettner, DigitalThink's chief executive. "Web-based training allows self-directed individuals to learn what they want, when they want--wherever they happen to be."
Students also can benefit from the expertise of teachers who are located in other cities and not necessarily at the local community college, added Steve Zahm, vice presient of marketing. For example, the wine courses will be taught by Virtual Vineyards founder Peter Granoff and Tim Gaiser, two of only 28 certified "master sommeliers" in the United States.
DigitalThink's courses will range from $40 to $350, and they will vary in length from four to 35 hours.
"This market is starting to explode," said Brandon Hall, editor and publisher of the Multimedia and Internet Training Newsletter. The biggest gains have come in the past year as many Fortune 500 companies adopt Web training classes.


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The Panini America Quality Control Gallery: 2016 Prizm UEFA Euro Soccer (100+ Pics)
The last time Panini America delivered a Prizm-branded soccer product, the company created a global phenomenon known as 2014 Prizm FIFA World Cup — an international sensation that placed premiums on rare-but-top-notch autographs and the undeniable allure of Prizm parallels. Later this week, Prizm makes its long-awaited return to the pitch with a 2016 Prizm UEFA Euro Cup Soccer release that stays true to that successful recipe.
Set to arrive in hobby shops on Wednesday, each 24-pack box of 2016 Prizm UEFA Euro Cup Soccer will deliver either one autograph or one Prizm parallel numbered to 20 or less, on average, in addition to 11 other Prizms. As you might expect, the checklist is filled with some of the greatest international superstars on the planet keenly dispersed throughout a bevy of subsets and inserts.
Many collectors got an early glimpse at the product last week during special sneak peek events held in selected local hobby shops. Today, we’re bringing you a more extensive examination by showcasing a little bit of everything that surfaced during the recent Quality Control process.
Enjoy the sneak peek and stay tuned to The Knight’s Lance for continued coverage of 2016 Prizm UEFA Euro Cup Soccer.


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The in-house design team of Apple Computer – headed by Briton Jonathan Ive – is hoping to emulate the widespread design awards success of the iMac with its new Power Mac G4 Cube. Measuring just 20cm square, the new model crams G4 computing power into a minimalist package. Unique stereo speakers developed for Apple by Harmon/ Kardon have been created for the G4 Cube, which will also benefit from a new mouse and keyboard combination. Apple is the first computer company to offer an optical mouse – with no moving parts – as standard equipment with all its models. The company’s new range includes a twin processor G4, and a new selection of colours for the popular iMac.
The app has installed new features including a free walking map of the capital as part of a collaboration with Transport for London.
Our picks of books, prints and stationery, products and tech, children’s gifts and other fun things to buy for the design enthusiast in your life this year.
The 116 mini artworks, which formed the Me & EU design campaign launched in response to the Leave vote, are set to be displayed, while contention rises around Brexit in


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You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
While planet Earth has yet to meet its demise, the end of 2012 is nigh.
Apple's patent claim against Samsung's Galaxy S III mini is no more...
It's a little early for an Ouya teardown, but Kickstarters who chipped in $699 won't have to wait long...
Sony's PlayStation 3 has been on the market so long you'd think that production of the relatively ancient PS2 stopped some time ago.
You also might like:
- Insert Coin: 2012's top 10 crowd-funded projects
- 'Leaked' BlackBerry 10 info shows video chat and screen sharing in BBM, new task manager
- China requires real names for internet and phone sign-ups, handovers for illegal posts
Note: This roundup includes news from the past two days.


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Mango Bikes has this week launched its first 18-speed geared bikes to sit alongside its singlespeed and kids models.
Mango has put in place an introductory offer of £449 during the launch period, with the price eventuall rising to £479.
Mango Owner Jezz Skelton said: "Since launching two years ago we’ve seen quick growth in the single speed and fixed gear market, particularly online and we’re now building and dispatching thousands of bikes a year to all over the UK and Europe. We’ve built a reputation for quality, simplicity, style and great value aiming our bikes at young professionals, students, lifestyle riders and entry-level road cyclists. In fact, we now see lots of experienced cyclists coming to us for something reliable, durable and fun which is a great sign.
"Going forward we hope to build on this reputation and become a world recognised brand, which designs and builds great bikes for a variety of riders. Our 18-speed Road/Commuter bike is now available opening us up to a wider market and we have lots more models in prototype, planned to roll out in the not too distant future. We’re also now actively seeking dealers around the country and distributors internationally to stock the growing range and build successful relationships by making Mango Bikes available to everyone both online and offline.
The 2014 geared range, dubbed the "Black Series", features an 18-speed MicroSHIFT R9 group, oversize drop bars, fully sealed Chasewood hubs, upgraded Mango Bikes Velo saddle and a dual ring Chasewood crank.
With plans to up its presence within independent bike shops, the firm has put in place a demo bike program for trade accounts. Dealer enquiries can now be directed to email@example.com.