Once the king of the combo meal, burgers are facing stiff competition from a longtime menu rival: fried chicken. Last year, chains like Raising Cane’s and Wingstop enjoyed double-digit jumps in sales as they outperformed every other restaurant category by focusing on chicken tenders and nuggets. Now McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and even Taco Bell are investing more in poultry. Experts say younger consumers prefer chicken, partly because they see it as a healthier alternative to red meat—even when it’s deep fried. Continue reading

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Walk down the snack aisle of your local grocery store and you’ll likely be barraged with all sorts of colors: bright blue on packages of Oreo cookies, canary yellow for Keebler products, and so on. The vast majority of brands purchase these bold hues from a company called Pantone, a global powerhouse that sells standardized recipes for mixing colors. The video below takes an extensive look at how Pantone manages to earn millions for its color combinations without ever selling Continue reading

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April 18, 2025

Once considered to be products exclusively made for children, plush toy brands like Jellycat, Build-A-Bear, and Squishmallows are now seeing significant sales from millennial and Gen Z buyers. In 2024, more than 20 percent of all plush toy sales were made by adults purchasing for themselves. Post-pandemic stress, economic uncertainty, and the rise of self-care culture have all contributed to this shift. Plush toys are no longer framed as childish; instead, many see them as tools for comfort, emotional regulation, Continue reading

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April 4, 2025

In 1995, Costco took a big risk by creating its own private label, Kirkland Signature, to compete against name brands in numerous product categories. As this video explains, though, the warehouse retailer’s gamble paid off handsomely. Kirkland earned more than $86 billion in sales last year, and now other retailers are following Costco’s lead by expanding their own private labels. 

Questions:

  1. What are some advantages that private label products give to retailers? What are some drawbacks?  
  2. Why did Continue reading
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March 6, 2025

Hand sanitizer is one of the products that saw a dramatic spike in consumer demand during the pandemic, with sales peaking at $52 million each week in July 2020. The increased demand should have led to big business for Andrea Lisbona, who moved to the U.S. in 2018 to launch her hand sanitizer brand called Touchland. But the pandemic also upended the global supply chain, which meant she could not get the packaging and materials she needed to ship her Continue reading

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December 13, 2024

In the days before online shopping, catalogs were a common way to purchase holiday gifts without having to go to a store as customers placed and received their orders directly through the mail. Sears issued the first holiday edition of its popular catalog in 1933 selling toys like a Mickey Mouse watch, a Lionel electric train set, and live singing canaries. In 1968, the catalog grew to more than 600 pages, including 225 pages of toys. Many companies relied on Continue reading

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December 6, 2024

The luxury car brand Jaguar started in England in 1922 as a shop that built sidecars for motorcycles. When the British government stopped rationing steel at the end of World War II, the company was then able to purchase enough supplies to produce eye-catching sports cars. Flashy Jaguar vehicles went on to dominate international motorsport in the 1950s, giving the brand a global reputation as athletic and glamorous. But even as Jaguar grew to become the preferred automaker of the Continue reading

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December 4, 2024

Since the late 1980s, Americans have marked the day after Thanksgiving as Black Friday, the “official” start of the holiday sale season and the busiest shopping day of the year. Stores like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy used to draw huge crowds by offering massive discounts to the first shoppers to come through the doors. As time passed and e-commerce became more common, though, the one-day sales bonanza expanded to include online deals. Now Amazon is the undisputed champion of Continue reading

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November 22, 2024

In the 1980s, the casual restaurant chain TGI Fridays skyrocketed to success thanks to its singles-bar atmosphere and talented bartenders who performed tricks while pouring drinks. As the company expanded, however, it rebranded into a family restaurant, starting a long decline for the once-promising brand. This video looks at the rise and fall of TGI Friday’s, which finally filed for bankruptcy this month after a long search for a savior.

Questions:

  1. How did TGI Friday’s change after it rebranded from Continue reading
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November 19, 2024

Hormel makes 71 different kinds of pepperoni. In addition to the widely popular original pepperoni slices, grocery shoppers can also choose diced, thick-sliced, mini-sliced, low-sodium, low-fat, turkey pepperoni, and more. The spin-offs may not sell as well as the original, but they do help to attract customer attention for the overall brand. More products mean more shelf space at stores, which gives customers more opportunities to find and buy Hormel products. The company also hoped this strategy would make shoppers Continue reading

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