-
As online grocery shopping soars, Albertsons experiments with automated pickup kiosks
A Jewel-Osco store in Chicago is the first grocery in the nation to pilot an automated pickup kiosk, one of numerous investments grocers are making to prepare for a future of more online shopping. The kiosk, located in the store parking lot, is meant to offer a convenient and contact-free option for online shoppers to collect their groceries. Shoppers are asked to select a two-hour pickup window, and when they arrive they scan a code and their items are delivered robotically, according to the company. Employees shop the store to fill customers’ orders and put them into the kiosk for pickup. Th...
Chicago Tribune
-
Fearful US consumers await Biden stimulus injection
Washington (AFP) - President-elect Joe Biden's stimulus plan could spur hesitant US consumers to start spending again, analysts said Friday, amid reports of falling sales in December. But they warned the vast package may not be enough to overcome surging coronavirus cases. Biden on Thursday unveiled a $1.9 trillion package aimed at getting the world's largest economy back on its feet after business shutdowns to stop Covid-19 caused a massive downturn in 2020. The package, dubbed the American Rescue Plan, would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, fund struggling state and local governments, ...
AFP
-
E-commerce soars, restaurants suffer as virus hits 2020 US retail sales
Washington (AFP) - The coronavirus pandemic upended shopping habits in the United States in 2020, government data showed Friday, pushing customers towards online outlets but keeping them away from restaurants and electronics stores. The Commerce Department said US retail sales in the final month of 2020 were up only 2.9 percent from last year, weaker than the 5.8 percent growth seen from December 2018 as stores across the world's largest economy struggled with its massive Covid-19 outbreak. Month-on-month sales also fell by a worse-than-expected 0.7 percent in December and November's data was ...
AFP
-
Will jars of salad sell at a doughnut shop? Farmer’s Fridge is trying that at Dunkin’
Farmer’s Fridge, best known for selling jars of fresh salads out of vending machines, is now hawking its healthy fare through an unlikely partner: doughnut titan Dunkin’. Chicago-based Farmer’s Fridge this week launched a pilot with three local Dunkin’ restaurants, which for the next three months will carry a selection of its salads, grain bowls and desserts on their menus. The partnership is Farmer’s Fridge’s first with a fast-casual restaurant and furthers its mission to “make fresh, healthy food as accessible as a candy bar,” said founder and CEO Luke Saunders. He hopes for a wider rollout....
Chicago Tribune
-
Commentary: A relic of the home-video era, Family Video is going away almost before we even knew it existed
CHICAGO — The most surprising thing about the news last week that Family Video will close its 250-store chain is that there still existed a 250-store video-rental business. For those of us in areas favored with decent Wi-Fi, those fee-based movie lending libraries were relics of another era, like cellphones that fold in half and speakers that plug into your amplifier rather than a wall outlet. Such stores were consigned to the memory bin, alongside half-completed free-rental punch cards, the pink copies of membership agreements more intricate than your apartment lease, and too many hasty trips...
Chicago Tribune
-
Gap closing second store on Chicago's Magnificent Mile
The Gap on Wednesday said it is permanently closing its Water Tower Place store, becoming the chain’s second exit on Chicago’s famed Magnificent Mile. Confirmation that the store, which has been shuttered for months because of the coronavirus pandemic, will not reopen came just one day after Macy’s announced plans to leave its spot in the North Michigan Avenue mall. Gap earlier announced plans to close its two-story flagship five blocks south on Michigan Avenue at the end of January. “As part of our company strategy to adapt to the changing needs of our customer and growth of our online busine...
Chicago Tribune
-
Family Video outlasted Blockbuster. But DVD rental chain finally closing its 250 stores and ending its long run
Family Video, the suburban Chicago-based video rental chain that outlasted Blockbuster, VHS tapes and the “be kind rewind” mantra, is closing its stores and calling it quits after 42 years. The chain, which survived the advent of online video by locating its bricks-and-mortar stores and DVD rental offerings in small towns across the Midwest, announced Monday that its business had fallen victim to the pandemic. “The impact of COVID-19, not only in foot traffic but also in the lack of movie releases, pushed us to the end of an era,” said Keith Hoogland, CEO of Highland Ventures, the Glenview-bas...
Chicago Tribune
-
Jerry Zezima: Supermarket driving test
When you are my age (old enough to know better), your driving skills have probably diminished so much that you can barely operate the simplest of vehicles. I refer, of course, to shopping carts. Since I am the designated cart driver when I go grocery shopping with my wife, Sue, I have devised a test to help you safely navigate your local supermarket. I came up with the idea when Sue and I went shopping recently and encountered so many rude, reckless and maddeningly clueless cart operators that they all should have been pulled over, given a hefty ticket and had their driver’s licenses suspended...
Tribune News Service
-
NYC’s prohibition past detailed in new book
“Prohibition New York City: Speakeasy Queen Texas Guinan, Blind Pigs, Drag Balls & More” by David Rosen; (192 pages, $21.99) ——— Last call. On Jan. 17, 1920, Prohibition became a sobering reality. Bars were padlocked, liquor stores shuttered, and thirsty Americans sent home. Beer banned, vodka, verboten; the teetotalers had finally won. The party was over, they proudly proclaimed. They didn’t realize it was just beginning. After a World War, a pandemic, and political upheaval at home and abroad, not everyone was ready to go on the wagon. Plenty of people still wanted a stiff drink and a bit of...
New York Daily News
-
Illinois weed sales on pace to top $1 billion in year one of recreational sales, with plenty of room to grow
CHICAGO – The year 2020 dawned with thousands of people lined up, some overnight, waiting to be among the first to buy legal recreational marijuana in Illinois. As the long, strange year comes to an end, people are lined up at food banks, to get coronavirus nasal swabs and in some cases, to be among the first to receive a vaccine that may mark the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. And people are still buying weed. Lots of it. Despite the massive economic disruption wrought by the pandemic, 80 recreational cannabis dispensaries have opened in Illinois and business is on pace to top...
Chicago Tribune
- More