There's a new kid on the Hooters block
Taking a page from the Hooters model, a nascent coffee chain called Bottoms Up Espresso is adding a little spice to the java business.
In case you were unfamiliar with it (and Disclosures had to look it up), Hooters is an international restaurant chain known for its female servers sporting short shorts and tight t-shirts bearing the motto, "Delightfully tacky, yet unrefined." At the time of writing, the company could not be reached to explain what the origin of the name "Hooters" is.
The drive-thru Bottoms Up outlets are manned (or should that be womanned?) by servers wearing uniforms that appear to be a cross between bikinis and lingerie. The company said it has no plans to enter the sit-down model in a market segment Entrepreneur refers to as "breastaurants."
The braistas – sorry, I meant baristas – serve espressos with names such as Blonde Bombshell, The Big O and at least one that is absolutely unprintable.
The chain may well prove to be a success unless Hooters manages to up its coffee game.
Canada's a good place to live for vodka lovers
How much does it cost to live in any given country?
Housing expenses often prove a convenient metric for the cost of living, as a roof over one's head is the biggest expense in most developed countries. A more whimsical yardstick is the Big Mac index – what percentage of disposable income will set someone back for a burger.
Now Bank of America Merrill Lynch is offering an even more offbeat measurement: the affordability of 10 litres of Smirnoff Red vodka.
According to Business Insider, the bank has discovered that 10 litres of Smirnoff Red is the least affordable in Venezuela, at 14.9 per cent of disposable income, while it takes the smallest bite out of pockets in the U.S., Japan, and Switzerland at 0.5 per cent of disposable income.
And good news for Canadian tipplers (or guzzlers), too: It'll cost you just 1.1 per cent.
Cheers.
Is Starboard going overboard?
Activist hedge fund Starboard Value is at it again.
After wresting control of Darden Restaurants Inc. – owner of Olive Garden – with just 10 per cent of its shares, the fund put costs at the Italian food restaurants under the microscope.
In a much-mocked move last fall, Starboard noted in a filing with the SEC that "servers will bring an excess of bread sticks significantly outnumbering the number of guests."
Ten years ago, "servers placed one bread stick per guest plus one bread stick for the table," the document said. But "57 per cent of the time, servers do not follow the bread stick procedure and place too many bread sticks on the table, leading to massive waste."
Starboard is continuing to look for ways to prune costs, poring over "every single invoice." Much to its chagrin, it has discovered that many outlets have been washing carpets twice a month. Bloomberg reports.
"There's a protocol that you clean carpets once a month," explained Starboard-installed CEO Gene Lee in an earnings conference call on Tuesday. "If you do it more than that, you end up actually destroying the carpet."
So while you may notice a few more stains next time you eat at an Olive Garden, the International Carpet Preservation Society will be well pleased by the new policy.
No sour grapes for pair of raisin farmers
California raisin farmers Marvin and Laura Horne have emerged victorious at the U.S. Supreme Court in a battle against Uncle Sam that has dragged on for a decade.
America's National Raisin Reserve (we're not making this up, honestly), a federal program established in 1949, requires producers to hand over, without compensation, a portion of their crop annually to help keep a floor under prices.
The Hornes won the first round at the court in 2013, and the case was again heard in April, as Disclosures reported.
On Monday the court ruled in their favour, in an 8-1 decision decreeing that the government had taken property without compensation in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court, said Washington should withdraw fines and penalties imposed on the Hornes totalling more than $680,000 (U.S.).
"No more will they take our raisins and not pay for them," a triumphant Marvin Horne declared in an interview with Reuters.
The case has had its lighter moments, including a quip by Justice Clarence Thomas about a "fruitless exercise," and an exchange with Justice Elena Kagan and lawyer Michael McConnell, who made a point by stating that "raisins are not wild animals, even if they're dancing."
Snack rage incident will cost dearly
You may recall the outburst on a Korean Air flight last December that received worldwide media attention when the chairman's daughter went ballistic on a flight attendant for serving nuts in a bag rather than on a silver tray.
Now another salty-snack-induced incident has struck the airline industry, this time on a United Airlines flight, as London's Daily Telegraph reports.
The Rome-to-Chicago flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Belfast last Saturday after a "potential security risk" posed by a passenger who stood up shortly after takeoff and aggressively demanded nuts or crackers, and otherwise behaved erratically.
After being told by a flight attendant that he would have to wait and see if there was enough to go around, the man allegedly shouted, "I can have as much nuts and crackers as I [expletive] want!"
Californian Jeremiah Mathis Thede was deemed a flight risk (no pun intended) and refused bail when he appeared appeared in Magistrates' Court in Northern Ireland on Monday, charged with endangering the safety of the aircraft, disruptive behaviour on board and common assault.
The unscheduled stop, made after the plane dumped 50,000 litres of fuel, stranded 282 passengers at the airport for almost 24 hours, leaving many to sleep on the airport floors.
The cost of Mr. Thede going nuts (or going crackers, if you like) on board is expected to set United Airlines back more than $580,000 (U.S.).