Business oddities: Cadbury village going to hell in a handbasket

A meltdown in chocolate town

The sober citizens of a leafy English village are up in arms.

Bournville, near Birmingham, was founded in 1879 by the Cadbury family to provide housing for workers at its chocolate factory. At the behest of teetotalling family patriarch George Cadbury, the village has never had a pub or store selling alcohol.

But on Wednesday, that all changed when Birmingham city council granted a licence to a convenience store owner to sell booze from his shop, the Birmingham Mail reports. Owner Kamal Sharma says business has dropped off since U.S.-based Mondelez bought Cadbury in 2010 and shuttered the factory, and that selling alcohol was the only way he could keep his business afloat.

Not everyone is happy about it. Local councillor Rob Sealey told the newspaper the decision is "catastrophic," adding "There will be a rise in anti-social behaviour in the area now… it is a devastating blow for residents."

One of the conditions of the licence is that Mr. Sharma must put up a sign telling customers not to drink outside the premises. (This is England, remember, so people have to be reminded about that.)

Yep, there's an app for that

It can be a bit cumbersome fiddling with your mobile device every day to find a really good quote from Jane Austen.

Well, rejoice, my friend, the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, England, has addressed your quandary with the launch of a new app that provides a different pearl of wisdom from Jane for each day of the year.

"People are always interested in her quotes. They're always witty, lively, succinct and very perceptive," said David Baldock, the centre's director, in an interview with The Guardian. In addition to its mission of spreading the gospel of the much venerated author, Mr. Baldock hopes the app will also marshal fans to its museum, digital magazine and, of course, its gift shop.

Seems Jane is pretty big business, offering a wide range of "Lovely Jane Austen-inspired items for your home," including the "I [Heart] Mr. Darcy" tote bag, Jane Austen cookie cutter or – if you really want to splash out – the Jane Austen action figure. Yours for just $34.20 (plus shipping).

Nobel – but no flight

You may be a Nobel Prize winner, but United Airlines is not impressed.

Robert Shiller, the distinguished Yale economist, discovered that when he got the boot from an overbooked United Airlines flight from Denver to Aspen last Thursday.

Ironically, it all came down to market forces. When no passengers took up an offer of a cash reward to get off the plane, the carrier collared those who paid the least for their flight. Mr. Shiller and his wife had booked their seats through a travel website.

Mr. Shiller's similarly famed colleague, Nouriel Roubini, let rip on the airline, tweeting out that "United Airlines is a bunch of idiots."

"Apparently, our fare was the lowest," Virginia Shiller told MarketWatch. "I will never do that again."

You think your commute is long?

Delayed trains, snarled traffic and stalled streetcars are just a few of the frustrating things that make the journey to work that much longer. Well, quit grumbling. For a new breed of commuters, that's small potatoes, as Quartz reports.

An increasing number of executives are making long-haul commutes, such as JetBlue Airways founder David Neeleman, who also launched the Sao Paulo-based airline Azul. Mr. Neeleman doesn't want to uproot his family, and so takes the 10-hour flight from his home in Connecticut on Sunday nights and returns on Thursdays.

Toronto-based Erik Church, the COO of the company that owns 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, flies to Vancouver on Sunday or Monday and heads home on Thursday. But he never throws out the stalled streetcar excuse for showing up late. "I promised my colleagues I will never use my commute as a reason for why I can't make a meeting."

He has it easy compared with Lior Krolewicz, who founded a Los Angeles-based marketing consultancy. Living in Tel Aviv, Mr. Krolewicz runs his company on Los Angeles time, meaning he has a sort of virtual commute: He heads to work at 7:00 p.m. Tel Aviv time, eats lunch at midnight, and calls it a day at 7:00 a.m.

So how's it working out for him?

"I am all screwed up and it's not something your body gets used to," he told Quartz. "My friends think I'm crazy and my wife gets irritated with my schedule. Especially when she's in the house during the day and I'm sleeping."