Meeting consumer needs is capitalism

Restaurants remove dining rooms to speed off-site food frenzy

Hilary Russ

3 MIN READ

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Restaurants are doing away with dining rooms as consumers increasingly order food deliveries through apps such as Uber Technologies Inc’s Uber Eats and GrubHub Inc. 

Workers prepare orders in the kitchen at a Chopt Creative Salad Co., location in midtown Manhattan, in New York City, U.S., November 12, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The newest Chopt Creative Salad Co location, which opened Tuesday in New York, is unlike any of the chain’s other 61 sites. It has no cash registers or tables for customers. 

Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A Inc has similar sites in Nashville and Louisville, where customers order and prepay online with the option for delivery or pickup. 

Chick-fil-A is also trying something different, opening three pilot “delivery kitchens” this year - in Chicago, Los Angeles, and one near San Francisco that is run by delivery platform DoorDash Inc. 

At those sites, the chicken chain shares kitchens with other restaurants to prepare food for delivery only. 

Off-premise digital orders are a major growth area for fast-food and fast-casual chains. More are turning to these so-called dark, virtual or ghost kitchens, which can also save labor and real estate costs. 

Wendy’s Co said during its Oct. 11 investor day it aimed to open two “dark kitchens” by year’s end in high-delivery markets. Its franchisee in the Dominican Republic opened one there last month. 

A Wendy’s spokeswoman said she could not yet disclose locations for its next dark kitchens. 

Some delivery-only locations by startups, independents and celebrity chefs in New York and San Francisco have flopped in recent years. 

But in January, Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick’s CloudKitchens got a $400 million investment from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, according to a source familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal first reported the investment last week. 

CloudKitchens, founded in 2016 and based in Los Angeles, builds shared kitchens for delivery-only restaurants to rent. It did not respond to a request for comment. 

At the new Chopt location in New York, shelves hold salads ready for pick up, while delivery workers shuttle other orders through the front door. Greeters inside help customers place orders. 

In the kitchen, a central prep table stocked with ingredients is flanked by a row of employees on each side who assemble orders. 

Slideshow (14 Images)

Privately held Chopt offered pick-up and delivery orders soon after it opened 18 years ago, but today, those orders make up nearly half of its business at larger locations, said Chief Marketing Officer Julie Atkinson. 

“We are sensing a really huge customer need for speed, for convenience,” she said. “We’re hopeful that this concept really raises the bar on customer convenience.” 

Connecticut-based private equity firm L Catterton and consumer company The Hain Celestial Group Inc invested an undisclosed amount of money in Chopt in 2015. 

On Nov. 5, Starbucks Corp opened its first Starbucks Pickup location in the United States for online orders. The midtown Manhattan location is similar to some new Starbucks stores in China, where digital ordering and delivery is more common. 

Reporting by Hilary Russ; Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Dubai and Roselle Chen in New York; Editing by Richard Chang

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The ordinary people making the world more right-wing...anything to the right of Marx is "right wing"

The ordinary people making the world more right-wing

By Prof Richard YoungsCarnegie Europe

• 5 November 2018

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Around the world, conservative groups have been gaining influence, bolstering the power of right-wing leaders. It is a trend driven not only by older generations but also by the young.

The rapid rise of Brazil's new far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro may have surprised some observers but it did not come out of thin air. His success follows years of support from powerful social movements. 

Such groups have increasingly found a voice in countries from Poland to Thailand to India - their influence coming from ordinary people rather than politicians.

Their rise is a crucial part of the turn towards more conservative politics in many countries around the world over the past few years. 

Often, right-wing populism is seen as being brought about by new political parties or charismatic leaders. Think of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban - who presents himself as the defender of his country and Europe against Muslim migrants.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionNationalist rallies have been held in the centre of Ukraine's capital, Kiev

But the reality is that the role of grassroots movements is often central.

This has been brought about by what is often described as "civil society" - citizens' groups or organisations with a particular aim, whether that's saving a school from closure or overthrowing a regime.

For years, civil society has tended to be seen as liberal: supportive of human rights, democratic reform and the protection of minorities. Often, it is still these "progressive" causes that appeal to younger activists.

But today, civil society involves an increasingly diverse mix of people and political goals, with those on the right gaining traction.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionThailand's military rulers have benefited from the support of citizens' groups

Many of these conservative groups share a belief in "traditional" values - those often associated with:

• religious beliefs
• community
• national identity
• protection against immigration
• support for the family unit

Of course, there is also much that divides conservative civil society. While most groups favour democracy and work within mainstream politics, a small number are more disruptive and sometimes even violent - as is the case among groups on the left.

Whatever the differences, research by Carnegie Europe shows that there are many countries where conservative civil society has had a key role in shaping domestic events:

• In Brazil, a broad coalition of conservative groups helped push President Dilma Rouseff out of power in 2016, amid protests about widespread corruption
• Ukraine has seen radical national activists protest against Russian interference, while socially conservative groups focused on religious and family values have also grown
• In Thailand, conservative social movements seen as anti-democratic have helped to underpin military rule
• In India, Hindu nationalists have gained influence as supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies, including moves to strip four million people of citizenship
• Islamist civil society in Turkey has thrived in tandem with the rule of the Justice and Development party
• In Poland, a powerful conservative civil society now works closely with the Law and Justice government, which brought in a range of measures tightening control over the judiciary

There are many other places where conservative groups have grown in influence - from those in Georgia opposed to closer links with the EU, to Ugandan groups against greater gender equality.

In the US, anti-abortionists and right-wing groups including Patriot Prayer - which has been linked to the alt-right but argues that it campaigns for freedom and unity - have staged numerous high-profile demonstrations since Republican President Donald Trump took power.

In Europe, the French youth movement Génération Identitaire has been described as the equivalent of the American alt-right, while Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West) alarmed the German government during its rapid rise. 

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionKim Kataguiri (centre) has now been elected to Brazil's Congress

The differences between the groups are important - demonstrating that they can't all be treated as one.

Neither can they be regarded as simply a voice for older conservatives or those who feel excluded by social trends.

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These movements are attracting many younger activists in many countries.

One of the groups behind Jair Bolsonaro's campaign, the Free Brazil Movement, has three million followers on Facebook and more than one million subscribers on YouTube. 

One of its best-known faces, 22-year-old Kim Kataguiri, recently became the youngest ever member of Brazil's Congress. 

In Thailand, a group of students known as Cyber Scouts has been accused of monitoring other citizens' social media comments, in their role backing the military regime and its campaign for traditional and royalist values. 

Similar alliances between young people active on social media and conservative groups have been seen in countries including Morocco and Tunisia.

Such developments have seen right-wing civil society move into a space that was, until recently, dominated by liberal and progressive causes.

It is likely to mean a fierce rivalry between groups on the left and right as they battle to be heard not only by politicians but by society as a whole. 

American manufacturers growing at fastest pace in 14 years, ISM finds..."what is he going to do, wave a magic wand"

American manufacturers growing at fastest pace in 14 years, ISM finds

ISM manufacturing index leaps to 61.3% in August

By

JEFFRYBARTASH

REPORTER

Bloomberg News/Landov

U.S. manufacturers are putting the pedal to the metal - except, that is, for suppliers of metals hurt by recent tariffs.

The numbers: American manufacturers are on a roll: Business conditions surged in August to a 14-year high, according to a a survey of industry executives. 

The Institute for Supply Management said its manufacturing index jumped to a 14-year high of 61.3% last month from 58.1% in July. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast the index to total 57.9%.

Readings over 50% indicate more companies are expanding instead of shrinking.

What happened: The ISM’s new-orders index climbed 3.2 points to 65.1% and the employment gauge rose 2 points to 58.5%. Some 16 of the 18 industries tracked by ISM reported expanding in August.

The ISM index is compiled from a survey of executives who order raw materials and other supplies for their companies. The gauge tends to rise or fall in tandem with the health of the economy.

Big picture: Growth in the U.S. economy exploded in the spring and the third quarter that got underway in July is also shaping up to be a good one. The economy is firing on almost all cylinders, though the persistent threat of a broader trade war continues to threaten recent gains.

Also Read: The rampaging economy is pushing unemployment to lowest level since 1960s

As an illustration, one of the few industries to contract in August was “primary metals,” a grouping that includes steel and aluminum producers. U.S. tariffs and retaliatory foreign measures have made it harder to obtain key metals at stable prices.

Prices for raw materials are also on the higher side, though inflationary pressures have eased a bit lately, executives said.

“While demand remains quite upbeat, rising inflation and trade-related uncertainties are pressuring margins and causing businesses to plan cautiously for the year ahead,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. 

What they saying?: “Business continues to be strong. We anticipate growth in the next few months,” an executive at a maker of plastics and rubber products told ISM.

Another senior executive at a maker of fabricated-metal products said “the toughest thing we deal with is the unknown. Dealing with tariffs on steel purchases and not knowing if or when they will end makes planning difficult.” 

Market reaction: The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.05% and the S&P 500 SPX, -0.17% fell in Tuesday trades. The stock market has retreated in the past few days after a flareup in trade tensions between Canada and the Trump administration.

The 10-year Treasury yield TMUBMUSD10Y, +1.40% rose slightly to 2.90%. Bond yields had climbed to as high 3% earlier this year before retreating on persistent trade tensions.