Retail
Will Tribes Lose Their Monopoly on Slot Machines?
Commercial card rooms, sometimes called nontribal casinos, have long sought to win the right to install slot machines, roulette wheels and other gambling devices to attract more customers and boost profits. No wonder. Washingtons 28 tribal casinos, which currently have exclusive right to use the gambling machines, netted $2 billion last year, compared to $225…
Chef’n Announces New Executive Board Chair
Chefn Corporation, a kitchen products company that recently sold a majority share of itself to the private equity firm CID Capital, has announced the appointment of Linda Graebner, former Board Chair of the International Housewares Association, as Executive Chairman. All teams under the Chefn umbrella including product development, operations, finance, sales and marketing will work…
Canned goods
Two MBAs from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute have launched the latest solution to urban food deserts, places where the confluence of poverty and poor transport mean residents have little access to fresh, healthful groceries. Carrie Ferrence and Jacqueline Gjurgevich call their company Stockbox Grocers. Stockbox brings groceries to underserved areas by converting metal shipping containers…
Top 2 in Fortune’s top 50 movers and shakers are Seattle companies
Interesting that Seattle companies took the top two slots in Fortune’s list of 50 movers and shakers. Howard Schultz of Starbucks, who the magazine estimates is now worth $2 billion, got the nod for reviving the company and “taking steps to raise funds for job creation and to fight political dysfunction in Washington.” According to…
Stores and state liquor board get ready
Within hours of the early results showing that Initiative 1183 would be approved, retailers and entrepreneurs put their toes on the starting line of the Washington equivalent of the Oklahoma land rush, and the state Liquor Control Board issued its first Liquor Sales Transition webpage announcing a timeline for implementation of the initiative and an…
Landry’s acquiring McCormick & Schmick’s
Continuing a regional mergers-and-acquisition boomlet highlighted in the November issue of Seattle Business magazine, and following by one day a disappointing earnings report, restaurant operator McCormick and Schmicks announced an agreement to be acquired by privately held Landrys Restaurants of Houston for $8.75 per share. Earlier this year, M&S had rejected an offer of $9.25…
Starbucks Caffeinates Howard’s Jobs Program
Starbucks recently announced its Foundation would donate $5 million donation to the Opportunity Finance Network for a job-stimulating small business lending program called Create Jobs for the USA. The company is also asking customers and employees to contribute to the program. The company says that every five-dollar contribution to the program will result in $35…
Amazon reports 73 percent drop in 3Q income
Seattle-based retail giant Amazon.com reported a 73 percent decrease in net profits for its third quarter. The company earned $63 million for the quarter, or 14 cents per share. The company earned $231 million, or 51 cents per share, during the same quarter a year ago. Revenues rose 44 percent during the period to $10.9…
Amazon defends working conditions at company warehouse
In a statement released Sunday, Amazon said it averages 2.5 to 4.2 recordable injuries or illnesses per 100 workers annually. That rate places Amazons incidence rate below that of fellow workers in auto manufacturing, the warehousing industry, and even for department stores. Pennsylvanias The Morning Call spoke with 20 employees of the Amazon manufacturing facility…
Starbucks goes Blonde
Starbucks announced Tuesday that it would introduce a new roast called Blonde to complement its medium and dark roast varieties. The Willow and Veranda blends are aimed at capturing the more than 40 percent of American coffee drinkers who prefer a lighter roastand the more than 70 percent of premium grocery-store coffee sales that fall…
Juicy news about Starbucks
The power of a protein smoothie, with the ubiquity of acoffee giants distribution network: Starbucks is rumored to be introducingjuices to its lineup, having just hired Manhattan juice bar queen YohanaBencosme. A move back into beverages would be good news for a companythat has in years past strayed from its proven home turf into food…
Statshot: What would you trade for a $2.5 million yacht?
A Dubai-based member of Bellevues BizXchange, a business-to-business bartering service, wants to sell a $2.5 million yacht and is willing to accept BizX dollars, a special currency that members use to buy products and services available through BizXchange.
Seattle’s Sur La Table sold to international company
Seattle-basedkitchenware retailer Sur La Table has been sold to Investcorp, a Bahrain-based holdingcompany and investment bank. Terms were not closed. Investcorp acquired the company from the Behnke family and the investment firm Freeman Spogli& Co. Both parties will remain shareholders. Sur La Table operates 86stores throughout the United States and boasts an extensive catalog, website…