Miscellaneous

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☕ Starbucks aims for service times under 4 minutes for counter and drive-thru; average drive-thru time is 3 minutes 20 seconds at over 7,600 locations. The company will remodel 1,000 U.S. stores by 2024, with a $150,000 investment per store. A new prototype debuts in fiscal 2026, focusing on community coffeehouses. Starbucks Rewards, with 34 million members, will be revamped by 2026 to deepen loyalty and engagement, moving away from a discount-focused strategy.

💸 Gig workers, restaurants, and consumers are impacted by fraud in food delivery. Gig workers lose earnings to scams, with fraudsters using cloned apps to unfairly grab jobs. Restaurants face direct losses and promotional abuses affecting profits, especially small businesses. Consumers sometimes exploit refunds, undermining platform trust. Fraud leads to tightened rules, slower payments, and reduced customer retention, causing financial strain across all parties involved.

🏥 Paula Deen, 78, announced the closure of The Lady & Sons and The Chicken Box in Savannah, GA, after 30 years, effective July 31. Though the reason remains undisclosed, she thanked patrons for 36 years of support. Deen's four other restaurants in Nashville, Pigeon Forge, Myrtle Beach, and Branson will continue operations. Her Food Network show was canceled in 2013 following a legal deposition. Her YouTube channel has over 583,000 subscribers.

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📱 Chris Gilbert, CEO of Springfield Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, and founder of Municipal Hospitality Advisors, is transforming local government with hospitality principles. By shifting civic leadership from transactional to meaningful interactions, he builds a people-focused culture. This approach humanizes leadership, enhances collaboration, and fosters trust. Learn how hospitality can reshape organizational dynamics and improve public service trust and effectiveness.

🍴 Bret Thorn, a senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News, has been with the publication since 1999. He previously wrote for The New York Sun from 2005 to 2008. Thorn, a Tufts University alumnus and Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, studied in China during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. He was president of the IFEC in 2005 and won a Neal Award in 2006. His expertise includes French and Asian cuisines.

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