Hi! Border of preference: A study cited by the WSJ found that people were more likely to buy drinks served in wide-rimmed glasses, like red-wine glasses, compared with narrower ones, like champagne flutes. Today we're exploring: |
- Crab mentality: Red Lobster hopes to get a slice of casual dining's big comeback.
- Sea suite: Hilton is entering the cruise business after doubling its hotel footprint.
- On the record: Buy now, pay later loans will soon factor into American credit scores.
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Casual dining is eating fast food's lunch right now |
After shelling out to the point of self-destruction on its $20 "Endless Shrimp" deal, and thus learning the true meaning of "all you can eat," Red Lobster is back, having emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy last September. This time, though, the company's new management is betting on a different (limited) crustacean to lure consumers, on Monday announcing the return of "Crabfest" following a four-year hiatus — not to be confused with "Endless Crab," another financially devastating promotion that the company ran in 2003. But if ever there were a time to revive a casual dining business with a familiar playbook, it's now. As reported by The Wall Street Journal last Friday, brands like Red Lobster and Cracker Barrel that have seen traffic slump in recent years are planning to spend millions to overhaul their locations and offerings. Their goal? To emulate the success of some of their casual dining peers. At breadstick-renowned Olive Garden, same-store sales were up 7% year-over-year in its most recent quarter; Chili's is also red hot, with same-store sales up a whopping 32% in the first three months of the year. At McDonald's, traffic is going the other way, with same-store sales dropping 3.6% last quarter. |
Indeed, as cost-conscious customers have been put off by inflated fast food menus, they've been drawn toward household-name casual restaurants by a combination of good service, good atmosphere, and good prices. A survey conducted by YouGov at the end of last year found that casual chains had soared in US consumers' approximations as the best-value option for dining, while value scores for the fast food and fast casual categories sank throughout 2024. Olive Garden topped the list of brands considered the best for value, with Wendy's the only fast food category restaurant to break the top 10. Meanwhile, per the YouGov survey, fast food outlets dominated the list of poorest-value restaurants… but it was Starbucks, home of numerous ~$7 drinks, that was named the worst-value option overall. |
With almost 8,500 hotels around the world, Hilton is getting into cruises |
The hotel industry is coming down with a serious case of cabin fever, as Hilton Worldwide becomes the latest lodgings chain to announce a cruise offering, following the likes of Marriott and Four Seasons, per Bloomberg reporting. Customers — presumably many of them Poirot fans — will be able to pick from 29 suites across five decks when booking on the Waldorf Astoria Nile River Experience, a Hilton press release says. The company told Bloomberg that the new experience was less about keeping up with the competition as much as revisiting its Egyptian "floating hotel" concept from the 1960s, while their head of luxury brands also outlined that it's not part of a move into the cruise business more broadly. Given how quickly Hilton's land-based expansion has ticked up in recent years, that probably makes sense. |
While the company itself was founded by Conrad N. Hilton in 1919, the first hotel to bear the now iconic "Hilton" name wasn't opened until six years later. Now, a full century on, the business is still finding ways to grow its vast portfolio, which includes properties like Hilton Garden Inns and Hampton, its mid-range chain that has boomed to become the world's largest lodging brand. Last year, Hilton opened more than two hotels on average every single day. Embracing a more acquisitive path to growth, the brand's overall location tally (including owned and leased properties, franchises, and hotels that the parent company manages) hit 8,447 at the end of 2024 — more than double the figure from 2013, when Hilton Worldwide went public in the biggest hotel IPO in history. Those hotels housed almost 1.27 million rooms and welcomed over 220 million guests last year. In a sign that the water might be getting pretty warm in the cruise industry, Carnival, the biggest cruise operator in the world, jumped more than 8% yesterday morning after posting record results for the second quarter and raising its outlook for the year. |
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BNPL loans will now count toward Americans' credit scores |
On Monday, Fair Isaac Corp., the company behind the FICO credit scores used by 90% of US lenders, announced the fall launch of two new scoring models that, for the first time, factor in "buy now, pay later" loans. The move gives lenders a way to assess a fast-growing form of borrowing that has long operated outside the reach of traditional credit scores and reports. Why now? Put simply, it's just become too big to ignore. Per eMarketer, over 86 million Americans used BNPL services last year — nearly double the number in 2021 — with shoppers now relying on it for everything from paying for travel, to buying groceries or eating out. And while it may have started as a niche option for luxury splurges, BNPL's heaviest users today aren't necessarily the most financially comfortable. |
According to a 2024 analysis by the Boston Fed, nearly one in four Americans with FICO scores under 600 have used BNPL, compared to just 2.8% of the 800-plus club — those with near-perfect credit. Meanwhile, a May report from the Federal Reserve found that 40% of low-income BNPL users paid late, compared to just 13% of higher-income households. For people already on the financial edge, the new dimension to their credit scores may hurt more than help — though one FICO-Affirm study from February found that most heavy BNPL users didn't see their FICO scores worsen once BNPL loans were taken into account. |
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- QuantumScape, an EV battery company that's never made any revenue ever, soared over 40% in early trading after announcing it reached a major production milestone.
- India just sent an astronaut into space for the first time in 41 years.
- Literary justice: A federal judge ruled that it was legal for Anthropic to train its AI models using published books without the authors' consent.
- Amazon plans to expand its same- and next-day delivery network to more than 4,000 rural towns by the end of this year.
- Giving up: Charitable donations in the US hit $592.5 billion last year, the second-highest figure on record.
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Off the charts: This morning, NATO allies reached a historic agreement to increase military spending to 5% of GDP — but which NATO country spent the largest share of output on military last year? [Answer below]. |
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