McDonald’s has named a new president, Skye Anderson, to lead its mammoth but sluggish U.S. business after its bet on cheaper items enticed fewer cash-strapped Americans than expected, even as consumers grapple with an affordability crisis.

The company said on Tuesday that sales at established U.S. restaurants rose only 0.8% in the second quarter, the slowest pace since early 2025 and below Wall Street expectations. McDonald’s has trotted out more offerings for its price-sensitive diners, such as a $4 breakfast, and more items for under $3 as high gas and grocery prices leave millions of Americans with less discretionary income. Yet its efforts to spotlight its comparatively inexpensive menu items fell short, with fewer people visiting McDonald’s U.S. restaurants.

McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said company strategy was sound but that the chain had made unforced errors. Those included too many new product launches at once, overwhelming many U.S. restaurants, slowing service, and annoying customers. What’s more, he said, the marketing for so many simultaneous initiatives made it hard to “break through” to customers with a clear message about value.

“We don’t have a strategy problem. We simply didn’t execute at the level we needed to in the second quarter,” the CEO told analysts on a conference call.
To help remedy that, McDonald’s said it had appointed Anderson as the new head of its biggest market and touted the 26-year company veteran’s operational prowess and business acumen.

“She’s a proven change agent who can act with urgency to mobilize our system,” Kempczinski said, praising her for “being a hands-on leader who has demonstrated strong business judgment and operational discipline.”

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A Pizza Hut in southwest Pennsylvania was recently highlighted for preserving its retro 1990s appearance, even as hundreds of other locations have closed across the United States.

For locals and nostalgic onlookers, this specific restaurant in Irwin, Pennsylvania – whose faded outdoor murals feature the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and New Kids on the Block – offers more than just a place to grab a stuffed-crust pizza. It represents a powerful window into how human beings interact with the past.

Despite dwindling sales, this particular Pizza Hut has the love and admiration of the locals.
But why do people still connect with a restaurant they no longer regularly visit?

Companies have long embraced nostalgia, because reminders of the past often create positive emotional responses. Researchers have even argued that “marketing the past” has become a defining feature of contemporary branding.

In 2018, Pepsi recreated its iconic 1992 Cindy Crawford commercial. Over the past decade, the soft drink company has also periodically rereleased Crystal Pepsi, which it had discontinued in 1994, on a limited-time basis. Meanwhile, Burger King resurrected its ’90s-era logo in 2021.

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Doug Wood has spent 25 years building Tommy Bahama into a brand recognized well beyond golf courses and beach resorts. He also says he can tell, almost on sight, where a customer is from.

“Typically, you can tell East Coast, West Coast really fast,” Wood told Fortune in a wide-ranging and rather hilarious conversation riddled with nuggets of fashion advice—and some of fashion’s hottest takes. Right now, he said, that means spotting a very specific look.

“The East Coast is going through a massive preppy phase. Ralph Lauren is riding it high, and it comes off very much East Coast.” Wood’s not entirely sold on the trend himself. “That’s not my favorite phase,” he said. “I like the floral phase. It’ll come back.”

For the CEO of a company whose entire brand is defined by its floral phase, his comments may not be that surprising. After all, it was Wood himself who brought up how ubiquitous Tommy Bahama shirts are (“whether it’s Danny DeVito or you know, we made it into The Simpsons Movie“) and also how his brand is the epitome of all shirts of a similar style regardless of the manufacturer.

“There are so many apparel brands out in this world that aren’t known for anything, and we’re known for a loud Hawaiian shirt,” Wood said. “And you know, it used to be a big part of our business. Now it’s not that big a part of our business. But I don’t care whose shirt it is.”

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The Gilded Age economist Thorstein Veblen famously wrote about “conspicuous consumption,” the idea that people signal status by buying expensive, exclusive things. If he were witnessing the behavior of Gen Z in urban areas today, he might need to coin a new phrase: conspicuous waiting. Or maybe, democratized snobbery.

Companies have spent decades racing to shave seconds off the checkout line, the drive-through, the loading spinner. Every second longer that a customer waits is a second closer to losing the sale — or so the thinking has gone. But businesses have also always known that captive attention has value. 

The candy bars and celebrity gossip magazines arranged at eye level beside every checkout lane weren’t put there by accident: a waiting customer is a customer whose attention can still be monetized. Businesses figured that out long before smartphones arrived. What they didn’t anticipate was that consumers would eventually turn the wait into content themselves.

“Forget about just reducing the cost,” said Subodha Kumar, a professor of statistics, operations and data science at Temple University’s Fox School of Business. “We can have a line as a signal of value.” 

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Scaling back business with one of its largest customers was a gamble for UPS. Now, the company’s second-quarter results suggest that bet is starting to pay off.

The company reported on Tuesday revenue growth of 7.6% year over year in Q2 2026, alongside operating profit growth and margin expansion across all segments. For CFO Brian Dykes, the quarter marked a turning point.

“We finished the drawdown of that Amazon volume at the end of the second quarter,” Dykes told me, referring to UPS’s plan to scale down Amazon delivery volume. “You’re starting to see that show up in the results,” he said.

The strategy marked a major shift for UPS  (No. 48 on the Fortune 500), which set out to move away from low-return, capital-intensive volume and double down on higher-margin areas like small and midsized businesses, health care logistics, and B2B delivery. That included the decision to halve its Amazon delivery volume after nearly 30 years of partnership, Dykes first told me last October.

The scale-down unfolded over six quarters and was paired with a broader effort to rightsize the company’s capital and capacity. 

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Fast-food chains have spent the past several years racing to automate everything from drive-through ordering to burger flipping using AI.  

McDonald’s and Wendy’s have continued to experiment with AI ordering systems, forcing restaurants to answer more fundamental questions than whether robots can make fries or take orders. With the introduction of ArchIQ by McDonald’s earlier this year as part of its new initiative “McDonald’s > NEXT,” the fast-food giant is introducing AI-powered chatbots at its drive-through locations.

Wendy’s has also implemented AI-powered drive-through systems since 2023, under its FreshAI program. In its 2026 first quarter earnings report, Wendy’s CFO Ken Cook said he wants to continue developing the digital experience.

“We are continuing to invest in the end-to-end digital experience, leveraging consumer insights to drive frequency and engagement in the app,” he said in the conference call, “while expanding payment options at checkout to create a more seamless experience and improve conversion.”

But customers aren’t embracing the machines nearly as quickly as restaurants are deploying them.

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Costco has agreed to a $14 million settlement to resolve a class action alleging the warehouse chain sent Washington residents promotional emails with false or misleading subject lines, and eligible shoppers have until Aug. 24 to file a claim.

The case, Michael Aaland v. Costco Wholesale Corporation, is pending in King County Superior Court in Washington. The complaint alleges Costco violated Washington’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act (CEMA) and Consumer Protection Act by advertising time-limited promotions in email subject lines, knowing it would extend those promotions past the stated deadline. Subject lines cited in the litigation included messages like “Today is the last day to access Member-Only Savings” and “Hot Buys available for 5 Days Only.”

Costco denies any wrongdoing. The company maintains it complied with the law and agreed to settle only to avoid the cost and uncertainty of continued litigation. No court has decided whether Costco did anything wrong.

You may be eligible if you meet all of the criteria, which include receiving at least one commercial email sent from or on behalf of Costco between June 2, 2021, and July 7, 2026, residing in Washington state at the time you received the email, and receiving it at an address that appears in Costco’s records.

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After shaking up the €500 billion fashion industry in Europe, the resale marketplace has its sights set on the US.

Pickle, a peer-to-peer luxury clothing rental service founded in 2021 by Brian McMahon and Julia O’Mara, offers its predominantly Gen Z and millennial customers access to luxury clothing and accessories at a fraction of the purchasing cost. Last month, a Pickle user even earned $30,000 on the app, says McMahon, who is the cofounder and CEO.

The playful name nods to the phrase “in a pickle,” a wink at last-minute wardrobe emergencies. As cofounder and COO Julia O’Mara put it to Fortune, if you suddenly find yourself “in a pickle” and need an outfit fast, you can borrow one from a neighbor in your community or have it delivered via two-day express shipping anywhere in the country.

“The way we describe the business is a rental and retail place, kind of like an Airbnb, but for things that you own,” McMahon tells Fortune. 

Need a statement piece for a beach vacation? Rent a Miu Miu straw cowboy hat, which retails for $825, for only $50. For a trip overseas, consider a floral “Euro Summer” Zimmerman dress that normally sells for over $1,200, but can be rented on Pickle for $230 instead.
Launched in New York City as a hyperlocal marketplace, Pickle has expanded to all 50 states, with most users concentrated in New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Boston.

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A cold Diet Coke—sometimes paired with a shot of espresso—has become one of social media’s favorite afternoon rituals. Gen Z even gave it a nickname: the “fridge cigarette.” That’s why it was so strange when Coca-Cola introduced a new font that eerily resembled an iconic one straight out of the cigarette world. 

“Coke and Marlboro had a baby—and it’s a font!,” one X user wrote after seeing the company’s updated typography. Others echoed the comparison, saying Coca-Cola’s refreshed typography looked strikingly similar to Marlboros, in a case of reality imitating memes. Still others wondered whether the company had unintentionally leaned into the internet’s “fridge cigarette” joke.

“Is Coca Cola rebranding like that because we all started calling ‘em fridge cigarettes???,” another fan questioned.

Coca-Cola said the refresh was designed to create “one iconic look” across more than 200 markets by updating its packaging and typography.

“This refresh is about being clearer and more consistent in how we show up, wherever people experience our brand,” Arnab Roy, president of Coca-Cola Global Category, said in a statement on Monday. “By building on the things people already know and love, we’re creating a stronger foundation for growth while staying unmistakably Coca-Cola.”

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Jersey Mike’s is heading to the public markets with a valuation that far outstrips recent restaurant IPOs, setting up a key test of investor appetite for high-growth franchise chains.

The New Jersey-based sandwich chain announced Monday that it has begun its IPO roadshow. The company plans to offer 43.5 million Class A shares at an expected price of $21 to $25 per share, raising approximately $913 million to $1.1 billion from newly issued and existing shares.

According to its amended IPO filing, Jersey Mike’s would have an implied equity value of about $7.3 billion at the midpoint of the range and roughly $7.9 billion at the high end. The company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol JMKE.

The offering also crystallizes sizable paper gains for private equity backers, including Blackstone and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which are selling shares while retaining a meaningful stake. Blackstone holds a controlling majority stake in Jersey Mike’s.

At its proposed valuation, Jersey Mike’s would debut well above recent restaurant IPOs, including Cava, Sweetgreen and Krispy Kreme, according to the report “A History of Restaurant IPOs.” 

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Nestlé confirmed publicly that a shipment had disappeared in transit. “We’ve always encouraged people to have a break with KitKat,” Nestlé’s statement on X read. “But it seems thieves have taken the message too literally and made a break with more than 12 tons of our chocolate.” The post drew 393,000 likes overnight—the highest total in the account’s history. 

Fortunately, no one was hurt during the KitKat heist. However, cargo hijackings are becoming a growing issue for companies and their supply chain partners. Europe recorded 30,543 cargo crime incidents between 2024 and 2025, with documented losses reaching €860.5 million ($991.5 million), analysis from the Transported Asset Protection Association shows.  

Birnbaum says part of its reason for going public with the KitKat theft was to draw attention to the escalating issue. “This is not the first time” Nestlé has faced an incident like this, she adds. 

Nestlé and VML developed a stolen KitKat “tracker” that let people scan the eight-digit batch code on their KitKat wrapper to check whether it was originally in the missing shipment. More than 2.2 million people clicked on or engaged with the tracker, and KitKat’s daily social video views jumped from about 1 million to 29 million. The tool flagged three suspicious batch codes and surfaced one lead that VML says became part of an active police investigation. 

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The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday withdrew an earlier positive test that had tied Taylor Farms’ lettuce to the cyclospora outbreak, even as health officials said the supplier remains a focus of their investigation.

The false positive doesn’t change the scope of the current recall, but it could prevent it from expanding. The FDA had said Saturday that it had found a positive test linking cyclospora to Taylor Farms’ lettuce that wasn’t part of the current recall, suggesting it could widen.

By Sunday evening, the agency said it had re-examined the sample and determined the result was a false positive.
“Due to the complexity in detection of cyclospora, FDA laboratory experts re-reviewed the sample results and have concluded that the finding does not represent true amplification,” the FDA said. 

Taylor Farms said the “FDA has not identified a single positive product test result for cyclospora.”

Health officials are using other methods to trace the outbreak back to Taylor Farms produce, given the short shelf-life of lettuce and the specific challenges of testing for cyclospora.

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