Restaurant Chains Look for Creative Ways to Cut Costs

Franchise restaurants, hit by higher commodities prices and a cutback in consumer spending, are aggressively searching for ways to slash costs.Many of these businesses can't pass on the higher costs to customers without losing even more business. So, they're trying to find alternative ways to save -- including changing vendors and packaging, altering delivery schedules, cutting serving portions and even prolonging the life of fryer oil.

Retailers slash prices, again, in bid to win shoppers

Retailers this week began marking down their holiday and winter merchandise and added additional promotions to previously already discounted products, with bargains to be had at up to more than 80% off. Other retailers launched special daily sales to lure traffic to their stores or websites while malls across the country plan extended hours this weekend. As retailers head to their last weekend before Christmas, the stakes have become even higher after a lackluster holiday shopping season so far. Consumers, stalled by worries about the U.S. economy in recession, rising job losses, declining retirement portfolio values and volatile stock markets, have reduced trips to stores and cut back on non-essential spending.

Costco net flat on 1% higher same-store sales

Costco Wholesale Corp. reported Thursday that fiscal first-quarter net income was about flat, undercut by pretax charges, with its finance chief warning that sales are slowing even as bargain-hunting shoppers turn to the warehouse stores for deals in a downbeat economy.

Small stores face big test this holiday season

With the economy in recession and consumers in cost-cutting mode, this year is expected to be especially tough for smaller shops as customers rein in overall spending and seek out bargains from big chain stores or online discounters.

Retail sales fall for record fifth straight month

Consumers reduced their spending at retail stores again in November while the costs of goods before they reach store shelves also continued to drop, more bad signs in a recession that appears to be deepening. Businesses also cut their inventories by the largest amount in five years, the government said Friday, a sign the recession will force further cuts in production.

Anheuser-Busch-InBev will cut 1,400 U.S. jobs

Anheuser-Busch InBev announced Monday it would cut some 1,400 U.S. jobs — or another 6 percent of its U.S. work force — to help save the world’s largest brewer at least $1.5 billion a year.
It said three-quarters of the jobs cut will disappear from Anheuser’s North American headquarters in St. Louis, both at downtown offices and a campus in suburban Sunset Hills, Mo. A letter employees received Monday said affected workers had not yet been notified, and they will likely be people who hold engineering, information technology and other corporate positions. Unionized workers at the company’s 12 North American breweries will not be affected. The latest job cuts go beyond plans Anheuser-Busch announced this summer to streamline costs, before it agreed to be taken over by Belgium-based InBev. The company said in a news release the job losses will help it save at least $1.5 billion a year by 2011 and cope with a “challenging economy.” Most of the cuts will be made by the end of the year.

Economy brews some trouble for Starbucks

Starbucks warned Wall Street on Thursday that its profit would fall short of analysts' expectations this quarter during a conference that began with Chief Executive Howard Schultz trying to assuage concerns about the recession's effect on the coffee retailer.Chief financial officer Troy Alstead said same-store sales have deteriorated 9 percent in the U.S. since the company's fiscal first quarter began at the end of September.Investors had hoped the 8 percent decline in U.S. sales that Starbucks reported for its fourth quarter compared with the same period a year earlier would be the company's worst drop. Sales have been particularly dismal in those states that have been hardest hit by foreclosures, most notably California and Florida, which together make up about 30 percent of the company's store base.

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