Hayley Peterson/Business Insider
Shortages at Whole Foods.
Hello!
Welcome to another week of The Drive-Thru, Business Insider's weekly roundup of the biggest stories in restaurants and retail. If someone forwarded you this email, $4 to get The Drive-Thru in your inbox every Friday.
This is going to be my last week writing The Drive-Thru for a while. On Monday, I am heading to Asia on a two-month reporting trip. If you have any recommendations for places to visit or retail stories I should be checking out in Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, or Bali, shoot me an email at ktaylor@businessinsider.com!
Okay, enough about me - let's get into the news of the week.
Whole Foods shortages
Hayley Peterson/Business Insider
Empty shelves at Whole Foods.
Hayley reports customers are complaining about food shortages at Whole Foods. The photos speak for themselves -there are massive empty holes on shelves that should be filled with products.
Whole Foods said that its supplier of private-label beans, grains, lentils, and rice unexpectedly closed, leading to shortages of those items nationwide. Plus, Whole Foods is facing some weather-related issues that temporarily impacted its supply of lettuce from California.
BI does Davos
Reuters / Denis Balibouse
Davos 2020.
Cadie is at Davos this week, talking to executives about retail and more.
YUM China CEO Joey Wat discussed $4 as well as how the fast-food giant is $4 AB InBev exec John Blood revealed Budweiser's parent company's $4 Blood also $4 AB InBev's incubator program designed to help fund startups seeking global sustainability solutions.
Nike's Vaporfly sneakers are a StockX hit
Crystal Cox/Business Insider
Nike's Vaporfly sneakers.
Shoshy reports on Nike's Vaporfly sneakers' success on StockX. A StockX representative confirmed that 17 different Vaporfly models have sold on the platform in the last two months, six of which rank among the company's top 2,000 best-sellers.
The sneakers' popularity is tied to controversy. A ban on the shoe from World Athletics, which oversees international running events, could be announced in the next few weeks. And, with controversy comes more interest from resellers.
Restaurants grapple with delivery
McDonald's/Business Insider/Kate Taylor
McDonald's is testing a McDelivery Center.
Delivery is a massive topic of discussion in the restaurant industry right now. This week, I tried to connect the dots on some of the questions that chains are trying to answer.
A few scoopy details in the piece - McDonald's, which has national partnerships with UberEats and DoorDash, plans to expand its Grubhub partnership nationally in the near future, and a yet-to-be announced national partnership with Postmates is in the works. The chain is also testing a "McDelivery Center" intended to help workers organize the multiple tablets connected to different delivery partners.
Taste test of the week: McDonald's vs. In-N-Out
Irene Jiang / Business Insider
In-N-Out beat out McDonald's in Irene's face off.
Irene took on two fast-food industry icons, with a comparison between McDonald's and In-N-Out.
Her take: "While McDonald's food didn't taste bad, it tasted far less natural than In-N-Out's perfectly constructed burgers."
Everything else you need to know:
- McDonald's is $4 in certain Chinese cities as the coronavirus death toll rises.
- Here are $4 And, the $4
- Fairway filed for bankruptcy and $4
- McDonald's franchisees are $4
- Lots of $4 $4 emerged on a WhatsApp account belonging to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia reportedly being used to $4
- Axe-throwing bars are $4 as millennials search for outlets for their rage.
- $4
- I don't think that grocery store robots $4 sorry!
- $4 and I, for one, $4
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