Starbucks has now implemented a new application that allows customers to pre-order their coffees. While there are over 7,400 chain company owned stores, people still find themselves waiting on line in the morning rush, and throughout the day to grab a coffee or a snack. However, Starbucks have created a new way for customers to avoid lines and for them to conveniently pick up their orders when they are ready. Consumers can place their customized orders through the application, and the app will predict a proper pick up time based on how busy the chosen location is. The application is only available at company owned stores, and is not available at locations run by licensees like Target and Barnes and Noble.

CEO Howard Schultz told investors in July that “Mobile order and pay is fueling both revenue and profit growth in every market in which it has been deployed.” Many other chain stores are implementing mobile technologies to make execution in providing services to consumers more convenient. Panera, and Taco Bell have already started implementing mobile applications, too.

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Almost every major company is going antibiotic-free with chicken. It has become a growing necessity in the chicken supplier market. It is also indeed a symbiotic shift for the poultry industry, as there is less chance of multi-drug resistant superbugs, and supplier’s earn more profits. However, while the market for antibiotic-free chicken is trending, the beef industry doesn’t have any intentions in adapting to this shift.

The Wall Street Journal indicates the lack of intention is because cattle ranchers have no need to go antibiotic-free. The price of red meat has reached historic highs for the past year, and hit a record average of $6.16 per pound in July. Moreover, suppliers are having record years, where this year the nation just barely escaped a brisket shortage. There is no reason for cattle ranchers to invest into creating antibiotic-free beef.

Cattle also have a longer life span then chicken. They generally live a year or more before slaughter, where as chicken live till 6 weeks. Because of the longer life span of Cattle, it becomes a lot more riskier for Cattle to catch illness requiring medication. Raising livestock, also, presents more variables as suppliers buy cattle from numerous middlemen, while chicken producers get thousands from one farm. While an all-natural beef can be priced at up to 80 percent more per pound, more costs and variables are considered like greater overhead, more paperwork and expensive auditing to prove an “all-natural” beef from suppliers.

The shift in food trends worldwide is produce that are natural and organic. While the beef industry doesn’t seem to be taking alternative measures to follow the trend, there is a growing demand for the organic beef market that can potentially catch ranchers’ attentions. The antibiotic-free beef currently accounts for 5 percent of the market, but as sales of produce labeled as natural are soaring in the past year, there can be a shift in the beef industry.

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Last month, McDonald’s has disclosed their intentions to not collaborate with Burger King in Burger King’s proposal in a special event for Peace Day. Easterbrook claimed that McDonald’s wasn’t interested in collaborating with Burger King in creating a McWhopper, instead “something meaningful, something authentic.” McDonald’s has asked other “like-minded” organizations like MasterCard and Facebook to help raise money to help the United Nations’ World Food Program respond to migrant crisis in Europe and the Middle East. McDonald’s is making a multi-million dollar donation for a 30-second ad starring Liam Neeson.

Even though McDonald’s didn’t accept Burger King’s efforts in raising charitable funds and awareness, McDonald’s has taken their initiatives to be charitable in their own terms. While McDonald’s will be partnering with the World Food Program, it is noted that Burger King is also a partner of the organization. A representation has said “Any peace-related activity McDonald’s undertakes, whether in partnership with Burger King or on their own is great, as it will raise further awareness for Peace Day.”

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Surprisingly, in the past decade, sales of Oreos are up 60 percent, passing $2.5 billion a year. Although the two major food trends of the world is towards the healthy and unprocessed, and towards the pumped-up and Xtreme, Oreos managed to defy these two trends and create major sales.

Oreos were introduced in 1912, and had a few alterations in its product like making it kosher and trans fats. Spinoff flavors, with filling ranging from mint to birthday cake to candy corn fueled the brand’s sales growth. Oreos have also adapted flavors of countries it distributes in. In China, there are green tea flavored Oreos, and in Indonesia there are coconut flavored ones. Janda Lukin, the head of Oreo North America, says that limited-time flavors have created peaks in sales like “Red Velvet was really successful for us this year. It tapped into Valentine’s Day, and it was the first time we changed the base cake color.” Oreos continues to drive sales with their increasing variety of flavors.

Psychophysicist Howard Moskowitz explains that Oreo has a chord of flavors that leave consumers wanting more, where flavors peak. “The combination of the soft cream and the hard cookie appeals to everybody. The vanilla isn’t exactly high-quality, but it doesn’t matter- you love that middle. And it’s a fairly nondescript product, like white bread: You eat a lot and not get tired of it.” Oreos hit a “bliss-point” that scientists have yet really understood, along with products like Heinz Ketchup.

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Al Jarvis has been a franchisee for decades with two McDonald’s restaurants in Michigan. When he was on the verge of being with McDonald’s as a franchisee for 50 years, he decided to sell the restaurants. He says he just “wanted to get the hell out.” Jarvis was disenchanted by and frustrated by corporate’s mixed signals and burdensome bloating of menu items like McWraps and McCafe lattes.

Jarvis critiques McDonald’s poorly though out menu items like implementing a custom burger bar or “artisan” grilled chicken. He says since 2005 with implementing items like salads and McGriddles was when service started to slow down. He continued to criticize how corporate demanded needs that were impossible to adhere too. Corporate wanted McWraps to be served in 90 seconds, but Jarvis says 3 minutes was more realistic. More than half the stores in America have dropped McWraps on their menus because of the difficulty of making them in timely matters. Jarvis also points bad business with McDonald’s asking franchisees to open for 24 hours a day, and including a Dollar Menu. These implementations lead to losses because of rising commodity costs. Jarvis has opposed the recent introduction to next month’s rollout of all-day breakfast. Though McDonald’s fans have demanded the expansion for years, Jarvis argues that “that’s not our niche. We make burgers and fries.”

This year is the first year since 1970 that the company closed more stores than it opened. Jarvis outlines that this is because of corporate keeps creating new menu items at the expense of quality, rather than refocusing on things that people still like and making it better.

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