With Danny Meyer’s making recent headlines with restaurants under the Union Square Hospitality Group eliminating tipping, the head of Ignite Restaurant Group has also recently revealed to investors that all Joe’s Crab Shack locations will be testing a gratuity-free model. Joe’s Crab Shack has locations nationwide, and has already implemented no tipping in 18 restaurants with more on the way. Being the first of a casual mid-range chain to implement gratuity-free policies, this proposes options for other restaurants to follow its model.

The policy has increases serves wages to start at a flat $14 an hour, instead of $2.13 and tips. The menu prices will rise by 12 to 15 percent to compensate the extra labor costs. However, noted by generous tippers, implementing such policies while increasing menu prices is still a cost benefit to themselves.

Ray Blanchette, CEO of Ignite, believes Joe’s Crab Shack’s conversion to a gratuity-free policy is sensible because their consumers are mostly big groups and waiters dislike doubling up on tables and splitting tips. The policy test is expected to run through at least the end of the year, and Blanchette says “We’re really leading in our industry with regards to national brand going out and testing this thing in a meaningful way. So we want to be somewhat cautious.”

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Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller have formalized their merger. With this huge merger of popular beers, it is forecasted that one in every three beers sold worldwide will come form this megabrewer. AB InBev will pay $106 billion for SABMiller, which is a higher than the expected offer.

Because of their monopolized merger, many regulations and scrutiny is expected from this transaction. However, both companies have already taken into consideration the amount of regulatory scrutiny by creating side deals to sell SABMiller’s 58 percent stake in MillerCoors to Molson Coors. Molson Coors will control Miller Lite, Coors Light, and Blue Moon. Even after this transaction, the new megabrewer will overshadow shelves of the Americas, Europe, China, Africa and Latin America with other low-cost beers like Budweiser.

The new merger between AB InBev and SABMiller have been confirmed, but the new company name is yet to be revealed.

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The release of an Angus Third Pound burger at McDonald’s was deemed to be a “fine-dining” shift to their menu. However, McDonald’s is no longer content with just an Angus Third Pounder but is now testing a “Signature Collection” in England. The new collection boasts the thickest patties on their already existing menu. The “Premium range” line will incorporate 100 percent locally sourced beef and ingredients like beechwood-smoked bacon and whole-grain mustard. Moreover, this new premium collection will be sourced and made from “chefs from Michelin-starred restaurants.”

With the release of the new collection, many are speculating the shift in similarity to burgers at Shake Shack or Five Guys. This is one new strategy that McDonald’s is approaching in order to revamp and reposition their burgers. McDonald’s hopes with the success of the new burger line, it will be implemented not only in England but all over the world. The premium collection is also encouraging consumers to opt for table service and to eat in.

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Despite the rise in organic foods, Whole Foods shares are down almost 50 percent. Investors are “uniformly negative on the company” because they don’t see an increase in performance in the future because of increasing competitors like Costco that are selling organic products at lower prices. Mark Retzloff, an industry pioneer, says “If one of those stores is just down the street from a Whole Foods, there’s a big segment of their customer base that isn’t going to shop at Whole Foods anymore.”

Whole Foods has always been deemed as being overpriced, being named “Whole Paycheck.” However, Whole Foods used to fight this “price image” problem by promoting their quality and selection to shoppers. More shoppers and activists are realizing that Whole Foods have “routinely” overcharged customers, even with their latest scandal. After coming clean of “mistakenly” overpricing products at Whole Foods, sales fell immediately. Growth tumbled to just 0.4 percent, after being 2.5 for weeks. Whole Foods says “it actually hurt worse outside New York City,” even though the price disparities scandal was at New York City.

While many analysts believe that cutting prices will increase performance and brand equity, co-CEOs John Mackey and Walter Robb believe that changes in products to cater at a lower cost does not correlate with their values. “Sure we could sell cheaper farmed salmon- but it’s terrible for the environment. Our products are not the same as what other grocers are selling,” says Mr. Robb. Whole Foods co-CEOs disclosed that they have no intentions to alter their products to cheaper products.

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