Hayley Peterson

The Apple car is dead (apparently).The scrapped plans would be a grim sign for the EV market in the US, which has suffered from flagging demand. Apple has been working on its electric car for 10 years and is now dropping the project before ever even releasing a prototype, Bloomberg reported this week.Apple’s reported decision comes amid an EV reckoning in the US.As BI reported earlier this month, car companies are rethinking EV plans in response to softening demand for pure electric cars. While…

Wharton’s board of advisors is calling for an immediate change of leadership at the University of Pennsylvania.“In light of your testimony yesterday before Congress, we demand the University clarify its position regarding any call for harm to any group of people immediately, change any policies that allow such conduct with immediate effect, and discipline all offenders expeditiously,” the board wrote in a letter to Penn president Elizabeth Magill, according to Penn’s student newspaper, The Daily…

Get ready for some killer sales on holiday goods.Retailers are warning that demand is slowing heading into the holiday season. Walmart said this week it’s seeing more shoppers spend only during sales events — not before, or after — and Target said shoppers are delaying more purchases. Meanwhile, credit-card delinquencies are rising, Americans are saving less, and consumer confidence is falling.All of this could be adding up to a perfect storm for some blowout Black Friday and holiday sales. The…

General Motors and Ford appear to be at odds over the use of Chinese battery technology in electric cars. GM CEO Mary Barra and her team warned members of Congress in June that Ford’s use of the technology could pave the way for China to dominate US car manufacturing, the Wall Street Journal reported. GM’s apparent rebuke of Ford’s strategy came after Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley had earlier told the lawmakers that using the technology would give the US a leg up in its EV battle with China.The batt…

Chick-fil-A is among the most successful fast-food chains in the US, with one of the lowest franchise fees of any major fast-food brand.In 2022, the chain booked sales of $18.8 billion, up 12.8% from the year before, according to Nation’s Restaurant News Top 500 report. Chick-fil-A restaurants generate higher revenue per location than any other national chain. In 2022, most locations average nearly $8.7 million in sales per year, up from $8.1 million a year ago, according to the chain’s 2023 Fra…

Tesla is by far the most popular electric car brand in the US. It basically created the EV market as we know it.Elon Musk’s startup rose to dominance on the back of four models: two SUVs and two sedans. The Tesla models’ names spell out the word “S3XY.” Leave it to Musk to sprinkle in some juvenile humor wherever possible. The Model X is Tesla’s largest SUV and its most expensive offering, judging by entry-level price. The regular Model X costs $98,490. That’s before any options or a $1,390 dest…

If you’ve ever shopped at Walmart or Costco, you’ve probably been asked to show your receipt at the door. Some customers have complained about this practice on social media. Videos posted to TikTok show people flouting receipt requests at store exits, and filming confrontations over their refusals to comply.Shoppers are not legally required to show receipts at any retailer. But refusing to show your receipt could give a store probable cause to detain you, as my colleague Gloria Dawson has report…

Owning a fast food franchise can be a lucrative business. One top performing Chick-fil-A restaurant reported sales of over $17 million in 2021, more than double the average per unit sales volume for the chain, according to Chick-fil-A’s 2022 franchise disclosure document. Additionally, the average McDonald’s restaurant logs about $4 million in yearly sales. However, opening a franchise requires a hefty amount of cash to cover the startup costs. For example, you must have at least $500,000 in liq…

After years of diminishing store counts in the US, McDonald’s plans to add more restaurants this year. Though corporate layoffs are projected in April, CEO Chris Kempczinski told staff in early January that his 2023 vision calls for scaling innovation and growing restaurants. Later in the month, during the company’s January 31 earning call, the company said it will spend more than $1 billion to open 1,900 stores around the world. Of those 1,900, more than 400 new stores are projected in the US a…

Department stores once accounted for 10% of retail sales, and now they account for less than 1%.In their heyday, they were the traffic-driving engines of shopping malls, occupying the giant spaces at mall entrances that helped adjacent smaller chains thrive. But over the years, a combination of factors including over-expansion, shifting spending habits, and the rise of e-commerce drove shoppers away from department stores. As these stores struggled, they took down hundreds of malls with them.Now…