Oatly, the popular plant-based milk alternative, wasted no time diving into its 2020 goal to increase retail distribution by announcing a partnership with Starbucks that will allow the coffee chain to offer new non-dairy option for its Midwest locations.
It's been more than 20 years since Starbucks introduced its soy latte option, just as plant-based milks were beginning to gain popularity. The regional launch will offer Oatly as an alternative to traditional daily in 1,300 Midwest locations and will be featured in Starbucks' new Oatmilk Honey Latte.
Oatly quickly gained popularity after the Swedish company made its way to the U.S. in 2017. "We started in specialty coffee, introducing oat milk and Oatly to Americans through their morning latte," Mike Messersmith, U.S. general manager, told Cheddar. Starbucks has offered the option in locations across Europe since 2018 and Starbucks Reserve locations since 2019.
In 2018, Oatly became so popular that it could not keep up with its consumers' demands and was plagued with a supply crisis. However, Messersmith says Oatly is doing better than ever with the opening of its New Jersey factory and the building of a second factory. "Since that opened in May we've really been able to increase our output and capacity significantly," Messersmith said.
As climate change remains a public concern, the GM says Oatly offers consumers an option to help the environment. "A carton of Oatly versus an equivalent volume of whole cow's milk, roughly 65 percent less carbon impact, went into making our product versus theirs," Messersmith said.
The booming popularity of Oatly in the U.S. seems only to be increasing along with the number of people transitioning to a meat and dairy-free diet. Messersmith says offering Oatly in a consumer's morning coffee is a great first step into more plant-based eating.
"With people making transitions to plant-based diets, you want to have that first really positive experience," Messersmith said.
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A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
