"money" news and stories

Recorking is a term applied when a partially full bottle of wine is re-sealed so that the patron can take it to-go if they haven't finished it by the time their meal is over. Some restaurants even stock specially sized bags - clear in states that require it and discrete brown in most other locations - for packing up the unfinished bottles. Packing up bottles of wine is less common than packing a regular doggie-bag, so not all restaurants will have appropriate bags, but even without them, restaurants are starting to use recorking as a means of increasing their margins, boosting liquor sales by encouraging patrons to buy bottles, rather than just a glass at a time.

Getting the bottles to-go can be trickier than it sounds, however. Thirty-four states may currently allow it, but forty states have open-container laws that prohibit open bottles of alcohol, even corked ones, from being in a moving vehicle (the specifics depend on the state).

Difficulties of getting the bottle home aside, does recorking make you more likely to go for the full bottle? Would it if a favorite restaurant began to offer the service?

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It is probably not surprising to hear that kids often use money they are given to purchase school lunches to buy junk food, either on campus or after school. What is surprising is the number of students who do it. Researchers in the UK found that more than 2 million students, about 25% of all students from 4 to 16, skip lunch and buy junk foods with the money, and roughly 1 million students in the same age range "fib" about the amount of fruits and vegetables that they eat.

If there was ever a good reason to take the time to pack a lunch at home for kids to take to school, and to make sure kids are eating healthy at least while they are at home, this is it. Kids can still have cookies, chips and candy sometimes, but the report indicated that "some [students] even cheat by throwing away oranges and bananas in their lunchboxes but bringing home the peel." Kids should also to learn to eat - and appreciate - the foods that are good for them to develop healthy eating habits.

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It is not surprising to note that a meal eaten at a restaurant is more expensive than one eaten at home. You are paying for the cooking and service, as well as for the food itself. What is surprising is that people are actually spending more money eating out than eating at home overall.

Official figures released in Britain show that people are spending £2 billion more on restaurant food than on food that they might cook themselves. On top of that, spending on food and drink has more than doubled in the same time period, which indicates that people are eating more food, more often.

With the rise in popularity of cooking programs and the ever-growing trend for gourmet home cooking, it is possible that the numbers will hold as they are, though few people want to give up "exotic" foods that they think they can't cook at home, like curries and sushi.

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Intelligentsia Coffee is on a mission to get the best beans money can buy, and they have an unusual strategy for getting results. Instead of seeking out beans and trying to get the at the lowest price point possible, they seek out direct trade relationships with growers, help them to grow the best coffee they can and then pay them far more than the going rate for the beans. In fact, they pay growers over 25% more than the Fair Trade coffee prices. They charge their customers a fair price, too, and no one is complaining.

Their goal is "to create a culture of quality" on "the grower side and the consumer side."

Why isn't Fair Trade's standard good enough for Intelligentsia? "Fair Trade relates to working conditions, not the quality of coffee beans." And while the working conditions are important, it is the beans, not the workers, which flavor the coffee. With the growers, Intelligentsia offers financial incentives and trains them to improve their growing methods, producing premium beans. They also help communities develop coffee tasting centers and teach them to evaluate their own products, because Intelligentsia pays individual farmers based on their products, not a flat rate to a production company or co-op. Furthermore, one of their guarantees to their growers is that their rates will only increase over time.

The company's promise to consumers is some of the best coffee in the world.

They supply coffee to restaurants like Alinea and sell their blends online, as well as at retail stores in Chicago.

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Some schools are offering parents a new way to watch what their kids eat. Instead of simply offering healthier choices in the school cafeteria, students will have to use a fingerprint scanner to "pay" for their foods. The scanner debits an account that the parents maintain and it will have built in spending limits, so parents can set aside $5, or whatever the cost of the school lunch is. The main benefit of the scanner is not to provide an easier way to pay for lunch, but to prevent kids from buying unhealthy junk foods when they're off campus. If they don't have any cash, they will be forced to "buy" their food as school, rather than skipping lunch and eating a king sized Kit Kat and a Slurpee after school.

There are other applications to the fingerprint scanners that might make them a more useful choice for schools, as well. For example, they could replace the regular "roll call" and students could sign in by scanning their finger when walking in to class.

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