The Drive-Thru: Happy New Year, Beyond Meat's fast-food takeover, and layoffs at a hot skincare company
Happy New Year! May your 2020 be full of fast food and free of retail apocalypses.
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Inside Beyond Meat's fast-food takeover
I pulled together a year of reporting on Beyond Meat to try and understand what the company is doing in its partnerships with fast-food chains.
"These large QSRs want something that is unique and special that also reflects their culinary direction," Beyond Meat's chief growth officer, Chuck Muth, told me.
"That's where our capabilities come in," Muth added. "We have the capabilities here of customizing items that work. And that's part of the entrepreneur scrappiness. It's not a one-size-fits-all."
Read the full story of how Beyond Meat is changing fast food here.
Layoffs at a massively popular skincare company
Skincare company Rodan + Fields laid off roughly 15% of its corporate workforce "across all levels and departments" in early December, the company confirmed to Hayley this week. That adds up to 86 of roughly 560 corporate employees losing their jobs.
Rodan + Fields is the most popular skincare brand in North America by sales, with its products available online and through more than 300,000 consultants.
"Decisions like this are never easy, and we are extremely grateful for the dedication, hard work and passion that our Home Office team has brought to this company," president and CEO Diane Dietz said in an emailed statement. "We remain committed to our powerful business model as we reorganize to be more agile, focus on global expansion, and ensure that we have sufficient on-the-ground resources available for our launch in Japan."
A pizza-filled new year
We welcomed 2020 with some random pizza news.
First, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ripped into Domino's for its prices in the city on New Year's Eve. However, Áine reports, the pizza prices were on par with the chain's typical prices in a city where keeping a restaurant open is a costly endeavor.
Second, Papa John's founder and ex-CEO John Schnatter doubled down on his appreciation for pizza. Schnatter said on Instagram that he plans to to eat 50 pizzas in 30 days in 2020, besting his claims of eating 40 pizzas in 30 days in 2019. Schnatter was ousted from the chain in 2018, after admitting to using the N-word in a company conference call.
Taste test: The best chicken sandwich in LA
Chicken sandwich expert Irene visited Howlin' Ray's in Los Angeles. Her take: This chicken sandwich tops them all.
Irene's take: "It wasn't just the chicken that made my meal at Howlin' Ray's special. It was the fun, life-affirming energy of the people who work there. The food was so good that the staff could probably get away with terrible service. But the staff members treated each of their guests like a VIP."
Read the full taste test here.
Everything else you need to know:
- Full-time retail jobs have all but disappeared over the last decade.
- How millennials killed "millennials are killing."
- A police officer admitted he wrote "f---ing pig" on his own McDonald's cup.
- A viral video highlights why Chick-fil-A is dominating the fast-food competition.
- Watch out for listeria in eggs!