With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• Lunds & Byerlys said yesterday that it has reached a tentative agreement with Local 663 of the united Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).
The text of the company's statement:
"Lunds & Byerlys deeply values every team member and that is reflected in the tentative agreement we have reached with UFCW Local 663 on a new two-year retail contract. The agreement, which was unanimously supported by the union’s bargaining committee, will now go to a ratification vote by all members on Saturday, July 1.
"The tentative agreement ensures we will continue to provide industry-leading wages while also working with the union to make much-needed improvements to the current multi-employer healthcare plan. As we had requested, this agreement calls for those improvements to be made within the next 12 months. If the improvements are not made, then our team members would have the opportunity to vote to stay on the multi-employer healthcare plan or move to our plan.
"Our resolve from the onset of these negotiations has been to champion industry-leading wages and a better healthcare plan for our team members, and we’re pleased the tentative agreement provides these benefits to our team members."
• From Southern Living:
"If you want to be in the inner circle of Chick-fil-A’s latest and greatest, we have exciting news: Little Blue Menu, the beloved chicken giant’s innovative kitchen brand, is launching a brand-new food truck that will test menu items in Louisville, Kentucky, for a limited time this summer.
"Little Blue Menu was piloted as a food delivery service in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2021 and took its name from the blue paper menu that Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy used at his first restaurant, the Dwarf Grill (now Dwarf House) in 1946. Truett was known to tweak his menu after various customer requests - a vision that has shaped the experimental Little Blue Menu … Chick-fil-A has confirmed that the Little Blue Menu food truck will serve French fries, cookies, and traditional bone-in wings developed by chefs at the Atlanta-based fast-food chain."
I'm a big fan of food trucks as marketing vehicles - literally - for retailers and restaurants. I think that appropriately and surgically used, they can build brand awareness by bringing a store's best and most popular items out to where customers are, as opposed to waiting for them to coms to the store.
