Weekend Digest: The Hillary On Tour Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

STARBUCKS TO GIVE CUSTOMERS CHARGE OTHER THAN CAFFEINE
USA Today reports Starbucks and Duracell Powermat have teamed up to give customers a charge, literally.

In a strategic move that gives consumers yet another reason to waltz into the store, Starbucks and Duracell Powermat announced they’ve begun a national rollout of wireless phone chargers in Starbucks and Teavana locations.

Starting at stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, consumers will be able to set their cellphones down on designated spots on their tabletop, and their batteries will charge as they eat, drink, read or chat. No plugs. No cables. No cost. No joke.

Calling it a “tech-enabled gathering place,” click on this link for Starbucks’ details on the roll-out over the next three years.

WORLD CUP’S BIGGEST MATCH
The World Cup kicked-off this past week and Marketplace says the biggest match won’t be between competitors from the various countries, but rather from two apparel and shoe companies.

The World Cup starts this Thursday, but a match of a different sort is already well under way: the sales competition between Nike and Adidas.

The two companies go at it year after year, but the World Cup is a rare opportunity to market products to the entire world. Not only that, but Nike and Adidas launched a slew of new jerseys, shoes and soccer balls all leading up the start of the World Cup.

So who is leading in the global match, even though one company has been at it much longer than the other? Go to this link for the lowdown on the staggering amount of sales these two companies will rack up as customers get World Cup fever.

THE NOSE KNOWS
The Wall Street Journal says, “His nose is the most valuable in the liquor business.” His name ironically is Jim Beveridge and he is the master blender for Johnnie Walker Scotch-whisky brand.

In the last 200 years, there have been fewer Johnnie Walker master blenders than British monarchs. With only 14 years on the job, Jim Beveridge has barely passed his probation. But for Diageo PLC, maker of the popular Scotch-whisky brand, Mr. Beveridge is indispensable.

He uses his sensory talents to create individual blends of Scotch for clients who want much more than an expensive bottle from duty-free. The starting price for a case of your own signature blend? Around $130,000.

Beveridge is “only the sixth master blender since John Walker distilled his first Scotch whisky in Kilmarnock, Scotland, in 1820.”

Go inside The Journal story to learn more about this master blender and why his nose is so valuable in an industry that is booming. And, is Beveridge’s nose actually insured?  Click on this link to find out.

COMPANY LINKS ARCHITECTS AND CLIENTS
Fast Company calls it a Match.com for architects and clients. The company is called Architizer.

The site, best known for featuring architects’ portfolios, is betting that it can attract real estate developers and private owners with ground-up projects and match those buyers with its community of design talent.

“Finding an architect is a task filled with mystery and frustration,” Architizer founder and CEO Marc Kushner, AIA, said in a statement. Kushner launched Find and Architect today with the goal of solving that problem.

Interested?  Go to this site for a “blueprint” on how it works and could benefit you.

GOP INCUMBENTS REVIEWING CANTOR LOSS

It was a shocking loss. One for the ages, and now The New York Times reports, “Incumbents fear Cantor’s loss will fill Tea Party’s sails.”

This past week, little-known Virginia Tea Party candidate Dave Brat, a college professor, defeated No. 2 House Republican, Eric Cantor in a primary. Some described the loss as a “political earthquake.”

What happened?

Congressional Republicans thought they had found an answer for the conservative insurgencies that had toppled unsuspecting incumbents in recent years: Be prepared, be aggressive and be conservative.

The approach had been working pretty well as senior Republicans in the Senate and the House beat back challenges from the right in the primaries. They hoped to shut out Tea Party-allied groups entirely and deter them from similar disruptive efforts in the future. Now, Representative Eric Cantor’s shocking defeat has battered the door down altogether, giving conservative activists a political scalp of the first magnitude and showing that a populist movement some saw as flagging still has the power to rattle the establishment.

For the full story and complete analysis on what this huge victory may mean for both the GOP and Tea Party moving forward, click on this link.

A POPULIST TIDE
POLITICO Magazine has reprinted an eyebrow raising post from Doug Sosnik. Who is Doug Sosnik?

Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik was a close adviser to President Bill Clinton, and he’s famed in Washington circles for his closely held, big-think memos on the state of American politics. We got our hands on his latest — in which he warns of a rising populist tide that threatens to swamp Republicans and Democrats alike.

It’s about American’s alienation from the political system that Sosnik says has been building for a decade.

The current discontent with the leadership in our country, coupled with long-term domestic economic trends dating back to the early 1980s, is beginning to force a redrawing of the political lines that have separated Americans since the culture wars of the 1960s.

Across the political spectrum, there is an growing populist push for a retrenchment from global affairs, with a renewed focus on the problems here at home.

“Which side of the barricade are you on?”  For a dynamic read, follow this link.

PRESS IS READY FOR HILLARY
While Hilllary Clinton continues to toy with her decision to run for president, POLITICO reports the media isn’t buying it.

Clinton made the interview rounds this past week coinciding with the release of her 600-page memoir, and she faced a gaggle of hard-hitting questions, most unrelated to the book.

The first media interviews this week were vintage Hillary Clinton: She joked; dodged; chatted; defended; and even blew a question.

The more revealing performance came from her interrogators. The press made clear that they are locked and loaded for an expected Clinton candidacy – and that the long and complex relationship between Clinton and an aggressive media that she is known to loathe will be further tested as her possible 2016 candidacy heats up.

Find out how she was tested at this link.

HILLARY IN PHOTOS THROUGH THE YEAR
The Washington Post reports, …” the story of one of the richest political careers in modern history, begins as her husband’s did, in Little Rock.”

That’s where it began. How will it end?

For now The Post gives us, “28 photos that tell the story of Hillary Clinton’s political life.”

Take a stroll down Memory Lane at this link.

EVER SEEN RONALD McDONALD TAKE A BITE OUT OF A BIG MAC?
In fact you haven’t, nor any other of the fast food giant’s bill-of-fare.

When Ronald McDonald was first introduced to America in the 1960s, he wore a magic belt that dispensed an endless supply of hamburgers.

But today, according to both food advocates and McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson, America’s most recognizable clown won’t go near a Big Mac.

Not even those delicious fries? What’s up with that?

For the story with “extra cheese” follow this link from Huffington Post.

McDONALD’S AGAIN

We gave you a Ronald fix, but what about the restaurants and the Golden Arches themselves?  Ever wonder how those arches came about?  How long has the Egg McMuffin been around and how did it all begin?

More than any chain, McDonald’s is what you probably think of when you think of the word “behemoth.” It’s simply massive, and is most likely the only company that just about everybody on earth has heard of.

But where did it come from? What’s its deal, really?

The company has a wild history and has struggled throughout its existence to remain on top and relevant, and there are plenty of facts about this fast food giant that you most likely don’t know.

In fact, Kitchen Daily has posted 11 of them. Go to this link for “11 Things You Didn’t Know About McDonald’s.”