• Amazon announced Alexa+, its new voice assistant, on Wednesday.
• The company unveiled AI-powered features for Alexa+.
• Amazon has spent years trying to grow its Alexa business after early success.

Alexa just got a long-awaited AI upgrade.

Amazon unveiled Alexa+, its latest voice assistant, at an event Wenesday morning in New York City.

Among the additions are AI-powered features. The new Alexa can provide dinner recipes, text friends and family, and send out party invitations, among other things, Panos Panay, Amazon's senior vice president of devices and services, said at the event.

Alexa+ can also create bedtime stories for kids using generative AI, Amazon said. The assistant will also work with tens of thousands of partner companies for specific tasks, such as calling a car through a ride-hailing app or booking a restaurant reservation.

The assistant will be free for Amazon Prime members. Outside of Prime, users will have to pay $19.99 a month for Alexa+. That's about the same cost as ChatGPT Plus.

Users will start to have access in the new few weeks, with Alexa+ hitting certain Echo Show devices in the coming months, Amazon said.

AI has also eliminated "precise 'Alexa' language," Amazon said in a rundown of the changes. The assistant now picks up on users' tone of voice. For example, on Wednesday, Alexa+ appeared to reassure Panay when he sounded nervous about being onstage with hundreds of people watching.

"Alexa+ learns from you and the more you use it, the more personalized it gets — understanding everything from your favorite entertainment to your family's dietary preferences, allergies, and weekly traditions," Amazon said.

Alexa+ is available on Echo devices with screens as well as through voice-only devices and a smartphone app, Amazon said.

Amazon has been working on a voice assistant that would have integrations with other companies, such as Uber and Ticketmaster, Business Insider reported last year.

But progress has been slow, BI reported. Teams working on the revisions previously wanted to have them ready in time for this past holiday season, but they have had to delay the launch until this year.

In tests, the new Alexa gave answers that were too long or didn't directly answer users' questions, BI reported.

Adding features that customers want to use, AI or otherwise, matters right now for Amazon's voice assistant business, especially as Apple works on improving its AI capabilities in tandem with its Siri voice assistant.

Amazon has faced slowing demand for Alexa despite early success last decade. It's not alone: Usage for Apple's Siri and Google Assistant has also declined since 2020, according to data from EMARKETER, a sister company of BI.

• Customers making false refund requests are a big problem for food delivery apps, per a new report.
• Diners often can often get their money back even when nothing is wrong with their order.
• That can lead to losses for the delivery apps.

Asking for a refund on your food delivery — even when there's not anything wrong with it — is a big problem for delivery services, according to a new report.

About 48% of consumer fraud on delivery apps involved "refund fraud," according to a report released Wednesday by Incognia, a fraud-prevention company. Incognia works with gig delivery apps, including Grubhub and Texas-based Favor, and analyzed instances it detected on the apps.

"You can say the food wasn't good, the food was cold, there was something missing," André Ferraz, the CEO and cofounder of Incognia, told Business Insider. "How do you verify these things? It's very difficult."

It's an ongoing issue. Telegram groups and TikTok videos show would-be fraudsters how to request refunds and set up new accounts when the old ones get shut down, CNBC reported last year. Some even use "r3fund" instead of the correct spelling to avoid getting deleted.

On many apps, customers can get their money back on a few orders in a row, Ferraz said. "But if you do that 10 times, then the platform will not allow you to ask for refunds," he said. "You're abusing the platform."

However, some particularly determined fraudsters can obtain multiple emails and phone numbers to open multiple accounts and keep requesting refunds, Ferraz said.

Fraudulent returns cost retailers across the board $103 billion in 2024, a report from fraud prevention company Appriss Retail and Deloitte found.

Some users also use promotions from the apps to make money, Incognia's report found. In some cases that Incognia analyzed, for instance, a single user used multiple email addresses to create new accounts, each of which got a discount on an order for new customers.

That made up the 48% of fraud that Incognia found on food delivery platforms. Often, the scams draw on money that the apps have earmarked for attracting and retaining new customers.

"This method of abuse can drain marketing campaign budgets, increase user acquisition costs, and distort growth metrics," Incognia's report reads.

Some delivery services say that they have ways of detecting these types of fraud.

Uber Eats' website says that the company takes "fraudulent behavior seriously" and it has "filters in place to monitor both customer and delivery person behavior."

"We will not make adjustments on suspicious refunds," the company says.

DoorDash last year started sending a four-digit number to some customers to prevent fraud. The customers are supposed to provide the PIN to the delivery worker when they arrive as a verification that they received the delivery.

While the "vast majority" of customers are honest, "there may be times when a consumer makes a report that turns out to be inaccurate or even more rarely makes a false report," DoorDash said at the time.

Still, keeping up with fraudsters can be difficult, Incognia's Ferraz said, since they often use new tactics and ever-changing contact information.

But there are ways of identifying who is likely making an honest request and whether accounts are legitimate. When someone creates an account on a delivery service, for instance, Incognia looks to see whether their device's location is near the address listed on their driver's license. If it is, that makes it more likely that the applicant is who they say they are, Ferraz said.

"You need to keep up with all the things that fraudsters are creating," he said.

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• Starbucks said it would lay off 1,100 corporate employees this week.
• The coffee chain said it would notify affected employees by midday Tuesday.
• CEO Brian Niccol is trying to turn around results at the Seattle-based chain.

Starbucks said it would lay off 1,100 corporate employees this week and halt hiring for hundreds of open roles.

Employees whose jobs are being eliminated will hear from Starbucks by midday Tuesday, the company said.

"We are simplifying our structure, removing layers and duplication and creating smaller, more nimble teams," CEO Brian Niccol said in a letter on Monday announcing the layoffs. "Our intent is to operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration."

The company said employees at Starbucks' stores would not be affected by the layoffs.

Starbucks has 16,000 employees across its corporate offices and other areas of the business, such as roasting operations. It said that not all of those employees were on teams affected by the layoffs.

Starbucks has been seeking to rejuvenate sliding sales in the US, its main market. Niccol, who was named CEO in September, has said the company needs to prioritize the customer experience, including focusing more on baristas, whom the company calls "partners."

"I recognize the news is difficult," he said in the memo. "We believe it's a necessary change to position Starbucks for future success — and to ensure we deliver for our green apron partners and the customers they serve."

Starbucks has been making changes to its stores since Niccol joined the company.

Partners at stores are now encouraged to write notes to customers on their paper cups. Starbucks also rolled back its open-door policy and requires patrons to buy something in order to use the store's bathroom or get a cup of water.

Under Niccol, the company has also reduced the number of promotions it offers members of Starbucks' rewards program.

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• Food delivery workers relied on tips for a majority of their gross pay last year, per a new study.
• Tips were also a major source of income for grocery delivery workers, according to Gridwise.
• Gig workers have said that pay from services like DoorDash and Uber Eats often isn't enough.

The person who delivers your restaurant order might be relying on your tips to make rent.

Food delivery drivers made 53.4% of their total earnings from tips on average last year, a report from data analytics company Gridwise published on Tuesday found.

The pay that companies such as DoorDash and Uber Eats offer to deliver orders can be as low as $2 or $3, gig workers have told Business Insider. That means that many delivery workers look to customers to make the deliveries they make profitable, said Ryan Green, CEO of Gridwise.

"It's relying on the consumer," Green told BI.

According to the report, tips represented 45.7% of the earnings of workers who delivered groceries. Ride-hailing drivers earned just 10.4% of their money from tips.

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Gridwise's report looked at several aspects of gig work, including gig workers' pay on each of the major ride-hailing and delivery apps. The company analyzed 171 million trips and $1.9 billion worth of gig worker earnings to compile its findings for 2024.

Uber declined to comment on Gridwise's finding. A company spokesperson told BI that Uber offers a suggested tip on food orders — most commonly 15% — though customers decide the amount. It also encourages customers to tip more during inclement weather, such as snow storms.

An Instacart spokesperson called Gridwise's conclusion "inaccurate and misleading." Instacart asks customers if they want to increase their tips when they give a shopper a five-star rating. Since 2022, the company has also offered to pay shoppers up to $10 when a customer takes their tip away after delivery.

DoorDash did not respond to a request for comment on the findings from BI.

Tips have long been a big focus for gig workers. Some have told BI that they decide which orders to take depending on how much the tip is. But that can be risky: Some drivers for Walmart's Spark delivery service said last year that customers sometimes take back their tips after their order arrives — a tactic that the workers call "tip baiting."

Other apps, including Instacart and DoorDash, have countered that practice by shortening the time that customers have to adjust their tip amount.

In late 2023, DoorDash started telling some customers that their orders might take longer to arrive if they didn't tip. A company spokesperson told BI at the time that DoorDash's gig workers can choose which orders they take.

Do you work for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, or another company as a gig worker and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501.

• Food companies are trying to cater to shoppers taking GLP-1 medications.
• Many people on Ozempic, Wegovy, and other drugs eat less and get full faster.
• Companies like Conagra and General Mills are responding with special frozen meals and soups.

Food companies behind everything from canned soup to frozen dinners are trying to win over a growing group: People who are eating less due to GLP-1 medications.

General Mills, Conagra, and other companies are launching new, smaller-portion products and adding labels aimed at people taking Ozempic, Wegovy, and similar weight-loss drugs. The goal is to keep grocery shoppers buying their product — even if they eat less of it.

However, some of their products don't involve a revolutionary new approach. They're items that people on a health kick who aren't on the drugs may already be choosing.

For example, Conagra, which makes Marie Callender's frozen food and Slim Jim beef jerky, now labels some of its Healthy Choice brand frozen meals "GLP-1 Friendly," CEO Sean Connolly said at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York's annual conference on Tuesday. The meals tend to be smaller portions, reflective of users' tendency to eat less, he said.

"That's a navigation aid or a wayfinder for consumers who are currently on GLP-1s," Connolly said.

The companies' actions are the food industry's latest response to the spread of the drugs.

Many people using GLP-1s feel full faster and have fewer cravings for salty or sugary foods. One study has suggested that medications like Ozempic lead people to drink less alcohol.

"They're actually eating more single-serve meals, more bites and appetizers, and more vegetables," Bob Nolan, Conagra's senior vice president of demand science, said during Conagra's presentation at the conference.

About 6% of consumers are taking a GLP-1 medication, Nolan said. The company expects that percentage to grow, thanks to advances such as GLP-1s that can be swallowed as a pill instead of injected and better insurance coverage for the medications.

General Mills, which makes Progresso canned soup, is now marketing a high-protein version to users.

"This year, we're targeting GLP-1 consumers and telling them how Progresso's protein and fiber benefits can fit seamlessly into their new routine," CEO Jeff Harmening said at the conference in a separate presentation on Tuesday. High-protein diets are also popular among many athletes — and ordinary people looking to tone up at the gym, perhaps.

General Mills has introduced other foods meant for Ozempic users, such as Betty Crocker brownie mixes with lower sugar.

• Starbucks is mulling a change to how customers get coffee when they order through the chain's app.
• Customers have been asking to choose a specific pickup time, CEO Brian Niccol said.
• Mobile ordering is an area Niccol is looking at as Starbucks attempts a turnaround.

Starbucks might soon ask you to choose a time to pick up your morning cup of coffee.

CEO Brian Niccol told The Wall Street Journal that the chain was considering the change to its mobile ordering system to help customers and baristas.

Right now, Starbucks' mobile app gives customers a pickup time — sometimes as little as a few minutes — when they place an order. Niccol said that often doesn't reflect when the customer can actually stop by to get their drink, especially if they aren't near a store when they order.

"When you mobile order, you'll get a message that says that the beverage will be ready in three minutes," he told the Journal. "But you physically can't get there in three minutes."

That leads to a mismatch between "when the customer wants it and when we should be making it," the CEO said.

He added that some Starbucks customers had been asking to choose when they retrieve their order. "The number-one request is actually 'Let me pick what time I can come pick up my beverage,'" he said.

Starbucks' mobile ordering system has been a sore spot for customers and for the employees who make their drinks.

Some store employees, whom Starbucks refers to as "partners," told Business Insider last fall that their locations were often overwhelmed by the number of mobile orders. They said that led to long wait times for customers as the partners struggled to prepare drinks and catch up.

Workers told BI that promotions for members of Starbucks' rewards program, especially those offering customers a discount if they ordered several drinks at once, contributed to the problem. Under Niccol, Starbucks has reined in the number of promotions it offers to rewards members.

Niccol became Starbucks' CEO in September. Since then, he has detailed a turnaround plan for the coffee chain aimed at reversing sales declines.

Niccol said this month that Starbucks' mobile ordering system "chipped away" at the chain's "soul." He argued that many baristas were too busy preparing drinks to chat with customers and provide other personalized services that Niccol wants the chain to be known for.

Niccol told the Journal he wanted to improve Starbucks' mobile ordering system over the next year.

"At a minimum, we will be a lot better than where we are today," he said.

Do you work at Starbucks and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• Gig workers for Uber, Instacart, and other services made less money for their time in 2024.
• Even when delivery and ride-hailing drivers made more, their hours rose, too, a new report found.
• Gig workers have said their jobs have gotten more competitive and less lucrative in recent years.

Gig workers for Uber, Instacart, and other services made less money on average in 2024 — even as the number of hours that they worked rose, in some cases.

Uber hide-hailing drivers saw their earnings for 2024 fall 3.4% on average to $513 a week, according to a study released Tuesday by data analytics company Gridwise. At the same time, Uber drivers worked 0.8% more hours in 2024.

Lyft drivers, meanwhile, worked 5.4% fewer hours in 2024, but saw their pay decline at a faster clip of 13.9% to $318 a week.

Workers who shop and deliver orders for Instacart saw their pay for the year decline 8% to $194. Their hours worked fell 4.9%.

"Drivers are earning less across all of the platforms," Ryan Green, the CEO of Gridwise, told Business Insider.

Meantime at DoorDash, gross weekly earnings rose 4.8% to $240 in 2024. Hourly earnings for those on the app fell, though, as the number of hours that gig workers spent on the app rose 5.2%.

Amazon Flex workers were in a similar situation. Their earnings soared 18.1% to $413 a week — just as their hours increased 20.4%.

Uber Eats workers made $178 a week, or 5.1% more than 2023. Average worker hours on the app rose 2.1%, though.

The only app where workers earned significantly more money for the same or less work was Favor, a service owned by Texas supermarket H-E-B that delivers online orders for the chain. There, workers saw their pay rise 3.4% to $155 a week in 2024 as their hours worked fell 13.1%.

In response to the report, an Uber spokesperson told BI that its drivers make more than $30 an hour on average.

A Lyft spokesperson referred BI to comments that CEO David Risher made this month on the company's earnings call, including that ride-hailing drivers on the app earned a collective $9 billion in 2024. That was "the highest amount of combine driver earnings on our platform ever," Risher said.

An Instacart spokesperson called the report's findings "inaccurate and misleading."

"Shopper earnings remain steady across the Instacart platform, and we continue to hear from shoppers that Instacart creates rewarding, flexible earnings opportunities that allow them to earn on their own time and their own terms," the spokesperson said.

DoorDash declined to comment. Amazon and Favor did not respond to requests for comment.

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Gridwise obtained the data for the report using its own app, which it markets to gig workers to track their earnings and expenses. The company analyzed 171 million trips and $1.9 billion worth of gig worker earnings documented by the app to compile its findings for 2024.

The report also found that the average restaurant delivery worker relied on tips for a majority — 53.4% — of their earnings. For grocery delivery workers, 45.7% of earnings came from tips.

Tips were much less significant for ride-hailing drivers, Gridwise found. Gratuities made up just 10.4% of earnings, per the report.

Gig workers have told BI that claiming good-paying rides and orders on the apps has gotten more competitive. Some workers have even set up their own businesses to offer rides or deliver restaurant food in hopes of making more money than they do on the apps.

Consumers, meanwhile, told Gridwise that they plan to keep using ride-hailing and delivery services despite the lingering effects of inflation on many items in Americans' monthly budgets.

Majorities of the 1,000 customers surveyed by Gridwise in January said that they thought prices on both ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft as well as grocery delivery apps like Instacart were "reasonable."

"They talk about being price-sensitive, but their actions reflect differently," Green said.

Do you work for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, or another service that uses gig workers and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Some Uber and Lyft drivers are creating cooperatives.
• The drivers own the cooperatives, which are more transparent and increase earnings, they say.
• Gig workers say that claiming rides and making money has gotten harder.

San Diego ride-hailing driver Lee Sperry has spent the last year pushing for better treatment from Uber and Lyft as a member of the advocacy group San Diego Drivers United.

But lately, he's asking: Why not create something that drivers could use instead of Uber or Lyft?

Sperry and several hundred fellow drivers in San Diego are exploring forming a cooperative. Instead of driving for the established apps, Sperry said, they would set up their own app, elect leaders to manage it, and create transparent policies around issues such as deactivating drivers.

"The co-op would be very different in the way it operates, in the way that we handle how the app works and how the pricing goes, how the driver gets paid, how the hiring goes, who makes the decisions," he told Business Insider in an interview.

Many ride-hailing drivers are looking for ways to make money outside the apps as their earnings fall and claiming rides gets harder. Some have created their own black-car businesses, for instance.

Others, like Sperry, are creating these ride-hailing cooperatives, a nonprofit model that they say could yield better returns for drivers.

In some cities, driver co-ops already exist.

In New York City, The Drivers Cooperative has been offering rides since 2021.

Another, Drivers Co-op Colorado, launched last September. The co-op has about 16,000 drivers, and it guarantees them 80% of each fare that riders pay. Many ride-hailing drivers say they get paid less than half of the fare on other apps. The co-op's promise also represents a greater share than Lyft, which says it pays drivers 70% of the weekly rider payments they earn after fees.

Phred Riggs, one of the co-op's drivers, said that he has seen his pay decline for the same rides on Uber over the last few years.

A ride between downtown Denver and Denver International Airport — a trip of about 21 miles that takes about 30 minutes with light traffic — used to pay drivers about $35, he said. These days, the same journey grosses about $16. Through the co-op's set prices, which don't surge based on demand, a driver can earn $33.60 for the same trip.

To start driving for the co-op, Riggs and other drivers had to undergo a background check, a requirement that Uber and Lyft also have. Unlike the big apps, though, the co-op also requires potential drivers to attend an orientation session. They also have the option to buy a stake in the co-op for $200.

The co-op requires drivers to use dash cams, which can provide evidence in case either a passenger or driver claims that something bad happened during a ride. It has a committee to review those cases and decide whether to issue a warning or dismiss the driver from its app, said Isaac Chinyoka, the co-op's general manager.

Uber, Lyft, and other gig work apps often deactivate drivers' accounts without providing a clear justification or a transparent investigation. Some drivers have told BI that following up with the companies or requesting arbitration to get their accounts reactivated can be a complicated process, especially without being able to talk to someone face-to-face.

This co-op has a physical office in Denver where drivers can speak face-to-face with leadership, Chinyoka said.

"We don't just take off the driver immediately without going through that due process," he told BI. "We sit down with the driver. They know."

Lyft told BI that its drivers can take on other employment, including "services similar to rideshare services to other companies," under its terms of service for independent contractors.

"Drivers are independent contractors and have the freedom to work however and whenever they want — for example, by driving for other ride-share platforms," an Uber spokesperson told BI.

Luis Arias, a ride-hailing driver and another member of San Diego Drivers United, said that he hopes a co-op would be able to tackle a variety of issues beyond pay, such as combating drivers who buy and use accounts in other peoples' names to offer rides.

"It's not just about how bad we're getting screwed about the pay rates, but now it is a safety concern issue as well," he told BI.

Do you work for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, or another company as a gig worker and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Fast food chains from McDonald's to Wendy's are still offering value options.
• Customers are buying them — and often adding other things to their orders.
• Fast-food restaurants are planning more deals as inflation ticks up again.

Major fast-food chains keep rolling out new value options. Early signs suggest the strategy might be working.

Restaurants from McDonald's to Taco Bell have continued offering deals aimed at budget-conscious customers so far in 2025. Many started beefing up their value offerings in 2024 when some diners started looking for alternatives to traditional fast food, such as Chili's.

In earnings calls over the past two weeks, many food companies said that the deals are pulling in customers — and getting them to add other items to their orders as well.

McDonald's $5 value meal, which it introduced last summer as a limited-time offer, became a full-time part of the chain's value meal in January. CEO Chris Kempczinski said in an earnings call on Monday that people who order the deal spend an average of $10 at McDonald's after they add other items.

"It's doing what we were hoping for when we launched that," he said.

McDonald's new value menu also allows patrons to purchase some items for full price, such as a Sausage McMuffin or a McChicken, for full price, then get a second one for $1. That offering has performed in-line with the chain's expectations, Kempczinski said.

Taco Bell's $7 Luxe Box was "one of the most compelling value offerings in the industry," David Gibbs, CEO of parent company Yum! Brands, said on an earnings call last week. The deal includes a chalupa, taco, burrito, chips, nacho cheese, and a fountain drink.

Last month, Wendy's launched a 2 for $7 deal, which allows customers to pick two items from a lineup of a burger, two chicken sandwiches, and nuggets for $7. The deal ends in March.

The chain is also planning to offer new options through its Biggie Bag option, which includes a sandwich, nuggets, fries, and a drink for $5. It was one of the offerings that helped drive Wendy's average order amount higher for the fourth quarter, the company said in its earnings.

"Obviously, consumers are still looking for value," CEO Kirk Tanner said on a call on Thursday. "That's going to be an important part of our strategy" for 2025, he added.

Value deals could become even more important this year if inflation starts creeping up again.

On Wednesday, fresh federal data showed that the consumer price index rose faster than expected. The food portion of the index also increased more than estimated.

Even if Wednesday's increase turns out to be a one-off, many consumers are still feeling the pinch of food prices that have remained high for years. Catering to them remains a goal for the chains in 2025.

Do you work at McDonald's, Wendy's, or another fast-food restaurant and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Wendy's is expanding its use of voice AI to take orders at its drive-thrus.
• The chain will have the technology at as many as 600 restaurants by the end of 2025.
• Voice AI has messed up some customers' orders, though Wendy's CEO says it's getting better.

Hundreds of Wendy's drive-thrus will use AI to take orders by the end of 2025, the fast-food chain's CEO said Thursday.

Wendy's will have the technology at 500 to 600 restaurants by the end of the year, CEO Kirk Tanner said. The chain started testing the AI voice assistant in 2023 and currently uses it at about 100 restaurants, he said. Wendy's has just under 6,000 restaurants in the US.

Tanner personally tests the voice AI a few times a week at a location near Wendy's headquarters, he told analysts during Wendy's fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday. Wendy's is working with Google Cloud on the ordering assistant, which the companies call FreshAI.

"It gives customers the opportunity to build their orders," Tanner said. "It understands what to ask for, and the accuracy definitely is improving."

Accuracy has been one area of concern for restaurants that have used voice AI for ordering.

McDonald's stopped testing a voice AI feature at some drive-thrus last year after some customers showed that it got their orders wrong. The company said at the time that "a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants' future."

If the roll-out at Wendy's this year goes well, that could be "a real strong proof point" for adding voice AI to Wendy's entire store network, Tanner said.

"It's got a bright future, and we're moving forward," he said of the technology.

Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, has also broadened its use of voice AI at drive-thrus over the last year. In November, CFO Chris Turner said the company had used the technology on two million orders.

At the time, 300 Taco Bell stores were using voice AI, Turner said. Yum! did not immediately respond to a request for an update on the test from Business Insider.

Do you work at McDonald's, Wendy's, or another fast-food restaurant and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Food-tech startup Wonder has made two new executive hires, the company told Business Insider.
• Courtney Lawrie will focus on growing Wonder's food hall base and delivery operations.
• Whitney Pegden will lead Blue Apron, the meal kit brand that Wonder acquired in 2023.

Food-tech startup Wonder has hired two new executives as it opens more food halls, builds its delivery business, and adds new products.

The company told Business Insider that Courtney Lawrie will serve as Wonder's senior vice president and general manager in charge of Wonder's restaurants and delivery experience.

Whitney Pegden is the company's new senior vice president and general manager of Blue Apron, the meal kit brand that Wonder acquired in 2023.

Marc Lore, the former CEO of Walmart's e-commerce business, has been CEO of Wonder since 2021. Its goal is to "build the super app for mealtime," Daniel Shlossman, Wonder's chief growth and marketing officer, told BI. Wonder is one of several companies trying to build a super app, or a one-stop shop for a variety of related services and products.

"Both Courtney and Whitney have scaled businesses into nationally beloved brands and will make an immediate impact on Wonder and Blue Apron," he added.

Wonder, which got its start preparing meals in vans parked outside of customers' homes in New Jersey neighborhoods, has since quit that business to focus on food halls and delivery. Besides Blue Apron, it also announced plans to acquire delivery service Grubhub for $650 million last year. The deal closed in January.

Now, Wonder has to combine everything it has built itself as well as what it has acquired under a single "Wonder Umbrella," Lawrie said.

"It's really bringing these things all together and tackling a real customer problem," she said.

Lawrie comes to Wonder from Wayfair, where she worked on the houseware retailer's physical store presence.

Stores will also be a big part of Lawrie's job at Wonder, she told BI. Wonder already runs 38 food halls in the Northeast, which allow walk-in customers to order dishes designed by chefs including Bobby Flay, Marcus Samuelsson, and José Andrés. The food halls also offer delivery.

In 2025, Wonder plans to open more than 50 additional stores. Getting customers in the door — or ordering online — will be key, especially with many people concerned about how much they're spending when they dine out, Lawrie said.

Before joining Wonder, Pegden worked at Walmart on the retailer's generative AI shopping assistant, augmented reality, and InHome delivery.

Blue Apron's meal kit business is a different model from Wonder's food halls, she said. But part of Wonder's ambition of being a super app is to offer diners different choices, she added.

"Customers don't necessarily want to eat a meal kit every single night of the week or get delivery every single night of the week," she said.
"They want to mix things up."

Pegden said that there are opportunities to add products to Blue Apron that are "simpler and quicker to get dinner on the table."

Wonder's goal is to get customers to turn to the app "not just for pickup and delivery, but also for meal kits, also for groceries, also for dining out at a restaurant," Pegden told BI.

Do you have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Egg prices are at record highs as US supply issues worsen.
• Grocery retailers, including some Costco and Trader Joe's locations, are limiting egg purchases.
• More than half of shoppers in a recent survey said they've seen shortages or out-of-stock notices for eggs.

This might not be the week to try your hand at making a soufflé.

Some grocery retailers are now limiting shoppers' egg purchases as US supply challenges push egg prices to record highs.

Business Insider saw signs at stores including a Costco in New Jersey, a Trader Joe's in New York, a Kroger-owned Metro Market in Wisconsin, and a Whole Foods in Wisconsin informing shoppers of limits on the number of eggs shoppers could buy, with all four citing supply issues.

A Trader Joe's spokesperson told BI the company was limiting customers to one carton per customer per day at all stores nationwide.

"We hope these limits will help to ensure that as many of our customers who need eggs are able to purchase them when they visit Trader Joe's," the spokesperson said.

The Costco location limited shoppers to 3 egg cartons. The Wisconsin store, a Metro Market location run by Kroger, asked customers to limit themselves to two packages each.

A nearby Whole Foods was limiting customers to three packs.

Spokespeople for Costco, Kroger, and Whole Foods did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, a representative for Texas-based grocer H-E-B said it remains in good supply and is working to manage costs to keep prices affordable.

A Target store in Wisconsin that BI visited wasn't limiting how many eggs patrons could buy, but signs on low-stock shelves informed customers that the chain is "actively seeking additional supply" and apologized for the inconvenience. Target did not respond to a request for comment.

More examples have been posted by US shoppers on social media.

A spokesperson for Walmart told BI that the retail giant hasn't instituted a national limit on eggs, except for the 60-count package, which is now limited to two per transaction. Walmart sells one in five eggs sold in the US, according to market research firm Numerator.

More than half of shoppers surveyed by Numerator said they've seen shortages or out-of-stocks for eggs at stores across the US.

The shortages were most pronounced in cities and in the Western US, with BJ's, Costco, Target, Trader Joe's, and Publix among the most affected brands, according to Numerator.

More than 70% of shoppers told Numerator that egg prices are "somewhat or very expensive" in their area.

The new policies come after numerous instances of shoppers buying up cartloads of eggs, apparently in response to the ongoing bird flu outbreak that has contributed to a lower supply of eggs.

Several videos have gone viral showing Costco shoppers clearing a pallet of eggs within minutes, and BI last week observed one Target shopper purchase a cart full of approximately 30 dozen eggs and nothing else.

If you are an egg shopper who wants to share your perspective, please contact Dominick via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750.

• Starbucks is offering free coffee to loyalty members on Monday as a post-Super-Bowl deal.
• Starbucks Rewards members can get a free 12-ounce hot or iced coffee.
• Starbucks is offering fewer deals for loyalty members than the chain did a year ago.

Starbucks is handing out free coffee to members of its loyalty program on Monday.

The chain is offering Starbucks Rewards members a free 12-ounce hot or iced coffee all day on Monday. The promotion, called "Starbucks Monday," is meant to be a free pick-me-up as members return to work the day after the Super Bowl.

"With the Big Game on Sunday, Feb. 9, many Americans will spend the day going big — which may lead to a long Monday," Starbucks said in a statement announcing the deal.

Loyalty members can get the free coffee using a coupon in the Starbucks mobile app, the company said.

Still, Starbucks has been offering fewer promotions since last fall when it cut back on deals under CEO Brian Niccol. The company said that it would give members points instead of offering as many free items or discounts.

"As we've shifted out of discounts into more broad-based marketing, that's helped us reach a broader base of customers," Niccol said on an earnings call last month.

Some Starbucks baristas previously told Business Insider that they were often overwhelmed by mobile orders when the company offered rewards members deals.

The cutback on promotions is one of several changes that Niccol has overseen so far as Starbucks' CEO.

Starbucks also aired a commercial called "Hello Again" during pre-Super Bowl coverage on Sunday.

Do you work at Starbucks and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Eggs are becoming more expensive and harder to find as avian flu hits US chicken flocks.
• That's bad news for some people who use GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy.
• Eggs are lean protein, eaten by lots of GLP-1 users, forcing some people to look for alternatives.

Some people using GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic for weight loss have a problem: Eggs are suddenly expensive and hard to find.

Eggs aren't just big with fitness fans and Gaston from "Beauty and the Beast." They're a logical protein option for people taking Ozempic, Wegovy, or similar medications, said Amanda Oren, vice president of industry strategy for grocery in North America at Relex, a supply-chain platform. Moreover, they naturally contain little fat, salt, or sugar — good for weight loss plans.

They're one of the foods that GLP-1 users buy more of than people not on the medication, according to a December report by market research provider Circana. The report found GLP-1 takers buy fewer fatty proteins — think big, greasy burgers, for instance, and less alcohol and salty snacks.

Many users — 49% — said in December that their households spent less on food after they started taking the drug, according to a survey conducted by Purdue University. Users generally have lower appetites and eat less.

When they are buying food, "it's eggs, and it's the meat and seafood departments that have seen the bump" in sales, Oren said.

But egg fans — whether on weigh-loss meds or not — are taking a big financial hit right now, thanks to the spread of avian influenza among egg-laying chickens in the US. The disease has led farms to cull their flocks and cut back production. In January, the US had 8% fewer egg-laying hens than it did three years earlier, a CoBank report published on Thursday found.

While avian flu has been hitting egg production in the US for a few years, prices have spiked recently. As of January 30 the cost of a dozen Midwest large eggs was $7.08, according to the US Department of Agriculture. That's up from $1.65 three years earlier.

Retailers and restaurants have reacted. Diner chain Waffle House cited avian flu on Monday as it added a 50-cent surcharge to each egg it sells. Grocery store Aldi has limited customers to buying two dozen eggs at once at some stores.

Another factor: Two laws, one in Colorado and another in Michigan, took effect on January 1 and require all eggs sold in the states to be from cage-free farms. Some suppliers weren't ready for the switch, which has contributed to shortages, Oren said.

"All of these different factors of increasing demand, and then multiple factors decreasing supply, has led to what I would call a perfect storm," she said.

High egg prices are likely to stick around, according to CoBank. A solution to avian flu isn't obvious. Demand, meanwhile, is about to take a seasonal step up, with Easter falling on April 20. Projections from the US Department of Agriculture suggest that prices could start falling in the second quarter of 2025, however.

Fortunately, people taking GLP-1s have other protein choices, Relex's Oren said.

Besides meat options — think chicken breasts — the number of lean, meat-free protein options has multiplied in recent years, she said. The options vary from long-established options like tofu to Just Egg, a mung bean-based egg substitute that previously advertised itself as avian flu-proof.

"There are a lot more alternatives today than there used to be," Oren said.

US consumers have another option, said Joseph Balagtas, director of the Center for Food Demand at Purdue University: They can keep eating eggs — and eat the price increases.

Even for GLP-1 users, eggs make up a small amount of shoppers' total grocery budgets. That, plus the fact that there are fewer good substitutes for some uses of eggs, such as in baking, means that many people are likely to continue buying.

"Many Americans are lucky enough to earn enough where it hurts, but not very much," Balagtas said. "So I don't reduce my consumption very much."

Have you or your business been affected by high egg prices and/or the egg shortage? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• President Donald Trump's tariffs could go well beyond Canada, China, and Mexico this time.
• Countries like Vietnam, where companies shifted production since the last trade war, could be next.
• "More surgical tariffs" could be on the way, one expert who advises companies said.

President Donald Trump could target a wider range of countries with tariffs than during his first term, including some that have attracted companies already trying to minimize their exposure to possible levies.

This time, places like Vietnam and South Korea could face tariffs under a section of the "America First Trade Policy," which says that Trump's White House will consider tariffs as a remedy for "unfair and unbalanced trade."

The Trump administration could use that to target a longer list of countries than seven years ago, Chris Desmond, principal, customs and international trade at PwC, said.

The result could be "more surgical tariffs, ones that are focused on specific countries versus a sweep across the board," Desmond said.

Trump's focus on trade deficits leaves room to aim at Vietnam

In 2018, the first Trump administration slapped levies on various goods from Canada, China, and Mexico.

This week, the White House has again targeted America's biggest trading partners. A 10% extra tariff on imports from China took effect on Tuesday. Trump imposed 25% levies on goods from Canada and Mexico, then delayed them by a month.

Experts advising companies on navigating such issues say they're bracing for Trump to target more countries than he did seven years ago.

Vietnam is one nation that Trump could target if he cracks down on more countries with trade deficits with the US, Desmond said. It had the third-largest trade deficit with the US during the 12 months to October 2024.

The Southeast Asian nation's deficit was nearly three times as large as Canada's, according to PwC data.

"A lot of companies have moved the manufacturing to Vietnam to avoid the China tariffs," Desmond said. That, he added, has contributed to Vietnam's growing trade imbalance with the US.

After November's election, companies including Steve Madden and Traeger Grills pointed to it as one of several countries where they have ramped up production in recent years to minimize the costs of said potential levies.

Trump's nominee for US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said at a confirmation hearing Thursday that the Trump administration would study implementing tariffs on countries that have trade deficits with the US at his confirmation hearing on Thursday. He referred to Vietnam, among other nations.

Other countries potentially in the crosshairs include South Korea, a supplier of appliances and electronics to the US, and India, which exports clothing, Desmond said.

Rebecca Homkes, a lecturer at the London Business School who advises CEOs on retail and manufacturing strategy, said that some coms that she works with started considering ways of protecting themselves from potential new tariffs even before the election. That included broadening their base of suppliers to new countries.

Still, Desmond, who is advising companies on how to handle the tariffs, said that many of his clients aren't looking for alternatives to Vietnam just yet. Securing new suppliers can take years, he said.

Some are waiting to see if they can apply for exemptions to any levies — something that the previous Trump administration allowed and which spared some imports, such as toys, from the duties. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on a potential exemption process.

For now, Desmond said, many companies are looking at short-term moves to offset potential tariffs, such as bringing products into the US earlier. "I believe that exclusions are not going to be as numerous as they were before," he said.

Another option that a few companies are considering is moving more manufacturing plants to the US and hiring workers there, LBS's Homkes said. On Inauguration Day, Trump said he hoped tariffs would encourage companies to bring more manufacturing back.

But "cost-wise, it does not make sense, even with subsidies," Homkes said. Exceptions include plants where much of the work is done by automation, she added.

"Let's not kid ourselves that bringing manufacturing back to the US going to create jobs," Homkes said.

Is your company being affected by potential tariffs? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said making driverless cars common in ride-hailing would take a while.
• He pointed to several issues, including safety and parking.
• Uber has been working with Waymo in some cities to offer driverless cars.

Self-driving cars have a long way to go before they become common on Uber, the ride-hailing service's CEO said Wednesday.

Developers of self-driving cars, such as Tesla and Waymo, are making the technology more common for riders in a few US cities, Dara Khosrowshahi said on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call.

But he said that scaling that technology to assemble large fleets of driverless cars to ferry Uber passengers around was more challenging.

"We think that the commercialization of the technology is going to take way, way longer," Khosrowshahi said.

The company already uses some self-driving cars in Phoenix through a partnership with Waymo. Uber and Waymo are set to expand their venture to Atlanta and Austin this year.

In a letter to investors on Wednesday, Khosrowshahi said that "several pieces of the go-to-market puzzle still need to come together" before Uber can use autonomous vehicles widely.

One aspect he pointed to was safety.

Waymo has said its driverless cars are safer than vehicles driven by humans, but as new providers enter the market, autonomous vehicles as a category "will need to be orders of magnitude safer than human drivers in order to earn the trust of the public," he said.

Khosrowshahi said that large fleets of driverless cars would also require parking spaces when not in use, as well as cleaning and maintenance.

"It is important to note that an average-utilized AV can run as much as 100K miles a year, compared to a typical consumer vehicle at 10-15K miles a year," Khosrowshahi wrote, using an abbreviation for autonomous vehicle. "This means that AVs need to be charged multiple times a day and serviced monthly."

Uber's drivers, who are independent contractors, are responsible for most of those tasks.

Khosrowshahi also pointed to regulations, which can vary by state, as another hurdle for rolling out AVs. The Trump administration has indicated it might develop a federal approach for autonomous vehicles.

The CEO also said the prices of self-driving vehicles, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, would need to come down before companies could buy lots of them.

Anyone with a large network of AVs would also have to match the fleet to demand — something Uber already does with its drivers, Khosrowshahi said.

In January, Khosrowshahi said he didn't expect autonomous vehicles to replace Uber's millions of drivers within the next five years.

Do you work for Uber and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Chipotle has found new sources of avocados for its guacamole over the last two years.
• But the chain could still take a hit if President Donald Trump adds tariffs to Mexican imports.
• About half of Chipotle's avocados come from Mexico, CEO Scott Boatwright said on an earnings call.

Chipotle has spent years diversifying where it gets avocados for its guacamole. But it could still see a hit from tariffs on Mexican versions of the fruit.

The California-based restaurant chain has found new sources of avocados in recent years, CEO Scott Boatwright said during a call on Tuesday to discuss the company's fourth-quarter earnings.

"Our supply chain team has done a remarkable job over the last couple of years with vendor diversification," Boatwright said.

"Today, we source from both Colombia, Peru as well as the Dominican Republic," he said. "Only about 50% of our avocado supply today is coming out of Mexico."

About 90% of all avocados consumed in the US come from Mexico, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Trump indicated on Monday that his administration would hold off on implementing 25% tariffs on Mexican goods for one month after he spoke with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

If the tariff takes effect, it could increase Chipotle's cost of sales by 0.6 percentage points, CFO Adam Rymer said on Tuesday's earnings call. Besides avocados, Chipotle also imports limes, peppers, and tomatoes from Mexico, Rymer said.

Shares of Chipotle fell as much as 5% in after-hours trading on Tuesday. The chain's comparable sales and revenue were lower than analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting.

Chipotle's source of avocados varies based on the time of year. In 2023, for instance, Chipotle got the fruit from Mexico in the spring before shifting to sources in California during the summer, then-CFO Jack Hartung told the Wall Street Journal at the time.

Do you work at Chipotle and have a story idea to share? Reach out this reporter at [email protected]

• Waffle House is adding a 50-cent surcharge to each egg that its customers order.
• The chain opted for the per-egg fee instead of a broader increase in menu prices.
• Waffle House added the fee as avian influenza kills chickens and drives egg prices higher.

Waffle House is charging customers extra for each egg they order as avian influenza sends prices higher.

The chain said it started adding a 50-cent surcharge for each egg it sells from Monday. The charge is temporary, and the restaurant could adjust or eliminate it if prices change, Waffle House said.

Waffle House added the fee instead of raising costs across its menu as it copes with an "unprecedented rise in egg prices," the company said.

"The continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (Bird Flu) has caused a dramatic increase" in costs, Waffle House said in a statement. "Consumers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions."

"While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived, we cannot predict how long this shortage will last," Waffle House said.

Some customers posted about the surcharge on X, formerly known as Twitter:

Restaurants, grocery shoppers, and others are being hit with rising egg prices as avian flu continues to circulate in the US. The disease has spread among egg-laying chickens over the last few years, killing many birds and resulting in higher egg prices.

As of January 30, the cost of a dozen Midwest large eggs was $7.08, according to the US Department of Agriculture. That's up from $1.65 almost exactly three years ago, before the latest round of avian flu started spreading.

Kevin Roose, a technology columnist at the New York Times, posted on Sunday that he paid a $1.50 per-egg fee at another restaurant:

In recent years, consumers have dealt with higher prices for other grocery staples. Inflation was one of the major issues in the presidential election last fall.

But President Donald Trump's administration has said relief from high prices will not be immediate. Vice President JD Vance said last month that "it's going to take a little bit of time" for the cost of food to come down.

CNN earlier reported the new fee.

Do you work at Waffle House and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Instacart is testing a new kind of gig work at some stores.
• Contractors can now earn money by photographing products on shelves to show what's in stock.
• The brands behind the products use the photos to review what's there and how displays look.

Instacart is offering its independent contractors a new type of work: Checking shelves on behalf of the companies that supply stores.

Instacart has been testing the program, which it calls "brand tasks," at some stores since last fall, according to messages seen by shoppers via email and the Instacart app, shared with Business Insider.

"You'll get paid to take photos of what's in stock or refill displays," a message sent to a shopper about a beta version of the program in November said, which was seen by Business Insider.

Instacart built its business using hundreds of thousands of gig workers to shop and deliver groceries, sporting goods, and other items to consumers. The "brand tasks" experiment is one way it's trying to expand into other areas of grocery and retail technology, along with smart shopping carts and advertising.

One shopper in Pennsylvania, who didn't want to be identified for fear of retaliation from Instacart, told BI that they completed one of the tasks, which involved taking a photo of a display of Dove body care products, which Unilever makes. Unilever did not respond to a request for comment. BI verified the shopper's identity and employment by Instacart.

The gig paid about $12 and took about 10 minutes to complete, according to the shopper. That's more than Instacart pays to shop and deliver some orders, which can easily take an hour, the shopper added.

Instacart confirmed that it is testing the program.

"Shoppers can opt-in to receive access to these tasks and will be able to accept the tasks just as they would a standard batch" of orders, an Instacart spokesperson told BI. The spokesperson declined to confirm where in the US Instacart is testing the new offering or which retailers and brands are involved.

Taking photos of how a shelf looks gives the companies that make food, personal care items, and other items information on what's selling and how their products appear to customers. "Brands often work with third parties on a periodic basis to gain insights into their in-stock inventory," the spokesperson said.

Instacart is "primarily focused on display check," the spokesperson said. "We have evaluated other tasks and could consider adding additional tasks in the future."

Gig work has been expanding far beyond delivering restaurant orders and driving people to the airport. Multiple apps now allow nurses to pick up single shifts at hospitals and other medical facilities, for instance.

Do you work for Instacart and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• UPS said Thursday that it would cut its business with Amazon in half by mid-2026.
• CEO Carol Tomé said Amazon's business with UPS, while big, was becoming less profitable.
• Amazon has been building out its own logistics infrastructure in recent years.

UPS's CEO said Thursday that it would reduce the number of Amazon packages it handles as profit from those shipments shrinks.

"This was not their ask," Carol Tomé said on an investor call. "This was us. This was UPS taking control of our destiny."

Shares plunged by as much as 18%.

The shipping giant said it would cut its business with its largest customer in half by June 2026. UPS's chief financial officer, Brian Dykes, said on the call that Amazon shipments made up about 20% of UPS's volume in the US. The company had reported fourth-quarter results before the stock market opened.

"Amazon is our largest customer, but it's not our most profitable customer," Tomé said on the call. "Its margin is very dilutive to the US domestic business."

Tomé said UPS used recent contract negotiations with Amazon to reach an agreement on the drawdown. She added that keeping the same amount of business with the retail giant would "likely result in diminishing returns."

"Due to their operational needs, UPS requested a reduction in volume, and we certainly respect their decision," an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider. "We'll continue to partner with them and many other carriers to serve our customers."

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said on Thursday that while the move away from Amazon would cost UPS business in the short run, the company could use it to "focus in on higher-yielding, margin-enhancing volumes."

Tomé said that the remaining half of UPS's business with the e-commerce giant included handling some returns for Amazon — something UPS does "very, very well" and is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

"We have 5,200 UPS store locations that make it very convenient for customers of Amazon to return their Amazon packages," she said.

Amazon has spent years building its logistics services, including its warehouses and its aircraft fleet.

The company has used those resources to offer its own shipping options. Late last year, for instance, Amazon launched a new option for sellers on its website to deliver products from source factories to customers.

Amazon also offers shipping options to sellers who don't even sell on its website.