Tropical Smoothie Café Raises over $670K to Fight Childhood Hunger
Tropical Smoothie Café kicked off a campaign to donate funds to No Kid Hungry in August and to date has raised more than $670K to help fight childhood hunger. The national fundraising effort marked the first partnership between the smoothie brand and No Kid Hungry, which aims to help give all kids access to three healthy meals a day.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe donated $1 from every Sunshine Smoothie purchased to No Kid Hungry, and many guests took advantage of the opportunity to round up their purchase to the nearest dollar, with the difference also going to No Kid Hungry. More than 1,150 franchised Tropical Smoothie Cafe locations participated.
Self-Order Kiosks Gaining Momentum
Self-order kiosks are gaining popularity as the restaurant industry remains about 500,000 employees short of pre-pandemic numbers. With McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Panera proving the value of self-order kiosks, the trend that began in 2003 seems to be accelerating at larger chains.
Shake Shack’s CFO Katie Fogerty said kiosks are the chain’s most profitable channel, yielding higher check sizes, higher margins, and better labor utilization. The global self-service kiosk market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 6.5% through 2028.
Research Shows Automation Key to Staffing Issues
Lilly has announced a partnership with Atomic Invest to convert cashback rewards into traditional and Roth IRA deposits. Lilly is a company that gives credit card users the chance to transform cashback rewards into retirement savings, and Atomic Invest creates APIs that enable fintechs and other financial institutions to offer best-in-class investing experiences.
Lilly also offers retirement rewards on their platform that can be deposited into a traditional or Roth IRA. Users can connect any bank card, and then Lilly does the rest. Atomic Invest allows Lilly users to allocate savings into fully diversified portfolios with advanced benefits with no account minimums.