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A Delicious 800-Pound Block in the Room: The World of Industrial Chocolate

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

By Tara Gerner | Wealth of Geeks undefined

An estimated $2.2 billion is spent on Valentine’s Day candy every year — with the bulk of that money going to chocolate.

The industrial chocolate market size is expected to grow by USD 2.85 billion from 2023 to 2028, according to Technavio. Growing customer awareness of the health benefits of dark chocolate is one major reason behind the market’s continuing success. A myriad of consumer goods contain some form of chocolate or cocoa, and global demand for the product has rarely slowed.

While the target audience for industrial chocolate products continues to be commercial food companies, private customers can still take advantage of the industry’s ability to customize their offerings. For chocolate-related products, there are a lot of customization options. This can include anything from flavor and aroma, composition, viscosity, melting behavior, performance, production cost, and product certifications such as halal and kosher to product claims, which can involve sugar, oils, fat, and dairy. Continue reading

Beyond Tourist Taxes: How Popular European Cities Tackle Overtourism With New Strategies in 2024

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Intermediate

By Emese Maczko | Wealth of Geeks undefined

A new requirement for American travelers bound for Europe — an online travel authorization via the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) — has been delayed until 2025.

The requirement restricts travelers from non-EU countries like the United States to 30 European nations, including France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Applications would have brought in €7 apiece, adding up to considerable money.

As popular European cities continue to confront the challenges of overtourism in 2024, they choose to move beyond the financial solutions provided by tourist taxes.

These destinations are now deploying unprecedented innovative strategies aimed not only at managing crowds, but also at preserving their cultural heritage, protecting the environment, and maintaining the quality of life for their residents. Continue reading

Some Americans have become saddled with credit card debt as rent and everyday prices remain high

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

File – A card reader is used at a drive-thru restaurant in Mount Prospect, Ill., March 13, 2021. Noticeable pockets of Americans are quickly running up their credit card balances and increasing numbers are now falling behind on their debts. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

By KEN SWEET AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — While the U.S. economy is broadly healthy, pockets of Americans have run through their savings and run up their credit card balances after battling inflation for more than two years.

Experts worry that members of these groups — mostly lower- and middle-income Americans, who tend to be renters — are falling behind on their debts and could face further deterioration of their financial health in the year ahead, particularly those who have recently resumed paying off student loans.

“The U.S. economy is currently performing better than most forecasters expected a year ago, thanks in large part to a resilient consumer,” wrote Shernette McLoud, an economist with TD Economics, in a report issued Wednesday. “However, more recently that spending is increasingly being financed by credit cards.” Continue reading

Traffic-blocking farmers now closing in on EU capital in a protest seeking better market conditions

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Intermediate

Tractors face military vehicles on a blocked highway, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024 in Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris. Farmers have captured France’s attention by showering government offices with manure and besieging Paris with traffic-snarling barricades of tractors and hay bales. Protesters say it’s becoming harder than ever to make a decent living from their fields, greenhouses and herds. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

By RAF CASERT Associated Press

HALLE, Belgium (AP) — Farmers blocked more traffic arteries across Belgium, France and Italy on Wednesday, as they sought to disrupt trade at major ports and other economic lifelines. They also moved in on Brussels on the eve of a major European Union summit, in a sustained push for better prices for their produce and less bureaucracy in their work.

While the days of mushrooming discontent have been largely peaceful, French police arrested 91 protesters who forced their way Wednesday into Europe’s biggest food market, the Paris police chief said. Armored vehicles block entrances to the sprawling site at Rungis, south of the French capital. Continue reading

Small biz owners scale back their office space or go remote altogether. Some move to the suburbs

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Hunter Garnett, of Garnett Patterson Injury Lawyers, poses outside his law office near the Madison County courthouse, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, in Huntsville, Ala. Garnett is seeking a smaller office space in the suburbs closer to his clients, rather than the large space he has now. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

By MAE ANDERSON AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — After 46 years, Steve Replin has decided to give up his office space.

Replin, who has a law practice and acts as an alternative lender in Denver, is adapting to the changing preferences of clients, who would rather conduct business online, or in a less professional setting like a coffee shop.

“I am 76 and have grown up being in actual physical spaces as offices, but I really think that the ‘kids’ have it right,” by shunning offices, he said.

The pandemic has had a transformative effect on the office space landscape. Many businesses are shifting away from traditional spaces toward hybrid work and more flexible, collaborative spaces. About 23% of U.S. office space is available, compared with 16% before the pandemic, according to global real estate advisor Avison Young. Continue reading

Jodie Foster’s back, ‘Barbie’ brings novel numbers and other Oscar nomination facts and figures

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

A replica of the Academy Awards statuette on display prior to the 96th Academy Awards nominations announcement on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Calif. The 96th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 10, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A look at notable facts, figures and curiosities from Tuesday’s nominations for the 96th Academy Awards, which saw “Oppenheimer” lead with 13 Oscar nominations, with “Poor Things” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” also running up big numbers.

FOSTERING THE OSCARS

Jodie Foster became an Academy Awards mainstay starting at age 14 with her first nomination for Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” in 1977. This year she returns with a best supporting actress nomination after an unusually long absence. Like her “Nyad” co-star Annette Bening, she got her fifth Oscar nomination for the based-on-a-true-story swimming drama from Netflix, and it’s Foster’s first in 29 years. Her last nod was for “Nell” in 1995. Continue reading

Japan becomes the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the moon

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

Staff of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) watch a live streaming of the pinpoint moon landing operation by the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) spacecraft observe a live streaming at JAXA’s Sagamihara Campus Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024, in Sagamihara near Tokyo. Japan’s space agency said early Saturday that its spacecraft is on the moon, but is still “checking its status.” More details will be given at a news conference, officials said. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japan became the fifth country in history to reach the moon when one of its spacecrafts without astronauts successfully made a soft landing on the lunar surface early Saturday.

However, space officials said they needed more time to analyze whether the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, achieved its mission priority of making a pinpoint landing. They also said the craft’s solar panel had failed to generate power, which could shorten its activity on the moon.

Space officials believe that the SLIM’s small rovers were launched as planned and that data was being transmitted back to Earth, said Hitoshi Kuninaka, head of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, a unit of Japan’s space agency. Continue reading

The world could get its first trillionaire within 10 years, anti-poverty group Oxfam says

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE – Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, smiles as he plays bridge following the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., May 5, 2019. The world could have its first trillionaire within a decade, anti-poverty organization Oxfam International said Monday Jan. 15, 2024 in its annual assessment of global inequalities timed to the gathering of political and business elites at the Swiss ski resort of Davos. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

By PAN PYLAS and MASHA MACPHERSON Associated Press

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The world could have its first trillionaire within a decade, anti-poverty organization Oxfam International said Monday in its annual assessment of global inequalities timed to the gathering of political and business elites at the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

Oxfam, which for years has been trying to highlight the growing disparities between the super-rich and the bulk of the global population during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, reckons the gap has been “supercharged” since the coronavirus pandemic.

The group said the fortunes of the five richest men — Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault and his family of luxury company LVMH, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and investment guru Warren Buffett — have spiked by 114% in real terms since 2020, when the world was reeling from the pandemic. Continue reading

Robot baristas and AI chefs caused a stir at CES 2024 as casino union workers fear for their jobs

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

The Artly barista robot serves a drink during the CES tech show Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

By RIO YAMAT Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The barista tipped the jug of smooth, foamy milk over the latte, pouring slowly at first, then lifting and tilting the jug like a choreographed dance to paint the petals of a tulip.

Latte art is a skill that can take months if not years of practice to master — but not for this barista powered by artificial intelligence.

Robots of all kinds caused a stir on the show floor this week at the annual CES technology trade show in Las Vegas.

It’s innovations like this that worry Roman Alejo, a 34-year-old barista at the Sahara hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, who can’t help but wonder if the clock is ticking on hospitality jobs in the age of AI. Continue reading

PepsiCo products are being pulled from some Carrefour grocery stores in Europe over price hikes

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE – Shoppers enter the new Carrefour store Wednesday Aug. 25, 2010 in Ecully, near Lyon, central France. Carrefour has unveiled its hypermarket reinvention project at two stores in Lyon. The Ecully and Venissieux host the Carrefour Planet concept. The stores split into nine zones, including a ‘discovery’ store for events and seasonally themed products. (AP Photo/Thomas Campagne, File)

By SYLVIE CORBET and DEE-ANN DURBIN Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Global supermarket chain Carrefour will stop selling PepsiCo products in its stores in France, Belgium, Spain and Italy over price increases for popular items like Lay’s potato chips, Quaker Oats, Lipton Iced Tea and its namesake soda.

The French grocery chain said it pulled PepsiCo products from shelves in France on Thursday and added small signs in stores that say, “We no longer sell this brand due to unacceptable price increases.”

It comes as a new French law meant to fight the rising cost of living has supermarkets facing millions in fines if they don’t reach a deal with suppliers on prices by the end of the month.

The ban also will extend to Belgium, Spain and Italy, but Carrefour, which has 12,225 stores in more than 30 countries, didn’t say when it would take effect in those countries. Continue reading