Business Plan Systems

For coffee shop Caf Con Leche, the wholesale cost of its key ingredient has climbed steadily for the past year.

But owner Jordi Carbonell said he can’t pass along any more price hikes to his customers for fear they’ll stop elsewhere.

“If I’m increasing prices, I’m going to lose customers,” said Carbonell, who operates the southwest Detroit outlet. “Maybe they’re going to lose quality in coffee, but this year I know they’re pretty tight with their money. They’re going to go to a gas station to buy coffee.”

He has raised prices three times since opening in February 2009, each time by 5 cents.

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Tags: Coffee, Coffee Prices

During President Obama news conference Wednesday, he urged lawmakers to act quickly on a deficit reduction plan, and to approve an increase in the federal debt ceiling. The debt limit must be raised by Aug. 2 or the government will risk an unprecedented default.

Tags: Obama, Obama Turns

The taxi industry wants to expand into other transport modes including buses, trains and even aircraft, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) said on Wednesday.

“We will be launching a low-cost airline,” Nkululeko Buthelezi, business development officer for Santaco, told potential investors and reporters in Johannesburg.

“I can see some of you rolling your eyes because of how our taxi drivers drive… Read full post…

Tags: Industry, Taxi Industry

WASHINGTON – Farewell and good riddance to the first half of 2011 – six months that are ending as sour for the economy as they began.

Most analysts say economic growth will perk up in the second half of the year. The reason is that the main causes of the slowdown – high oil prices and manufacturing delays because of the disaster in Japan – have started to fade.

“Some of the headwinds that caused us to slow are turning into tail winds,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.

For an economy barely inching ahead two years after the Great Recession ended, the first half of 2011 can’t end soon enough.

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Tags: 2011, Second Half

Food banks around the country are trying to keep their shelves stocked as more people in the U.S. struggle to get enough to eat. Increasingly, that means finding new ways to salvage food that would otherwise go to waste.

One innovation is being tested at the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Tennessee.

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Tags: Bank, Food Bank

Employment and unemployment trends continue to paint a bleak picture, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Monday as it released its June 2011 Naledi report at its four-day central committee meeting at Gallagher Estate in Midrand near Johannesburg. Read full post…

Tags: Bleak Picture, Employment Trends, Picture