Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Week's Winners and Losers: Fresh Coffee, Plus a Chinese Data Breach

SUBWAY Fred DeLuca Diane Bondareff/Invision for Subway/AP There were plenty of winners and losers this week on Wall Street, with one restaurant chain improving its coffee and and another one suffering a data breach. Here's a rundown of the week's smartest moves and biggest blunders. Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR) -- Winner If you're craving a really fresh cup of coffee with your next $5 footlong, Subway has an answer. It's teaming up with Keurig Green Mountain to outfit all of its nearly 30,000 sandwich shops in the U.S. and Canada with Keurig brewers to serve coffee in single-serve doses. Roughly half of Subway eateries already use Keurig brewers to make coffee to order, instead of brewing entire pots that may go unused. That Subway is adopting it chain-wide is a win for both companies, but Keurig Green Mountain will benefit more from the spike in coffee makers and K-Cup sales. P.F. Chang's -- Loser P.F. Chang's is under the heat lamp after thousands of stolen credit and debit cards appeared on an underground marketplace for swiped plastic. Reports indicate that the one thing tying the cards together is that they had all been used at the casual Chinese chain between early March through mid-May. A new company webpage offers updates. Whether or not P.F. Chang's is vindicated, the headlines are likely to keep some customers away from the growing restaurant chain that offers American tweaks to Chinese cuisine. I guess those diners wound up with a misfortune cookie at the end of their meals. Too soon? Then adding an Orange "You Glad You Didn't Eat Here This Spring" Chicken entree to the menu is probably also out of the question. Amazon (AMZN) -- Winner Amazon Prime -- the popular loyalty shopping program with more than 20 million customers paying $99 a year -- has added another free perk. Amazon is adding a digital catalog of 1.2 million music tracks for streaming. Prime Music has its limitations. Not all of the major labels aren't on board, and those that are participating aren't allowing their newest and more marketable releases into the smorgasbord. Still, it makes Prime even prime-ier, which is always a win for the e-tail giant. McDonald's (MCD) -- Loser Grimace is doing a bit more grimacing these days. McDonald's reported on Monday that comparable restaurant sales slipped 1 percent at its domestic eateries in May. Stateside weakness isn't really much of a surprise. McDonald's is coming off of three consecutive quarters of negative comps, and store-level sales had been negative every month since last October before clocking in flat in April. Stability in April may have led some to believe that the chain was back, but now we see that McDonald's continues to fail at wooing hungry bargain hunters with its expanding menu. There's no Happy Meal here. Yum! Brands (YUM) -- Winner Yum! Brands' Taco Bell has become one of the most innovative players in fast food, having introduced Doritos Locos Tacos in 2012, Waffle Tacos three months ago and Quesaritos on Monday. And unlike other fast food giants, Taco Bell has been rewarded with a spike in sales whenever it rolls out something new. . More from Rick Aristotle Munarriz
•Don't Laugh at Amazon's Smartphone - You're Going to Want It •The Big News at E3 From Video Gaming's 3 Giants •Our Vanity Is a Beautiful Thing for Ulta Shareholders

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