16 July, 2008

Liquid News

Earlier this month Starbucks announced the closure of 600 stores nationwide. A list of those locations has finally been released and none of them are in Wisconsin. Many Madison baristas are resting easier.

I'd imagine that, with the prices of everything going up, folks are cutting back on their latte consumption. Then again, maybe not. While the Federal Reserve Chairman sees economic grey skies and and Robert Reich has declared, "Consumers have no money left", things can't be all bad: Apple shipped 1 million shiny new iPhones on opening weekend to stores that had folks sleeping outside their doors just to be one of the first to have the gadget.

Our neighbors to the south have given MillerCoors $20 million in incentives to move the new corporate headquarters to Chicago. Take that Dallas! The report notes that the "joint venture will move 150 to 175 jobs to Chicago from each of its two headquarters". Presumably some Milwaukeeans will be moving south or will start taking the Hiawatha to work.

This will certainly be a blow to the pride of many to the east but Miller hasn't been a strictly Milwaukee concern for decades.

Lastly, the InBev takeover of Anheuser-Busch is complete. So all the big American breweries are now owned by businesses in other countries. On the upside, the shelves of your local purveyor of beer may see some new faces as I'm sure InBev will try to push their brands here. Since InBev was created by a merger including the Brazilian AmBev so perhaps we'll see more Brazilian beers here in the States. You can view a list of all 200 or so of their brands at Wikipedia.

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