A $70 Chicken Entrée + Climate-proof Coffee☕️

This Week in Review☕: Chefs don't want to work in restaurants anymore | This is Disneylands peak season | Half the world is getting their news from Social media | Starbucks invests in innovation farms

This Week’s Partner💡: Refind

Brainfood delivered to your inbox daily.

Every day, the Refind newsletter pick 5 links that make you smarter, tailored to your interests, loved by 500,000+ curious finds. Check it out here.

Quick Bites:

Coffee☕️: Starbucks invests in two innovation farms to climate-proof its coffee.

More than a decade ago, Starbucks bought its 1st coffee farm in Costa Rica. Now it has added 2 more to its portfolio to protect its supply from global warming.

So, Starbucks has hiked its prices, with the justification that it is ditching cheap plastic to become more sustainable. The company says it will instead give us soggy paper cups and paper straws so it can “protect the environment.”

Meanwhile the new CEO will commute daily between California and Seattle on a private jet, casually clocking in 1600km of greenhouse emissions PER DAY simply because he refuses to relocate🙄

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE PEOPLE🤯

Key Highlights, reported by CNN:

💡The coffee giant said that it has invested in another farm in Costa Rica and its 1st in Guatemala due to the effects of climate change

💡Rising temperatures, frosts in Brazil + three consecutive years of La Nina weather have put pressure on supply

💡For Starbucks, which buys 3% of the world’s coffee, the shortages can mean scrambling to find Arabica beans- and higher prices for its customers

💡Consumer coffee prices have risen 18% over the last five years as of August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics

💡Starbucks is also investing in these farms to get back on track financially after consecutive quarters of slow earnings and low demand.

Our Thoughts💡: Hear us out.. We have an alternative theory as to why people have stopped going to Starbucks:

1. Coffee sucks
2. Baristas are Skittle-haired
3. Customer service is non-existent
4. Prices have become RIDICULOUS
5. Space is no longer cozy
6. The economy is toast

Social Media 📱: TikTok isn't just for viral dances anymore. It's becoming a major news platform.

Check this out.. nearly half of the US gets their news from social media today. 

And out of those using TikTok, 52% get news from influencers on the platform, Axios reports.

CNN Journalists right now:

Watching 16-year olds get paid for ranting on TikTok during a massive potty break while we get ready for our fifth 12-hour shift this week

We tired of making money the hard way

BAN TIKTOK🖕🏻

Key Highlights, reported by Axios:

💡For content creators, this is a massive shift as traditional media is no longer the only way to reach key audiences

💡Platforms like Linkedin and Substack have additionally blown up for global news.

💡TikTok users regularly consume news on the platform, up from 22% four years ago

💡Less than 1% of adult TikTok users follow any journalists, politicians or media outlets

💡Almost 50% of users follow "mid-tier" independent creators and influencers

💡38% follow smaller accounts, and roughly 2% follow major celebrities and brands.

Our Thoughts💡:

Therapist: And what do we do when we feel like this?
Us: redownload Tinder and TikTok to feel validated by strangers?
Therapist: No.

Entertainment✨: It's about to get a bit more expensive to experience the magic of the Magic Kingdom.

Disneyland is raising the prices of its most in-demand tickets as the theme park hits its high season.

Yep happiness ain't free 

Key Highlights, reported by CNBC:

💡The base entry-level ticket price will remain at $104- the same its been for 6 years
💡Other ticket tiers will increase between $7 and $12; this is a 5-7% price hike
💡The park’s Magic Key annual pass prices will rise between 6% and 20%, or $100 to $125 depending on the pass type
💡These price changes are effective as of this week

These hikes come at a time when the Walt Disney Company is already under scrutiny for the cost of its theme park admissions and hotel accommodations.

Many consumers believe the prices have become too high and are feeling the pinch of the increased cost-of-living crisis.

Our Thoughts💡: Hmm not sure how we feel about Disney ripping us off..

We remember being so damn happy at Disneyland as kids. Perhaps because Mickey Mouse was suddenly real.. OR because we had the best effing churros of our life there!!

Warm, cinnamon bolts of perfection dipped in sugary glaze.. not to mention the perfect excuse to ghost your folks for a SOLID half-hour

Yep.. don't think this price hike gonna cut it for us. Sorry @Disney 👋

Food 🧑‍🍳: Chefs don't want to work in restaurants anymore.

Restaurants have already been struggling with high rent and rising food costs- especially in big cities.

In addition, the minimum-wage hike and a global movement for better treatment and compensation of staff has led to even higher costs.

"All of that translates into the chicken entree whose $70 price tag flabbergasts most diners but leaves the restaurant owner with barely enough profit to quarter and roast the next hen. Nobody’s happy."

-The New York Times

“It’s the most difficult time to open a restaurant that I’ve ever experienced and, frankly, if I were starting today, I wouldn’t even attempt it but where does this end?"

“You have to be like a hawk on top of the margins. It’s a game of fractions. Of millimeters”

"If you’re not attentive enough to having a few workers clock out early during a slow dinner service, it can be the difference between turning a profit that night or not"

-Stephen Starr tells The NY Times, whose restaurant group operates more than 25 establishments nationwide, including the globally famous 'Le Coucou' in Manhattan and 'Le Diplomate' in Washington DC

This is precisely why: To deal with rising costs, many restaurants are adding a massive service charge to bills instead of raising the menu price too much.

Yep, here's the new familiar Friday night for you: You finished your pasta, drank your wine and the plates have been cleared from the table.

Now, it's time for the cheque- and it comes included with a fat service charge, even if you thought the service was mediocre at best 😡

Our Thoughts💡: Tbh, tipping culture has definitely gone a little out of control guys! The standard tip at a restaurant starts at 18% and goes upto 40% depending on the service!

We have zero problem paying for good service but why tf should we tip you for bringing our food from the kitchen to the table? Like that is LITERALLY your job🖕🏻

These greedy business owners need to pay their employees a living wage bc we all struggling right now and we are NOT tipping for every damn time we order a cappuccino and a basic bran muffin. Sorry NOT SORRY ✋

Politics 🇺🇸 : A lot can and has changed in the past three years.

At least that's what Kamala Harris is saying in her 2nd Vogue cover, less than a month away from the US presidential election.

Umm she looks like the love child of Hillary Clinton and a Sears catalog from 1985. It’s like she raided the closet of every middle-aged bank accountant in America and said, "I'LL TAKE IT"

BTW.. 
-Kamala Harris has appeared on the cover of Vogue for a 2nd time.
-Jill Biden has appeared on the cover 2 times.
-Michelle Obama has appeared on the cover 3 times.
-Melania Trump has appeared on the cover ZERO times.

Vogue’s liberal bias is becoming more and more obvious.. 🤔

"The team at Vogue felt the more informal image captured Vice President-elect Harris’s authentic, approachable nature-  which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden/Harris administration.”

Umm we're glad Kamala had time to sit for a Vogue photo shoot right now. She’s got her priorities right! 🙄🙄

Meanwhile, the US is still finding missing people and dealing with persistent flooding & power outages from the devastating Hurricane Milton that has literally destroyed Florida🙈

As Harris posed for the iconic cover, the Fashion magazine has publicly called her the: ‘Candidate of our times’ in this month’s issue.

"You can trust me to put country above party and self- to hold sacred America's fundamental principles, from the rule of law, to free and fair elections, to the peaceful transfer of power"
-Kamala Harris

Note💡:

Hi everyone , this Business newsletter is for free BUT:

• For those who also also enjoy Fashion, Travel, Wellness + unfiltered real talk🥰, consider upgrading to our new, exclusive newsletter Touristy LUXE for the price of a cup of coffee.

• Your support means more than words can say and most importantly, it will allow us to continue creating content that we can all connect to.

  Thanks again for being here 🫶🏻

  Team Touristy xx

Quicker Bites:

• Nike’s new CEO officially took the reigns yesterday.

• Nvidia shares hit fresh record high.

• Price deflation seen in US goods as the Federal Reserve almost hits its 2% inflation target.

• NASA launches historic mission to one of Jupiter’s moons.

• Women in Iran donate jewellery to support Hezbollah.

• Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accused of sexual assault in 6 new lawsuits.

• Pro-Palestine protestors caused disturbance outside the New York Exchange.