ECONOMICS

The fast food industry has become a behemoth in the U.S. from humble beginnings in Wichita a century ago, when the first White Castle store opened. Now, nearly 200,000 U.S. fast food brands make up an industry worth more than $300 billion.

Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao provides an overview of America’s fast food landscape, visualizing the top 15 companies with the most stores in the country. In this graphic, we use data from QSR Magazine, an industry magazine that focuses on (more…)

Amid a collapse in 'hard' economic data, 'soft' surveys from S&P Global was expected to see both Services and Manufacturing PMIs slide further in preliminary November data.

However, the data was more mixed with US Manufacturing falling more than expected to 49.4 – back into contraction – (vs 49.9 exp) from 50.0 in October. However, US Services unexpectedly rose from 50.6 to 50.8 (exp 50.3).

Source: Bloomberg

Commenting on the data, Siân (more…)

By Sam Bourgi of CreditNews,

With Black Friday just around the corner, retailers are offering larger discounts in advance to lure inflation-weary shoppers back to their stores. According to an Adobe Analytics analysis, retailers got a headstart on Black Friday deals this year, with most online product categories offering extended holiday discounts beginning in October.

Online apparel prices were down 9% during the month, compared to 2% and 5% discounts in 2021 and 2022, respectively. (more…)