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Chick-fil-A is bringing its fried chicken sandwiches and waffle fries to downtown Chicago next spring.
Although the lease has yet to be signed, John E. Featherston Jr., Chick-fil-A’s senior director of real estate, said that a Chick-fil-A restaurant will open near Water Tower Place.
“I’ve been to a lot of intersections downtown, and this is the first one where I want to plant the flag,” Featherston said. “Hopefully this will lead to others.” Get the full story »
The parking lot at the new Chick-fil-A restaurant in Aurora briefly turned into a campground, with the chain offering the first one hundred people in line a one-year supply of 52 meals coupons on Thursday. (Chuck Berman/Chicago Tribune)
Employees in crisp red shirts performed a variety of final tasks as the legendary chicken chain prepared to debut its first Chicago-area outlet at 6 a.m. Thursday at the Westfield Fox Valley Mall property on Aurora’s far east side.
An unofficial pre-opening on Wednesday drew dozens of Chick-fil-A fans from the Chicago area and beyond, lured by the prospect of free once-a-week meals for a year. The firm traditionally gives away coupons to the first 100 customers. Get the full story>>
JPMorgan Chase’s online banking system appeared to be up and running Thursday morning after a Monday night crash left customers with spotty or no Web access to their accounts for three days.
Chase said its online banking service is operating well today.
“By 5 or 6 o’clock yesterday, things were moving quickly again,” said Chase spokesman Tom Kelly. Get the full story »
Boeing Co. received billions of dollars in illegal government subsidies, including $25 million in incentives that Illinois provided the plane maker to relocate its world headquarters to Chicago in 2001, a panel of the World Trade Organization determined.
The WTO report is confidential and was released to U.S. and European trade officials Wednesday. It is the first ruling in the second of dueling trade cases filed by the U.S. and European Union against each other last decade alleging that aircraft manufacturers had received unfair government support. Get the full story »
An Illinois meatpacking plant discriminated against women seeking entry-level jobs, the U.S. Labor Department charged in an administrative complaint filed Wednesday.
The plant is owned by a subsidiary of Tyson Foods Inc. The Labor Department said Tyson has made biased hiring decisions at the facility since at least January 2003, when the agency first audited the plant. The alleged discrimination has resulted in the rejection of more than 750 female applicants.
The plant is located in Joslin, which is near the Quad Cities. Get the full story »
Kraft executives laid out a strategy to deliver more growth and higher returns following its Cadbury acquisition, at the company’s annual investor conference in New York Wednesday.
In a presentation some analysts described as short on specifics, chief executive officer Irene Rosenfeld and key members of the executive team described a strategy of focusing on so-called “power brands” and regional brands in each area of the world, and a system for sharing best practices throughout the world. Get the full story »
A screenshot of the error message on Chase.com at 10:38 a.m. CST. (Tribune)
Chase said it continues to work on its spotty-at-best online banking service and said it will refund any fees incurred by customers unable to make online payments during the outage.
Chase’s online banking Web site was back in service early Wednesday morning after being down for more than a day, but many customers have reported that they are unable to log in after entering their user name and password.
Around 10:30 CST, the site displayed an error message saying it was “temporarily unavailable,” though a few minutes later, it appeared to be back up again. Get the full story »
For an update on Chase’s problems on Wednesday morning, please click here.
Chase’s online customers were unable to conduct business on the Web site of Chicago’s biggest bank into Tuesday evening, the down time having stretched on for more than a day.
“It’s an eternity in the online world,” said Jacob Jegher, a senior analyst with Celent, a Boston-based financial services research and consulting firm. Get the full story »
At its annual Meet the Management Analyst Day in New York Tuesday, Sara Lee presented itself as holding company-turned operating company with a string of successes in growing, high-margin businesses and a handful of struggling ones in need of work. The maker of Hillshire Farm sausage and Senseo coffee touted them its biggest successes — North American meats and European coffee — and laid out cases for fixing its problem areas, including International Bakery, North American Bakery and North American Foodservice. Get the full story »
The unsecured creditor’s committee in Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy case asked a Delaware judge Monday for the right to sue Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell, company officials and others who participated in the company’s ill-fated 2007 leveraged buyout. Get the full story »
The Harley- Davidson factory in Tomahawk, Wis., that makes Harley sidecars, windshields and other bike parts and accessories. (Rick Barrett/MCT)
Harley-Davidson workers in northern Wisconsin have approved a labor contract that freezes pay and cuts about 75 jobs at their plant while saving hundreds of other jobs.
Union president Frank Garrou says almost 300 workers at the plant in Tomahawk approved the deal Monday by a margin of about 70 percent to 30 percent. Get the full story »
New General Motors Co. Chief Executive Daniel Akerson will get a pay package worth $9 million in salary and stock to run the automaker. Get the full story »
Starbucks Corp. said it isn’t just dropping its small-sized drink from its drive-through locations throughout the country, it’s preparing for the future.
In addition to removing the 12-ounce “tall” from its drive-through menus, the Seattle-based coffee chain has added images of some newer items. Starbucks maintains the changes are in response to consumer confusion over its many offerings, from hot chocolate to oatmeal, as well as highly customizable coffee beverages. Get the full story »
Sweepstakes contest organizer Publishers Clearing House will pay a total of $3.5 million to Illinois, 31 other states and Washington, D.C. to cover their investigative costs as part of a new settlement that also toughens solicitation practices.
The settlement, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, stemmed from a probe into Publishers’ “marketing practices of misleading consumers to believe purchasing magazines and other products will increase their chance to win the jackpot,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a statement. Get the full story »
Apple Inc. is easing restrictions for building iPhone and iPad applications, a move that should allow for the use of third-party tools such as Adobe Systems’ Flash software and could ease the tension between the two companies.
Shares of Adobe surged over 12 percent at mid-afternoon on Nasdaq Thursday, after Apple announced the changes.
Apple’s about-face follows a high-profile spat with Adobe last spring that saw Steve Jobs sharply criticize Flash technology. Get the full story »
