Business related news.
COCKEYSVILLE, Maryland (AP) — People used to go to Valley View Farms to buy five tomato plants and end up with $5,000 in patio furniture. This year is different. After a record burst of sales in March, the showroom floor is almost empty of outdoor chairs, tables and chaises for people to buy. The garden [...]
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — The nation's largest utility has long vowed to change its reckless ways. After leaving a trail of death and destruction through Northern California from wildfires sparked by its equipment, Pacific Gas & Electric's fifth CEO in less than three years is again pledging that the future will get "easier" and "brighter." [...]
A pandemic-fueled boom in crowdfunding has small businesses flocking to capital-raising platforms that experts say could help many companies get back to normal — as long as small-business owners are able to launch effective campaigns. Regulation crowdfunding, in which companies raise capital from investors via government-monitored online platforms, has mushroomed in the last two years, [...]
NEW YORK — As Americans start to go out and update their wardrobes, jeans giant Levi Strauss & Co. is enjoying a resurgence in denim. That has helped the company upgrade its fiscal first-half outlook and has pushed shares of Levi's about 30 percent higher so far this year. Still, the San Francisco-based company, like [...]
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The coronavirus already changed the way we work. Now it's changing the physical space, too. Many companies are making adjustments to their offices to help employees feel safer as they return to in-person work, like improving air circulation systems or moving desks further apart. Others are ditching desks and building [...]
Reeling from massive cutbacks in volunteers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and grappling with high construction costs, Habitat for Humanity leaders would be the first to admit they're struggling. The past year has felt like one punch after the other, they say. First hit: Habitat's local affiliates had to limit volunteers over virus concerns, forcing them [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — Small businesses that endured shutdowns and lower revenue during the COVID-19 outbreak now must contend with another crisis: spiking prices for goods and services that squeeze profits and force many owners to pass the increases along to customers. Mickey Luongo's company, Total Home Supply, is paying as much as 15 percent [...]
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — How do astronauts do laundry in space? They don't. They wear their underwear, gym clothes and everything else until they can't take the filth and stink anymore, then junk them. NASA wants to change that — if not at the International Space Station, then the moon and Mars — and [...]
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — With tourists flocking to distilleries, concerns about a pandemic hangover for Kentucky's world-famous bourbon industry are quickly evaporating. A $19 million tourist center that Heaven Hill Distillery opened just days ago in the heart of the state's bourbon country is already overflowing — with reservations filling up quickly to learn about whiskey-making [...]
A popular destination for nature lovers or those simply wanting a getaway in the woods long before the COVID pandemic struck, Hocking Hills has become even more desirable since then. It started last year when most indoor activities were shut down or very limited due to state health orders, so people fled to the outdoors, [...]