Kraft Mac & Cheese is trying to maintain its dominance with flavor drops and new shapes
CNN
For Kraft Mac & Cheese’s newest release, the 87-year-old brand is taking a page from hip streetwear companies.
With Kraft Mac & Cheese’s latest product, the 87-year-old brand is taking a page from hip streetwear companies. The pantry staple is forgoing its usual strategy of a nationwide release at grocery stores for its newest offering. Instead, it’s emulating “drop” culture, often seen in the sneaker world, by releasing a limited number of boxes of its everything bagel flavor to capture buzz and (if it’s lucky) TikTok notoriety. Available Friday exclusively on Walmart’s website, Kraft is selling just 15,000 boxes of its limited-edition everything bagel flavor. That represents less than 2% of the number of boxes of its original version sold every day, according to the company. Kraft’s take on everything bagel seasoning has garlic and onion powder plus poppy seeds but doesn’t contain sesame seeds commonly found in other iterations. For Kraft, the unorthodox marketing approach is an attempt to drum up excitement for the pasta, which is still the top-selling boxed mac and cheese brand in the United States but has seen its dominance decline in recent years as new competitors entered the space. Lately, consumers are either splurging for pricier, health-focused brands (i.e. protein-packed Goodles and organic mainstay Annie’s Homegrown) or gravitating toward cheaper, private label brands that cost about half the price of a box of Kraft. That has put these middle-tier brands in a precarious position.
Last-minute errands always seem to pop up on Christmas and Christmas Eve, whether it’s buying a quick present or picking up one last ingredient.
King Charles III has ended royal warrants for Cadbury and Unilever, which owns brands including Marmite and Ben & Jerry’s, in a blow to the household names.
While businesses across the US are fretting that President-elect Donald Trump’s threat of new tariffs could mean a massive hit to their bottom lines, at least one industry is gearing up for the exact opposite.
Back in 2022, when the labor market was so hot that Beyoncé even released a song about it, Americans were job hopping in large numbers, boosting their salary in the process.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has steered the world’s most powerful central bank during a tumultuous period for the US economy, from the pandemic to a historic bout of inflation shortly after.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has agreed to sell its Australian cable TV unit Foxtel to British-owned sports network DAZN for 3.4 billion Australian dollars ($2.1 billion) including debt, cutting the media empire’s exposure to a business upended by streaming platforms.
Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to join forces, forming world’s third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels.
The strike protests a lack of contract negotiations, including wage increases for union baristas.
This year was brutal for a number of well-known companies, including Red Lobster, True Value and Big Lots.
Last-minute holiday shoppers may want to give their digital carts a hard look, as Amazon workers remain on strike on the final weekend before Christmas.
Campaigners have accused Facebook parent Meta of inflicting “potentially lifelong trauma” on hundreds of content moderators in Kenya, after more than 140 were diagnosed with PTSD and other mental health conditions.