Big Business Thinking

Nation’s Restaurant News recently reported that Chipotle Mexican Grill, a fast-casual chain with over $1B of annual sales of sort-of make-your-own burritos, is raising prices by 6%, having already raised prices 4% earlier this year.  Look at this quote from Steve Ells, the company’s founder and CEO:
We do not predict that there will be no [...]

Our nation’s retailers (not to mention our car companies) have almost universally announced terrible October sales.  Except for Wal-Mart.  Here’s a snippet from a New York Times story that immediately caught my attention:
All of the factors that analysts have identified as hurting October sales at most retailers — unemployment, declining stock prices, the credit crisis, [...]