THE PANDEMIC IS CHANGING THE NATURE OF FAST FOOD

From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        DAY   USA   WORLD   Brazil     India  South Africa

June     9    1093     4732         1185       246       82

July    22     1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12     1504     6556        1242        835     130

Sept     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21     1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25      2304    12025        620        518     118

Dec    30      3880    14748       1224       299     465

Jan     14       4142     15512        1151         189     712              

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107     398

          25       2414    10578         1582        119     144

Mar     2        1989    9490         1726        110     194

          31         1115   12301          3950       458      58

April   6         906   11787           4211         631      37

May    4         853   13667          3025      3786     59 

         18          733   13960          2517       4525     80 

         19          636   13155          2485       3880   167

Summary:

• Compared to the USA, India had almost ten times the number of new cases yesterday:  28,541 versus 276,261.  The U.S. on January 2 of this year had 299,087 new cases.
• #2 was Brazil with 79,706 new cases and Argentina #3 with 39,652.
• There has recently been a troublesome uptick in Asian new cases.  Yesterday:
• Nepal  8064
• Malaysia  6075
• Japan  4962
• Sri Lanka  3623
• Thailand  3394
• South Korea  653
• Taiwan 272
• China  14
• 
  While seemingly miniscule, Taiwan had only 1290 cases and 12 deaths during the entire pandemic.  Residents today were warned to stay home and wear masks when going out.  Oh, the fine if you don't ranges from $330 to $5000.  Only 1% of the populace has been vaccinated.  Apparently, airline staff on international flights has been the recent cause.

The New York Times today reported that the labor shortage faced by businesses is caused by a variety factors, including the Congressional economic packages, but the primary cause is that the pay rate has not increased as much as company profits:

The problem will go away when the free enterprise system kicks in, as for example:

Bank of America announced Tuesday that it would raise its minimum hourly wage to $25 and insist that contractors pay at least $15 an hour.

There might be no need for Congress to intervene on minimum wage.

In that TIME 100 Influential Companies issue I mentioned earlier this week, one company was Yum China, which has 10,000 restaurants in 1400 cities in the country.  While the USA essentially invented fast food, China is shepherding the spreading revolution.  They have established a system of contactless payments and home-delivery to serve germophobic customers.  83% of their KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut sales in the recent quarter were digital orders. 

To the right, CEO Joey Wat.  They are also creating new dishes:

• salted-egg-yolk rice rolls
• sweet pumpkin congee
• ribeye steak/mushroom taco
• alcoholic drinks
• bubble tea
• snail noodles
• Australian sirloin steak burger
• packaged raw foods (like steak) so you can cook and enhance them

Here is one of their driverless vans:

However, USA continues to innovate, and here is Amazon's transitioning store:

Italian grocery store:

To close, SMILE...

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