New food labels challenge producers 

Paul Yamamoto hands out bottles of spicy ketchup and mustard instead of business cards – which gets him into the specialty food production business and its many challenges, including labeling.
The crew at Sage Acres Seed Farm, his alfalfa seed farm and packaging business near Caldwell, helped design labels for Chiliwongo spicy ketchup and Sage Acre [...]

State budget: Plenty for business people to watch

“Chef Lou” is almost as comfortable talking about Ida­ho’s budget as he is great food.
Lou Aaron, active in leadership with the National Federation of Independent Business Idaho chapter, has been talking about the state budget just about every day lately. The Boise chef and drive-in owner brings it up in conversations with vendors, customers, friends [...]

Boise City Council approves $15,000 for anti-panhandling campaign

UPDATED: Boise will spend $25,000 on a campaign to discourage panhandling and steer handouts to local non-profits instead.

The city tested its proposed Have a Heart Give Smart Boise campaign this summer. The campaign used leaflets and posters to advise shoppers at the Albertsons grocery store on State and 17th Streets that their handouts would be better [...]

Micron tests LED lighting at local Albertsons 

An Albertsons grocery store in Boise is giving a trial run to Micron Technology Inc.’s new high-efficiency lighting.
Micron will test its new light-emitting diode, or LED, technology in freezer displays at the Albertsons at Ustick and Five Mile.
Company spokesman Dan Francisco said the new fixtures are expected to reduce energy use by half compared to [...]

Boise mulls citywide anti-panhandling campaign 

Damon McCoy has worked in a string of jobs in the last two years, including a stint at a restaurant that laid him off a year ago. Now he holds a hand-made sign that says: “Out of Work, Anything Helps. God Bless America.”
“If I could get a job, I would,” he said.
McCoy is one of [...]

Former Albertsons exec tries to transform product recall system 

Roger Hancock received an angry senior vice president’s call several years ago when a Chicago grocery store failed to pull a recalled product from the shelves and customers complained.
“Her question to me was, ‘Why haven’t we done anything about that?’” Hancock said. “Sometimes it wasn’t very comfortable for me.”
Hancock, who served as director of food [...]

In inflation we trust?

An excellent Wall Street Journal column asks, “Will we ever again trust Wall Street?” Columnist Jason Zweig looks at possible answers and provides background.
Zweig’s column for some reason reminds me of the early to mid-2000s goings-on with Albertsons Inc., the food and drug chain that was based in Boise until being sold in June 2006. [...]