Americans still drink a lot of soda: Sales in the U.S. were more than $70 billion in 2014, according to Euromonitor International, well ahead of China, the runner-up market, with $28.4 billion. The way we think about, talk about, and legislate soda has changed rather drastically—and we drink relatively less of it too, with consumption dropping 25 percent between 1998 and 2014. So with the threat of soda taxes and warning labels and an increased popular understanding of the links between sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity, companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are looking to sell more of their products elsewhere—especially in developing markets.

The Town’n Country grocery in Oriental, North Carolina, a local fixture for 44 years, closed its doors in October after a Wal-Mart store opened for business. Now, three months later -- and less than two years after Wal-Mart arrived -- the retail giant is pulling up stakes, leaving the community with no grocery store and no pharmacy.

Though mom-and-pop stores have steadily disappeared across the American landscape over the past three decades as the mega chain methodically expanded, there was at least always a Wal-Mart left behind to replace them. Now the Wal-Marts are disappearing, too.

Starbucks is taking a lot of heat from consumers lately. 
 
Multiple organizations, including OCA, have appealed to CEO Howard Schultz to switch to organic milk.
 
And recently, hundreds of thousands of consumers signed petitions, including ours, demanding Starbucks drop out of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), a lobbying group that is suing Vermont to overturn its GMO labeling law.
 
It’s no wonder Starbucks is looking for ways to polish its image. And it found one. Problem is, it doesn't address the real issues.