Amazon Go!

Amazon has revealed plans for a grocery shop without a checkout process, where customers will instead pay for the goods they have selected via an app. The Just Walk Out shopping experience uses the same types of technologies found in self-driving cars. The system detects when items are taken or returned to shelves and tracks them in a virtual shopping trolley. Once the shopper leaves the store, their Amazon account will be charged and receipt sent to them. The first shop is expected to open to the public in Seattle in the US in early 2017. "Grocery retail is a crowded sector, and customers have incredibly high expectations of the Amazon brand," said Natalie Berg, an analyst at Planet Retail. "If they're going to differentiate, they'll need to translate the fantastic customer experience that they have created online in a physical store setting. This is no easy feat. Removing the traditional checkout process does exactly that."

Amazon Go!

Growing Money From Trees

A schoolboy entrepreneur fed up with his mother searching for the perfect Christmas tree has grown 1,500 of his own and is selling them to fund his university fees. When he was nine years old his father Andy gave him his first sapling to plant and his passion grew from there. In seven years one sapling has turned into about 1,500 and Ryan is now selling the trees for £20 each. This year he hopes to make several thousand pounds, beating last year's figure when he made about £2,000 selling 100 trees to friends and family. The business is a year-round endeavour and Ryan devotes his weekends to planting and maintaining the trees in his father's field in Dean, Somerset.

Christmas Tree Entreprenuer

Best Place To Work

Travel company Expedia, has been named as the best company to work for in the UK, beating tech giants such as Google and Apple, for the second year running. Jobs website Glassdoor’s UK best places to work in 2017, which ranks businesses with more than 1,000 employees according to feedback from employees, features winning employers across diverse industries, spanning technology, banking, retail and engineering. Expedia was praised for its strong friendly work culture, as well as a good work life balance and a very supportive management team. To determine the best places to work, Glassdoor looks at company reviews made by employees who voluntarily provide anonymous feedback, by completing a company review about their job, work environment and employer over the past year.

Best Places To Work

Can You Catch A Hatchimal?

Cyber criminals are targeting British parents desperate to get their hands on Hatchimal toys ahead of  Christmas, experts have warned. Hatchimals have become the 'must have'  toy for children across the country, with frantic parents going to great lengths to get their hands on one in time for Christmas. Hatchimals, are like a sophisticated hybrid of a Ferbie and Tamagotchi.The toy gives children the chance to hatch out their very own creature from an egg. Many retailers are already out-of-stock because of high demand, with parents on the lookout for the best deals. John Shier, senior security adviser at Sophos, warned against “too good to be true” deals that have started appearing online and on social media sites such Facebook. Hatchimals are £59.99 at Toys ‘R’ Us, Argos, The Entertainer and Smyths. However, demand is so high that parents everywhere are  turning toward online sites to buy the toy and pushing up prices.

Hatchimal

Sugar Free

Nestlé, the company behind Kitkat and Aero, claims it can make your favourite chocolate bar taste just as good, but with much less sugar. The Swiss food giant said it had made a scientific breakthrough that has the potential to reduce sugar in its treats by up to 40 per cent, without affecting the taste. Nestlé said it was securing a patent for its innovation, and it would start using the new sugar across its range from 2018. Using only natural ingredients, Nestle said its researchers had found a way to structure sugar differently, so that less sugar can be used in its chocolate. If the new sugar lives up to its billing, it would represent a milestone in the food business’s never-ending quest for more healthly ways to sweeten products. The World Health Organisation previously said increasing the price of sugary drinks by 20 per cent would reduce sugar consumption by a fifth.

Sugar Breakthrough

McFresh

McDonald’s has begun using fresh beef in its popular burgers, in one of the biggest changes to its infrastructure since the chain opened. The 76-year-old fast food giant has previously always used frozen beef to make its meals, but is currently trialling the use of fresh produce in its restaurants in the US.The fresh beef strategy is being tested at nearly 100 restaurants across the states of Texas and Oklahoma, and will initially only apply to the chain’s Quarter Pounder and Clubhouse burgers. McDonald’s franchisees have expressed “major concerns” regarding food safety and fears the chain will no longer be able to serve a large amount of customers quickly if fresh beef is served. McDonalds has also just launched a Nutella burger - but you'll have to travel to Italy to get your hands on one.

McDonalds