Fortune, Aug 13, 2012 (Cover Date)

choi

Titles in print.

(1) Ryan Bradley, Where Grills Are Born; Making Webers (in America) . . . and selling then (in India).
http://money.cnn.com/gallery/new ... eber-grill.fortune/

Note:
(a)
(i) Neither the article nor en.wikipedia.org is clear about the relationship between George Green (who invented the kettle grill in 1952) and Webers Bros Metal Works (founded in 1893, according to en.wikipedia.org). And neither explains how the company comes to be known as Weber-Stephen Products LLC.
Weber-Stephen Products
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weber-Stephen_Products
(section 4 4 External links: Corporate Website)
(ii) The corporate website (http://www.weber.com/home) does not include "About Us."
(iii) But the company Weber-Stephen does have a separate website:

George Stephen; Company founder and inventor of the Weber kettle grill. Weber, undated
http://weber.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=51
("During the 1940s and early 1950s, Stephen worked for Weber Brothers Metal Works, which was managed by his father. There, he gained experience in shaping and fabricating metal parts")
(b) The last sentence of the article states, "Weber's smallest model, the Smokey Joe, is especially popular. It's also a top seller in China, Weber's newest market, where the 'tuck `n' carry' 141/2-inch grill fits on a Beijing balcony."

There are two types of Smokey Joe: gold and silver (both of 14.5 inches in diameter, smaller than the standard)
http://www.weber.com/search/
(c) If you have trouble connecting with the tag "gallery" (which does not appear in print) at the bottom of the text--as I did--use the following URL and replace "3" before "html" with 4 or 5 (2 is the same as the photo atop the article in the main URL).
http://money.cnn.com/gallery/new ... rill.fortune/3.html


(2) Brian Dumaine, Built to Last; Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard argues that, when it comes to products, less is more.

Quote:

“"The outspoken, iconoclastic founder of Patagonia, maker of high-end outdoor clothing and equipment, believe that capitalism is on an unsustainable path. In the process of making and selling, we use too many resources and by low-quality goods that we quickly throw away. In his new, provocative book, The Responsible Company, written with Patagonia executive Vincent Stanley, Chouinard contends that we must move toward a 'post-consumerist economy' where goods are high quality, recyclable, and repairable.

"His solution, for now, is simple: Have a Patagonia ski parka with a rip in the arm? Don't throw it away and buy a new one. Send it back, and the company will sew it up. Is your tent beyond repair? Send it back, and Patagonia will recycle the material.

“"Reducing  corporation's impact on the environment is good for shareholders, he counters. The next generation of consumrrs--including millions of millennials who eat an war organic--do not take kind to polluters.

"When one looks at the unbridled growth in China, India, and other parts of developing world, where billions are vying for an American lifestyle, it's hard to imagine that Chouinard's Utopian work of less consumption, less waste, and higher-quality goods will prevail. (How low-income consumers will afford high-quality products, he doesn't say.) He does understand the challenge, pointing out that a Patagonia polo shirt, made of organic cotton, consumes in the making enough daily drinking water for 900 people and produces 30 times its weight in CO2 and three times its weight in waste. Sustainable? No economic activity is yet sustainable, but Chouihard is leading the charge to get us there.

My comment:
(a) I search high and low but can not find the article in the Web (at least in the free part of the Web). This is a short article, and quotation above may account for half of the text.
(b) Patagonia (clothing)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonia_(clothing)
(founded by Yvon Chouinard in 1972; focusing mainly on high-end outdoor clothing; Headquarters  Ventura, California)
(i) Yvon Chouinard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvon_Chouinard
(born in 1938 in Maine; "Chouinard's father was a French-Canadian handyman, mechanic, plumber. In 1946, he and his family moved from Maine to Southern California")
(ii) namesake:
(A) Patagonia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonia
("The name Patagonia comes from the word patagón used by Magellan in 1520 to describe the native people that his expedition thought to be giants. It is now believed the Patagons were actually Tehuelches with an average height of 180 cm (~5′11″) compared to the 155 cm (~5′1″) average for Spaniards of the time")
(B) Patagon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagon
(Later writers consider the Patagonian giants to have been a hoax, or at least an exaggeration and mis-telling of earlier European accounts of the region [which described giants of "twice a normal person's height")
(c) not take kindly to: “react unfavourably towards”
http://www.collinsdictionary.com ... ot-take-kindly-toto


(3) Beth Kowitt, A Founder's Bold Gamble on Panera; RON SHAICH spun off Au Bon Pain to bet on a tiny restaurant chain. Was he right?
http://money.cnn.com/2012/07/17/ ... h.fortune/index.htm

Note:
(a) Mr Chouihard first says, “In 1998, as we built out St. Louis Bread, we made the decision to change the name to Panera, a word that has roots in ‘breadbasket’ in Latin.”

The Latin nouns for breadbasket and bread are panarium and panem, respectively.

(b) Mr Chouihard then says, "I brought it to the board, and there was a huge disagreement. Au Bon Pain was the namesake. We were selling it all to bet on the little one. It was a painful process. Many of the people I had grown up with at the company were sold off with Au Bon Pain."
(i) "Au Bon Pain was the namesake."
(A) Remember that preceding paragraph states, "By the mid-1990s we were running the company as four divisions: Au Bon Pain, international, manufacturing, and Panera."  That company was Au Bon Pain Co, Inc--and now, too, following divestiture of the other three divisions, leaving the new com
(B) About Us. Au Bon Pain Co, Inc, undated
http://www.aubonpain.com/aboutus/
(“Today, with more than two hundred locations currently operating in the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand”; section with the heading History)

(ii) Definition of "sell off":
(A) sell off (vt): "to sell something quickly and for a low price, usually because you need money"
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/sell-off
(B) sell off: "To get rid of by selling, often at reduced prices"
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Sell

(c) Both Au Bon Pain Co, Inc (based in Boston then and now) and Panera Bread Company (headquartered in St Louis) are public, listed at NASDAQ.
(i) Au Bon Pain is French for “[Place] of Good Bread.” en.wikipedia.org

French vocabulary:
(A) “The preposition à, often meaning to, in(to) or at, combines with the definite article to produce the following contracted forms. These forms thus all have the rough meaning of ‘to the...’, ‘in(to) the...’, ‘at the...’:

à + le > au
à + les > aux
With la and l', the corresponding forms are à la and à l' as expected.”
http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/dictionary/a.html

Thus one commentator wrote, "Au bon pain" means "at the good bread's", as you would say "At Juliana"s" ; it means: at the shop where there is good bread.”
Wordreference.com Language Forums,  Nov 10, 2008.
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1164460
(B) bon (adj-masculine): good  (its feminine form is bonne)
(C) pain (noun-masculine): bread

(ii) Our History. Panera Bread Company, undated.
http://www.panerabread.com/about/company/history.php
(“In May 1999, all of Au Bon Pain Co, Inc's business units were sold, with the exception of Panera Bread, and the company was renamed Panera Bread. Since those transactions were completed, the company's stock has grown thirteen-fold and over $1 billion in shareholder value has been created. Panera Bread has been recognized as one of Business Week's ‘100 Hot Growth Companies.’ As reported by The Wall St. Journal's Shareholder Scorecard in 2006, Panera Bread was recognized as the top performer in the restaurant category for one-, five- and ten-year returns to shareholders”)