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Wal-Mart's (WMT) massive effort to attract wealthier customers is working so far, and it spells potential big trouble for other grocers, according to an examination of the chain's "Project Impact" initiative by Supermarket News.

Burger King's (BKC) increasingly obnoxious attempts to lure young dopes to its horrible food may have gone too far this time. Some (likely slightly older) dopes have come up with a print ad shamelessly evoking oral sex to peddle the "BK Super Seven Incher" in Singapore.

I can't help but imagine a fellow in a backward ball cap and cargo shorts, his pockets full of roofies, writing this copy for the oblong sandwich:

Most people seem to love the weird ad campaigns Burger King (BKC) has been running over the past few years: the creepy "King" mascot, the "subservient chicken," dropping your Facebook friends for free food, Flame body spray.

The seed industry's consolidation over the past decade or so has been so monumental and complex that it would be nearly impossible to describe in text. Luckily, Phil Howard, an agriculture professor at Michigan State University, has assembled several graphical representations that give an idea not only of how the biggest companies have been gobbling up smaller ones, but also of how much "cooperation" there is among them.

The Baltimore Sun's Liz Kay has a great post on that paper's Consuming Interest blog about how restaurant menus are designed to get diners to spend more money.

For instance, high-margin meals are often listed in the center of the right-hand page because that's where people's eyes generally land first.

It would be a real shame if Coney Island were turned, in the words of footnoted.org's Michele Leder, into "a clone of the Mall of America." But could it really hurt the financial position of Nathan's Famous (NATH), the public company that owns the original hot dog stand on the island?

Because of a computer glitch, Starbucks accidentally charged about 1 million customers double for their coffee purchases on May 22 and part of May 23.

This revealed two things: Starbucks needs to maintain its computer systems better, and way too many people are using debit and credit cards to make tiny purchases.

The glitch occurred in the United States and Canada. Starbucks is working to reimburse all overcharged customers.

Despite Jack Shafer's recent complaints, newspapers continue to report on the "trend" of people raising chickens in their back yards.

The latest: The Dubuque, Iowa, Telegraph-Herald, which has taken it even further than a trend—according to that newspaper (whose article was picked up by the Chicago Tribune), it's a "movement":

It may be National Doughnut Day, but it's unlikely that the people at Krispy Kreme (KKD) are doing much celebrating.

The company that was once able to attract TV news crews simply by opening a new outlet has been in a tailspin for years, and it doesn't seem likely it will right itself any time soon.

The question of how to get low-income Americans to eat better usually carries with it at least some unfortunate dogma. If you say that any of the responsibility for healthy eating should fall on the eaters themselves, you're an "elitist." Ask government and industry to do more to make affordable, healthy food more accessible to poor people, and you're a socialist, or whatever.

In a stark example of how dietary patterns have changed in recent decades, obesity among Americans has leaped by 1.7 percent over the past year as the recession deepened, according to poll data reported by Newsweek.

If the poll is accurate, it means that compared with a year ago, 5.5 million more people are obese.