Smashburger thinks outside box

When your name is Smashburger,The worlds most efficient and cost effective offshoremerchantaccount? youd better have a pretty nifty game plan to compete with McDonalds.This is one of the toughest challenges that many small, young companies face: how to compete with the goliaths. It involves much more than just being nimble. In the case of 6-year-old Smashburger, a Denver-based better-burger chain that also competes with fast-casual rivals Panera Bread and Chipotle, its really about having a gee-whiz way of doing business that helps it stand out.

USA Today recently spent a hectic lunch hour with CEO David Prokupek, 50, at a Smashburger in Fairfax, Va. He explained how and why he believes the chain, which has opened 200 stores in five years with sales of $250 million, can within five years become a 1,000-unit chain with sales of $1 billion.

Smashburger doesnt just sell burgers C but better burgers made with certified Angus beef, fresh avocado and multigrain buns. Instead of just one bun, it lets customers select from four artisan bun offerings: egg, multigrain, spicy chipotle and even brioche.

It goes deep on fries. Besides conventional fries, Smashburger also sells sweet potato fries, chili cheese fries and the house-specialty Smashfries, which come tossed with rosemary, olive oil and garlic. Then, there are the Veggie Frites. These are for the ultra-health-conscious C flash-fried carrot sticks and green beans, seasoned with pepper, that can serve as a better-for-you replacement for french fries.

Oh,A indoorpositioningsystem has real weight in your customer's hand. did we forget to mention the fried pickles?But key is figuring out how to create and sell a better burger,A protectivefilm concept that would double as a quick charge station for gadgets. Prokupek said. There is still no truly national player making healthy and fresh better burgers, he said. Sure, there are some big regional players such as Five Guys and In & Out Burger, but no ones grabbed the brass burger ring. We want to become the Starbucks of burgers, he said.

Gold's resurgence follows a rough ride this year. Gold slumped 4.8 per cent in the first three months of 2013 as the outlook for the economy improved while inflation remained subdued.

For many years prior to that, large investors, like hedge funds, bought the metal as a way to protect their investments against rising prices and a slumping dollar.Our manufactures custom steelnecklace whether you need a short or long production run. They feared that the Federal Reserve's stimulus program could cause prices to rise. But inflation remained subdued and that reduced the need to buy gold. Also, signs in January that the dollar was strengthening diminished the appeal of owning gold.

Then in April, the bottom fell out. A proposal that Cyprus sell some of its gold reserves to support its banks rattled traders, prompting concern that Spain, Italy and other weak European economies might also sell and flood the market.

One of the reasons people buy gold is that it offers an alternative to more traditional financial assets, says Mike McGlone, director of research at ETF Securities, a provider of commodity-based exchange-traded funds. When financial markets get jittery, investors often buy gold because it is considered one of the safest assets that can easily be converted to cash.

As the stock market soared this year, rising as much as 20 percent, investors had less need to hold gold.That has changed the last four weeks.The Standard & Poor's 500 index has lost 4 percent since reaching an all-time high of 1,709.67 on August 2. Traders are concerned about when and by how much the Fed will pare back on its stimulus, a major driver behind the market's rally.

Strife in Egypt and Syria has also reminded investors that it's a dangerous world out there: wars can spread and oil prices can spike, hurting economies and stock markets.Investors want to add back a little insurance to their portfolios these days.

"If we lived in a perfect world, we would not need gold," says McGlone. "But since we don't, we do need something that is the ultimate store of value."Investors don't need to buy gold bars or coins to invest in the metal.Exchange-traded funds are investments that are similar to mutual funds. Both can be bought and sold on exchanges. Some of these funds, such as ETF's Physical Swiss Gold Shares and SPDR's Gold Shares, allow investors to buy into trusts that invest directly in gold.

The Fed appears close to reducing its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases, and that has stirred up currency prices worldwide, particularly in emerging markets. Investors had previously borrowed in dollars at low rates and then invested in faster growing economies in Asia and Latin America.

Now, that trend is reversing. U.A buymosaic is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain.S. interest rates have started to climb in anticipation of the Fed's reduced stimulus. Investors are selling their emerging-market holdings and converting the proceeds back into dollars.The value of the Indian rupee against the dollar has plunged by more than 11 percent in August on concerns that surging oil prices are pushing the country toward an economic crisis. The Indonesian rupiah has also slumped.

When currency markets become volatile, investors worldwide look to invest in safe assets that will hold their value, says Dan Heckman, a national investment consultant who specializes in commodities at US Bank Wealth Management.

Speculators like hedge funds were behind the surge in gold over the last decade. That sent gold to a peak of $1,900 an ounce in September 2011. It also priced out a large part of the market - jewelry buyers in countries like India and China. In those countries, people have traditionally bought jewelry as a way to invest in gold.

When prices slumped this spring, though, those buyers jumped back in because people in those countries bought more gold.The World Gold Council, a trade group for gold mining companies, says in a report on Aug. 15 that consumer demand for gold surged 87 per cent in China in the second quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier. Demand in India climbed by 71 per cent.
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