Broede Carmody June 4, 2014 A Melbourne food franchise has become the first in the world to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. Hero Subs, which has stores in the Melbourne CBD and Chadstone Shopping Centre, specialises in baguettes and is now allowing customers to buy products using the digital currency. Eleena Tan, who launched the business with her husband in September last year, said: ”We’re really excited about the bitcoin phenomenon. We’re trying to help the public pick up this kind of currency.” Tan said she had had difficulties dealing with eftpos in the past, but the bitcoin payment system was quick and easy to set up. ”With the bitcoin payment system you can set it up in a day,” she said. ”We found it really, really simple to execute.” Customers need only to use their smartphone and a bitcoin wallet app to make a purchase. As part…

Christian Kerr JUNE 06, 2014 THE AUSTRALIAN Harry Nguyen at work in a Sydney convenience store: ‘People just go for the cheapest ones’. Picture: Jane Dempster Source: News Corp Australia LABOR’S nanny state push to kill off the country’s addiction to cigarettes with plain packaging has backfired, with new sales figures showing tobacco consumption growing during the first full year of the new laws. Eighteen months after the previous government’s laws came into force, new data, obtained by The Australian, shows that tobacco sales volumes increased by 59 million “sticks”, or individual cigarettes or their roll-your-own equivalents last year. The 0.3 per cent increase, though modest, goes against a 15.6 per slide in tobacco sales over the previous four years — and undermines claims by then health minister Nicola Roxon that Australia would introduce the “world’s toughest anti-smoking laws”. Plain packaging laws, which came into force in December 2012, have instead boosted demand for cheaper…

Cara Waters 03 June 2014 Business groups are going to start a community and industrial campaign calling for Sunday penalty rates to be cut. The campaign will be led by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry which claims a cut in penalty rates will increase consumer access to weekend trading and provide more youth employment. John Osborn, chief operating officer at ACCI, told SmartCompany the chamber is planning a national campaign addressing the “very serious issue” of unreasonable penalty rates and the “very negative consequences” on unemployment, particularly youth unemployment. Osborn says ACCI is seeking “significant changes” to the penalty rates regime and would like to see the rates included in the Productivity Commission’s upcoming review. “We need changes which take pressure off those industries very negatively affected by penalty rates which lead to closure on weekends and lost job opportunities,” he says. Osborn could not say what the…

Telegraph 03 Jun 2014 The “big four” supermarkets are under more pressure than at any stage in the past two decades This is turning out to be a uniquely challenging year for the grocery industry. Unwanted records are falling, from the slow pace of industry sales to the decline in Tesco’s market share and the growth of Aldi. The “big four” supermarkets are under more pressure than at any stage in the past two decades, partly because of flawed management strategies — Philip Clarke, at Tesco, and Dalton Philips, at Morrisons, face serious questions from investors — but also because the supermarket sector has matured in the UK. Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons have raced to put down out-of-town space across the country. Now, however, there are no more postcodes left to fill with supermarkets. The grocery industry has effectively become ex-growth. In such a market, the winners tend to…

Clay Lucas June 3, 2014 Some of Melbourne’s most popular food trucks will begin trading around the CBD from tomorrow as part of a three-month trial that acknowledges their growing role in the city’s foodie culture. From Wednesday, a dozen vans including Taco Truck and Gumbo Kitchen will be allowed to serve their takeaway fare – such as burgers, po’ boys, pizza and dumplings at selected sites near city parks – away from existing and established restaurants and take-out venues. “Food trucks have come a long way from the roadside doughnut stands and fried-food caravans of yesteryear,” Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said. The Gumbo Food Truck trading in Docklands in 2012.Gumbo Kitchen trading in Docklands in 2012. Photo: Eddie Jim He described gourmet food vans as “a defining part of the culinary scene” in global cities such as Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and London. “Melbourne’s food trucks…