Afternoon Coffee: Whole Foods Asks More of its Suppliers, Where AI Could Help at the Olympics

Sasajo/Adobe Stock

The Amazon-owned Whole Foods is putting more pressure on its suppliers to offer bigger discounts and pony up for prime shelf space, the Wall Street Journal reports. Many suppliers will see an increase in the $25,000 fee they had paid to be featured in the stores’ most visible areas, and a nationwide promotion is now requiring companies to cut their prices by at least 25%.

AI Judges

The 2018 Winter Olympics may be the last such event that does not involve some form of artificial intelligence in the evaluation process. As Quartz writes, Japanese company Fujitsu is developing software that can analyze gymnastics events like the pommel horse and floor routines, hoping to introduce the technology at the 2020 games in Tokyo.

Boeing Wants to Grow 

Boeing is reportedly in talks to buy Woodward Inc., a manufacturer of cockpit controls and fuel-metering units, according to Bloomberg. The general idea behind the acquisition would be to give Boeing more control over its supply chain and expand its services line of business, a less volatile segment of the aerospace industry.

Jobless Claims 

And finally, an economic update: The number of Americans filing for jobless claims fell by 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 221,000 last week, Reuters reports, the lowest amount in nearly 45 years.