WEDNESDAY, FEB. 7, 2018  |  IN THIS ISSUE 

The brew-centric Coralville restaurant 30Hop plans to open a second location in Cedar Rapids. The Gazette reports that 30Hop's owners have signed a lease for the recently vacated restaurant in Water Rock Place at 951 Blairs Ferry Road NE. The Coralville location can seat about 430, and had the distinction of offering more than half that seating on a rooftop deck and a ground-floor patio. The Blairs Ferry Road location in Cedar Rapids offers a somewhat similar space configuration, which owners plan to modify to more closely mirror the original before opening in April. Water Rock Place developers Todd and Tami Culver will be hoping for similar results, after the last two concepts in the space closed abruptly, KCRG-TV reports.
 
A recent discovery at Oak Ridge National Laboratory could lend new meaning to the old saying, "running on fumes," for Iowa's ethanol industry. The Des Moines Register reports that researchers at the federal laboratory unintentionally discovered a process for using small particles of copper and carbon to convert carbon dioxide into ethanol. Since Iowa's 43 ethanol plans emit large amounts of carbon-dioxide vapors as an unintended byproduct, the potential for recovering some of it in the form of marketable ethanol could be lucrative, as University of Iowa graduate students who studied the financial viability of the process reported. The fact-checkers at Snopes.com threw cold water on the concept, however, describing a possible snag called "high overpotential."

Another sign of the digital times surfaced this week as Billboard reported that Best Buy plans to stop selling CDs. Citing anonymous sources, the trade publication said the retailer only sold $40 million worth of CDs last year, and noted that national sales of CDs were down more than 18 percent in 2017. Up in Best Buy's hometown, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports the company has already been shrinking the amount of floor space it devotes to music because of the trend toward streaming and downloading music in digital formats.

Baby boomers may find irony in the fact that Best Buy plans to continue selling vinyl records, in an effort to honor industry agreements. They are expected to be marketed alongside turntables.

While new car sales have been relatively flat, it's a great time to be selling big rigs. The Wall Street Journal reports that trucking companies in January ordered the most new heavy rigs in nearly 12 years. They're in a rush to take advantage of the hottest freight market in recent memory, which has driven shipping rates higher - sometimes as much as 30 percent above typical rates to book last-minute shipments, according to the report.

Trucking companies in the Corridor have also been buying other companies and rigs to make the best of the opportunity. Heartland Express Chairman and CEO Mike Gerdin told the CBJ's recent 2018 Economic Forecast Luncheon that the improved market conditions, some of the best he's seen, have given him a " permanent smile."
Para5Controversial 'Lady Doritos' concept laid to rest by PepsiCo

PepsiCo, the owner of Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids, has learned that gender-specific snack foods are a sensitive issue, reports the New York Times. CEO Indra Nooyi ran into a hornet's nest of social media outrage after recently telling an interview on the Freakonomics podcast that the company had learned men and women enjoyed Doritos differently. She described male consumers crunching loudly, licking seasoning off their fingers and pouring crumbs from bags directly into their mouths. Women aren't as prone to loud crunching and finger licking, Ms. Nooyi said, and could be a different market entirely. She said PepsiCo is planning "a bunch" of snack foods targeting specifically women.
 
Things heated up after British tabloid The Sun reported PepsiCo planned to introduce a less crunchy 'lady Doritos' version of the popular snack. Women mocked the imagined move as insulting, and within days PepsiCo called out the inaccurate reports: "We already have Doritos for women - they're called Doritos, and they're enjoyed by millions of people every day," AdAge reported. PepsiCo didn't dispute that it may have other special snacks for women soon, however. Could gender-specific breakfast cereal be next?
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CommuteYour Morning Commute
Roads in the Corridor are in varied condition this morning. There's a crash blocking I-380 in Waterloo if you're headed up that way. See the DOT's interactive road conditions map here. 
 
Links as of 7 a.m.