Laura Cooper

speaker

45 appearances 2 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2025 last heard 5 Aug

Laura Cooper’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

WSJ What’s News · What’s News in Earnings: The Restaurant Watchword Is Affordability · 5 Aug 2026 podcast

Hey, listeners, it is Wednesday, August 5th.

I'm Laura Cooper, a reporter covering beverages and tobacco for The Wall Street Journal.

And this is what's news in earnings.

Our look into some of the biggest themes standing out this earnings season.

This quarter's restaurant and food company earnings had one thing front and center affordability.

Americans are tightening their purse strings and companies are trying to find ways to get them spending for everything from value meals to fancy custom drinks.

We're going to be talking about McDonald's, which is bringing in a new U.S.

head to boost sluggish sales.

Here with me to dissect the recent earnings is Heather Haddon, who covers restaurants for The Journal.

Thanks for being with us today, Heather.

A lot of these companies are focusing on promotions, value deals and doing smaller price increases.

How's that working out for them?

Heather, another big issue that came up this summer was the tainted lettuce situation, something that you reported on extensively.

How are companies addressing this and what has been the impact so far?

Absolutely.

So on to one of my favorite topics, beverages.

Beverages are high margin and obviously that's what I cover.

It's close to my heart.

All the companies out there are trying to concoct new ones.

McDonald's recently had a bunch of dirty sodas come out that seem to be doing pretty well so far.

Showing 1–20 of 45 · page 1 of 3