• Hulk Hogan’s Real American Beer was bidding to buy Hooters before his death. It’s now unclear if that offer will continue. Hogan died Thursday, reportedly of cardiac arrest.

The death of Hulk Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) Thursday marked the end of an era in the wrestling world, but it could put the future of a national restaurant chain at risk as well.

Bollea’s Real American Beer brand had launched a bid to acquire Hooters just last month. After initially bidding only for the company’s intellectual property, it expanded that bid to acquire all of Hooters of America, including the over 400 locations across the world.

Hooters filed for bankruptcy in June, abruptly closing dozens of locations. Management at the time said the company wasn’t “going anywhere” and that “by optimizing our business in support of our long-term goals, Hooters will be well-positioned to continue our iconic legacy under a pure franchise business model.”

That didn’t stop bidders from emerging. Real American Beer found itself in competition with a proposal led by Hooters Inc., which oversees some franchised Hooters locations. The company’s cofounder was a part of that group.

“Real American’s bid is different,” the company said at the time of its bid. “It’s about rebuilding Hooters from the ground up, with a fresh operational model, new revenue streams (merchandise, partnerships, experience-first locations), and a cultural strategy designed to reengage diners in their 20s and 30s. This isn’t about preserving nostalgia. It’s about unlocking Hooters’ next chapter, with real investment, real leadership, and a real plan to win.”

Great American Beer did not reply to Fortune‘s request for comment about the state of the acquisition offer following Hogan’s death.

If the bid is approved, Great American Beer would need to launch a separate entity to own Hooters, since liquor laws in the U.S. prohibit alcohol brands from owning restaurants.

Hooters and Hogan’s beer have a history, however. The chain was one of the first to agree to serve the lager last June.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Google has launched a tool to let you virtually try on clothes online. Available now, the tool lets users upload a picture of themselves to see how the outfit would look on them. AI components account for how materials fold or stretch across people’s bodies.

Buying online clothes is always something of a crap shoot. What looks good on the webpage could look ridiculous on you in person (or worse, entirely too tight).

A few months ago at its I/O 2025 event, Google unveiled an AI-powered tool that could prevent those fashion disasters, letting you upload a full-body picture of yourself to virtually try on clothing found online. Now, that tool is finally available to users in the U.S.

To use the tool, just tap on any product listing across Google or an apparel product result on Google Images and hit the “try it on” icon. From there, you’ll upload a full-length photo and see what you’ll look like in the outfit.

The tool works on laptop, desktop and mobile devices.

Google says it has also updated its price alert feature, so you can track prices and grab the top, dress or shorts when it falls into your price range.

The tool doesn’t just overlay the clothing on top of the image you upload. Google used an AI image generation model to account for how materials fold or stretch across people’s bodies.

Later this year, Google will bring shopping features like this to its AI Mode, including one that lets people explore (and purchase) outfit and decor ideas directly from the chatbot.

One heads-up about this tool: While it does a good job of showing you what the clothes will look like on you, it does not account for body size, so it’s not currently useful as a guide to whether an outfit will fit you well. In our own tests, the tool shaved several pounds off of us to showcase the clothes. And while that was a nice fantasy, the reality would likely look a bit different.

In fairness, the tool does warn users “Fit and appearance won’t be exact.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• A study by the AFL-CIO finds CEOs in the S&P 500 made 285 times more than their employees last year. The largest pay disparity was at Starbucks, where CEO Brian Niccol made 6,666 times as much as the median worker. As CEOs saw 7% raises, the average worker’s paycheck went up just 3%.

It’s a good time to be a CEO. A new study by the AFL-CIO found the average corporate leader saw their compensation increase by $1.24 million last year. On average, the federation of unions says, CEOs at the nation’s largest companies made 285 times what the average worker did. A year ago, that ratio was 268:1.

“The median employee would have had to start working in 1740 to earn what the average CEO received in 2024,” the organization wrote in its 2025 Executive Paywatch study.

CEO pay at S&P 500 companies increased 7% in 2024 over the prior year, with the average S&P 500 leader earning $18.9 million, the highest amount on record. (The previous high was set in 2021, coming in at $18.3 million.) In the past decade, CEOs in the S&P 500 have seen their salaries go up by an average of $6.5 million. Workers last year saw an average 3% raise, the organization says.

Among S&P 500 companies, the largest disparity between CEO and median worker pay was at Starbucks. While the average worker took home $14,674, according to the study, CEO Brian Niccol received $97.8 million in total compensation. That works out to 6,666 times more than workers and comes as the coffee-shop employees seek to form a union.

Axon Enterprise CEO Patrick Smith topped the pay list overall, though, with the CEO of the Taser manufacturer receiving compensation of $164.5 million in 2024 – a ratio of 801:1.

The report highlighted the Trump tax cut package in its report, noting that the average CEO would receive a tax cut of nearly $490,000 due to the extension of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Workers will see their tax bill go down an average of $765.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Krispy Kreme and Crocs are teaming up to introduce a doughnut-inspired pair of shoes. The owners of that footwear will get a free doughnut on Aug. 9.

It’s pretty easy, if you’re patient, to get a free doughnut from Krispy Kreme. The company lures in customers regularly with promotions for holidays and special events. But if you need a mouthful of that glorious glazed fried dough now, there’s another way to get a freebie: Buy some Crocs.

The doughnut chain and the footwear company have teamed up to offer a limited-edition pair of Crocs inspired by the company’s glazed offering. They’ll go on sale Aug. 5 (packaged in a Krispy Kreme box). And if you strut into any Krispy Kreme location wearing them on Aug. 9, you’ll get a free doughnut.

The Crocs come equipped with interchangeable chocolate and strawberry icing dipped toe caps. Also available will be a five Pack of Jibbitz charms, which include the Krispy Kreme sign, a hat with the company logo, and several doughnut varieties.

To get your hands on a pair, head to participating Krispy Kreme locations on Aug. 4 and place an order or scan the Crocs QR code that will be on display. (You can learn if your local store is participating in the sale at this website.)

“At Crocs, we’ve always believed in comfort you can customize – and now, with Krispy Kreme, we’re serving up style that’s glazed with personality and sprinkled with style,” Terence Reilly, chief brand officer for Crocs, Inc., said in a statement. “Because when it comes to self-expression, we ‘doughnut’ hold back.”

It’s not just a show deal, to mark the occasion, Krispy Kreme will offer a special dozen made up of the company’s Original Glazed, Chocolate Iced with Sprinkles, and Strawberry Iced with Sprinkles. That collection of treats will be available from Aug. 4-10.

So how much will the Krispy Kreme Crocs cost? Good question. The companies did not announce a price.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• McDonald’s will begin testing a variety of new drinks at select stores. This comes months after the company shut down its CosMc’s stores, which specialized in unique beverages. The testing will begin in September, largely in Wisconsin and Colorado.

McDonald’s might have shut down CosMc’s, its Starbucks competitor, but the company is still leaning heavily into new beverage offerings.

A report in The Wall Street Journal says the company is planning to offer a variety of new drinks at hundreds of locations starting in September. Included among the offerings will be a range of coffees and “dirty sodas,” which will include things like flavored syrups and dried fruits.

The company plans to see which of the new drinks resonate with customers and then determine how to work them into the menu on a larger scale.

That was, in some ways, the point of CosMc’s. McDonald’s was able to experiment with offerings that may or may not have worked in its main business, without having to retrain its entire workforce and potentially slow down service.

The company opened eight of those stores. They were initially a hit, but McDonald’s gave up on the concept after less than two years.

“It allowed us to test new, bold flavors and different technologies and processes – without impacting the existing McDonald’s experience for customers and crew,” the company said in a statement when it announced the closing. “By creating a Learning Lab – in a way that only McDonald’s can – the CosMc’s team was able to test-and-learn in real customer-facing environments, which allowed for greater agility and speed.”

It added, at the time, that some of the most popular CosMc’s drinks will make it onto the menu at standard McDonald’s.

The 10 new drinks will largely be introduced in stores in Wisconsin and Colorado.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• South Park targeted President Donald Trump and Paramount in its 27^th season premiere. The show lampooned Trump for his eagerness to sue and the network for its quick settlements and cancellation of The Late Show. It also included a deepfake video that showed a nude Trump.

Any fans who were concerned that Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s $1.5 billion deal with Paramount would dull the duo’s satirical edge got a quick and decisive answer on Wednesday’s season premiere of South Park. The show, which often addresses topical issues, skewered President Trump and its network parent Paramount in one of its most blistering episodes in years.

“Sermon on the Mount” had everything from Trump in bed with Satan (replacing Saddam Hussein, the ruler of hell’s former lover) to a parody of 60 Minutes to a mention of the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show. Satan asked Trump about the “Epstein list.” And there was even a deepfake video of Trump walking through the desert, stripping off his suit and eventually wandering around fully nude. There’s more—much more—but we won’t get into it here, since families visit this website. Best to just see it for yourself.

The episode’s official plot was about the return of Jesus, who enrolled in South Park’s schools. That led to the coverage by 60 Minutes, with the hosts nervously making comments about Trump such as “the president, who is a great man … [who] is probably watching.” Parents in the fictional town protest to Trump they didn’t want Jesus in schools, which leads to Trump threatening to sue them for $5 billion.  (Trump also threatens to sue Satan at one point.)

“I didn’t want to come back and be in the school, but I had to because it was part of a lawsuit and the agreement with Paramount,” Jesus tells the town. “You guys saw what happened to CBS? Well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount. You really want to end up like Colbert? You guys got to stop being stupid… He also has the power to sue and take bribes and he can do anything to anyone. It’s the f*****g president, dude… South Park is over.”

The town eventually settles with Trump for $3.5 million, but is also required to create “pro-Trump messaging,” which leads to the deepfake film.

All of this comes hours after Paramount agreed to pay the production company owned by Stone and Parker $1.5 billion for the global streaming rights for the next five years. HBO Max previously held the streaming rights to the show. That high dollar amount caught people’s attention since Paramount handed it out so soon after cancelling The Late Show and ending its association with host Stephen Colbert, calling its move “purely a financial decision.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• The Cram Fire in Oregon has burned over 95,000 acres. It could become a “megafire,” signaling it has burned 100,000 acres, in the near future. Centered in rural Oregon, the fire has not destroyed as many buildings as some smaller fires in California.

The Cram Fire in Oregon broke out on July 13 and has been burning ever since. To date, it has impacted 150 square miles of land, nearly 100,000 acres and has flirted with “megafire” status. Fueled by strong winds and high temperatures, it’s burning southeast of Portland, in a sparsely populated area.

Firefighters have made some progress with the fire. It is currently 73% contained, according to Oregon officials.

The fire is the biggest, to date, in the U.S. in 2025. (Fire season, however, typically peaks in the late summer months.) As of 11:00 p.m. Sunday evening, the fire had burned 95,748 acres. Should it reach 100,000 acres, that would meet the U.S. Interagency Fire Center’s definition of a megafire, a term meant to underscore the size and severity of massive fires (much like the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale defines hurricanes).

The Cram Fire’s location has made it a possible megafire that doesn’t have the same level of tragedy as smaller fires have in California. To date, only four houses have been destroyed, though hundreds of other buildings are still threatened. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Evacuation orders and warnings remain in place across at least three counties – Jefferson, Wasco and Crook County, per Central Oregon Fire. Officials said in an update Sunday they were fire anticipating cooler weather, higher humidity and possibly rain to help “moderate fire behavior.”

More than 930 firefighters are working to extinguish the blaze.

The Cram Fire is, by far, the largest in the country right now, but it’s far from the only wildfire that is threatening land across the U.S.

Two wildfires on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon has burned over 70,000 acres and destroyed a historic lodge. And in Colorado and Utah, the Deer Creek fire has burned over 16,000 acres.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• McDonald’s re-introduced Snack Wrap is proving so popular that some restaurants are running out of lettuce. The menu item made its return on July 10, after being cancelled nine years ago.

The return of the Snack Wrap is proving to be even more of a big deal than McDonald’s was hoping for.

The Wall Street Journal reports some locations of the fast-food chain have been running low on lettuce and other toppings since the customer favorite made its return. McDonald’s tells the paper that the shortages were temporary and have been resolved.

The Snack Wrap made its return on July 10 after a nine-year absence. (Franchise owners told corporate that the item took workers too long to make, cutting efficiencies. Some stores defied the menu item’s cancellation, selling them up until 2020, but by that point, they were completely gone.)

While there have been plenty of consumer petitions to bring it back, the company has resisted until this year. On the day the Snack Wrap returned, Placer.ai reports visits to McDonald’s locations were 11.4% higher than the usual average on that day of the week. The traffic surges continued for several days.

McDonald’s might have the OG Snack Wrap, but it’s hardly the only restaurant to offer one these days. Wendy’s began offering a version of the treat in 2023.

The surge in demand for the Snack Wrap brings to mind the 2019 introduction of a chicken sandwich from Popeye’s. The chain had what it thought was a two-month supply of chicken sandwich materials on hand when it launched the product. As social media chatter exploded, it exhausted those in just two weeks.

After that, Popeyes took the unusual approach of encouraging people to bring their own buns to the stores and create the sandwich themselves, using chicken tenders.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• Beef prices continue to climb as egg prices fall. Since January, the average price per pound has jumped 9% to $9.26. Over the past year, steak prices are up 12.4%.

Breakfast is starting to become affordable once again as egg prices have finally seen price drops, but if you’re thinking of firing up the grill, you might want to check your savings account first.

Beef prices are hitting new record highs. The Department of Agriculture shows that since January, the average price per pound has jumped 9% to $9.26. Over the past year, steak prices are up 12.4%.

Hamburger’s not much better off. The price of ground beef is up 10.3% in the past year.

Demand has remained high while herds have been shrinking—hitting their lowest levels in 74 years. Feed prices are higher and Imported beef is costing more as well.

Egg prices spiked due to avian flu concerns, which resulted in the slaughter of millions of chickens and a subsequent shortage of domestically produced eggs. Chicken populations eventually started to recover from the slaughter, though, which increased the supply, bringing costs back down.

It won’t be that easy with beef.

While herd sizes can grow, it takes longer for a cow to mature—and the rising price of feed isn’t expected to decline anytime soon, meaning it costs a fair bit more to raise the cattle. Imports, meanwhile, are likely to be subject to tariffs moving forward, and those make up about 8% of U.S. beef consumption.

The best chance for a price drop is the scenario everyone wants to avoid. If household incomes drop to the point that beef becomes a luxury, prices will decline, but that will also hurt farmers, whose incomes are already perilous.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• July 20 is National Ice Cream Day. Fans of the dessert have plenty of options to get a free cone or discounts on their favorite flavors.

You scream. I scream. We all scream … well, maybe because of that ice cream headache that just kicked in.

It’s National Ice Cream Day, another of the food industry’s holidays, but one that scoop shops across the country are happy to use as a marketing tool – and one that means lots and lots of free ice cream for lovers of the frozen dessert.

July is actually Ice Cream Month. This particular holiday is celebrated each year, however, on the third Sunday of July. And, incredibly, this is a food holiday that has the backing on Washington.

In 1984, a joint resolution was presented in the U.S. House and Senate to celebrate both ice cream month and declare ice cream day. It passed easily and on July 9, 1984, Ronald Reagan made it official with a presidential proclamation. (The bill was only supposed to be for that year, but … hey, free ice cream!)

Willing to risk the cavities and brain freeze? Here’s where you can get some freebies and discounts today.

Baskin-Robbins

Rewards members can get $5 off for orders of $20 or more.

Marble Slab Creamery

Loyalty members will receive a free small ice cream. Better still, you’ll have seven days to redeem the code, so you can fill up on other freebies, then come back for this one in a day or two.

Halo Top

If your first, middle, or last name matches one found any iconic ice cream brand—think Ben, Jerry, Jeni, Baskin, Robbins, Blue, Dreyer, Edy, Häagen, Dazs, Kemps, Nick, Oatly, Talenti, Tillamook, Hill, or Van Leeuwen—then you’ll get a free pint of Halo Top. Head to HaloTop.com/IceCreamDay to make your claim and find a full list of qualifying names.

Stop & Shop

The grocery chain is giving away free 1.5-quart tubs of its store brand ice cream. No purchase necessary. Pick from 15 classic flavors including Moose Tracks, Cookies & Cream, and Vanilla Bean.

Wendy’s

Some people might argue it’s technically not ice cream, but you can grab a free small Frosty with any purchase made in the Wendy’s app today.

Dippin’ Dots

Get a free mini cup of any flavor during a two-hour window at franchise locations. (Head here to find the two hours in the locations nearest to you.)

Jeni’s

The chain will serve a new Sundae Fudge Sauce, a rich chocolate sauce with a hint of sea salt, for free with any scoop shop order.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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