Author: openjargon

• Cracker Barrel has lost relevance with customers, its CEO said in May.
• Customers and an employee told BI that the company's food quality has declined.
• The chain could reinvent itself or bring back some axed menu items to win back eaters, they said.

In the late 1980s, Neal Klein and his family had several options when they wanted a hot meal on road trips through the South to visit relatives.

Only Cracker Barrel offered good food, "almost Disney World quality" service, and a game with pegs on a wooden board that his family could play as they waited. "I was charmed," Klein said. "Those are things that stay with you, and they make quite a memory."

But a Thanksgiving turkey dinner last fall at a Cracker Barrel in Florida, where Klein now lives, shattered that image.

"It tasted cheap," Klein said. "The stuffing was gloppy. It just had an unappetizing feel because everything had started to really congeal."

Cracker Barrel has lost relevance with many of its formerly loyal customers — something even CEO Julie Felss Masino admitted during a company call with investors in May. The same month, the restaurant chain lowered its earnings expectations for the rest of its 2024 fiscal year, citing "weaker-than-anticipated traffic" at its locations.

"We've got to drive and reignite relevancy, and then we have to have food and an experience that guests crave," she said.

Three customers and an employee Business Insider spoke with said that Masino has her work cut out for her. They also pointed to some ways Cracker Barrel could get diners back in the chain's iconic rocking chairs waiting for a table.

Customers say that Cracker Barrel doesn't live up to its 'homestyle cooking' promise

Cracker Barrel has long promised "homestyle cooking" at its restaurants just off interstates and major roads.

However, food quality issues were a theme among the customers that BI spoke with.

After Thanksgiving, Klein said he gave his local Cracker Barrel another shot on Easter Sunday. But if anything, he said, the experience was worse. The meat was overcooked and oversalted, he said, and the side of stuffing "was a greenish brown" with "a gray patina to it."

"It's really a tragedy," he said. "You realize you're in the middle of a crumbling citadel, and you're like, 'Holy crap, this is very sad.'"

Tom Smith, a Chicago-area Cracker Barrel customer who briefly worked a night shift at one of the restaurants, said he and his wife visit for its pancakes. He's also a fan of Cracker Barrel's Loaded Hashbrown Casserole, which is topped with bacon bits and melted cheese.

"But of all the other stuff I have had, it's just been average," he said. "I have had the fried chicken. I was like, 'It's good fried chicken, but so is Popeyes.'"

It wasn't always like this.

Bob Horner still remembers going to some of the first Cracker Barrel restaurants in Tennessee in the 1970s.

"The food was good, and the people were friendly," he said. "It was good home cooking."

About 10 years ago, Horner said he started noticing some of his go-to orders, red-eye gravy and the chicken salad sandwich, disappearing from the menu.

Then, after pandemic restrictions started to ease, he noticed another dip. "The food quality went down, the portion size went down, the prices went up," Horner said.

"Our menu has evolved since we first opened our doors in 1969 and it will continue to evolve," a Cracker Barrel spokesperson said. The company has changed its menu to "allow us to make room for new, craveable dishes."

The spokesperson added that Cracker Barrel is testing roughly 20 new items, such as Hashbrown Casserole Shepherd's Pie and Slow-Braised Pot Roast, at restaurants in Texas. The chain is also trialing "a new menu design that's easier for guests to navigate, and an optimized core menu reducing recipe complexities for employees."

Cracker Barrel's push to sell more rubs some customers the wrong way

While executives have said little about food quality at Cracker Barrel, they have touted new additions to the menu. Many, they say, are meant to increase "check size" — essentially, to get patrons to spend more money. That's been a tall task, given that prices at restaurants remain high thanks to inflation.

One example is offering diners extra food to take home.

Last year, Cracker Barrel started advertising that customers could take home an extra entrée, such as fried chicken and mac n' cheese, for $5 if they purchased a regular one.

But the option doesn't land well with some guests.

One Cracker Barrel hostess in the Midwest, who asked not to be named in this article due to potential retaliation at work, said that her manager requires her to approach customers who are finishing their meals with a tray of the entrées and ask them if they'd like one to take with them. BI verified the hostess' identity and employment.

"You're supposed to come up with scenarios," she said. "'You have a kid at home, give him some meatloaf.'"

Last month, one guest responded: "It seems like Cracker Barrel is trying to squeeze every dollar out of its patrons."

"In my mind, I said, 'Yeah, good point,'" the hostess said.

A Cracker Barrel spokesperson said patrons "have responded positively" to the $5 offering since it was introduced last year. The spokesperson did not comment on whether it is company policy to have employees pitch the entrées as described by the hostess.

The hostess added that management at her restaurant has told servers to sell guests more drinks, such as fancy coffees or beer. But often, the servers are "practically in tears because people are just ordering water with lemon," she said.

"They have a pretty big turnover of servers and people who clean up," she added.

Cracker Barrel could win back customers with a new definition of nostalgia

Bringing back some discontinued menu items could draw in some customers, Horner said. "I've heard a thousand times from people: 'Bring back the chicken liver dinner,'" he said.

"If I could speak directly to the CEO," Horner said, "I would just tell her flat out: 'It's the food. It's not the decorations of a wall. It's not serving alcohol.'"

"I don't go to Cracker Barrel or order a glass of wine or a mixed drink or a beer," he added.

But Cracker Barrel's decor may not be helping. Many of the chain's roughly 660 locations are decked out in 1940s advertisements, signs for tractor repair shops, and other trinkets that remind diners of the early 20th century and a rural lifestyle.

That may have worked a few decades ago, when people who lived through the Great Depression and World War II were frequent guests at Cracker Barrel stores. But as the population has aged, the signifiers of nostalgia have also changed, said Smith, the Chicago-area customer.

Smith, who is 69, said much of the 1930s and 1940s decor even looks old to him. "You look at somebody that's 30, and they might as well have dinosaurs on the wall," he said.

"'Nostalgia' today would be PAC Man or Space Invaders," he added.

CEO Masino, who previously held executive roles at Taco Bell and Starbucks, has indicated that changes are coming to Cracker Barrel. The chain is testing new restaurant layouts, including "bookcases that open up the sight lines and allow for different displays," she said on the May earnings call.

But Klein, the Florida patron who got his first taste of Cracker Barrel in the 80s, said he's already moved on. He now visits a local diner when he wants a hearty meal out.

"Life is really short," he told BI. "Do I really need to eat at chain restaurants more than a couple of times?"

Do you work at Cracker Barrel or another major restaurant and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com

• Hope Davis is a 47-year-old mom of three in New Orleans.
• She receives $1,000 monthly from the state ACLU's guaranteed monthly income program.
• The program targets people who have been involved with the criminal justice system.

This is an As Told To essay based on a conversation with Hope Davis, a participant in a guaranteed basic income program in Louisiana that focuses on reparations and assisting those involved in the criminal justice system. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I had never heard of the ACLU before in my life, but they ended up helping me with some legal troubles. I really felt like I had a family member on my side and like somebody actually cared. They called me one day and said they have a program that offers $1,000 a month, along with counseling programs and a bunch of other things. I said, "Sign me up."

To this day, it's unbelievable they picked me. I never thought in a million years that I would be in a position where somebody is giving me $1,000 a month for a year. It is overwhelming, and it also came at a very critical time in my life.

I'm a widow with three sons, two of whom are grown up and one younger one who lives with me. I'm unemployed, but I am a certified chef. I lost my job, so this program came at just the right time when the payments started in November. It's helping me pay a lot of personal bills, and it's helping me do activism work in my community.

Working in a community is something new and different for me. I got our tenant organization up and running again, so the stress for me right now is getting people involved in rebuilding and redeveloping our community. We meet monthly, so I have to run copies and buy lunches, gifts, books, things like that. I feel good when I'm getting a gathering together and can give something back. The guaranteed monthly income program has really given me peace of mind.

Even when I was married and my husband and I were together with three children, he always worked, and I always worked. We still struggled, and sometimes I even had two jobs. It was hard. The rent was always high. I was evicted at one point and sleeping in my vehicle for four or five months while trying to find a place to live.

I know people who lost their jobs and don't know how to apply for unemployment. I know women who are pregnant and don't know how to apply to get WIC. I went out into the neighborhood looking to see who I could help because I've seen situations like this all my life where people can't find help even when programs are out there. The government has programs out there ready to assist, and they're just not being implemented in the neighborhoods, and I think that's really sad. So that is my endeavor, that is my passion, to find those programs and bring them to the neighborhood. And I'm using the funds to help me do that.

• "The Man with 1000 Kids" puts a prolific sperm donor, Jonathan Jacob Meijer, in the spotlight.
• It shows how families slowly realize the sheer number of children he has fathered.
• Meijer told Business Insider that he's planning to take legal action against Netflix.

"The Man with 1000 Kids" tells the story of four couples and a single woman as they gradually realize their sperm donor has fathered hundreds of children.

The Netflix docuseries details how Jonathan Jacob Meijer told those who used him as a donor that he had only helped a handful of families. But as parents in The Netherlands realize their children born using sperm donors look oddly similar, it becomes clear that wasn't the case. It later emerges he has been donating sperm around the world.

The families quickly become fearful of the potential dangers to future generations if half-siblings unknowingly have children together.

A man identified as John, one half of a couple who used Meijer, said on the show: "We thought, 'Oh fuck. What if these children meet each other and maybe have a connection or fall in love and they don't know they are related?' That's when the real panic started. That's when we saw the real danger of this."

Jonathan Jacob Meijer was banned from donating sperm in The Netherlands

In April 2023, Meijer was banned from donating sperm to fertility clinics by the Hague District Court in his native Netherlands, after it emerged he had fathered over 500 children, The Independent reported.

He will be fined €100,000 for every violation if he donates again.

An anonymous sperm donor also alleged in the series that Meijer and another man, identified only as Leon, ran a website called "Longing for a Child" to try to father as many children as possible. The anonymous donor claimed that Meijer and Leon mixed their sperm samples together to play "sperm roulette," to see who the child would look like.

In an email to Business Insider, Meijer denied running the site.

"I have never ran a website, there's no evidence for that. I had posted my advertisement on that very website in the early years of my donating, 2008-2014," he wrote. "What Leon did is unclear to me, I have met him 4-5 times in my life, he passed away two years ago."

Meijer added, referring to Netflix: "I will take legal action for slander, this is really insane! I will take legal action, not only because of the mixing but some other claims as well."

Netflix didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.

Meijer still posts videos of himself traveling on YouTube

The docuseries details how Meijer traveled a lot for work, which is why some of the mothers involved were not able to speak to him face-to-face when they discovered just how many children were conceived using his sperm samples.

He frequently posts videos to his YouTube channel about his thoughts on various topics, such as spirituality, traditional wives, raw meat diets, and his reaction to "The Man with 1000 Kids."

On May 5th, he uploaded a video from Tanzania, explaining that he decided to leave the Netherlands because it had become overpopulated and that he wanted to be closer to nature.

In his most recent upload on July 3rd, Meijer was on a beach in Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa. He explained that he spent "over 50,000 hours" as a sperm donor until 2019, when he said he stopped donating to clinics.

• Nearly a week later, the ramifications of President Biden's debate performance are still being felt.
• Democrats are debating whether or not Biden remains the best candidate to head the ballot in 2024.
• But Republicans would like to see Biden remain the nominee, sensing that his vulnerabilities will boost Trump.

For most of President Joe Biden's White House tenure, Republicans have floated theories about the president's health and cast doubt on the veteran Democrat's leadership.

The president has long argued that his age is an asset in the 2024 race, while touting accomplishments like the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act.

But Biden's widely panned debate performance — which voters in multiple surveys said was won by former President Donald Trump — only served to raise new questions about his fitness for office.

Biden sought to use the debate to gain some momentum in a race that for weeks showed him tied with Trump in national polls.

However, Trump still remains ahead in multiple national surveys, including recent polls from USA Today/Suffolk University (Trump +3 among lead among registered voters) and The New York Times/Siena College (Trump +6 among likely voters).

Despite Trump's myriad legal issues and questions surrounding his own temperament and fitness for office, Biden's struggles have been a boon for the ex-president's campaign. And his allies want to keep Biden on the ballot in a number of states — as they aim to retain an advantage in a race that at the moment leans in their favor.

Taking away attention

Instead of Democrats being able to focus fully on the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, as well as the Supreme Court's more recent ruling on presidential immunity, they've been in crisis mode over Biden's predicament.

Biden has insisted that he won't drop his reelection bid despite a Times report indicating that he was at mulling over such a decision. But another recent Times report detailing alleged lapses from Biden have only created more shockwaves in Washington.

For more than three years, Biden has overseen an administration where there have been leaks that were few and far between.

So the concerns regarding his health have not only zapped much of the energy from his own campaign message this week, but it has also worried some vulnerable lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

In the weeks leading up the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, this is not where the Biden campaign thought it'd be.

And Republicans are thrilled that the heat — for now — is off Trump.

It's all about the deadlines

Despite the GOP optimism, Trump is not leading in national polls by insurmountable margins, even with Biden's stumbles.

The electorate remains deeply polarized, and should Biden regain support in the coming days and weeks, the race could easily tighten once again. In politics, there are no guarantees.

But Trump's conservative allies have long eyed ballot rules under a scenario in which Biden could potentially leave the race, and they are preemptively floating legal action to keep the president on statewide ballots should he step aside as the Democratic nominee, according to The Washington Post.

"Our research has basically uncovered that it's extraordinarily complicated and absolutely ripe for ample opportunities for litigation," Heritage Foundation Oversight Project executive director Mike Howell told the newspaper.

Trump had been relatively quiet as other Republicans pummeled Democrats over their Biden dilemma. That ended recently, though, with Trump blasting the president's debate performance in a video that was provided to The Daily Beast. Trump in the video also took a swipe at Vice President Kamala Harris — who'd be perhaps the top potential replacement should Biden forgo a reelection bid — calling her "bad."

But the former president is not in the clear in the eyes of the public, despite this week's Supreme Court ruling. The 34 felony convictions from his Manhattan hush-money case and him being found liable for sexual assault are still weighing on the minds of voters — especially independents who aren't particularly thrilled with him.

Should Biden step aside, a more popular Democrat — backed by a party itching to defeat Trump again — could easily dispatch the former president in November. And Republicans know it.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is now worth $113 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
• His fortune has ballooned over the past year following a surge in Nvidia stock. 
• Huang is now richer than Rob, Jim, or Alice Walton, per the Bloomberg index.

Nvidia has emerged as one of the main winners of the AI investing craze — and the good times keep rolling for the semiconductor giant.

One obvious winner anytime the year's hottest stock surges is Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Huang. His net worth jumped over the past year, according to data from Bloomberg, as investors seized on better-than-expected sales and profits.

Huang's personal fortune of $113 billion now puts him 13th on the outlet's Billionaires Index. He's richer than every Walmart heir, including founder Sam Walton's three children Rob, Jim, and Alice.

Here's everything you need to know about Huang, who rocks a leather jacket everywhere he goes and reportedly got a tattoo of Nvidia's logo once the company's share price hit $100.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is now worth $113 billion.

Most of Huang's wealth comes from his 3.5% stake in the Santa Clara-based chipmaker, according to the company's 2023 annual report.

The jump in Nvidia stock follows another set of blockbuster quarterly earnings as the generative AI boom continues.

In June, Nvidia became the most valuable company in the world, worth $3.35 trillion, but has since fallen back behind Microsoft and Apple.

The chip maker reached the $3 trillion milestone three decades after its launch in 1993. Apple took nearly five decades to achieve the same valuation.

He moved to the US as a child.

Born as Jen-hsun Huang in Taipei in 1963, Huang spent part of his childhood in Taiwan and Thailand, per Bloomberg. 

In 1973, Huang's parents sent their children to relatives in the US owing to the social unrest in the Southeast Asian country, before relocating there themselves.

Huang's aunt and uncle — who were recent migrants to Washington state at the time — accidentally sent Jensen and his brother to Oneida Baptist Institute in Kentucky, which was considered a reform school instead of a prep school, according to Huang's 2002 interview with Wired.

"And the kids were really tough," Huang told NPR in a 2012 interview. "They all had pocket knives — and when they get in fights, it's not pretty. Kids get hurt."

Students at the school also had to work, and Huang's duty was to clean the bathrooms. 

"The ending of the story is I loved the time I was there," Huang told NPR. "We worked really hard — we studied really hard, and the kids were really tough."

In 2019, he and his wife Lori donated $2 million toward building a female dormitory and classroom building at the school, per the institute's website.

He loves computer games and studied electrical engineering.

Huang and his brother eventually moved to Oregon where they rejoined the family.

During his time as a high schooler in Beaverton, he was a nationally ranked junior table tennis champion, according to a 2017 profile on Oregon State University, or OSU, where Huang attended college.

Huang also holds a Master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford. 

 

 

Huang met his wife, Lori Mills, in his freshman year of college.

The couple have two children, according to OSU's profile. 

"I enjoyed computers growing up, but OSU opened up my eyes to the magic behind them," he told the university.

Huang graduated in 1984 — the "perfect year to graduate," he said at a keynote speech at National Taiwan University's commencement ceremony this year, per Fortune. That was the same year when the first Mac computers were released, bringing forth a new age in personal computing.

After graduating from OSU, Huang worked at chip companies LSI Logic and Advanced Micro Devices in a variety of roles, according to his bio on Nvidia's website.

He founded Nvidia in 1993 after leaving LSI Logic.

Huang founded Nvidia while dining at Denny's.

Nvidia was founded in 1993 at a Denny's restaurant where he was meeting with two friends, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, per The Wall Street Journal.

 The trio "wondered whether starting a graphics company would be a good idea," Huang told Stanford University's engineering school in a 2010 interview.

"We brainstormed and fantasized about what kind of company it would be and the world we could help. It was fun," he told Stanford.

Denny's was also where Huang part-timed when he was a student, per a 2010 New York Times interview. There, he learned how to be more outgoing.

"I was a very good student and I was always focused and driven. But I was very introverted. I was incredibly shy," he told the Times. "The one experience that pulled me out of my shell was waiting tables at Denny's. I was horrified by the prospect of having to talk to people."

Huang is 61, making him years older than Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos when they left day-to-day operations at 52 and 57 years old, respectively.

There are few signs he plans to slow down.

"Nothing is more fun to me than to build a once-in-a-generation company with all of my friends here," Huang told Business Insider in 2021 . "I can't imagine wanting to do anything other than that."

Huang is now one of the biggest winners of the AI boom.

Nvidia has made itself a key player in the AI boom by supplying hardware to major companies, including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Demand for the company's hardware has been driven by several factors, including a sophisticated software system that makes its chips simple to use as well as a shortage of AI chips. 

Huang now believes we've hit a new threshold in the AI hype cycle. "Accelerated computing and generative AI have hit the tipping point. Demand is surging worldwide across companies, industries, and nations," Huang said in the company's fourth-quarter earnings press release.

 

Huang cashed in on Nvidia's success by selling shares worth $169 million

According to Bloomberg, Huang sold 1.3 million Nvidia shares in June, worth nearly $169 million. 

The sale came in the same month as Nvidia's market value reached $3 trillion for the first time and briefly peaked as the world's most valuable company. 

It's the most Huang has netted from selling stock in a single month.

Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment on the sale. 

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect movements in Nvidia's share price and Jensen Huang's net worth.

• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman survived a high-profile ouster last year.
• At OpenAI, he has certain management philosophies, from keeping mornings free of meetings to delegating strategically.
• Here are some of Altman's most notable advice for running a team and business.

One of the biggest names in the AI industry, Sam Altman was the subject of a massive ouster last year. Within a (very hectic) week, however, he was reinstated in his role as CEO at OpenAI, the firm behind AI chatbot ChatGPT.

So how exactly does he like to run one of the most talked-about AI businesses?

Here's a look at some of the tips he's shared over the years when it comes to managing teams and leading a business.

Find balance in managing people

Altman believes in "pushing people hard enough that they accomplish more than they thought they could, but not so hard they burn out," he wrote in a 2019 blog post.

In a 2023 blog post, he added, "Do not let the org chart get in the way of people working productively together."

Watch out for meeting creep

Altman typically tries to limit the amount of his time spent on meetings or conferences, he wrote in a 2018 blog post, but acknowledges it's "critical that you keep enough space in your schedule to allow for chance encounters and exposure to new people and ideas."

Every OpenAI employee is welcome to reach out to Altman on Slack, and a "crazy" number of people have his personal phone number, one person who has worked closely with Altman previously told Business Insider.

Altman said in the 2018 blog post that he thinks the ideal meeting time is either around 15 to 20 minutes, or 2 hours, but "the default of 1 hour is usually wrong."

The first few hours of Altman's day, which are his most productive, stay meeting-free.

Communicate with brevity

Altman says speaking concisely is a game-changer.

"Learning how to say something in 30 seconds that takes most people 5 minutes is a big unlock," Altman wrote on X in April.

In emails, he is "terse to the point of rudeness," he wrote in 2018.

Delegate carefully

Altman shared advice for delegating tasks in 2018.

He wrote that he "can't be very productive working on things I don't care about or don't like," so he sometimes passes down these responsibilities, strategically.

"Remember that everyone else is also most productive when they're doing what they like, and do what you'd want other people to do for you—try to figure out who likes (and is good at) doing what, and delegate that way," he wrote.

Prioritize your work well

Altman said there are three parts to his approach to work.

"Make sure to get the important shit done, Don't waste time on stupid shit, and make a lot of lists," he said in 2018.

He makes lists on paper of what he wants to get done daily, monthly, and yearly.

Devote more attention to hiring

"Spend more time recruiting," he wrote in 2023. "Take risks on high-potential people with a fast rate of improvement. Look for evidence of getting stuff done in addition to intelligence."

He's also said it's crucial to "get good at discovering undiscovered talent."

• The US Navy banned alcohol consumption on naval vessels, bases and shipyards in 1914.
• As the US faced the impending threat of war, sailors needed an alternative morale boost: ice cream.
• The Navy built a fleet of ice cream barges capable of churning out hundreds of gallons daily.

In 1914, then-Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels issued an order prohibiting the consumption of alcohol on any naval vessel, shipyard, or shore station.

In lieu of alcohol, sailors enduring the hardships of the sea were in need of an alternative morale booster, especially as the US faced the impending threat of World War I.

Amid wartime rationing and supply shortages, an unlikely contender emerged: ice cream.

The service began adding ice cream makers to ships prior to World War I and resorted to operating refrigerated barges to meet the needs of the massive and far-flung Pacific fleet during World War II.

Ice cream propaganda

In 1941, the US government declared ice cream a nonessential food as part of rationing efforts ahead of World War II.

The International Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers and the National Dairy Council launched an intense campaign to reverse the decision, publishing propaganda posters emphasizing the "health" benefits ice cream could offer US troops.

"There's a reason the US Navy serves ice cream," a 1944 ad by the National Dairy Council read. "America's favorite dairy food — ice cream — is an important source of vitamins, proteins and minerals."

The ad goes on to cite the work of subsistence researchers in Chicago, who approve foods served by the Navy.

"That is why it is significant that ice cream ranks so high on Navy menus," the ad read. "It is not only a favorite food, but it also supplies valuable vitamins, proteins, and minerals. For that reason, wherever practical, the Navy gets ice cream!"

Meanwhile, civilians at the homefront faced ice cream shortages amid the rationing of sugar and milk. However, organizations framed the ice cream scarcity back home as a sacrifice for the well-being of US troops.

"Ice cream is a favorite with all branches of our armed forces — and it is important that they get this valuable food," according to the ad. "So if you aren't always able to get all the ice cream you want — remember, you're 'sharing' this nutritious food with our fighters."

Aiding the recovery of sick troops

The Navy has made ice cream accessible to sailors since the early 1900s, installing ice cream machines aboard US Navy ships to give sailors easy access to the frozen treat.

During World War I, Navy hospital ships, like USNS Mercy, used a milk emulsifier called the "mechanical cow," which could produce 15 gallons of cold, pasteurized milk in 45 minutes. The ships also had an electric ice cream machine that could make 10 gallons at a time.

Ice cream was thought to aid in the recovery of patients — if not in body, then in spirit.

A 1918 editorial published in the monthly trade magazine "The Ice Cream Review" highlighted the benefits of ice cream for the sick while urging the federal government to provide ice cream to troops overseas.

"In this country, every medical hospital uses ice cream as a food, and doctors would not know how to do without it," the editorial read.

Maritime ice cream parlors

As time went on, ice cream operations at sea began to more closely resemble experiences back home.

The first-in-class super-dreadnought battleship USS Pennsylvania had its own maritime ice cream parlor, featuring a soda fountain and tiled walls decorated with images of famous ships, according to the US Naval Institute.

The Navy also installed a brand-new soda fountain aboard the Omaha-class light cruiser USS Memphis, which cost $7,000 — about $130,000 in 2024.

A frozen treat before abandoning ship

During the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942, the Japanese aircraft carrier Zuikaku struck the US aircraft carrier USS Lexington with two torpedoes, severely damaging its hull.

Crews aboard the Lexington were forced to abandon ship before a powerful internal explosion set the vessel ablaze — but some sailors had different priorities in mind.

Four decades later, then-retired US Navy Adm. Noel A.M. Gayler, one of the Navy's first fighter aces who served aboard the Lexington, recalled the moments before Lady Lex sank to its watery grave.

"We were driven by the fires to the extreme end of the ship," Gayler told Paul Stillwell, a historian at the US Naval Institute, in a 1983 interview. "The ship's service ice cream plant was in the extreme port corridor. Some clown passed the word that there was free ice cream, so sailors were abandoning ship and lining up for free ice cream."

Gayler added: "Of course, they puked it up as soon as they'd been swimming in salt water [for] a while."

Merle Lebbs, an electrician's mate on board the Lexington, said he was among those who polished off the ice cream containers evacuating the vessel.

Lebbs told local Oklahoma news station KFOR that, after the captain issued the order to abandon ship, a warrant officer broke the lock on a freezer door and handed out vanilla ice cream to a dozen or so sailors.

"He didn't think anything of it because we were abandoning ship. We just figured we might as well do it," he said.

In a 2002 interview for the US Naval Institute, George Von Hoff, then a 21-year-old sailor aboard the doomed Lexington, said he was among the hundreds of crewmen rescued by the destroyer escort USS Hammann.

Von Hoff said the Hammann then transferred the Lexington's crew to the Northampton-class cruiser USS Chester to receive "clean clothes, a bunk, and much-needed food."

"We hadn't eaten anything that day except ice cream, which I ate out of my helmet," he said in the interview.

The 'Ice Cream Ship' of the European invasion

Even if their vessel didn't have a gedunk bar on board, sailors could still enjoy the sweet treat while serving in the European theater of WWII.

Crews aboard the destroyer tender USS Melville carried out several duties while servicing Navy vessels in both world wars. The Melville rearmed tank landing ships, transported and installed new equipment, replaced anchors and ship propellers, and repaired boat davits on amphibious landing craft known as Higgins boats.

When it wasn't assisting the US Navy's fleet, the Melville also gave respite to weary sailors with luxuries they didn't have access to at sea.

"After the first flush of the invasion, a steady stream of LSTs pulled alongside the Melville for check-ups and repairs," according to a 1945 edition of the US Navy's All Hands bulletin, "and it was then that the crews availed themselves of the luxury of the tender's soda fountain, barber shop, tailor shop, and laundry."

Crewmen assigned to tank landing ships dubbed the Melville the "Ice Cream Ship" of the European invasion, according to the bulletin.

'A touch of home'

But delivering ice cream and other luxuries to sailors at sea was too big of a job for the Melville to handle alone.

In 1945, the Navy retrofitted the Army's refrigerated barges into the world's first maritime ice cream factories.

The US military operated three BRLs (Barge, Refrigerated, Large), launching USS Hydrogen, USS Calcium, and USS Antimony in 1944. Built out of concrete due to a steel shortage, the 265-foot-long vessels cost more than $1 million at the time, equivalent to about $17 million today.

The vessels were built to deliver perishable foods to soldiers stationed in the Pacific. They could carry the equivalent of 64 carloads of frozen meat and 500 tons of fresh vegetables, cheese, eggs, and other produce, the Redwood City Tribune reported.

The barges also featured a unit that could churn out 10 gallons of ice cream every seven minutes.

The National Dairy Products Corporation, now known as Kraft Foods, featured the ice cream barge, which uses the company's powdered ice cream mix, in a 1945 magazine ad.

"Can you imagine a greater tonic to body and spirit than real ice cream served in steaming jungles or on hard-won beachheads?" the ad read. "It's a touch of home as well as a valuable food."

Keeping the ice cream industry afloat

The Navy's commitment to bring ice cream to sailors serving in the Pacific also benefited the struggling ice cream industry amid wartime rationing and ingredient shortages.

The US government awarded contracts to ice cream businesses like Carvel and Howard Johnson's to provide it in commissaries at military installations and defense plants, according to "World War II and the Postwar Years in America: A Historical and Cultural Encyclopedia," by William H. Young and Nancy K. Young.

"The armed forces, wherever their location, had ice cream to soothe both the palate and nerves," they wrote.

The ice cream industry boomed as companies capitalized on its popularity in the postwar era, experimenting with new flavors and ways to serve the delicious frozen treat.

• Erdoğan offered to mediate the Russia-Ukraine war, but the Kremlin declined the proposal.
• Turkey's pro-Western tilt and Ukraine support have strained the Erdoğan-Putin relationship.
• Economic woes and defense ties with Ukraine challenge Turkey-Russia partnership.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdoğan has long been eyeing the role of peacemaker in Russia's war with Ukraine.

Erdoğan most recently pursued this ambition again on Wednesday when he told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ankara could help end the war, Reuters reported, citing the Turkish presidency.

The two leaders were speaking on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kazakhstan, which Putin is attending in person.

But Putin appears cool to Erdoğan's advances.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, told local media it was "impossible" for the Turkish leader to play peacemaker.

Peskov did not elaborate on the reason, but there are new cracks in Turkey and Russia's relationship as Erdoğan navigates a years-long economic crisis and a new political landscape at home after his party lost local elections earlier this year.

Putin criticized Turkey for tilting to West

Turkey is a NATO member, but it has been balancing its relations with Russia, Ukraine, and the West through the war while acknowledging Ukraine's territorial sovereignty.

"One of the main irritants for the Kremlin is Ankara's position on the war in Ukraine. While Turkish statements in support of Ukraine's territorial integrity have never been to Moscow's liking, they have not prompted a backlash," Ruslan Suleymanov, a research fellow at ADA University in Azerbaijan, wrote on Wednesday.

But Erdoğan and Putin also have a personal relationship, and both have referred to each other as a "dear friend." Erdoğan has even said he trusts Russia as much as he trusts the West.

However, "the special personal partnership between Putin and Erdoğan is deteriorating rapidly," Suleymanov wrote in his post for the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

Just last month, Putin publicly criticized Turkey by alluding to a partnership between a Turkish defense company and Ukraine.

"I would like to note that Turkey is cooperating with Ukraine in some spheres," Putin said in a meeting with global news agencies. He then alleged that Ukrainian drones were attacking gas pipelines supplying Turkey.

He also threw shade on Ankara's economic tilt to the West, saying "it seems to me that the economic bloc of the Turkish government has shifted focus to borrowing loans, attracting investment and receiving grants from Western financial institutions."

He added the warning if "this is connected to restrictions on Türkiye's trade and economic ties with Russia, the Turkish economy will lose more than it can gain."

In 2022, a Russian state-owned company transferred $20 billion to a subsidiary to build an important nuclear power plant in Turkey. A Turkish official told Bloomberg it was a goodwill gesture from Putin for Erdoğan's brokering of a deal to export gains out of Ukraine. In 2023, Russia agreed to defer Turkish payments for $600 million worth of natural gas exports.

"The Kremlin was clearly counting on Erdoğan to repay the favor upon reelection. Instead, amid difficult economic conditions at home, the Turkish president has adopted a much more pro-Western course than Moscow had anticipated," wrote Suleymanov.

Other issues standing in the way of Turkey and Russia's relationship include an F16 jet deal with the US and slowing bilateral trade due to US secondary sanctions.

Turkey also backed Sweden's bid to join NATO and joined a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland last month, which Russia did not join and called "absurd."

Ankara and Moscow are still playing nice, but Putin has repeatedly postponed a trip to Turkey that was first scheduled for February — a sign that the two countries' relationship "relationship is worsening dramatically," wrote Suleymanov, who expects the rift between the two this time to be serious and long-lasting.

• A popular TikTok suggests many women are "looking for a man in finance" who's also tall and wealthy.
• Five women who have experience dating men in finance told Business Insider what it's actually like. 
• Some found long days at demanding jobs tricky, but others found ways to make the relationships work.

Last week, I went looking for women dating men in finance.

"You want to hear our pain firsthand?" is one of the first responses I got when I posted on X, formerly Twitter, asking people to share their experiences.

If that rings a bell, you've likely been earwormed by 27-year-old content creator Megan Boni, who shot to fame in April for a 19-second video she posted on TikTok. The clip shows her singing, with vocal fry, "I'm looking for a man in finance. Trust fund. 6'5". Blue eyes."

After her video racked up over 53 million views, Boni signed a deal with a major record label and performed a remixed version of her catchphrase with electronic DJ David Guetta.

If nothing else, Boni has turned the spotlight back onto the rarefied Wall Street world of suits, ties, and Patagonia vests. The Wall Street Journal has already declared it "The Summer of the Finance Bro."

She may have also unwittingly boosted their appeal to potential suitors. The League, a dating and social networking app that says it's for "ambitious" singles, reported male users who said they work in finance received likes "10% faster than before" and increased matches since Boni's TikTok blew up.

As someone who is dating a man in finance, I'll be the first to admit that having a relationship with someone in an industry reputed for toxic workplaces isn't always as fun as it sounds. There have been date nights interrupted by an urgent work call or email, and times when I woke up at 3 a.m. to my partner getting home from the office, bleary-eyed and exhausted.

Working in finance, however, can mean many things, and the average "finance guy" in the United States is most likely far from "The Wolf of Wall Street."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the number of Americans — not just men — working in "financial activities at over 9.2 million as of May. That number includes middle- and back-office employees in operational roles like tech and marketing who are often paid in the low six figures. While still well above the nation's median salary, their compensation pales in comparison to the jobs people think of when it comes to Wall Street: investment bankers, private-equity dealmakers, and traders. Those roles can make millions of dollars a year.

Here, five women with firsthand experience dating a man in finance share their experiences. Some women spoke to Business Insider on the condition of anonymity so they could speak freely about their dating experiences. Their identities are known to BI.

Some women dating men with demanding jobs discussed the challenges, from getting stood up due to work running late and endless conversations about golf and money. Others, however, said qualities they appreciated in their finance-industry partners were their ambition and ability to pay their own way.

They're often unavailable and can be self-involved

A self-described "hopeless romantic," Cristina Vanko gravitates toward guys who are "clean cut" and professional, with a good sense of humor.

Vanko, a 35-year-old advertising art director based in NYC, has dated enough men in finance that she can now spot them from their outfits (vests and expensive watches) and how they hold conversations (charming, but never diving "too deep").

Her recent experiences include a February first date with a 37-year-old JPMorgan banker who wouldn't stop talking about his work schedule and how "unavailable" it made him.

It came off like a warning but also a test, she added, almost as if he was trying to gauge whether she'd be OK with him prioritizing work going forward.

"When you're in love with somebody, I think you could still make yourself available," she said. "My mom's a doctor. Like, you're not saving lives."

Vanko described a different romantic encounter with a guy she met up with more than once who worked in private equity.

He was open about his reluctance to commit due to work and travel. At one point, she asked him if he was seeing anyone else. She said he responded frankly: "I have a London girl. You're my American girl, and I have a girl in Berlin."

One of Vanko's longest entanglements was with a vice president at Goldman Sachs, whom she met on a dating app in 2023. Their first date was at a wine bar. From the cable-knit sweater he'd thrown on to the Rolex watch poking out from beneath his sleeve, Vanko clocked him as a "finance bro" instantly.

After a few more dates, she went on vacation to Los Angeles and returned to find he was dating someone else. Vanko said he slid back into her DMs when that relationship ended, complaining about his inability to find a partner and settle down.

Reflecting on his attitude, Vanko said, "I'm not your therapist. I'm happy to be your friend. But it got to the point that I was just like, 'You're complaining about this other girl. Weren't you trying to date me?'"

Couples need trust to feel comfortable with the long workdays

A 24-year-old based in Chicago said her fiancé, a financial analyst for the auto industry, is proof that not all men in finance are cut from the same cloth.

"He's an extremely humble person, and he just has the biggest heart," said the Chicago resident, who works in PR and communications. Because they've been a couple for eight years, she said, she knew him before his "excruciating work hours."

If she didn't know him so well, she said, she might feel "anxiety" about the lack of communication and access to his phone he typically has during long days on the job.

She said she understands why people trying to pursue relationships with men in finance might wonder: "Does this guy even like me? He's not responding to me. He doesn't want to hang out with me."

She said they've had to have "hard conversations" and set "boundaries" to ensure they prioritize each other despite their demanding careers.

Big date nights happen a handful of times a month — and always on weekends — but they try to have dinner together during the week without phones or laptops present, she said.

I asked her about the Journal's claim of a "finance bro" summer.

"What finance bro is actually having a finance bro summer?" she asked. "They don't really get a lot of time off."

Some seem obsessed with playing golf and making money

In the summer of 2023, a woman interning at a private investment management firm in Boston met a senior investment consultant on a dating app. The woman, who asked to be referred to by her middle name, Summer, is now 23 and based in Washington DC.

On paper, he fit her type — older, good-looking, and ambitious. They went on to date most of that summer.

According to Summer, he was "obsessed" with two things: golf and money. These interests were obvious from how often he brought them up in conversation and also from the miniature golf set in the apartment he repeatedly told her cost him $4,000 a month in rent.

"One time, I told him, 'You know what? I really want to go to the Hamptons,'" she said.

His response? "Well, I don't make enough money to go there. You should date someone who has more money.'" Her response? "That's not why I'm dating you. I'm dating you because I enjoy your company."

In addition to other misgivings about him, Summer said their conversations never went beyond the surface despite her efforts to dig deeper.

The relationship ended abruptly toward the end of her internship, Summer said, a week after they became exclusive.

In text messages shared with BI, Summer's former fling said they were going in two "different directions." She also said he told her he couldn't see her because he was getting shoulder surgery, which would prevent him from being intimate with her.

Looking back roughly a year later, Summer said she thinks he only saw her as "an attractive person."

"I don't think he saw me as an actual person," she added.

It can be a relief to be with someone who earns a good salary

A 25-year-old working in marketing in NYC said she's drawn to men in finance because she works in an "industry that you don't make a lot of money."

"My ex-boyfriend was literally a starving artist, and it was awful," she said. "I just wanted someone who made money and who would give me a nice lifestyle."

Not to mention, she added, "ambition is sexy."

"Someone who works hard is better than a bum," she said.

Still, dating her current partner, an investment banking analyst, since 2022 hasn't always been smooth sailing.

The work hours are tough, and there have been nights, especially in the first year of the relationship, when she'd turn up at his apartment only to be let in by his roommate and be left waiting hours for him to come home from work.

She and the investment banker are preparing to move in together. Last Sunday, she said she was left packing boxes by herself after he said he had too much work to help.

It's tough, but she said it's not like he's just ditching her to go drinking with his buddies. As she put it, it's more like he has to do his work or he "will get fired."

Overall, she feels like she "got lucky" with her boyfriend because he makes an effort to prioritize her, like working from home whenever he can manage it just to be close to her — something she knows not all bankers do.

She warned anyone dating an investment banker that it's "nice in theory and hard in practice."

"You will get canceled on," she added.

You may have to live by their schedule

A 24-year-old marketing professional in NYC was friends with a man who worked in finance for years before their relationship blossomed into something more romantic.

They dated for a year and a half, during which he worked in investment banking.

Physically, he fit Boni's TikTok to a T. "I swear to God that TikTok was made about him," she said. "Someone must have seen him on the street."

When they started dating, the marketer said she told herself, "He works a lot, but I can manage. I'll just see him when I can see him."

But endless work hours, which sometimes stretched until 4 a.m. and took over weekends, proved too much, especially as he'd routinely ditch dinners with her family or cancel date nights due to his schedule.

The marketer said her mantra became telling herself the trying schedule wouldn't last forever because many investment bankers eventually transition to easier-going roles.

But by November 2023, she said was done being "second to someone's job."

"I was like, 'Listen, man, you want to have your job, I totally respect that, but I need to have my own life,'" she recalled to BI.

In hindsight, they just weren't "meant to be," she added.

That aside, her advice to anyone in NYC taking the viral TikTok about looking for a man in finance to heart is to "widen their horizons."

"There's so much more than just the finance bros," she said.

He's been 'saving' his entire life for me

Aniesia Williams — a 43-year-old entrepreneur and chief client officer for a tech firm Epigen — had little experience dating men in finance.

But in January, Williams matched with her now-boyfriend, Dennis Morrow, on Bumble.

Williams, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, said Morrow lives about three hours away, in Charlotte. He works for Bank of America combatting fraud and moonlights as a comedian, Williams added.

She usually dated people in her sector older than 40. Morrow is 36.

From their first date, Williams said she was transparent that she was "dating to marry."

Morrow was completely on board, something that she found refreshing. "He was like, 'I have prayed, I have worked, and I have been saving for this,'" she said.

Williams said they've been conscious about planning to spend time together thanks to the distance between their cities and their busy work schedules.

But she's noticed that a benefit of his career is how well he manages his personal finances.

"This is my first relationship where I have had a man to come to me like, 'I am ready for you,'" she said.

Williams and Morrow plan to move in together in Charlotte in September. While she enjoys his financial savvy, she said his job didn't make a huge difference.

"I could have cared less," she said. "I just wanted to make sure that he was a good human."

• Linda, a retired Ohio teacher, must continue working to stay afloat.
• She and her husband, both public servants, lived modestly, but she still needs to work.
• Many retirees face similar struggles with low incomes, dwindling pensions, and Social Security withering.

Linda, 64, has worked for the last 31 years, but that doesn't mean she's done.

The retired high school teacher in Ohio, whose last name is known to BI, said her retirement isn't looking how she anticipated. Both she and her late husband were public servants, which means they didn't have high-paid careers, but she does have a pension — meaning she'll get a monthly payout in retirement. But it's not getting her as far as she'd hoped.

"We lived the modest life of two public employees just making ends meet," Linda said. "We bought a house, we struggled in debt. I'm still in debt after his death and the bills keep coming and I need to keep working."

Before her retirement, she was earning around $5,000 a month. Now, with her pension, she'll have around $3,700 a month coming in.

She's looking into part-time work and other opportunities that could keep her afloat. She wants something that will give her a "modicum of autonomy" when it comes to scheduling and said that if necessary, she'll apply for Instacart and deliver groceries. She wants to ensure she's never burdensome to her children, even in her older age.

She doesn't ever see herself being able to stop working completely; she said she would work until she could no longer physically do so.

Linda isn't alone. Many retirees or would-be-retirees aren't able to fully throw in the towel. Just over half are living on less than $30,000 a year, or expecting to work until the day they're not physically able to anymore. It's a situation that's become more pronounced in the last few years, as retirement becomes increasingly reserved for higher earners — and it might only get worse as pensions continue to wither and Social Security remains imperiled.

"I fully see myself working for the next 20-some years — if I have that many left. Whatever years I have left, I will not be enjoying the retirement life in Florida," Linda said.

A looming retirement crisis for many

Linda's retirement goals are modest: She's hoping to concoct a winning recipe where she can survive on her teacher's pension, a rolled-over government-worker retirement plan, the sale of her house, and some part-time work.

"I'm hoping that all of those ingredients piled together in a bowl will bake something that I am able to live with. I will never be wealthy. I will never be without care and without worry, but I would like to at some point get to the point where I am free to travel and supplement my income with part-time employment," she said.

Linda is one of the dwindling number of retirees who have a pension, but that comes after a career spent in low-paying public service. A Government Accountability Office report has found that older lower-income Americans have become increasingly less likely to have any retirement account balances; simultaneously, fewer low-income households have a pension. That means that the onus of retirement saving and planning have shifted onto workers, rather than employers who pay into a monthly pension benefit; for lower-income workers, who might not be able to spare savings, that can be an even more acute challenge.

Linda said she thinks teachers especially have gotten a bad rap over the last few decades. They are seen as people who just want to siphon off of the system, but she said that couldn't be further from the truth.

"Even though I had that position, I also had the low salary that went with it. And there are many things that you have to deal with in life financially," she said. "And teaching, unfortunately, is not a career choice that guarantees financial stability."

Even so, she said it was still the most uplifting and rewarding work she's ever done.

She'd also like the country to rethink conversations around Social Security and retirement benefits more broadly. Pensions have gotten in the hands of private equity, she said, potentially imperiling those guaranteed benefits. At the same time, politicians have taken aim at Social Security, suggesting potentially pushing up the retirement age and not moving to fund its coffers.

"We have to get out of this frame of mind that suggests that Social Security that people have paid into for decades is somehow an entitlement. It is a right," she said.

But, even so, Linda still feels fortunate: She has two adult sons who will always look out for her; she's even moving to be closer to one. They make good money, and she knows she has a safety net.

"There are so many in this country who are looking at retirement age and throwing up their hands and in total desperation, wondering how they're going to make it," she said. "And those are the people I really feel terrible for."

Are you struggling to retire or not experiencing the retirement you hoped for? Are you working during retirement? Contact this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.