DOMINO’S STICKING TO GROWTH PLAN

» Domino’s

A NN A R B OR, MICH . Pizza is sticking with its aggressive growth plans — and its own army of U.S. delivery drivers — despite mounting pressure from services such as UberEats and DoorDash.

The world’s biggest pizza chain is rapidly opening new stores to shorten delivery times, increase its carryout business and push out weaker competitors such as Pizza Hut and Papa John’s. Domino’s has opened 1,174 new stores worldwide over the last year; it opened nearly 250 stores during the JulySeptember period.

“We’ve got a unique opportunity right now to solidify market share gains for the long term,” CEO Ritch Allison said in a conference call with investors. “We firmly believe that now is the time to go on offense.”

Railroads to renew push for one-man crews in contract talks.

The biggest U.S. freight railroads appear ready to renew their push to reduce their crews to one person from the current two-man operation used at major railroads now.

Eight U.S. railroads have filed a federal lawsuit against the union that represents rail conductors to force the union to negotiate about crew sizes during the next round of contract negotiations that starts in November.

The union says the railroads are undermining the bargaining process by turning to courts to force the issue. The railroads argue they should be allowed to negotiate to have the discretion to operate trains with reduced crews and possibly move conductors out of locomotives to ground-based jobs.

Labor agreements requiring two-person crews have been in place for roughly 30 years at the major railroads, although many short-line railroads operate with one-man crews already. producer prices fell in September, another sign that inflation remains tame more than 10 years into America’s ongoing economic expansion.

The Labor Department says its producer price index, which measures inflation before it reaches consumers, fell 0.3% last month, the first drop since June and the biggest since January. Even core wholesale prices, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, tumbled 0.3%.

Falling prices were widespread, ranging from clothing to machinery.

Over the past year, producer prices have risen a modest 1.4%, and core producer prices are up 2%.