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PepsiCo is ready to close the book on the difficulties its North American beverage business has encountered in the last year. At its first analyst meeting since 2006, CEO Indra Nooyi said the company hasn't been happy with results in the division and will learn from its mistakes. She also publicly acknowledged the controversies the division has weathered.

Amid steep unemployment, it sometimes seems that half the people who still have jobs are working to figure out whether consumers will continue scrimping even after the economy recovers. A couple of surveys -- one by Ogilvy & Mather Chicago in conjunction with Communispace, the other by Booz & Co. -- add their two cents to the body of data suggesting that Americans will continue to pinch their pennies long into the post-recession era. However, the findings also give reason to think that a lasting era of "frugality" won't be one in which consumers resign themselves to lives of "deprivation."

Even though breakfast traffic has not fully recovered from declines brought on by high unemployment, new research shows that the morning meal is still an important daypart for restaurants. Chicago-based research firm Mintel reported that restaurants added more than 460 new breakfast products to their menus in 2009, more than in the previous two years. However, Mintel also found that consumers are spending less on the morning meal at restaurants. Half of consumers surveyed by Mintel last November said they spent less on restaurant breakfasts in 2009 than in 2008, while only 10 percent said they spent more. Nearly half of respondents said they don't eat breakfast out during the week, at 47 percent, or during the weekend, at 45 percent.

Traditionally seen as the kickoff to spring, Easter couldn't come at a better time this year for Americans eager to say goodbye to winter. According to the National Retail Federation's 2010 Easter Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, holiday celebrants will spend slightly more this year with the average person expected to shell out $118.60, up from $116.59 last year. Total spending is expected to reach $13.03 billion.