Trader Joe's is dropping health benefits for part-timers and will instead cut each of them a check for $500 to apply towards Obamacare's new insurance exchanges; is this precisely what's supposed to happen with Obamacare? (Huffington Post)

Tips, a custom that originated from the acronym T.I.P. for "to insure promptitude", are a part of dining out that we take for granted; now a spate of restaurants are doing away with tipping: (Los Angeles Times)

If lobster were super cheap, would it taste as good? This case study explores the link between food price and value perception: (New Yorker)

This fun roundup of young chef trailblazers who learned their work ethic and taste for great food from chef parents includes a couple of my favorites in San Fran (the Lee brothers of Namu) and DC (Nic Jammet of Sweetgreen): (New York Times)

Technology continues to creep into grocery stores, from digital signs that update prices and offer promotions, to fingerprint scanners for checkout, to self-propelled "smart" shopping carts; in an industry built on human interaction, could this be too much tech, too fast? (Los Angeles Times)