Sales mean profit, profit means money, money means job security. So who’s looking like a horse with legs: Obviously the oil companies are swimming in profits, but that will drop as the price of oil does; we saw the recession given a superb bloody nose by big brand owner Reckitt Benckiser at the start of the week and now their competitor Unilever (from Persil to Pot Noodle) have seen profits up 83% - thanks in part to selling off a couple of brands, but their cost-cutting strategy seems to be working. Travel group Stagecoach is also having a happy Halloween thanks to increased passengers on their bus and rail networks.

You got to stand back and think to do well when times are hard and there’s some predictable business that struggle. Dry cleaners for example all go out of business, and so do restaurants. What’s interesting this time round is that with people working round the clock to keep their business afloat, the ordering of takeaways to the workplace has increased 236% in the last six months! As staff fear getting the elbow a survey of over 1000 employees showed 42% have worked late in the past month on more than five occasions. Pizza is the most popular takeaway choice, with 83% of sales attributed to it. “I may be stressed, but at least I’m fat!” Nice one Britain.

Here’s a nice idea (and bit of PR) from Asda: they had a “local week” in some stores last month showcasing local products and foods as part of the supermarket’s commitment to use local supply hubs and reduce the number of “food miles” products travel to its stores. The scheme also saw the introduction of “barter boards” where people could advertise skills and swap them – from the sublime: a tiler swapped a tiling job with a local decorator who painted his flat in return, to the ridiculous: a musician traded guitar lessons for learning to surf. This little idea proved so successful, the swap-shop might roll out nationwide. All these brands talk about engaging with the community, well here’s one putting it into action.

A think-tank is a bunch of brains that get together to look at an issue and dream up news ideas – like the bra that clasps at the front. Sometimes these groups become profit making companies, one of which is Demos. They have been pondering the use of social networking sites in the workplace and concluded they it is a good thing. (Demos’ research was paid for by Orange, who are coincidentally developing their own social networking site.) Demos say the sites provide “crucial platforms for discussion and collaboration,” and say that firms that ban their use are essentially asking staff not to talk to one another. Try telling that to Virgin Atlantic who these week disciplined staff old and current who “discussed” the airlines safety procedures on Facebook. A recent study estimated that fannying around on Facebook during office hours costs UK businesses £6.5 billion per year in lost productivity.

Its harvest time for the oil companies: following on from BP’s admission that it had doubled profits to $10bn in the last 4 months, Shell now beam with a 71% jump to nearly $11bn. Both have to admit that the successes come in part to oil prices getting so high. Back in July that was $147 a barrel, but now it’s about $60 a barrel – such a steep fall that the oil producers’ cartel Opec cut back production (make it scarce and you can make it expensive).  This summer, some idiots predicted oil to hit $200 a barrel on the basis that oil was close to running out – and the producers were testing how high they could price the black gold before the market said “no”. Now, the same idiots claim if the price keeps falling it will be free by Christmas (the price rose a little last night). But recession means that the big economies like the USA reduce their demands so its up to the oil companies to strike a happy medium: price it so you make a profit, but low enough so people will want it. With $10bn being made in just 4 months, its clear what side of the equation they’ve been sitting on recently. Here endeth the lesson.