Business

A Carroll County startup that has created an oven out of “The Jetsons” that remotely cooks dinner while you’re at work hit its $25,000 Kickstarter goal in just one hour and now plans to start shipping its first products to customers. Eldersburg-based Celcy increased its Kickstarter goal to $250,000 after the successful fundraise on Sept. 13.

About 13,000 auto workers have walked off the job at three targeted factories after their union leaders couldn’t reach a deal with Detroit’s automakers. The United Auto Workers union is seeking big raises and better benefits from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. They want to get back concessions that the workers made years ago, when the companies were in financial trouble.

Retail center operator Edens has drawn in a half-dozen new tenants to Cabin John Village, including a new Mediterranean restaurant to replace Augie’s Mussel House, as part of a larger repositioning of the 1950s-era shopping center into a more vibrant mixed-use center. Alexandria’s Common Plate Hospitality, behind restaurants like Mason Social and Urbano Mexican Fare, plans a fall opening for The Grove.

Picket signs have lined the gates of Hollywood’s studios for nearly five months, as the industry’s writers and actors rally for AI protections, better wages and a cut of streaming profits. The problem is streaming isn’t yet profitable for many studios. Sparked by the creation of Netflix’s direct-to-consumer platform in 2007, streaming has upended the economics of the media industry. Yet, it’s still unclear whether it’s a sustainable business model for the future.

Giant Food opened a new warehouse in Hanover in 2019 to try and capture market share in the new grocery delivery space. Four years later, the grocer is planning to close the warehouse next month, laying off more than 300 people. Giant isn’t the only large employer in the state ramping up layoffs even as Maryland isenjoying record-low unemployment. The Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) log maintained by the state Department of Labor has already seen 56 entries through the end of August, nearly matching last year’s total of 64.

A video content convention that started in Southern California will make its East Coast debut in Baltimore later this month. VidCon, a convention centered around video content platforms and creators, will take place at the Baltimore Convention Center from Sept. 28 to Oct. 1. The convention, which signed a three-year deal, has long eyed an East Coast event and settled on Baltimore because of its location near several major cities and because of a cross-country connection between two tourism departments.

Sagamore Spirit, the “grain-to-glass” rye whiskey business founded by Under Armour executive chairman Kevin Plank, has sold a majority stake of the company to an Italian firm best known for producing an amaretto liqueur. The company, Illva Saronno Holding S.p.A. — the parent company of Disaronno liqueur — also will relocate its North American headquarters to Baltimore Peninsula as it steps into the driver’s seat of the local whiskey brand, according to a Thursday news release.