By TERESA F. LINDEMAN, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In the U.S., Heinz means ketchup. Beans? Not so much.

For decades, the food company has been a bit player in the U.S. baked bean market. But Heinz is in the midst of expanding its recession-ready assortment of offerings, and that means trying to bring some of its international expertise in the bean business back home.

In the first holiday shopping season since Borders closed the last of its bookstores, surviving booksellers are too deeply immersed in the ongoing drama over the industry's future to spend much time missing a former lead character.

In the first holiday shopping season since Borders closed the last of its bookstores, surviving booksellers are too deeply immersed in the ongoing drama over the industry's future to spend much time missing a former lead character.

Heinz has cooked up this new ketchup recipe using balsamic vinegar that it would like a few people to try. Maybe the 800,000 or so people who say they "like" the company on its U.S. Facebook page would like a taste?

Tammy Cavaness Shelton seems game. "Oh that sounds delicious! I can't wait to try it!" she posted on the Heinz Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon.

Prantl's Bakery co-owner Lara Bruhn wanted to check out the daily deal phenomenon popularized by companies like Groupon and Living Social, so she subscribed to a few of the sites. That set off a steady stream of email offers for yoga classes, restaurants and numerous teeth whitening services. "How white can your teeth really be?" she joked.

A little more than a year ago, the H.J. Heinz Co. announced it was changing the recipe for its flagship ketchup for the first time in decades. The Pittsburgh food company reduced the sodium content by 15 percent, a change first seen in bottles sold last summer.

Coffee drinkers are facing a tough wake-up call: Retailers are finding it increasingly difficult to hold the line as rising commodities prices percolate through the system.

At the Coffee Tree Roasters shops in metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pa., prices have just increased for the first time in at least two years.

When the tech bubble burst a decade ago, so did a lot of people's hopes that the Internet would mean no more walking through grocery aisles and lugging home heavy bags of milk, eggs and dog food.

The H.J. Heinz Co. is taking the plunge into Brazil with the acquisition of an 80 percent stake in a company that makes tomato-based sauces, tomato paste, ketchup and condiments, along with jarred and canned vegetables.

Handicapping has begun for the 2010 holiday shopping season and most bets seems to be on a flat year or a moderate improvement in sales over what one retail trade group described as a "ho-hum" 2009 season and a "disastrous" 2008.