Identifying Local Opportunities

1. Value-conscious, healthy meals
"To adapt to rivals, giants of fast food slowly evolve - With a premium now on healthier fare, chains change"
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A88E9A1C4C1C30?p=AWNB
While major fast food chains, like McDonalds and Burger King have been offering more value deals. For example, Burger King now offers a five piece meal for $4. Despite the increase in deals among major fast food companies, "fast-casual" restaurants, like Panera Bread and Chipotle, are beginning to overtake marketshare in the fast food market. This is because people believe their ingredients are fresher and healthier. The biggest problem here is finding a happy medium between high quality ingredients and value. This problem falls on both the consumer and major fast food chains. Consumers are forced to choose between the more economical option and the healthier one. This is also a problem for fast food companies as they must adapt to the changing consumer tastes (literally). 

2. Increased availability of rented housing 
"Apartment demand proves costly"
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9366D47EFAD60?p=AWNB
The demand for homeownership has declined over the years, reflected by a homeownership rate at its lowest since 1967. Consequently, demand for apartments has been on the rise, making them more costly. Higher rents are increasingly becoming more difficult to pay, as 52% of renters are considered "cost-burdened," spending at least 30% of their income on housing. The problem is a combination of higher, demand-driven rent prices with only moderate increases in income. Prospective renters bear the burden of this problem as they are more likely to become cost-burdened.

3. On-demand packing and shipping for older, and/or Spanish-speaking consumers
"Shyp ships out of Miami"
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A8E3CB04D9FD38?p=AWNB
Shyp is an on-demand packing and shipping service that just had to pull out of its Miami location. Initially, the Miami market seemed attractive, and Shyp received a lot of business during the Holiday season. However, due to their failure to provide a version of their app in Spanish, they had trouble meeting the demands of a large portion of Miami's consumer base. Moreover, Miami did not have enough tech-savvy consumers to sustain Shyp's success. Their other two locations, New York and San Francisco, probably have similar consumer bases, but Miami is a bit of a different story. While Shyp provided a good service, they did not adapt to the market they were in, resulting in their underperformance. This illustrates a problem for companies that do not adapt to the varying needs of consumers among different locations. This is also a problem for the consumers that would've benefitted from Shyp's services but could not because the means of attaining the service was unavailable to them.

4. High-energy pet toys, treat rationer 
"Is your dog a couch potato? Pet obesity is on the rise"
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A72A27C8FD8768?p=AWNB
Pet obesity in the US has been on the rise in the last five years. This upward trend in weight-gain has many negative health implications for pets. The health complications caused by obesity, such as diabetes and heart failure, decrease life expectancy and can be very costly to treat. Therefore, this is also a very real problem for pet owners. Two ways to curb the rise in obesity among pets is to keep them active and to be mindful of how much food they're being given. 

5. Special stream-only TV channels, more streaming devices (e.g. Apple TV)
"Other options to cord cutting - Antennas bring additional channels to viewers' sets"
http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/15A9366D4D81A828?p=AWNB
The amount of people paying for monthly cable, satellite, etc. has declined. Although the decline was small, there is also a growing trend, especially among millennials, toward "cutting the cord" and paying only for certain streaming services, like Hulu. The problem here, is TV watchers don't want to pay the high cost of their monthly TV bill because they don't watch all of the hundreds of channels their subscriptions provide them with. As a result, they've been switching to antennas, which provide roughly between 65 and 95 channel options, or to streaming services. Devices that access these services, like Apple TV, is a growing market with lots of opportunities for innovation.