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CEO Fortunato aims to capitalize on the health concerns of boomers Scott Goldsmith/Aurora

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How GNC Is Keeping Fit

Vitamin retailer General Nutrition Centers ought to be gasping for breath. The Pittsburgh-based chain has had three owners in the past six years. (Since 2007 it's been controlled by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Los Angeles investment firm Ares Management.) The $2 billion-a-year company also has more than $1 billion of debt on its books. And its core products—vitamins—are sold cheaply at every drugstore and discount chain.

Yet GNC revenues are climbing in this recession, with same-store sales up 5% in the first quarter, when cash flow grew by 12% and profits rose 45%.

What's keeping GNC so fit? In part, the sagging economy. "People have lost their insurance. They're trying to take care of themselves," says Nelson Fleming, a GNC franchisee in Atlanta. "Vitamins are recession-resistant," says JPMorgan Securities analyst Carla Casella. But GNC, she adds, has also done "a good job of getting the right products in the stores"—products with the packaging pizzazz to attract new customers. The chain, once regarded as a sports-and-workout retailer, now carries everything from pastel pills for women to designer formulations for a range of conditions—obesity, say, or brittle fingernails. CEO Joseph Fortunato also wants to position the chain to address baby-boomer concerns such as osteoporosis and brain health. His strategy: Focus on what the vitamins are purported to do. "We don't try to compete in commodity markets," says the 19-year company veteran, who came to the top job in 2005.

Consider GNC's popular Wellbeing line of supplements for women. Launched this year, it features small, colorful capsules—some in "be-Hot" vitamin packs (fatty acids that allegedly help burn calories) or packaged as "be-Beautiful" pills (amino acids to help strengthen hair, skin, and nails). To promote the line, GNC will soon launch its biggest ad campaign ever aimed at women, in fitness and fashion magazines. Already, says franchisee Nelson Fleming in Georgia, more female customers come to his 10 stores. "They'll ask, 'Have you got something for my hair?'"

—By Christopher Palmeri, Edited by Deborah Stead

Shifty PC Repair

How trustworthy are PC repair technicians? Looking for possible ripoffs, British TV's Sky News and PC Pro magazine created a simple problem in a notebook by loosening a memory chip. Then they took the computer—loaded with fake files and software that could track what technicians did—to six London repair outlets. All the shops quickly discovered the dislodged chip, with five of them dishonestly telling the "customer" that extensive repairs were necessary. At two of those shops technicians also looked through "vacation photos" the notebook contained (pictures of the customer clad in a bikini). One tried to cover his tracks. The other copied the snapshots to his USB drive. He also tried to log into a faux online bank account planted on the laptop. (He was reported to the police.) And the shop that passed the ethics test? Let's hear it for Pix 4 in Shepherds Bush. Wrote PC Pro: "The staff promptly discovered the loose chip, popped it back into place, and told us with a smile there would be no charge."

—By Arik Hesseldahl, Edited by Deborah Stead

Phony as a 3 Euro Bill

Now that it's the No. 2 global currency, the euro is more popular with counterfeiters. The European Central Bank says 413,000 phony euro bills were confiscated during 2009's first half, the highest six-month tally since the currency's 2002 launch and a 32% increase over the same period last year. Officials at the Hague-based Europol say there's no cause for panic. "The figures have to be compared with the number of genuine banknotes in circulation, which is also increasing," says Michael Rauschenbach, head of the agency's forgery and payment-card fraud unit. Still, phony bills are proliferating faster than real ones: Authentic euros in circulation this year are up only 8.6%, to 12.5 billion bills. The 20 euro note (worth about $28) accounts for nearly half the seized fakes. In second place: the 50 euro bill, at 34% of seized bills. Unlike counterfeit greenbacks, which circulate worldwide, euro fakes are found almost exclusively within the currency's 16-nation zone. The bogus notes—most produced by gangs in Italy and the Balkans—are fairly crude, ECB officials say. The bank reminds consumers that genuine euros have raised print and holograms that shift when a bill is tilted.

—By Leona Liu in Paris, Edited by Deborah Stead

Bono's Connections

What kind of cell phone does Bono, the lead singer of rock band U2, carry? His loyalties aren't easy to determine. He is co-founder and managing director of Elevation Partners, the private equity firm that owns roughly a third of mobile device maker Palm (PALM). Yet U2's current tour is being sponsored by rival BlackBerry (RIMM), whose Web site now features a video clip of the band. And not long ago, Bono was linked to Apple (AAPL), which created a U2-branded iPod in late 2004, before launching the iPhone in early 2007. Palm, which has been struggling in recent quarters, passed on the chance to back the tour, says a source familiar with the situation: "Their research [showed] this sponsorship wasn't the most effective way to sell phones, and they didn't want to be seen as mimicking Apple."

—By Adrienne Carter, Edited by Deborah Stead