Traveling can be an amazing experience.

But it can also be a disaster if you don't pack the right things.

We asked Business Insider editors and writers to tell us the one essential item they always travel with.

From obvious things like passports and credit cards to things you might not think of like rechargeable phone cases and facial mists, here's what you should pack for every trip.

Cash

Keeping some cash in your pocket while traveling is a always a good idea, in case your wallet is stolen or one of your credit cards isn't accepted. 

"An unmarked, untorn US $100 bill of updated design is the only non-precious metal that's accepted as legal tender literally everywhere in the world. It's having a small gold bar in your pocket," defense and military editor Armin Rosen said. 

Credit cards

Along with some cash, it's a good idea to bring credit cards on your trip. Just make sure to call your credit card company in advance to let them know you'll be traveling abroad.

However, be aware that some credit cards, like American Express, may not be accepted all over the world. So, to be safe, bring a card like a Visa or Mastercard, which is more likely to be accepted globally.

"Although I am a loyal Amex customer, too many places don't accept Amex outside of the US, so I got a Visa credit card, which I never use here in the US, just for that purpose — to bring with me when I travel," careers editor Jacquelyn Smith said.

Kindle

A Kindle is more lightweight than a hardcover book, and it's also easier to read while laying on a beach.

"I never travel without my Kindle. Usually, when I arrive in my final destination, the mood strikes me to read something totally different from what I read on the way there. I can never predict what it will be. So it's perfect that I can bring my entire book collection with me in the form of the Kindle," digital culture editor Molly Mulshine said.

Price: $119

MarieBette, a café and bakery in Charlottesville, Virginia, added a classic French viennoiserie to its menu this week. 

It's called a brioche feuilletée, but a local blog has dubbed it the Bronut — and the food blogosphere has taken note. 

Meringue-like in shape and croissant-like in construction, the Bronut is made of many, many layers of butter and brioche, with a sprinkling of sugar on top.

MarieBette co-owner and baker Patrick Evans told us he hadn't planned to keep the item on the menu for more than a week, but, by popular request, he'll probably keep it around for a bit longer. 

The menu lists the pastry under its classic name, and Evans says the Cronut comparison never even entered his mind. 

The blog Charlottesville 29, which renamed the buttery snack the Bronut (and also threw out "broissant"), describes the taste as "a cross between brioche, a croissant, and a donut."

Considering that this Friday is National Doughnut Day, the Bronut news couldn't come at a better time, for donut lovers or the tiny Virginia bakery. 

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Growing out a beard is a little more complicated than just waiting for facial hair to come in. Just as there are specific accepted and trendy styles for the hair on your head, there are specific accepted and trendy styles for the hair on your face.

Our friends at Hairstyleonpoint have enumerated these styles, which range from conservative full beards to the much more adventurous and trendy "Captain Jack."

SEE ALSO: 14 big fashion mistakes that men make

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So many of us fall in and out of exercise routines on a regular basis.

For many, it's a daily psychological battle whether to go to the gym, or skip it altogether.

But once you do achieve your fitness goals and get to what you consider to be "in shape," what happens if you start slacking? How long does it take for negative results to start creeping in.

The answer? Much sooner than you think.

We spoke recently to Shawn Arendt, an exercise scientist at Rutgers University, and asked him to tell us how long it actually takes to get "out of shape."

Here's what he told us:

"Within a week. If you stop training, you actually do get noticeable deconditioning, or the beginnings of deconditioning, with as little as 7 days of complete rest. It very much is an issue of use it or lose it.

"Now that being said, we often build active rest periods into someone's training cycle. So for periodizing their training, if you've been going hard hard hard, you have to back off at some point so that the body fully recovers, so you don't overtrain.

"Those are planned cycles, though, and any deconditioning would be minimal at best, and in many cases you often rebound a little bit because you push the body so much. But what starts to happen is, you have somebody who's been continuously working out and all the sudden they miss a day, then they miss another day, another day, then they miss another day, and next time you know it's two weeks later, then it's three weeks later.

"The problem is it keeps getting harder and harder to go back to it, and you do start to notice deconditioning in as little as that period of time. You know, with muscle mass, if you're not stimulating it, there's no reason for it to maintain it's hypertrophy state, there's no reason to keep the same size because you're not stressing it anymore.

"Cardiovascularly, you notice a drop in plasma volume if you stop exercising, so now your heart won't circulate as much blood. Well, you don't have as many red blood cells then so really it very much is an issue and I guess this is why in our field, one of the things we really need to promote is lifestyle.

"It can't be that 'it's an exercise program so it can't be that it's a fitness program,' it's part of who you are it's part of what you do, it's part of your life. And so when you make it a priority, you don't have to worry about those deconditioning effects. But yeah, you start taking a couple weeks off here and there, and you miss a few weeks, do you decondition? Yes you do ... Depending on what your level of fitness was, within a month to two months you can see complete loss of all gains."

SEE ALSO: 7 easy ways to get more out of your workout

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More than half of American adults are single. 

According to the US Census, 53% of singles are women, 47% are men. 

But the way American culture treats single people of the different genders is — unsurprisingly — different. 

To Kate Bolick, author of "Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own," it has a lot do with pressures around marriage. In "Spinster," Bolick traces the place and status of single women in American history.

While everybody grows up with the expectation that we'll one day get married, she says, the pressures are a lot more pronounced for women, and there's a lot more fear involved.

"I think that women tend to feel that they have less choice, that it’s something they have to do, and don't have control over when it will happen," she tells Business Insider.

Then there are guys.

"When it comes to men, from what I've witnessed, men tend to hit 'marriage o'clock' around their early 30s, where they just decide that it’s time to get married, and marry whoever they're dating," Bolick says. "So they have a much more relaxed attitude toward marriage; it's something that they'll do when they're ready and they feel like it, and women don't have as relaxed a relationship to the idea of marriage." 

You can also see it in the words we use for singles — bachelor and spinster.

In "Spinster," Bolick unpacks the differences.

Here's the history of bachelor:

Bachelor originally referred to men of inferior status in professions so demanding they precluded marriage. In thirteenth-century France this meant, for instance, a theological candidate who held merely a bachelor's degree instead of a master's.  

Around 1300 the word crossed into English to describe low-ranking knights. Much later, Victorian matchmakers appropriated the term and added eligible, for an unmarried man blessed with financial and social inducements, and confirmed, for any who wanted to remain that way. By the late nineteenth century the term had neutralized to simply mean "unmarried man," as it still does today.

And spinster:

[Spinster] originated in fifteenth-century Europe as an honorable way to describe the girls, most them unmarried, who spun thread for a living — one of the very few respectable professions available to women. By the 1600s the term had expanded to include any unmarried woman, whether or not she spun. 

Not until colonial America did spinster become synonymous with the British old maid, a disparagement that cruelly invokes maiden (a fertile virgin girl) to signify that this matured version will never outgrown her virginal state, and is so far past her prime that she never will. 

At a time when procreation was necessary to building a new population, the biblical imperative to "be fruitful and multiply" felt particularly urgent, and because only wives, of course, were allowed to have sex, the settlers consider solitary women sinful, a menace to society. If a woman wasn't married by twenty-three she became a "spinster." 

If she was still unwed at twenty-six, she was written off as a hopeless "thornback," a species of flat spiny fish — a discouraging start to America's long evolution in getting comfortable with the idea of autonomous women. 

Other cultures are even more brutal to single women. In South Korea, for instance, women who die without ever being married become Cheonyeo gwishin, or maiden ghosts — since they never served their purpose in life of winning a husband. 

While not quite as intense as in Confucian societies, the historical legacy in America is that the right role of women is to serve her parents, husband, and children. Because how else would the colonies have enough humans to continue to exist? While the pressure isn't as acute as it was in the 18th and 19th centuries, 21st century women still feel a greater pressure than guys to get hitched — though singles are increasingly able to create meaning in their lives beyond those primary relationships. 

SEE ALSO: 4 things single people should know about living alone

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Zara's mysterious founder, Amancio Ortega, is now the world's second-richest man— surpassing even Warren Buffet. But despite his impressive net worth, many people have never heard of him. 

The 79-year-old Spaniard fiercely guards his privacy and gives few interviews to the press. 

Ortega founded fast-fashion giant Zara with his then-wife Rosalia in 1975. Today, his retail company Intidex SA — which owns Zara, as well as Massimo Dutti and Pull&Bear — has over 6,600 outposts around the world. Zara in of itself is changing retail forever.

According to Bloomberg, his net worth is a whopping $71.5 billion as of June 2, 2015. The only person left for him to beat in this financial sector? Bill Gates, who has a net worth of $85.5 billion. However, Bloomberg's data notes that since last year, Gates's net worth has decreased by $1.1 billion, while Ortega's has increased by an impressive $10.4 billion.

Amancio Ortega is the second richest man in the world, with a net worth estimated at $71.5 billion.

Source: Bloomberg

This is his second wife, Flora. The couple has been married since 2001.

Source: Bloomberg

In August 2013, his ex-wife and Zara co-founder, Rosalia Mera, died at age 69. She was Spain's richest woman.

Source: Associated Press

The elementary admissions process in New York City is utterly grueling, as evidenced by new kindergarten admissions workshops that have popped up around town.

But among exemplary schools, one stands out as the gold-standard of top public elementary schools: Hunter College Elementary School.

The irony that Hunter has the word "college" in its name shouldn't escape you. Hunter's level of exclusivity tops even that of Harvard University — but Hunter evaluates 4-year-olds instead of high school seniors. 

Hunter College Elementary is a K-6 school that is publicly funded and serves intellectually gifted students. It is administered by Hunter College, a college of the City University of New York.

The only entry point for Hunter is kindergarten. This means that if you get rejected the first time, you can't apply to the elementary school again. At Harvard there is always the option to transfer.

Each year, Hunter chooses 25 girls and 25 boys from all of Manhattan to be admitted to its incoming kindergarten class, according to its website. They're hand-selected from a pool of about 2,500 applicants, according to the website Inside Schools. To put that into perspective, that makes the acceptance rate for Hunter 2%. Harvard's undergraduate acceptance rate for 2015 was 6.2%.

Prospective Hunter students must first take a Stanford–Binet IQ test administered in a formal setting. The school informs parents that they should not prep their children for testing and that they'll be disqualified if there's evidence they prepared a child for the exam.

The pool of students is then whittled down to 250 of the children with the highest scores.

The remaining applicants are brought in for an evaluation round where they are observed individually interacting with peers and one-on-one with teachers. The Admissions Selections Committee chooses kids without knowing their names or other identifying factors.  

For comparison's sake, here is the side-by-side application requirements of Hunter Elementary and Harvard University.

Hunter is unbelievably difficult to get into for a reason. It has a reputation for providing an amazing learning experience to gifted students — all free of tuition charges. And Hunter College High School has an impressive list of notable alumni including Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.

SEE ALSO: An 11-year-old genius just graduated from college with 3 different degrees

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"Style rules" exist for a reason. They inform and guide the current generation using techniques and styles that have worked in the past. Much of time, they ensure that the younger folks look their best. 

Many rules are rooted in business wear, according to Complex, and can be traced back to pamphlets or guides from the early to mid 20th century. They attempted to teach young businessmen in the right manner of dress so they wouldn't embarrass themselves at work. However, business dress was a lot more conservative back then.

This is all well and good, but styles and societal priorities change. Things that worked in the past might not always work today. 

Here are seven style rules that were generally accepted at some time, but that no longer make all that much sense, for one reason or another.

RULE #1: Don't wear white after Labor Day or before Memorial Day.

The "don't wear white after labor day" rule is rooted in classism, according to Complex. It started as a way for old money to separate itself from the nouveau riche in the 19th century.

Unfortunately, this idea stubbornly survives until the current day. It's time to forget about it. White can look great — whenever!

RULE #2: Always match your belt with your shoes.

In more formal settings, it is a good idea to get as close to you can to matching the leathers of your belt and shoes. But in any other context, it's simply unnecessary.

It suggests a level of exactness that's too particular, fussy even. And besides, no one is paying such close attention to the color of your leathers, anyway.

RULE #3: Always wear socks with pants.

The necessity of socks is greatly exaggerated. The sockless summer look has been around so long now that it's practically a staple in the spring issues of men's fashion magazines.

Socks are no longer required, unless you're actually dressing up. Just make sure you have something on your feet.

RULE #4: Always wear a belt if your pants have belt loops

Men's clothing is, above all, rooted in purpose and utility. The pockets and adornments on clothing are either useful or vestigial, but always derive from some sort of work or military purpose. Examples of that include shoulder epaulets and ticket pockets. We can now add belt loops to that list.

It's 2015 — belts are now a choice. If your pants fit, they aren't going to fall down.

RULE #5: Match your pants to your socks

Many are unaware of this hyper-conservative style rule. Decades ago, it used to be black socks for black pants, navy socks for navy pants, and grey socks for grey pants. The idea behind it was this: if the sock and pant blended together into the same color, it would make the man appear taller. 

This didn't always work, and men grew tired of the matching rule in our more sartorially adventurous times. The rule has been mostly forgotten (even if it does return from time to time). Good riddance.

RULE #6: Never wear pleated pants

Don't let this one through you for a loop. While it's been menswear gospel for the last decade that pleats are generally unflattering, they're starting to make a comeback. But as with most retro trends now on the upswing, it's very easy to do pleats wrong.

Single pleats and making sure the fit is perfect will go a long way in making sure these aren't confused with your dad's favorite pants.

RULE #7: Never wear black with blue or brown

Men were told not to wear black and brown or navy together because of old-fashioned suiting rules — rules that dated back many, many decades.

No one pays any attention to these rules anymore, so you shouldn't pay attention to this grizzled byproduct of them, either.

SEE ALSO: 12 online services that make it really easy to dress like a modern gentleman

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If you've made a reservation at a fine dining restaurant recently, chances are you've been asked for your credit card number, and warned that you'll be charged a cancellation fee if you don't show up.

But that rarely happens, according to the New York Times.

Pete Wells, a food critic at the paper, writes that "the dark secret of cancellation fees is that almost no one has to pay them."

After noticing that more and more restaurants were requiring his credit card number in order to hold a reservation, he started to wonder how they were securing that information.

The answer: They weren't.

He writes:

Tse Wei Lim, an owner of Journeyman in Somerville, Mass., said that before moving to a ticket system recently, he did not ask for credit cards for reservations because he did not have a method of keeping the data that complied with the card companies' security rules.

"I’ve spoken to fellow restaurateurs, and more than one has told me they will ask for a credit card number on the phone if it's a large party, pretend to write it down, then they throw it away," Mr. Lim said.

Other restaurant owners who did store credit card numbers told him that they rarely, if ever, follow through with their threats to charge diners who don't show up, or cancel at the last minute.

Given that the profit margins in the restaurant industry are notoriously tight, it wouldn't be surprising if no-show guests did get hit with a fee. After all, we've already seen restaurants charge more at peak dinner times, require diners to pay before they eat, and use sneaky psychological tricks to get people to spend more money.

On top of that, reservations at highly popular restaurants are such a scarce commodity that there are apps willing to sell them to you at a price.

But the chefs and owners who spoke to Wells say they worry that cancellation fees could hurt them in the long run. Customers who are angry because they were charged a fee may not return again.

After all, as Wells points out, the words "cancellation fee" are most commonly associated with two major sources of frustration: cable companies and cell phone providers. That isn't the image that any restaurant wants to project.

Read the full story at the New York Times.

SEE ALSO: 7 foods that are cheaper to eat at restaurants than at home

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Just because a city has a lot of churches doesn't necessarily mean it has a lot of religious citizens.

That's what property research website PropertyShark found in a recent study of buildings designated "for religious use" in cities around the US.

For example, Seattle has the second-highest number of religious institutions per capita, but a full one-third of its residents are unaffiliated. Seattle is behind only Portland in a ranking of cities based on residents with no religious affiliation from the nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute, according to PropertyShark.

San Francisco and Phoenix also had relatively high numbers of religious institutions per capita, and relatively few residents who associated themselves with a religion.

These are the 10 US cities with the most religious venues per capita. 

#10 Boston, MA: 1 religious venue for every 1,107 people. According to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), 24% of Boston population also considers themselves to be "religiously unaffiliated." The national average in metropolitan areas is 22%.

#9 Houston, TX: 1 religious venue for every 1,085 people. Houston has 1,991 religious buildings to service its population of some 2.1 million. PRRI says 18% of Houston residents are classified as religiously unaffiliated, 4% below the national metropolitan average. 

#8 Charlotte, NC: 1 religious venue for every 1,053 people. Charlotte has 736 religious locations for its population of about 775,000. Only 17% of Charlotte residents are religiously unaffiliated, according to PRRI. 

#7 Dallas, TX: 1 religious venue for every 909 people. Dallas has 1,366 religious institutions for its population of 1.2 million. PRRI says 18% of Dallas residents are religiously unaffiliated.

 #6 Columbus, OH: 1 religious venue for every 907 people. Columbus has 893 religious locations for a population of 809,798 people. PRRI notes that the religiously unaffiliated in Columbus comprise 24% of the population, 2% higher than the national metropolitan average.

#5 Memphis, TN: 1 religious venue for every 804 people. Memphis has 815 religious venues for a population of 655,155. Memphis is not ranked in the PRRI study.

#4 Washington D.C.: 1 religious venue for every 738 people. D.C. has 857 religious locations for some 650,000 residents. PRRI says 23% of the nation's capital is religiously unaffiliated. 

#3 Jacksonville, FL: 1 religious venue for every 562 people. Jacksonville has 1,488 places of worship for a population of some 836,000. Jacksonville is not ranked in the PRRI study.

#2 Seattle, WA: 1 religious venue for every 481 people.  1,355 religious venues in Seattle serve some 650,000 residents. This is surprising considering 33% of Seattle's population identifies themselves as religiously unaffiliated — the second highest rate of any city in America (Portland is first) — according to PRRI. 

#1 Indianapolis, IN: 1 religious venue for every 289 people. Indianapolis has a whopping 2,892 religious institutions for 834,852 inhabitants. PRRI says 19% of the population is religiously unaffiliated. That means 676,230 people can pick from 2,892 places of worship. No one congregation need be larger than 233 people! 

PropertyShark also created a map that shows the cities with the most religiously unaffiliated people compared to the cities with the highest amount of religious institutions.

SEE ALSO: Striking photos from the villages surrounding Chernobyl, taken by people who still live there

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Transgender people are using social media to complain that they appear to be getting kicked off of Tinder because of their transgender identity. 

The users are finding themselves reported, then banned, and they assume it's because they're transgender. 

We asked Tinder to explain why this might be happening, and it seems to be because of two reasons: there's potential for users to be wrongfully banned, and the app doesn't provide a way for transgender people to avoid being matched with people who might report them.

Tinder has a guilty-until-proven-innocent strategy when it comes to being reported and banned. Tinder does not disclose the number of times a user must be reported before being banned — but Tinder doesn't intervene to determine whether any rules have been broken until after the ban takes place.

"Everyone is welcome on Tinder," the company told Business Insider. "​Each banned account is individually assessed. If we find that a user has been wrongfully banned, then we unban their account. This includes instances when transgender users are reported by others, but haven't violated any of our community standards."

This means that even though a Tinder ban can be lifted retroactively, it is possible for app users to be reported and banned for being transgender. So although Tinder allows transgender users on its platform, there don't appear to be any safeguards in place ensuring that those users aren't banned because of others reporting them.

Also, Tinder relies on gender to sort users and offers two options male and female. A user selects their own gender, and then selects which genders they would like to be matched with — male, female, or both. 

Because of this, transgender people have no way of filtering out people who don't want to match with them. This is what leads to the erroneous reporting.

Tinder says it's working to change this. A spokesperson provided this statement: 

"The system currently does not permit users to be more specific than 'male' or 'female' when selecting gender and is similarly limited in discovery preferences. Unfortunately, this can lead to some users reporting other users when they unexpectedly appear in their recommendations. Tinder recognizes and believes in the importance of being inclusive of all gender identities and is working towards optimizing the experience for everyone. "

Sol Solomon, a 20-year-old transgender woman and college student, posted on her Tumblr about an experience she had using Tinder. 

"I matched with a dude right before I got on a subway, and as I climbed out of the subway to go to work,  I discovered that the app was missing [from my phone] and I had been reported," Solomon told Business Insider. 

Solomon believes she was reported after this male user realized she was a transgender woman by looking more closely at her profile description.

"I have my pronouns on my Tinder, so I assumed he was just being transphobic," she said. "Right after he matched me, I was reported, which is why I would assume the connection happened."

As seen above, there is no explicit option for reporting a transgender person. A user would have to select "other" and type an explanation to accompany the report. 

Solomon received an alert from Tinder that her account had been reported and a warning to be careful of her behavior on the app going forward. She had to press a button "promising" to abide by Tinder's rules and guidelines before she could start swiping again, she said.

From Tinder:

"We notify users that they have been reported, the reason(s) why they were reported, and that they run the risk of having their account locked and put under review. Reported users will receive up to three warnings from us letting them know that their account will be locked and put under review if they keep being reported. Essentially, this presents the user with community-based feedback." 

This was the only time Solomon has been reported, but it is not the first time she has encountered pushback as a trans user. Solomon frequently gets messages in which men on Tinder reproach her. 

"Often the comments are filled with trans-misogyny and homophobia, " Solomon explained to BI. "I got two messages the other day from some person saying, 'Well you're very misleading.'"

Interestingly, Tinder pulls most of its information and photos from a user's Facebook profile — except when it comes to his or her gender identity.

"It’s bizarre because Tinder [profile information] comes from Facebook and Facebook has over 50 options [for gender]," noted Solomon. 

She's right. Facebook offers 58 gender options.

If there was an option to identify herself as a transgender woman on Tinder, Solomon says she would be interested in using it. However, she doesn't know if the app, in its current form, is ready to move beyond a gender binary. 

"Because of the format of Tinder and how it’s right, left and male, female, it's meant to be simple," Solomon said. "Tinder would have to change things about their medium in order to really accommodate."

Solomon also explained that adding more gender options probably wouldn't impact the majority of Tinder users. 

"If you could select different genders, then people who aren't aware or are transphobic could just pick one gender, as opposed to the 58 available options" Solomon told BI. 

For now, Solomon continues to use Tinder, though not as frequently as before the incident. Very few of her transgender friends use the app, she said, because "they know better."

SEE ALSO: A Twitter bot has spent the entire day scolding people who are talking about Caitlyn Jenner

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NOW WATCH: Tinder is now pulling your Instagram photos into your profile

1. Chuck Blazer, the ex-FIFA official who is widely believed to be an FBI informant, admitted in a 2013 hearing with federal prosecutors to facilitating or accepting bribes for two different World Cups.

2.At least 65 people have been confirmed dead in Monday's capsizing of a cruise ship in China's Yangtze river. 

3.More than 700 schools closed Thursday in South Korea over fears of a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak after 35 people became infected.

4. Ukraine's military and Russian-backed rebels on Wednesday fought their first major battle in nearly three months after separatists purportedly launched an attack on the town of Maryinka.

5. After meeting with senior EU officials Wednesday night, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said a deal with Greece's creditors to unlock bailout money was "within sight" and that the country would make its International Monetary Fund payment on Friday.

6.At least 51 labs in 17 US states and three foreign countries mistakenly received live anthrax samples, and the figure is expected to grow as an investigation by the Defence Department continues.

7. Preliminary findings suggest a corroded pipe caused 101,000 gallons of oil to spill into water off the California coast last month.

8.India and the US have agreed to cooperate on major defence projects amid concerns over China's growing influence in the Indian Ocean.

9. South Korea on Wednesday tested a new ballistic missile that can strike all parts of North Korea.

10. The OECD on Wednesday lowered its global growth forecast in 2015 to 3.1% from 4.0% and in 2016 to 3.8% from 4.3%, partly because of "tepid" investment by businesses and government.

And finally...

A rare oarfish measuring 4.1 meters (13 1/2 feet) long washed up dead on Catalina Island in California.

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If all the Earth's land ice melted, sea levels would rise over 200 feet. So what would that mean for Europe's coastlines?

Produced by Alex Kuzoian. Narrated by Sara Silverstein.

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Business Insider has had love affairs with numerous regional and national supermarket chains over the years. Kroger has an awesome loyalty program. Wegmans has a walk-in beer locker.

But anyone who has ever set foot in Stew Leonard's — a regional grocery chain based in Norwalk, Connecticut — knows it is miles above the rest.

The supermarket, which has three locations in Connecticut and one in Yonkers, New York, recently announced that it planned to open a fifth store on Long Island in early 2016.

Stew Leonard's puts a major emphasis on customer service and the in-store experience, and big chains could learn a thing or two from studying its model.

Here's why Stew Leonard's is truly America's best grocery store:

1. It has a simple, ironclad policy when it comes to customer service.

At the entrance of every Stew Leonard's store is a giant slab with the company's customer-service credo carved in: "Rule 1: The customer is always right. Rule 2: If the customer is ever wrong, reread Rule 1."

It's hard to argue with that kind of philosophy.

"Customer service is excellent, thanks in part to the extensive training given to associates," said Neil Saunders, managing director of the research firm Conlumino.

2. It has a great in-house brand.

Stew Leonard's sells a ton of products under its own label, including breakfast cereal and frozen meals. The store is best known for its dairy products, which arrive fresh daily and are packaged with the label "You'd have to own a cow to get fresher milk!"

Unlike traditional grocers, which can carry tens of thousands of items, Stew Leonard's stocks only about 2,200 products "chosen specifically for their freshness, quality, and value," according to the company.

3. There are perks for big spenders.

Stew Leonard's may not offer a traditional loyalty program, but it does have one fun perk for big spenders — a free cup of coffee or scoop of ice cream for every $100 spent. That should keep any and all grumpy kids (or grown-ups) from losing their cool.

4. The bakery is amazing.

Stew Leonard's sells a bigger selection of baked goods than your average specialty bakery. Breads, pies, and cookies are baked fresh every day. Top sellers include croissants, cookies, and bagels, but there are also unique items like apple cider donut holes and jumbo muffins.

The bakery also makes photo cakes for birthdays.

5. The chocolate chip cookies are made with a tiny bit of salt.

This is simply the best way to make cookies, and these treats alone are worth the trip to Stew Leonard's, even if you don't live nearby.

6. It's a fun place to take your kids.

Free ice cream aside, Stew Leonard's does a great job of turning grocery shopping into a fun family experience. There are animatronics throughout the store, including a country band of singing milk cartons and a crooning Chiquita banana.

During the warm weather, there are also hayrides and a petting zoo at certain locations.

7. The company takes good care of its employees.

Stew Leonard's has regularly been named one of Fortune's "100 best places to work in America," and it is rated four stars out of five on the job review site Indeed. The store also offers scholarships to employees, and, according to Conlumino's Saunders, it also "has a profit-sharing scheme, which helps to motivate staff and ensures they are invested in giving good service."

"You can't have a happy customer unless you have happy people," CEO Stew Leonard Jr. told Business News Daily in 2012. "It really starts there. I'd never ask anyone at the store to do something I wouldn't do or haven't done ... You've got to pay them well and given them good benefits. You can't hire great people and try to pay them minimum wage."

8. The produce selection is enormous, fresh, and well priced.

Stew Leonard's puts a major emphasis on produce, the first thing customers see when they enter a store. The company has also promoted its image as a fresh-food market, and it has become "a destination for fresh produce," Saunders said.

There are also great deals on produce to be had.

9. There are so many free samples you can practically eat a free meal while you shop.

Instead of traditional supermarket aisles, Stew Leonard's is set up like a maze, similar to Ikea. The layout may be a drawback for people who are just running in to buy a quart of milk, but it means lots more opportunities to try the free samples set up around the store.

At least four stands were set up around the store during a recent visit, serving samples such as cookies, fresh pineapple, and meatballs in tomato sauce.

10. Stew's wine and liquor stores are in a league of their own.

Like Trader Joe's, Stew Leonard's has wine and liquor stores that are separate from its core grocery business. The nine Stew Leonard's Wines & Spirits stores are independently owned and operated, and they offer huge selections at great prices, as well as online ordering.

In 2011, Wine Enthusiast named Stew Leonard's "wine retailer of the year."

11. The butcher shop is also incredible.

Stew Leonard's is known for its cut-to-order butcher shop, which sells only meats from farms and ranches that are selected by the company's buying team. Prices are low, and the butchers are helpful and knowledgeable.

12. Stew Leonard's is up with the latest food trends.

Quinoa bread? Guacamole made with kale? "Magic pop" rice cakes? The grocery store is constantly adding products to its line to keep up with popular food fads.

13. You can also just buy a full meal without doing any food shopping.

Stew Leonard's offers a half-dozen different buffets and salad bars, as well as fresh barbecue during the summer months. There are also dozens of prepared meals on the stores' shelves, including sushi, lobster rolls, and calzones. It's a great value even for those who don't know how to turn on an oven.

SEE ALSO: I just went to Wegmans for the first time ever — now I get what all the fuss is about

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It turns out that you are probably folding your t-shirts and socks all wrong. Marie Kondo, an organization celebrity in Japan, shows us the folding methods that earned her a spot on TIME's 2015 "Top 100 Influential People" list. 

You can learn more about her tidying methods from her book, "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing."

Produced by Justin Gmoser and Megan Willett. Additional camera by Jason Gaines. Special thanks to Caroline Moss, Julie Zeveloff, Sam Rega, Graham Flanagan and Molly Mulshine. 

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MasterCard just released its 2015 global destination cities index.

The index provides a ranking of the 132 most visited cities around the world by looking at the number of international visitors that are predicted to visit the cities in 2015.

This year, Asian cities dominated the list, along with a few European cities.

Here are the 10 most popular cities in the world with international visitors.

10. Hong Kong, China: 8.66 million international visitors

9. Seoul, South Korea: 10.35 million international visitors

8. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 11.12 million international visitors

As relations between the Cuba and the US begin to mellow, the Caribbean country is becoming more and more accessible.

But back in 2010, when Marius Jovaisa first visited the island, things were still quite tense. This presented a challenge to the aerial photographer, who has a long history of photographing beautiful locations from above, and many books and international exhibits of under his belt.

Jovaisa had come to Cuba with a plan to shoot the island's diverse landscape from the sky. The task turned out to be a tall one.

After two years of pleading with the Cuban government, Jovaisa was finally granted permission to photograph Cuba from above, and he became the first photographer to do so.

He spent two and a half years on the project and his subsequent book, "Unseen Cuba," is now available for purchase. The photographs give an exhaustive survey of Cuba from the sky, showing us just how varied and beautiful a place it can be.

Marius Jovaisa has made a long career out of aerial photography. He has taken large-format photos of such places as Cancun, Belize, the Yucatan Peninsula, and his home country of Lithuania.

But getting access to photograph Cuba from above was by far his most challenging project yet.

It took two years for Jovaisa to gain approval from the Cuban government to photograph the country from the air.

As an editorial intern living in Manhattan who likes to do and experience things, budgeting hacks are essential.

Living on the cheap is like my second job. When I'm not writing, I'm figuring out how to continue living in this beautifully electric, yet grossly expensive, city.

I could tell you where to drink the cheapest beer (try Rudy's Bar in Hells Kitchen), where to go for a reliable $25 haircut (check out Hollywood Salon), and up until a few weeks ago, I would have told you where to get quality and affordable Broadway tickets: the TKTS Times Square booth, where you can supposedly get day-of Broadway tickets for 50% off.

Turns out, it's a big tourist trap. I learned the hard way.  

Here's what happened:

My mom flew into the city for a long weekend, and an integral part of the aggressively scheduled itinerary I created was a Broadway show. We were both Broadway virgins, and what better mother-daughter activity?

Having read and heard so much about the infamous ticket booth in Times Square, I assured her we could have a first class Broadway experience for a reasonable price — as long as she didn't mind waiting in line for a while.

We hopped in line around 5pm on a Friday to snag tickets for the musical "Kinky Boots." The line moved shockingly quickly, and 20 minutes later, we had secured two $75 tickets to the 8pm show. It felt expensive, but we reasoned that with a 50% discount, they were $150 seats, so we were psyched. 

Upon arriving to the theater, the first usher directed us up the stairs. It seemed strange to be headed up, but I concluded that our seats must be in one of those fancy boxes off to the side of the stage. 

My conclusion could not have been farther off.

Usher number two glanced at our "first class" tickets and said, "Three rows from the top. Enjoy your evening."

We trudged up several steps, gradually getting farther from the stage, until we hit row "W" — the cheapest of the cheap seats.  

A little dismayed, we asked the two women behind us where they purchased their tickets, which only added salt to the wound: They had bought their seats about 15 minutes ago, at the theater, for an undiscounted price of $79.

I felt played; and I don't like to be played, especially when it comes to money. 

I decided to get to the bottom of this Kinky Boots conundrum and started investigating online. The TKTS website reads "same-day theatre tickets at up to 50% off" (key words being "up to"). I went on to read that they're actually anywhere between 20% and 50% off, which still doesn't explain our $75 seats, but was revealing information.

Next, I returned to the TKTS booth, where there are several helpful guides standing around fielding questions. I questioned one of them about the $4 difference in price between our "discounted" tickets and the full-price tickets of the ladies behind us, and he wasn't quite sure what to tell me. "Maybe the two sitting behind you had coupons," was all he could come up with. (They didn't have coupons; we had made sure to ask that.)

A few days later, I approached a different person outside of the booth. I started by asking how the system works, and he mentioned that tickets will be a minimum of $75. Aha! As soon as I started to recount my Kinky Boots situation, he started nodding his head and predicted its sad, third-to-last-row ending. 

He admitted that the TKTS booth is definitely not the best place to buy tickets, and is really only there to draw in the tourists wandering around Times Square. It's not worth waiting in line, he told me.

He did give me two budgeting hacks to add to my collection, though. Turns out, if you're a student, you can get tickets for about $38 at the theaters. I'm not a student, but I still have my student ID, and that's enough, he assured me.

He also recommended BroadwayForBrokePeople.com, where you can skip the Times Square line and find the real steals. 

A second trip to Broadway likely won't fit into my budget anytime soon, even with the new hacks; but the next time my mom visits, we'll definitely be foregoing the TKTS booth.

SEE ALSO: Watch Out For These Overpriced Products At The Grocery Stor

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I held onto my 2008 little yellow iPod for an impressively long time before it finally kicked the bucket late last year. 

It only took a few music-less commutes through the subways of New York City before I realized that I needed a replacement source for tunes. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't just load songs from my iTunes onto my iPhone because of a weird software incompatibility, so I started trying to decide between the wide selection of music streaming services out there today.

Spotify? Pandora? Google Play Music? Rdio? 

Because I wanted to get my music fix underground, I figured that I would have to shell out for a premium version of a service so that I could download songs to my phone for offline listening. 

In the end, I became obsessed with a service that millions of people probably don't know they can use for free: Amazon Prime Music.

Amazon's streaming service launched exactly one year ago today. It's only available to people who pay $99 a year for Prime, the membership program that most people join because of the two-day free shipping it offers on a ton of products. Although Amazon refuses to lock down an exact number of Prime subscribers, it says there are "tens of millions" in the US alone. 

Amazon says that there are now several million Prime members who listen to Prime Music each month.

Personally, I had downloaded the Amazon Music app initially for research purposes, but forgot about it soon after. (Those were the iPod days, remember?)

While stranded in a music desert, though, I decided to give it another try.

After all, it was free, since I already pay for Prime for its speedy shipping. So why pay an extra $10 a month for a service like Spotify?

I quickly fell in love with the Amazon service for a few reasons: 

• Amazon lets me download all the music I want onto my phone, so I can listen underground or without using my cellular data while I'm walking around.
• I can download a bunch of music for free, but the player also pulls in any music that I've ever digitally purchased from Amazon. In many cases, Amazon will also retroactively give you a digital version of any physical CD you purchased on the site, for free. One reader told Business Insider that he has bought about 100 albums from Amazon since 1999, and he now has most of them in Prime Music at no extra charge. 
• The selection is comparatively small — Prime Music has "more than one million songs" versus the more than 30 million on Spotify — but I was quickly able to put together a playlist of more than 450 songs from artists that I love. That number has continued to grow as Amazon adds new music or I discover new bands through its playlists features. 
• That's another thing that I like about Prime: You can browse a bunch of playlists curated through a combination of Amazon's algorithms and a human editorial team. (My personal favorite is Coffee Shop folk.) Amazon says that it has over a thousand Prime Playlists and hundreds of radio options too, called Prime Stations. 
• Even when you're listening to Stations or Playlists, there aren't any ads ever. 

Amazon Prime Music definitely won't be a good fit for everyone. It's got a smaller selection than Spotify, and is especially light on rap and EDM. And you shouldn't expect to see the latest albums as soon as they drop. (Although you could buy the album on Amazon proper and have it show up in the streaming player.) 

But because I love indie rock bands and folk music and generally don't care about getting new albums — in part because several of the bands I'm in love with haven't released new music in years — I'm constantly using the app and am absolutely a huge, unabashed fan. 

I'm not saying that people should ditch their Spotify, Rdio, or Pandora subscriptions if they're already all signed up and digging it. But if, like me, you're one of the tens of millions of people who already pay for Amazon Prime and you aren't an evangelist for any other service, give it a try. 

Because the key is that if you already pay for Prime anyway, it's free. 

Here are some of the playlists Amazon Prime Music offers:

Here's what the player looks like when you're offline streaming:

SEE ALSO: Venmo is the one app I couldn't live without

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NOW WATCH: Here's how much you have to buy to make Amazon Prime worth it

Having a large group doesn't have to mean missing out on dining at great restaurants in New York. 

Restaurant review site The Infatuation helped us come up with a list of NYC eateries that are perfect for large crowds. 

Whether you're going for a birthday dinner or a bachelor party, here are ten places to hit up the next time you're with a big party. 

Sample traditional Roman dishes with a New York twist at Lupa Osteria Romana

170 Thompson St.

Inspired by the traditional Roman trattoria, Lupa Osteria Romana serves authentic Roman dishes like Bavette Cacio e Pepe, or linguine with black pepper and cheese. 

Brick walls that make for a warm atmosphere, and groups of eight to 27 people can be seated in their private banquette space with three pre-fixed menu options. 

The lunch menu is $39 per person with cured meats like salami, a pasta dish, two mains like fresh market fish, and a dessert. For dinner, you can do the $49 per person menu, which includes cured meats, a pasta, two mains, and dessert, or the $79 per person option with cured meats, two pasta choices, three mains, a selection of cheeses, and dessert. 

Read The Infatuation's Lupa review here

Try the 55-year-old famous thin-crust pizza recipe at Rubirosa

235 Mulberry St.

This Italian restaurant uses Angelo Pappalardo's 55-year-old family recipe for thin-crust pizza, a recipe that originated at Joe and Pat's Pizzeria in Staten Island.

Besides its beloved Vodka Pizza, smothered in vodka sauce and topped with fresh mozzarella, you'll find pasta made in-house and a variety of gluten-free options. 

You can make special accommodations for eight to 20 people with three menus offering appetizers, pasta, pizza, protein dishes, and dessert. Plus, you can reserve a seat at the long Chef's table in a private room. 

Read The Infatuation's Rubirosa review here

Taste a mix of African, Asian, and American cuisine at The Cecil

210 W. 118th St.

The Cecil, in Harlem, classifies itself as an Afro-Asian-American brasserie, so you know you’re in for a lot of options.

Their large menu does in fact offer a wide variety, with one-of-a-kind options like braised goat udon noodles, oxtail dumplings, or their lamb carpaccio topped with pink peppercorns.

With different dining chambers, the restaurant offers an environment that feels both open and intimate.

Read The Infatuation's The Cecil review here