Amazon's cashierless Go stores head to suburbia | Meijer, Walmart, Kroger to distribute free N95 masks | Walmart teams with vertical farming startup in Calif.
Amazon will expand its cashierless Amazon Go store format to suburban areas, starting with the town of Mill Creek, Wash., a Seattle suburb with a population of about 20,000. The expansion from city centers to suburbs follows a rise in consumers working from home, and the planned suburban stores will have a larger footprint than urban locations.
Meijer will provide free N95 face masks to customers after receiving around 3 million masks in a US Department of Health and Human Services program. Other grocers and retailers, including Kroger, Walmart, CVS and Walgreens, will also provide free masks to customers as part of the program.
Walmart will invest an undisclosed amount to take an equity stake in vertical farming startup Plenty, with plans to stock the company's leafy greens at its California stores before the end of the year. Indoor farming ventures are becoming increasingly attractive to investors as a means to ensure a local supply of fresh produce despite challenges with the supply chain and climate change.
Reports that Kohl's has been fielding buyout offers from entities including Sycamore Partners and an affiliate of Starboard Value sent the retailer's stock price soaring 36% on Monday. The retailer operates 1,162 stores, making its real estate holdings attractive to potential suitors who would likely sell off some of the property to finance a deal, Lauren Debter writes in Forbes.
Patagonia will open its first Brooklyn, N.Y., store in the popular Williamsburg neighborhood, where the brand boasts many of its best customers, said Joy Lewis, head of Patagonia's retail experience. The new store will be the high-end outdoor apparel and gear brand's biggest New York City store at almost 10,000 square feet.
Amazon's choice of a suburban area instead of a high-profile city for its first Amazon Style fashion store that will focus on popular and private-label brands likely indicates the e-commerce giant is looking to compete more with fast-fashion brands and less with luxury labels, said Syama Meagher, CEO of Scaling Retail. "With the store being very data-rich, it is going to be a gem of an experimentation hub for vendors," Meagher said.
Worker shortages have plagued grocers since last year and many have been closing earlier, cutting labor-rich departments like bakeries and prepared meals, upskilling workers and reducing break times to deal with the shortage. Kroger, for example, cut operating hours at its stores during low-traffic times, and Stew Leonard's is making fewer varieties of crumb cake.
More than half of the sellers on fashion resale site The RealReal last year were 42 or older, highlighting a growing trend of older consumers selling styles purchased in earlier years. Resale sites say Gen X and baby boomers downsizing their closets are finding eager buyers in Gen Z consumers who are embracing '90s retro and other vintage styles.
In a featured session at NRF 2022: Retail's Big Show on the Riskified Stage, Jason Berns, senior vice president of product and manufacturing innovation for Ralph Lauren, discussed his company's foray into custom manufacturing and on-demand production with Sheena Butler-Young of The Business of Fashion. "It's always a full-price sale, and there is no over-production," Berns said. "You're not faced with that question we always deal with in fashion: How come we made so much extra? When I'm manufacturing for only one person, I can really drive the margin up." Read more.
While the challenges of supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and inflation concerns remain, NRF Vice President of Education Strategy Susan Reda says 2022 is poised to be a great year for retail. Customers are excited to return to stores, and retailers are focused on new ways to make the in-store experience even better. Read more.
Papa Murphy's debuted a refreshed logo and brand campaign that features a 30-second spot showing the uniquely collaborative relationship between brand and customer that results from its "take-and-bake" pizza. The push includes a new tagline, "We make great pizza so you can make the pizza great."