The Week In News, But Shorter
May 5 – 11, 2025

Tariff talk dominated headlines this week, bringing fresh waves of uncertainty for many, including retailers and retail property owners. From rising construction costs to supply chain headaches, the ripple effects are real with several technology vendors are rolling out new AI (shocker!) tools to help retailers and manufacturers track the impact. But here’s the good news: planning properly and investing in tech is still a no-brainer. Whether it’s streamlining operations, cutting energy costs, or enhancing tenant experience, smart technology investments continue to deliver real value. While some may hit pause on big capital projects, the smartest players are leaning into tech as a way to stay nimble, drive ROI, and future-proof their portfolios. Are tariffs shifting the way you think about tech investments? Share your take with us over on LinkedIn.

Beyond tariffs, we saw the topic of retail media continue to make headlines with a report that 95% of shoppers react positively to in-store retail media. A discount retailer is jumping into last-mile delivery putting 5,000+ stores just a tap away, and despite ongoing questions of effectiveness, a big box retailer is declaring express self-checkout a big win for customer satisfaction.

Digital Meets Physical

Survey: In-store retail ads help drive sales, engagement [Chain Store Age] Consumers have an overwhelmingly positive reception to in-store retail media. That’s according to a new survey which found that 95% of consumers felt either positive or neutral toward retail media ads.

One year later, Target calls express self-checkout a success [GroceryDive] Target says its express self-checkout lanes, which limit customers to 10 or fewer items, have increased satisfaction and sped up the checkout experience. Since rolling out in March 2024, the express self-checkout lanes reduced average transaction times across self-checkout and staffed lanes by nearly 8%.

Family Dollar, Uber Eats launch delivery partnership [Chain Store Age] More than 5,000 Family Dollar locations are now live on Uber Eats across the United States. Customers can shop for a wide variety of everyday items, including cleaning supplies, pantry staples, beauty products, baby care items and more, delivered directly to their door, on-demand or scheduled.

Temu pursues ‘local fulfillment’ to dodge tariffs [SupplyChainDive] Temu won’t change prices for U.S. customers despite increased tariffs on imports from China and will transition to what it calls “a local fulfillment model.” Temu is saying that all of its U.S. sales are handled by locally based sellers.

Zara Elevates Its Shopping Experience [WWD] With RFID, Zara has been ahead of the game. The retailer began implementing RFID in 2013 and by 2015 it was rolled out to the entire collection, enabling quick locating of items in a specific color or size that a customer saw on the Zara website and wants to see in the store. The RFID enables Zara associates to locate an item wherever it might be in the store, in a stockroom, in another store, or online. With the Zara app, a digital map of the store can be accessed on a cell phone, indicating where a requested item is located.

PropTalk

CBRE Cautious, Cushman Confident as Tariff Pressures Mount [Propmodo] Leading commercial real estate firms CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield are voicing divergent outlooks as rising trade tensions and looming tariffs continue to pressure the industry. CBRE performed exceedingly well in the first quarter, but CEO Bob Sulentic struck a measured tone on the company’s earnings call, acknowledging that tariff-driven uncertainty is already slowing deal momentum.

Tracking tariffs: The latest frontier in AI [SupplyChainDive] As tariff policies change rapidly, companies are scrambling to understand the volatile impacts on their operations, from raw material costs to supply chain disruptions.To better navigate this, software developers have prioritized making digital tools to help manufacturers and retailers have better visibility into how tariff fluctuations are affecting them.

Tariffs trigger pauses on some retail, industrial real estate deals [CFO Dive] While it’s too soon to know exactly how tariffs will impact the CRE market, some early cracks are emerging in the retail and industrial sectors, according to Whitley Collins of CBRE, the commercial real estate services company.

The Week in Shopping: We All Need an Outlet [Puck] The Livermore outpost is just one of a growing number of large, elite outlet malls owned by Simon Property Group that is experiencing a renaissance of sorts, even as traditional suburban malls (like department stores more generally) continue their decline.

How Trump tariffs will hit biggest retail deal days of year, from Amazon Prime to July 4 and Thanksgiving [CNBC] Manufacturers that stock big box retail stores say time is running out to ease tariffs on China without significant price and supply shocks for upcoming holiday sales. Holiday shipments are already down over 50%, according to one supply chain data tracker, but there is some hope that markets outside of China can make up much of the difference on retail shelves.

New Real-Estate Fund Hauls in Billions to Buy Distressed Properties [The Wall Street Journal] Brookfield raised $5.9 billion for its new real-estate fund in the first quarter, signaling growing investor appetite for distressed commercial property. Brookfield is taking advantage of the sharp drop in property prices, buying foreclosed properties and relatively healthy ones where sellers want to cash out.