The Week In News, But Shorter
June 9 – 15, 2025

Retailers are transforming stores into destinations—designed to make shoppers linger longer and spend more. Brands like Canada Goose and Coach are rolling out lounges, cafés, immersive showrooms, and other experience-rich environments to boost engagement and loyalty. The data backs it up: the longer customers stay, the more likely they are to buy—especially in today’s post-pandemic world. Mall property owners should take note, as forward-thinking operators like Tanger already have. It’s not just about adding amenities that support the “stay a little while” mentality; it’s also about enabling tenants with flexible, tech-enabled spaces and the analytics to track ROI. Helping tenants turn square footage into an experience is a direct path to more traffic, more repeat visits, and more sales—a true win-win-win.

The kids finally wrapped up the school year this past week and we are thrilled to welcome summer, but it seems some already have back-to-school on the mind. And while it took us a little while to get used to the idea of drone delivery, it might take us even longer to get used to the idea of robot delivery. In case you missed it over on LinkedIn, David will be speaking at the upcoming NextGen 2025: Retail, Real Estate & the New Consumer in New York on June 23 and we’d love if you joined us!

Digital Meets Physical

Why retailers’ technologies should be connected from the product source to the store [ModernRetail] Connected technologies and support services have transformed the way retailers view their store operations, but there’s further to go. By combining data sets from the manufacturer, the supply chain and the store, these connected systems contextualize shopper behaviors, associate workflows, merchandise movement and allow for other key functions to highlight patterns and reveal opportunities to improve revenue, labor allocation, inventory visibility and brand experience.

For more consumers, back-to-school shopping starts now [RetailDive] Parents beginning their back-to-school shopping in June has nearly doubled from 11% last year to 20% this year, according to a s survey of parents or guardians of K–12 students. Nearly two-thirds of parents consider this year’s back-to-school shopping to be “financially challenging” or “stressful.”

Walmart debuts Sparky, its generative AI assistant for customers [RetailDive] Walmart introduced a customer-facing generative AI assistant named Sparky on Friday to summarize and answer questions about reviews, offer recommendations and help shoppers plan purchases.

Amazon reportedly testing human-like delivery robots [Chain Store Age] Media reports indicate Amazon is developing a very different type of delivery “person.” According to Guru Focus, Amazon is building a “humanoid park” in San Francisco where it can experiment with prototype humanoid robots provided by Chinese robotics firm Unitreethat. The robots reportedly would deliver packages from Amazon Rivian electric delivery vans to customer doors.

Walmart brings drone delivery to five new markets [Chain Store Age] Walmart is expanding the range of its U.S. drone delivery program in a big way. The discount giant is now offering its drone delivery service in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa. This move makes Walmart the first retailer to scale drone delivery across five states: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.

Starbucks to roll out Microsoft Azure OpenAI assistant for baristas [CNBC] Starbucks unveiled a generative AI assistant created with Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI platform at its Leadership Experience in Las Vegas. The technology will roll out to stores in the U.S. and Canada in 2026. The coffee chain has been trying to simplify baristas’ jobs and speed up service in its cafes as part of its turnaround plans.

Customers Can Now Have Their Shoes from Dick’s Delivered on Uber Eats [WWD] Dick’s Sporting Goods is expanding its digital footprint to include the Uber Eats platform. The retailer has partnered with Uber, giving customers the ability for ordering a wide selection of their favorite footwear and other items and at the same time have on-demand delivery.

PropTalk

Shop Slow, Spend More: The Retailers Hoping That Customers Linger [The Wall Street Journal] Retailers are adding amenities, such as VIP lounges and cafes, hoping customers linger and buy more. Canada Goose and Coach are investing in store ambience, to encourage consumers to spend more time and money. Tanger is adding features such as lawns and movie theaters to shopping centers, to encourage people to spend more time there.

Advertisers underestimate the in-store retail media opportunity [eMarketer] Even though most retail dollars are spent in physical stores, experts say retail media dollars have been slow to meet those consumers. “I’m ready for the conversation around in-store retail media to move beyond potential and into execution.”

First Look: NBA Store debuts at Mall of America [Chain Store Age] The nearly 20,000-sq.-ft. NBA Store at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. offers a wide assortment of official NBA and WNBA team and league-branded merchandise and memorabilia. Other features include an interactive “Experience Zone” where fans can go one-on-one with their friends in a “Quick Hands” video game.

Placer.ai: Mall visits rise for second consecutive month in May [Chain Store Age] Memorial Day helped boost traffic to malls in May. Retail data firm Placer.ai’s Mall Index for May 2025 revealed that mall visits in May followed a strong performance in April by increasing 5.2% year over year. Indoor malls posted the largest gains with a 6.7% increase in visits, followed by open-air shopping centers (+5.0%) and outlet malls (+3.9%).

Auntie Anne’s is rebranding for a future with fewer shopping malls [Fast Company] Auntie Anne’s is overhauling 150 stores with a new look and an open kitchen to sell more of its pretzels, drinks, and snacks to millennial and Gen Z consumers.

The death of the checkout counter is leading brands to rethink their store layouts [ModernRetail] At a moment when shoppers’ disposable income is becoming more precious, retail leaders are thinking hard about how to improve the store experience. Thanks to self-checkout and mobile POS systems becoming more mainstream, the footprint of a store can be used differently than having a large fixed checkout counter.