| January 2 – 9, 2023
Apologies to all our international readers for the one-day delay on our regularly schedule, as we celebrated the Martin Luther King holiday here in the U.S.
This week we’re choosing to focus on the good news, even though some of the not so great news continues to come in. For example, Babies R Us is coming back! And while this might not seem like very exciting news to many (most?), we see it differently. It’s a sign that evolution is possible; that once dead things can be reborn. And while we hope that none of you ever face the near death of your business, take this as a signal that your evolution is possible, no matter where you are on your journey to embracing the future. If you’re having a hard time seeing what you’re path looks like – well, that’s kind of our specialty.
News stories that also caught our eye this week include a dark-store/drive-thru combo, expansion of two major retail programs to the broader industry, and some headlines from major property owners. Which headlines are catching your eyes? Let us know over on Twitter or on LinkedIn where you can also now subscribe to this newsletter too. |
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| Amazon expands its service that adds Prime badge to other sites [CNBC] Amazon is expanding its Buy with Prime program that lets retailers add the company’s payment and fulfillment services to their own site. Buy with Prime users will also be able to display reviews from Amazon customers on their products.
Instagram to remove shopping tab [RetailDive] Changing the way consumers access commerce on its app, Instagram will remove its Shop tab from the homepage navigation bar in February. A Meta spokesperson said that “there will no longer be a dedicated shopping destination. However, people will be able to continue to shop in the moment across feed, reels, stories, explore, and ads.” |
| Rent the Runway to sell secondhand luxury on Amazon as it chases profitability [CNBC] Shoppers can now purchase deeply discounted secondhand luxury clothing from Rent the Runway through Amazon. The collaboration is Rent the Runway’s latest with a third-party retailer as it chases profitability. The deal will also see never-worn clothing from the company’s “design collective” up for sale on Amazon.
With Many Retailers Offering Online Sales, Phony Sites Blend In [The New York Times] Preying on shoppers strapped for cash and time, scammers are setting up fake sites that claim to have deep discounts on premium brands. |
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| Micro & Last Mile Fulfillment |
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| New drive-thru grocery concept JackBe provides groceries on demand [Chain Store Age] A new grocery retailer in Oklahoma combines the dark store and drive-thru models. Known as JackBe, the retailer is opened its first store on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023 in Edmond, Okla., with two more locations slated to open this year. JackBe stores will operate exclusively as a location where customers come to pick up their groceries ordered via the retailer’s custom, proprietary mobile app. |
| Walmart provides its GoLocal services to Salesforce clients [Reuters] Walmart said it has entered into a partnership with software giant Salesforce to provide its retail customers with store pickup and delivery services using Walmart’s vast transportation network. Retailers and other businesses which use Salesforce’s e-commerce platforms to host and manage their websites, will be able to use Walmart’s GoLocal and Store Assist services as a way to provide faster order pickups and same or next-day deliveries to online customers. |
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| Walmart made over 6,000 drone deliveries in 2022 [RetailDive] The retailer still has a long way to go to reach its goal of 1 million packages delivered by drone annually. Still, it is encouraged by the positive response from customers and looks forward to making more progress in 2023, Vik Gopalakrishnan, Walmart U.S. vice president of innovation and automation, said in a statement. |
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| Restaurants & Ghost Kitchens |
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| Some restaurant workers could see big wage growth in 2023 [CNBC] Some restaurant workers could see big wage gains in 2023, thanks to unions and California legislation. Fast-food workers could find themselves earning as much as $22 an hour this year, depending on the results of an ongoing court battle. Industry lobbyists say states like New York and Michigan could pass similar legislation to California’s FAST Act. |
| Should Restaurants Still Believe in Ghost Kitchens? [QSR Magazine] Now that the pandemic has mostly settled and customers are venturing back inside restaurants, how are these enterprises faring? One expert says growth has stabilized, but several of these ghost kitchen organizations have garnered considerable financial investors and keep growing despite the dine-in boom. |
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| Marc Lore’s ‘Wonder’ Pivots as Funding Dwindles for Costly Startups [PYMNTS] Marc Lore’s would-be disruptive restaurant tech startup is changing course amid a difficult market. The Jet.com co-founder’s food company Wonder, which was initially intended to be something of a blend of food delivery, food trucks and ghost kitchens, bringing mobile kitchen vans to consumers’ homes to offer fresh-made meals, is pivoting to a fixed-space model. Effectively, the company is shifting to something resembling a souped-up ghost kitchen. |
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| CBL leased more than a million sq. ft. of space in 2022 [Chain Store Age] After lifting itself out of Chapter 11 with a major financial restructuring, one of the nation’s top mall owners leased an entire mall’s worth of new tenants last year. CBL Properties has announced that it leased more than a million sq. ft. of space to retail, dining, and entertainment tenants in 2022. |
| Babies R Us Being Reborn With New Flagship Store [Forbes] The licensing and brand management firm that controls the Toys R Us brand is bringing back another member of the R Us family. It plans to open a Babies R Us flagship store at American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey this summer. |
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| Simon comes to aid of mall shoppers whose phones die mid-trip [Chain Store Age] Simon has joined Brookfield Properties and Westfield in installing ChargeFuze phone charging stations in a number of its malls that include Ceasars Palace and Fashion Center at Pentagon City. ChargeFuze maintains that their station users stay longer, buy more. and are often driven to participating shopping locations by promotions appearing on its app. |
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