The Week In News, But Shorter

The Week In News, But Shorter
September 4 – 10, 2023

We’d like to kick-off this week’s newsletters offering a big congratulations to our clients and friends on the opening of Mall Aventura Iquitos! It’s not every day that you see a new mall opening its doors – kudos on this wonderful achievement! This new mall comprises many of the key aspects we agree are crucial for successful shopping centers of the future, which Kyle discusses in a recent article for Retail & Leisure International. This includes making the mall more than just a shopping center with a variety of retail, convenience, and entertainment spaces. While it’s great to see new spaces like this come to life, it’s possible to transform existing spaces too. Let’s talk if you’re curious how.

This week we saw the AI convo continue (guess at this point we should just start noting if it’s absent from the headlines?), predictions on how back-to-school and back-to-work could impact retail, and some breakdowns happening in the ghost kitchen space. You can find us over on LinkedIn where you can find some of this content before it hits your inbox.

Digital Meets Physical

Powered by A.I., Company Aims to Make Selling Easier for Retailers [The New York Times] Lily AI matches online shoppers to the merchandise they’re looking for based on colloquial search terms, a welcome change for companies like Bloomingdale’s.

Amazon’s Just Walk Out tech headed to Loyola University in Maryland [Winsight Grocery Business] The retail giant is also selling its Amazon One technology, which allows Amazon Prime members to pay with a swipe of their palm across a scanner.

Crate & Barrel unveils AI- and customer-focused growth plan [Chain Store Age] Crate & Barrel is investing in artificial intelligence (AI) technology that will support delivery of a seamless, personalized customer experience. The is launching a multi-year investment plan called “Bring it Home,” focused on what it says will be “significant” spending on talent, technology, and infrastructure. 

Micro & Last Mile Fulfillment

FAA will allow UPS delivery drones to travel greater distances [PopularScience] The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared UPS to operate its delivery drone fleet beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of pilots. The UPS Flight Forward subsidiary can now begin deploying its Matternet M2 drones to much further distances, thus expanding their range of potential customers. 

Books-A-Million to use Walmart GoLocal for same-day, next-day delivery [RetailDive] Books-A-Million will use Walmart’s white-label delivery service, Walmart GoLocal, to provide same-day and next-day deliveries, the book retailer announced. The company will introduce the delivery offering in the Midwest and Southeast markets and will expand nationally in the coming weeks across its 231 stores. 

Target offers more details on its ‘secret sauce’ delivery strategy [GroceryDive] As Target adds more sortation centers — its self-described “secret sauce” for delivery — the retailer shared on Friday more details about where it stands with the expansion of the facilities and why they matter. 

Restaurants & Ghost Kitchens

Grubhub Pilots On-Demand Delivery [QSR Magazine] Grubhub announced that it is offering a new product feature, On-Demand Delivery. This service gives self-delivery restaurants on the Grubhub Marketplace the option to request a Grubhub delivery driver to facilitate the last-mile logistics on a per-order basis whenever needed. 

Travis Kalanick’s start-up CloudKitchens fires staff and shuts sites [Financial Times] Travis Kalanick’s ghost kitchen start-up CloudKitchens has sacked workers this year and closed locations as it attempts to rein in its expenses amid low occupancy at a number of its warehouses, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Who Should Eat the Cost of Pricier Delivery Menus? [The Wall Street Journal] Food-delivery services say some restaurants are scaring off customers by charging significantly higher prices for food they deliver. But persuading restaurants to rethink their pricing is proving to be a tall order.

Mall Talk

Back to school and back to the office will greatly impact retail and real estate, says two experts [CNBC] Gerald Storch, CEO of Storch Advisors, and Julie Whelan, Global Head of Occupier Thought Leadership at CBRE, discuss how the back-to-school and back-to-work seasons will likely impact spending trends and commercial real estate.

Iquitos experienced the inauguration of its first shopping center: Mall Aventura [America Retail] Complying with its growth plan, developing shopping centers in a sustainable way, which improves the quality of life of the communities where they operate, Mall Aventura Iquitos becomes the fourth shopping center that they manage in Peru, with an investment of US$ 65 million.

The Mall of the Future [Retail & Leisure International] In this month’s Retail Insight, Kyle Spencer, Co-Founder of NextRivet takes some time out to look into how mall operators are revitalizing their spaces to accommodate changing consumer demands.

It’s Not Your Imagination—Shopping in Person Is Getting Worse [The Wall Street Journal] If shopping feels more like a hassle than it used to, that’s because it probably is. More American stores are doing with fewer employees and many have locked items up to keep them from being pilfered. With slowing sales and rising theft eating into profits, the risk is that retailers’ countermeasures will make in-person shopping even more miserable than it already is.