Everywhere you look, you see the same jogger outfits with predictable brand logos on display for the world to see. If you stop and ask the wearer about it, they’ll harp on the fact that they waited for hours in a digital waiting room just to have their chance to purchase it for the insane price of $250. What makes this even more bizarre is that the same jogger set will be available in a few more weeks in a different color. Streetwear Loses Its Luster Consumers are being snowed into believing streetwear is only about exclusivity. They’ve …
Experience
Otherworld Retail
Do your eyes glaze over when you hear the term “metaverse?” Maybe Covid updates or supply chain bottlenecks are more riveting. Or comp-store sales versus a year ago. A 45-year-old athlete’s on-again, off-again desire to retire. Anything else. Well, congratulations. You must be a CEO of a major retailer or CPG brand. Now, at the apex of your career comes a dodgy idea forced upon you by Silicon Valley narcissists who know nothing of fashion trends or packaged food fixations. The Metaverse Isn’t Going Away My great friend and …
What Retailers Can Learn from Super Bowl LVI’s Groundbreaking Halftime Show
I couldn’t care less about the Bengals or the Rams – in fact, if anything, they both kind of left a sour taste in my mouth because each team had managed to snatch victories from my hometown Minnesota Vikings, beating them by just 3 and 7 points, respectively, during the regular season. But I was really – and I mean really – looking forward to Super Bowl LVI, played last Sunday in Los Angeles because, for the first time ever, the Super Bowl Halftime Show would be featuring five (actually six, as it turned out) living legends of Hip Hop – a first …
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Big Beauty Needs a Detox
It’s 2022. Why am I having to worry about whether the Pantene Mist Behaving Dry Conditioning Mist I have tucked in a bathroom drawer, or the Neutrogena Ultra Sheer aerosol sunscreen my husband spritzes on before tennis, are giving us cancer? With the drumbeat of “clean,” toxin-free products growing ever louder with each passing day, isn’t Big Beauty even the least bit afraid that consumers have just about had it with merch that endangers our well-being? Sure, I want great hair. But I’d rather not risk my life to get it. Maybe I’m …
NRF, Come and Gone
NRF’s 2022 Big Show was far from big but it was the first in person gathering at a scale that the industry has seen since early 2020. Similar to what happened at CES this year, most of the big tech companies such as Intel and SAP did not show. Many of the medium sized firms also opted out. This opened up the opportunity for younger, smaller Innovators including tech startups to shine. Their show footprint and density were consistent with prior years, whereas the main exhibitor space had major gaps. The State of Retail The uneven …
Reimagining the Supermarket
Note: The following has been excerpted from “How We Eat, the Brave New World of Food and Drink.” Copyright © 2022 by Peckshee, LLC. All good businesses gaze into their crystal ball in an attempt to arrive at the future an hour or two before everyone else. In Italy, “The Supermarket of the Future” has existed for some time. It was the name of a project that the design firm Carlo Ratti Associati created in 2015 for the Milan World Expo. The experimental store was part of a “future food district pavilion” sponsored by Coop Italia, the country’s …
Here’s Why Retailers Can Stop All That Discounting
We're closing out a year that saw stores cautiously open with pandemic protocols, then saw doors open wide because vaccines were introduced, then saw mask rules go back into effect because of the Delta variant, all while online shopping grew for both ecommerce-only and traditional retailers because it was a safe and stable way to shop -- until the supply chain crisis kicked in. ...Who needs a nap? Agile Retail Retailers and brands have been pushed to be more creative and responsive than ever, especially since consumers have remained motivated …
Four Retail Lessons from the Hospitality Sector
It’s no coincidence that people have a love affair with cooking shows, and I’m certainly no exception. Whether I’m scrolling through Netflix, Hulu, FuboTV, or even the Travel Channel, a wide variety of chefs are ready to take viewers on a journey from individual ingredients to the finished dish. But it’s not the game-changing tips and tricks and generous servings of comfort and sophistication that grab our attention – it’s the entire cooking experience. Watching these shows got me thinking about the overall fashion retail experience. …