Five Below has teamed with Nerd Street Gamers, an esports infrastructure company that builds facilities known as Localhost that enable gamers to play in live, in-person events using professional level equipment. Where do you expect Five Below’s investment in Nerd Street Gamers to take it?
A Bain & Co. study concludes the reason online penetration remains so low in the grocery category versus others is because in-store shopping is still far more convenient. What parts of the in-store grocery experience will be easy and which will be hard to bring online?
Chipotle Mexican Grill has announced that it is adding a new perk to its employee education benefits package — debt-free college degrees. How important are educational benefits in helping retailers and restaurants to recruit and retain their best employees?
Gymboree was an 800-store retail chain before it shuttered all its locations earlier this year. Now, the brand is ready for a comeback, not as a standalone chain, but as an online seller and a shop within its one-time rival’s stores. What do you think of The Children’s Place’s strategy to relaunch Gymboree?
CNN reports that it has interviewed 23 current and former employees of Target in recent months who said they actually are bringing home less than they did before the retailer began raising its hourly pay. Do hourly associates have a legitimate grievance in connecting fewer shift hours with recent pay increases or are there other factors at work?
Women looking for new shoes to wear without adding to the collection they have accumulated will now have an option to swap online, thanks to a new Los Angeles-based startup called Shoe Bank. Do marketplaces that facilitate swapping like Shoe Bank stand to impact how traditional shoe retailers do business?
Sports Direct, the UK’s largest sporting goods chain, is calling for a Europe-wide investigation into the dominance of Nike and Adidas in sports retailing. Do retailers have any rights to the brands they’ve built their business around?
Walmart has announced that it is launching its InHome Delivery program which gives Walmart delivery people access to customers’ garages or homes where they will put refrigerated and frozen products away in refrigerators. What do you expect Walmart to learn in the three initial markets for InHome Delivery?
Growth in the food industry lately has come from small brands, despite facing huge market disadvantages. Does the slotting-fee culture in the grocery channel still weigh heavily against smaller brands?
Retail titan Amazon.com has recently released and publicized a list of its stances on political and social issues. Do you think it’s a good idea for companies to enumerate and explain political and social positions in the way Amazon has?
