Hey Friends,
Retail has been busy this week and we have a ton to cover. This week was dominated by legal news….. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of retailers in a case against the Federal Reserve's Regulation II on debit card swipe fees. The court found that the six-year statute of limitations for challenging the regulation starts when a plaintiff is affected, not when the regulation is enacted. This ruling may ease the process for plaintiffs to challenge federal regulations.
Nike is being sued for allegedly misleading investors about the success of its direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy. The lawsuit claims that CEO John Donahoe and CFO Matt Friend falsely promoted the strategy's strength despite it failing to generate sustainable revenue growth. The complaint covers investors who bought Nike stock between March 2021 and March 2024.
Under Armour is set to pay $434 million to settle a 2017 lawsuit alleging CEO Kevin Plank and former CFO Chip Molloy misled investors. The agreement includes keeping CEO and chair roles separate for three years and adding performance-based conditions for executive stock benefits.
Grubhub and Albertsons Companies have partnered to bring nearly 1,800 Albertsons Cos. stores to Grubhub’s Marketplace for delivery including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, ACME and Tom Thumb the company announced in a press release this week. THis marks the first national grocery partnership for Grubhub as it looks to use its core restaurant delivery business as a springboard to build a presence in the grocery space, where delivery accounts for roughly a third of online orders.
Walgreens announced plans to close a "significant" number of underperforming stores across the U.S. due to ongoing challenges with profitability and declining margins as part of the company's multi-year footprint optimization program. While Walgreens didn't specify how many of its more than 8,700 stores will be affected, but the company cites that a "meaningful percent" of the underperforming locations would close.
Amazon announced the dates for its annual Prime Day. Amazon Prime Day is to be held on Tuesday July 16 - Wednesday July 17, marking the ten year anniversary of the event. In typical fashion, competing retailers such as Target, Best Buy and Walmart have began to promote savings and deals “without a paid membership”. According to Adobe Analytics, US consumers spent $12.7 billion online during Prime Day 2023, a 6.1% increase from 2022. Digital Commerce 360 estimates that Amazon's global sales for the event reached $12.9 billion, a 6.7% increase from 2022.
New Balance is scaling up its resale initiative, Reconsidered, launched earlier this year. The program offers second hand shoes and “cosmetically imperfect” items, and allows customers to trade in pre-owned shoes for vouchers. Customer-sourced secondhand products reportedly sell 2.6 times faster than brand-sourced ones. This effort is part of New Balance's broader sustainability goals, including participation in the Footwear Collective to promote circular footwear.
Other Retailers Expanding Their Resale Pursuits
Lululemon: Expanded its national recommerce program in 2022.
Dick’s Sporting Goods: Enhanced its resale partnership with SidelineSwap to host trade-in events.
Canada Goose: Launched the Canada Goose Generations resale program with Trove.
Carhartt: Expanded its resale program with Trove to 35 locations.
It may be increasingly more expensive returning to school this year. A JLL survey indicates that parents expect to spend nearly 22% more on back-to-school shopping this year, averaging $475 per child. Top retailers for this shopping season are Walmart, Amazon, and Target. Over 25% of parents have already begun their shopping, with others planning to start in June, July, or August. Respondents said they plan to shop the most at Walmart (46.4%), Amazon (35.4%) and Target (32.6%), the survey found. Fewer said they plan to shop with other major retailers like Costco (6.5%), Old Navy (3.8%) and Dollar General (2.8%)
I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday weekend here in the States, and as always I look forward to hearing your feedback.