Andrew Adam Newman

Retail Brew

03/06/2023

Inside LaRosa's pick-up order strategy

Domino’s, a delivery pioneer, is now offering customers $3 to pick up their pizzas. Here’s how a smaller pizza chain developed its pickup strategy.

Retail Brew

03/01/2023

Inside the "Chipotlane" strategy

Don’t call it a “drive-thru.” Chipotle says its pick-up window is faster, more efficient, and part of an industry-wide effort to promote takeout over delivery.

Retail Brew

02/23/2023

In 1849, Walter Hunt took a stab at designing a pin that didn't

Utilitarian object. Fashion accessory. Political statement. The safety pin keeps shining.

Retail Brew

02/21/2023

We got waited on by a robotic server

It delivers food from the kitchen, returns with dirty plates for the dishwasher, and sings “Happy Birthday.” But it’s here to help servers, not replace them.

Retail Brew

02/17/2023

FSQ (Frequently Searched Questions): Why doesn't Trader Joe's deliver?

Grocery delivery exploded at the start of Covid and hasn’t let up, so why does Trader Joe’s make shoppers come to them?

Retail Brew

02/15/2023

Many delivery drivers admit to taking food from orders, and tamper-evident packaging could stop them

California passed a law requiring tamper-evident packaging for restaurant food delivery, and it may catch on everywhere

Retail Brew

02/02/2023

Tipflation: Tipping is increasing, and not just in restaurants and rideshares

The fast-food drive-thru. The Subway sandwich counter. The Botox injection. Consumers are being prompted to tip when they never were before, and some are pushing back.

Retail Brew

01/27/2023

In 1915, Coca-Cola had many imitators. Then it designed a patented bottle nobody could copy.

Coke wanted a “bottle so distinct that you would recognize it by feel in the dark or lying broken on the ground.”

Retail Brew

How the Brannock Device helped the shoe industry put its best foot forward

After it was invented in 1925, it became a fixture in shoe stores and an unlikely hero in World War II.

Retail Brew

01/06/2023

FSQ (Frequently Searched Questions): Why doesn't Amazon accept PayPal?

Rival eBay no longer owns PayPal, but Amazon still doesn’t accept the payment method.

Retail Brew

12/21/2022

Retail Word of the Year: Shrinkflation

When brands quietly downsize their products, consumers reach for this portmanteau.

Retail Brew

12/08/2022

Before 1979, premium vodka bottles were tall and thin. Then Absolut changed everything.

They modeled it after an 18th-century apothecary bottle. And it turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.

Retail Brew

11/18/2022

In 1957, Dutch Gold put its honey in a squeezable bear, and forever reshaped the honey aisle

They tried not to copy Winnie the Pooh. Then everyone copied them.

Retail Brew

11/03/2022

In 1936, Sylvan Goldman had a radical idea: What if he put wheels on a shopping basket?

Retail store staple. Barometer for human decency. Germ magnet. The shopping cart contains multitudes.

Retail Brew

10/20/2022

We went for a ride-along with a DHL driver to see what he thinks of their electric-vehicle fleet

Tightly packed cities are ideal for last-mile EV vehicles. In New York, DHL is all-in.

Retail Brew

10/27/2022

Why Van Leeuwen was slapped with more fines for not accepting cash than all others combined

The ice cream maker finally agrees to accept cash, but won’t say why it turned away unbanked customers for years

Retail Brew

09/29/2022

In 1953, the bread clip came along with a fresh take

For some, they just keep bread fresh. For others, they’re an obsession.

Retail Brew

How Nike got its swoosh for just $35

A college student was asked to design something that evoked movement. More than five decades later, it’s still just doing it.

Retail Brew

Hem fatale: Why some brands' resale programs don't accept clothing that's been altered

Altered items are rejected by ThredUp and by resale programs at the Gap, PacSun, and Tommy Hilfiger, but Poshmark, TheRealReal, and eBay accept them.

Retail Brew

How escalators helped retail move up

The ground floor of department stores used to be king, but the escalator ‘democratizes all levels’

Retail Brew

Are you a "circular"?

Circulars both sell and buy used clothing. A new survey suggests they’re reshaping fashion.

Retail Brew

How Bubble Wrap became a pop idol

In 1957, two engineers were trying to come up with a new type of wallpaper. And accidentally invented Bubble Wrap.

Retail Brew

Bitter sweet: Kellogg's cereals just lost a regulatory fight in the UK

Kellogg's, which pioneered foods that make health claims in the 1980s, just found itself ensnared in a UK regulation that targets unhealthy foods.

Retail Brew

07/19/2022

How the USPS's snubbing electric vehicles could collide with retailers.

The USPS appears to snub the Biden administration's climate agenda with plans to electrify only 20% of its new delivery fleet. Will carbon-reducing companies now snub the USPS?

Retail Brew

06/17/2022

How the clothes hanger found its hook

While we depend on them to prevent wrinkles, the history of clothes hangers themselves has plenty of them.

Retail Brew

05/27/2022

Why is Memorial Day so big for mattress sales?

June is often the month when many mattress companies introduce new products. And—duh!—mattresses are big, so to make room for the latest models, retailers have to clear last year’s pillowtops out of their warehouses and showrooms.

Retail Brew

05/20/2022

How an Ohio saloonkeeper came up with the cash register

Saloon owner James Ritty suspected that his bartenders were putting payments in their pockets instead of the till. Working with his brother, he invented what would become the first cash register, and making its intention to thwart sticky-fingered employees clear, Ritty called it “Ritty’s Incorruptible Cashier.”

Retail Brew

How growing a beard went from a rejection of grooming to a grooming bonanza

There’s a new drugstore category that’s really growing and, fittingly, is about really growing: beard care. It would have been a challenge to find a single beard-care product in CVS or Target a decade ago, but, in most stores today, the facially hirsute are greeted with an assortment of beard oils, balms, shampoos, and conditioners.

Retail Brew / Morning Brew

03/07/2022

The shoeless shoe store connecting e-commerce with brick-and-mortar shopping

When Eobuwie, an online footwear retailer in Poland, decided to open its first brick-and-mortar location, it made a choice that seemed more than a little counterintuitive. It didn’t put any shoes in it.

Retail Brew / Morning Brew

01/26/2022

Smell that? Scents are a key part of a store's identity, even in Covid

So many things stink about the pandemic, and one of them-thanks to more people in one household working, schooling, cooking, Pelotoning, adopting pets, and showering less-is that it really *does* stink.

Nytimes

07/15/2020

It's Long Past Time to Get That Beard Under Control

Good thing men are warming up to some new tools. Some men working from home and growing beards for the first time are coming to the realization that their facial hair is a tangle of waves and curls. But Matt Vilanova discovered how unmanageable his beard can be years ago.

Nytimes

10/01/2015

Baby-Faced Men Opt for Beard Transplants

Thanks to better procedures with more natural-looking results, beard transplants are on the rise.

New York Times

07/14/2015

Women Who Dye Their (Armpit) Hair

The Internet is up to its armpits with women who dye their armpit hair, including Miley Cyrus, who displayed her pink underarms in a photo posted on Instagram.

New York Times

06/09/2015

Sometimes, Even Women Need a Smoothly Shaved Face

More women are face-shaving, and fears that it will turn them into Zach Galifianakis are unfounded.

New York Times

04/20/2015

Shoe Polish Worthy of Wall Street

About 30 men gathered at the Wall Street Humidor, a cigar shop. They had come to shine their shoes.

New York Times

04/01/2015

Looking for Cheaper Skin-Care Products? Borrow From the Men

A couple of decades ago, men were reduced to borrowing products from women, but now the shoe is on the other well-pumiced foot.

Barron's

04/02/2015

How to Pick A Shaving Brush

Shaving brushes are soaring in popularity, part of a broader resurgence in traditional shaving practices.

New York Times

07/24/2013

For Men, a Gluteus More Maximus

Why men increasingly are getting butt-enhancement surgery and wearing shapewear.

Advertising and Media

Adweek

06/07/2015

Ain't No Topping Us Now

The hottest trend within the fast-casual segment: build your own. The format was up 22 percent in sales in 2014, compared to 11 percent for made to order.

Adweek

05/11/2015

How Mad Men, by Looking Back, Changed the Future of Advertising

It made the industry sexier, but also made us question how far we'd come

Adweek

02/24/2015

With Ebola Scare, Hand Sanitizer Cleans Up

Sales of hand sanitizer surged during the Ebola scare, increasing about 56 percent in October 2014 over the previous year. And a hand-sanitizer billboard company soared.

Adweek

02/02/2015

More and More, Marketers Venture Into Bathroom Humor

Call it progress, or clutch your pearls. Bathroom humor that would have been rejected by network standards departments in earlier eras is now sailing through-and going viral.

New York Times

11/27/2014