Adidas' Yeezy boost, Amazon's smart carts, and Starbucks' new cups: Retail roundup
Plus, Nike’s CEO is fed up with remote work, and Best Buy's AI play
Adidas’ profit is being buoyed by its controversial Yeezy collection. Amazon $AMZN says its Dash Cart technology uses AI, not humans, to monitor shoppers. Nike $NKE’s CEO is blaming remote work for its production innovation lag.
Meanwhile, GameStop $GME is searching for its next retail and supply chain experts, and Oreo maker Mondelēz International will soon have to pay E.U. regulators a hefty fine for limiting cross-border sales.
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Adidas is on a better-than-usual run. That’s in part due to its Yeezy collection, of which it will continue to sell millions of products from this year.
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Amazon $AMZN is confident other retailers want its smart shopping technology, Dash Cart. The e-commerce giant insists the technology doesn’t spy on shoppers.
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Nike $NKE CEO John Donahoe is chalking up the company’s slowdown in new products to remote work. According to him, it’s pretty hard to build disruptive products on Zoom $ZM.
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GameStop $GME is on the hunt for retail and supply chain experts, according to the company’s CEO Ryan Cohen. There is, however, one caveat — the job’s location.
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Consumers in the U.S. appear to be scaling back on their purchases of boots — and Dr. Martens is bearing the brunt. Even with slow down, Dr. Martens isn’t planning to increase prices any further this year.
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Oreo maker Mondelēz International will soon have to pay millions to the European Union (EU) for restricting cross-border sales. Mondelēz, however, has been preparing. It said it has set aside about €340 million ($361 million) to pay the fine.
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Seafood chain Red Lobster could be preparing to file for bankruptcy soon. But those restructuring plans could change.
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Starbucks $SBUX is redesigning its cold drink plastic cups in a bid to trim its environmental footprint in half by 2030. The coffee chain said the new cups “cost less to make,” and will keep over 13.5 million pounds of plastic from being dumped at landfills each year.
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Fast food chain Bojangles is planning to expand to the West for the first time with 30 new restaurant openings in California over the next six years. The fast food chain’s expansion plans come at a time when other restaurants, such as McDonald’s and Chipotle $CMG, grapple with California’s new minimum wage hike.
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Retail company L.L. Bean is laying off customer service employees and cutting back on hours in the department as shoppers move online. The company said the workers affected will be offered severance and job transition help.
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Best Buy $BBY is planning to use AI to provide customers with a “self-service option,” when they shop on the company’s website and app, or when they call into the customer support line. The company plans to deploy it this summer.
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Rent the Runway is capturing the attention of some consumers. That’s in part thanks to AI, which has helped it style customers.