It’s been another week with far more retail news than there is time in the day. Below, we break down some things you may have missed during the week and what we’re still thinking about.
From Shopify ditching meetings to a series of layoffs at retailers, here’s our closeout for the week.
What you may have missed
Macy’s ends Pure Beauty partnership at 20 stores
Macy’s has ended its partnership with Pure Beauty in around 20 of its store locations as of Dec. 31, a spokesperson for the department store confirmed with Retail Dive.
“These decisions are always difficult, but we thank the Pure Beauty team for serving our customers and community,” the Macy’s spokesperson said.
Pure Beauty, which provides spa and beauty treatments, still lists 29 Macy’s locations on its website. The company did not respond to Retail Dive’s request for comment about the closures. Pure Beauty also lists Hudson’s Bay as a retail partner.
Tuesday Morning plans to go private
Off-price retailer Tuesday Morning in late December announced it notified the Nasdaq of its intent to delist from the stock exchange.
The company expects to have its common stock officially delisted from the stock exchange around Jan. 12
The decision is the “first step” in deregistering as a public company after facing near-term capital constraints resulting from lower-than-forecast sales, increased insurance costs and costs related to the departure of several executives in November.
“With the company’s liquidity position and the potential benefits of listing in mind, the board of directors has determined that the voluntary delisting of the company’s common stock is in the best interests of the company and its stockholders,” the company said in a press release.
Tuesday Morning believes a delisting and deregistering as a public company will yield benefits such as fundraising flexibility, lower operating costs, potentially lower regulatory and operating expenses, and a simplified corporate governance structure.
Tuesday Morning was notified earlier this year that it fell out of compliance with Nasdaq listing rules related to audit member requirements. In connection with the appointment of Andrew Berger as CEO, the company now only has two audit committee members. The Nasdaq requires a minimum of three audit committee members.
ThirdLove Leaps into Philadelphia
ThirdLove, one of the DTC lingerie brands that has siphoned share from market leader Victoria’s Secret, is making good on its renewed plans to expand its physical store fleet. The company has enlisted Leap, which works with several digital natives in developing their in-real-life footprint, to open a new location in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, a popular shopping district. ThirdLove is the only national intimates brand to open in Philadelphia aside from Victoria’s Secret, according to a Leap spokesperson.
Leap works with 60 brands in markets including New York City; Los Angeles; Chicago; Southern Florida; Dallas; Austin, Texas; Scottsdale, Arizona; the San Francisco Bay Area; Boston; Columbus, Ohio; Greenwich, Connecticut; and Washington, D.C. The firm plans more store openings for other brands in the Philadelphia area over the next 12 months, including more in the Rittenhouse area and one at the King of Prussia Mall, according to the spokesperson, who said the push into Philly is a strategic move that helps expand its presence in the Mid-Atlantic beyond Washington, D.C.
Retail therapy
Fanatics no longer a fan of NFTs
Sports company Fanatics is reportedly divesting its majority stake in non-fungible token company Candy Digital, according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC.
The 60% stake will be sold to an investor group led by crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, per CNBC.
Candy Digital was founded in 2021, and listed Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin as a “titan” who helped launch it in previous press releases. The NFT company has been deeply involved in digital collectibles for sports, landing a deal with Major League Baseball in 2021 to help build its “NFT ecosystem.”
Shopify sends meetings out the door
It’s always hard to go back to work after the holidays, but what if there were no meetings to return to? It might seem like a fantasy, but Shopify is making that a reality for employees.
According to Bloomberg, the e-commerce company is clearing out more than just its closets as it looks to start the new year fresh. Shopify is conducting a “calendar purge” and deleting all recurring meetings with more than two people in them. The company is also reminding whatever poor soul broke this rule that Wednesdays are designated no-meeting days.
Meeting with more than 50 people is also on the list of hard passes at Shopify. Those gatherings will be limited to once a week going forward. But Shopify isn’t going to be the sole arbiter of people’s time -- the company is also empowering its employees to decline invitations to other meetings.
So the next time Jeff asks to drop 30 minutes on your calendar for something that certainly doesn’t need your input, maybe take a note from Shopify and just say no.
What we’re still thinking about
18K
That’s the total number of employees being laid off at Amazon, a jump from the 10,000 reported in November. Past recruitment outlooks have led the e-commerce company to hire more than a million employees within the last five years. After an additional hiring frenzy brought on by the pandemic and increased online sales growth, Amazon is now seeking to correct its overexpansion as growth stalls. Amazon is shifting its focus to profits and refocusing on digital, with many of the layoffs coming from its retail operations.
20%
That’s another layoff number ー this time for the percentage of Stitch Fix salaried employees facing termination. This news comes at the same time CEO Elizabeth Spalding announced her departure, with founder Katrina Lake taking over in the interim as the company searches for a replacement. Spaulding replaced Lake in 2020, aiming for growth, but the company has been plagued by layoffs, challenges with its e-commerce Freestyle site and more recently, the closure of a sewing facility and an inclusive private label. The company is struggling to keep up revenue and profits, and its active customer base declined in its most recent fiscal year. The apparel subscription retailer also said it would close its Salt Lake City distribution center.
What we’re watching
Walgreens exec: ‘Maybe we cried too much’ about store theft
A year ago, Walgreens Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe blamed roving bands of thieves for what he estimated was a 52% increase in shrink over two years.
“And it's organized crime. This is not petty theft. It's not somebody who can't afford to eat tomorrow,” he said during the drugstore retailer’s Q1 earnings call in January 2022. “These are gangs that actually go in and empty our stores of beauty products. And it's a real issue …as with all of our peers, it's a real issue.”
Around that time several retailers including Walgreens complained about a rash of store theft, and called on Congress to help stymie online sales of stolen goods. Now the drugstore chain may actually scale back the level of security it had installed at its stores over the past year, in part because the “security companies are proven to be largely ineffective,” according to Kehoe. But in what could be called a win for society as a whole, Kehoe also now says that the problem itself was probably overblown.
“Maybe we cried too much last year,” he told analysts this week during the earnings call covering Walgreens’ most recent Q1.
