Growing up, Ayeshah Abuelhiga—a child of Asian and Middle Eastern immigrant parents—said her family “didn’t have a lot of money.” But if there was one comfort in her life, it was her parents’ carry-out restaurant in Baltimore that served a variety of soul foods.

Abuelhiga dreamed of bringing the same Southern flavors to the world through a fast-casual concept. After a successful pop-up restaurant in Washington, DC, she decided she wanted to expand her crowd-favorite biscuits and waffles to stores across the country. But one look at the modern American frozen food aisle is enough to know most items are full of preservatives and artificial flavors. It’s why in 2014, Abuelhiga decided to revamp the frozen aisle, introducing her Southern frozen treats made with clean ingredients.

“I saw a huge opportunity in the lack of comfort food options available in the growing, better-for-you food space,” Abuelhiga told Retail Brew via email. “I also saw an opportunity to make scratch-made comfort food affordable and accessible to the masses versus just doing better-for-you food in the fine dining realm by looking at the fast-casual scale and ultimately, grocery, as an even better avenue to do just that.”

Today, Mason Dixie products are available across 6,000 stores in the US, including Target, Publix, Kroger, Costco, and Whole Foods, alongside 3,000 Marriott Select Brand Hotels.

According to the company, the multimillion-dollar business has generated 87% dollar growth since 2021.

In a conversation with Retail Brew, Abuelhiga reflected on her success, and her advice to young PoC in retail.

Keep reading here.—JS

Pet tech provider Fi has a new dog collar on the market to enable dog parents to keep up with their dog’s health—including their next belly rub and location.

Fi’s new Series 3+ has been “in the works for years,” Jonathan Bensamoun, founder and CEO of Fi, told Retail Brew. “We always wanted to understand dogs better,” he added.

“Our goal is to really try to understand everything that’s happening to the dog…And everything includes any health issue,” Bensamoun said. “And with all the recent advancements in AI, we saw an opportunity to actually train machine learning models on understanding these behaviors.”

Fi’s new dog collar tracks six dog behaviors including barking, licking, scratching, eating food, and drinking water.

The new AI collar comes with a membership that costs between $14 and $16.50 per month depending on the duration of the plan. The collar was manufactured and assembled in China, and Bensamoun shared that the first shipment arrived just last week in the US: “It’s definitely more difficult to build as much inventory as we would like.”

Keep reading here.—VC

Remember malls? Those glorious, overly air-conditioned monuments to consumption where you’d fill the idle hours of youth?

Well, some of the stores you’d walk past while trading stories about algebra class drama reported earnings this week—but the results are distinctly 2025.

Everyone’s a little worried about the apparel industry right now. Retail experts expected tariffs to hit the clothing industry especially hard due to its heavy reliance on imported goods. A forecast from the Yale University Budget Lab in April estimated that consumers will face 64% higher apparel prices short term with prices staying 27% higher long term.

Meanwhile, the president of the United States Fashion Industry Association offered a blunt take on the trade war with China: “Ultimately no one wins.”

And now, we’re getting more insight into what winning looks like for the apparel industry right now. The main takeaway: “Winning” is all relative.

Keep reading here on CFO Brew.—NP