Are hotels the new department stores? Well, maybe not just yet, but they’re definitely filling a gap that luxury retail left behind.

As traditional department stores struggle with foot traffic and bankruptcies, hotels—already built around experience—are emerging as a more natural home for discovery-driven retail.

Just ask Elyce Arons, CEO and co-founder of luxury fashion label Frances Valentine, which has launched a capsule collection in collaboration with The Colony Hotel, a historic establishment in Miami.

In its first-ever collaboration with a hotel, the brand has introduced a range of caftans, tote bags, accessories, and T-shirts featuring embroidery and motifs reminiscent of both brands.

For Arons, a longtime customer of the hotel, the partnership happened “organically” over the past year.

“The Colony is a great place for us; Palm Beach is a great place for us,” Arons told Retail Brew. “Because we started with caftans, and we use a lot of bright colors and big, beautiful prints, [people] associate us with resort and with vacation.”

Arons believes the collaboration is a fun way to connect both with the brand’s existing customers and also guests at the hotel.

Keep reading here.—JS

Dollar General, the ubiquitous discount chain with more than 20,000 locations across the US, is getting a new head honcho at the start of 2027. The company announced on Tuesday that CEO Todd Vasos will serve out the rest of the year and then step aside for outside hire and grocery industry veteran JJ Fleeman Jr.

Vasos was a longtime Dollar General employee with a background in drug stores, while Fleeman has spent the last 36 years at global grocery chain Ahold Delhaize, which owns US supermarket chains Food Lion, Giant, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop.

Keep reading here.—AV

More than half (52%) of 7- to 14-year-olds report having added items to shared online shopping carts, and a quarter have independently ordered from food apps, according to a new report on Generation Alpha from PwC.

The report christens Gen Alpha “the youngest chief influence officers” and describes them as having been “born with the buy button at their fingertips.” The online survey polled 1,004 kids aged 7–14 in January and February.

While Gen Z, the next oldest generational cohort, are often dubbed digital natives, the report notes that Gen Alpha spent “their earliest years,” during the Covid pandemic, “going to school on screens,” and may be even more immersed in technology.

Keep reading here.—AAN

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shout-out from your boss. It’s that satisfying.