When revitalizing a once-beloved tween retailer that’s passed its heyday, who better to hire than a seasoned retail vet who is not only adept at youth marketing and turnarounds, but also got her ears pierced at said retailer at the age of 8?

That retailer, you might’ve guessed, is tween trinket seller Claire’s, and the hire is Michelle Goad, who led Gen Z digital innovation at Nike, served as chief digital officer at Athleta in the midst of the Gap-owned athletic wear brand’s turnaround, and most importantly, spent her childhood shopping at Claire’s.

It's the retailer’s first C-suite hire since investment firm Ames Watson bought it for $140 million following its bankruptcy filing last August. At the time, Ames Watson Co-Founder Lawrence Berger told Retail Brew the firm had a lot of changes planned for the retailer.

Nostalgia won’t be enough to bring the once-cool Claire’s back to life; it’ll have to work to gain aura points with a fresh crop of Gen Alpha shoppers. But Goad—who oversees Claire’s marketing, retail experience and design, and product creation—is poised to implement changes that’ll establish the retailer as a “life moment retail destination.”

Keep reading here.—EC

Walmart is rapidly automating its supply chain, and over the next year its investments are set to peak, as the company seeks to lower costs and expand profit margins in a competitive environment.

“We’re hitting the peak of annual spending levels on supply chain automation and store remodels,” CFO John David Rainey said in the company’s latest earnings call.

At Walmart US, 50% of e-commerce fulfillment center volume is already automated, and 60% of stores are receiving automated freight. Rival Amazon, for context, is seeking to automate 75% of its operations and replace more than half a million, according to documents obtained by the New York Times.

While Walmart didn’t pinpoint a set number of jobs it’s seeking to automate, Rainey said cutting labor costs with technology is key to the company’s future success.

Keep reading here.—AV

On Tuesday, Retail Brew is sitting down with Ethan Chernofsky, CMO of Placer.ai, a foot traffic analytics company, for a virtual interview discussing key trends influencing consumer behavior and what this means for retail strategy and performance in 2026.

Here’s what else is happening in retail this week:

In earnings: The Home Depot and Lowe’s are reporting their Q4 earnings this week. Both home improvement chains lowered their full-year outlooks in Q3 in response to macroeconomic uncertainty and pressure in the US housing market. On a positive note, Home Depot also saw a willingness among shoppers to buy costlier items, and Lowe’s beat expectations on its quarterly sales. More recently, Home Depot announced an AI-powered tool to help pro builders quickly generate project material lists, while Lowe’s released its own AI assistant, Mylow, in March 2025.

Keep reading here.—AV