Editor’s note: We’re rerunning stories this week from our yearlong Quarter Century Project, in which we examined the last 25 years in retail.

As the last century was winding down, the notion of buying and selling used items on the internet was just beginning to take hold, with the introduction of both eBay and Craigslist in 1995.

By today’s standards, however, recommerce was a byzantine process. To list an item, sellers had to take photos on digital cameras, then transfer the photos to their computers via SD cards or USB; to buy something, purchasers would have to both park themselves at a computer and be somewhere with Wi-Fi, perhaps at one of those Internet cafés that started popping up in the mid-’90s.

With a new century, however, came swift and dramatic improvements to mobile and e-commerce technology that would transform the resale market.

Keep reading here.—AAN

When Will Haire, CEO and founder of BellaVix, an agency that works with Amazon sellers, toured Amazon’s Las Vegas warehouse facility in March this year, he was impressed by the operation that employed 6,000 workers. In addition to the workers, a packaging machine that was boxing and taping the items that travel on the conveyor belt caught Haire’s attention because it was super fast.

“It’s insane how efficient it is with the robotics, and how they preserve privacy and maintain anti-theft [measures],” he said. “This obviously came with years of making mistakes and learning, but they’re going to be the world’s largest logistics company.”

The technology piece of logistics is possibly what Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos had in mind when he decided to launch Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), which he described as—a set of web services that turned Amazon’s fulfillment center network into a giant computer device. “Pay us 45 cents per month per cubic foot of fulfillment center space, and you can stow your products in our network,” Bezos wrote in a letter to shareholders in 2006. Amazon’s FBA is a characteristic story of the 21st century because of its technology.

Keep reading here.—VC

We asked our reporters, who play so well with others, to choose a favorite story from 2025 by a Retail Brew colleague.

In 2025, it was hard to write an article about retail without at some point talking about tariffs. But with so many reporters circling around the topic, it was hard to find a new angle or uncover new information.

That’s exactly what Retail Brew’s Erin Cabrey did with her piece on how retailers were seeking more flexibility in their pricing practices—even going so far as to change the physical price tag on products.

As the article explains, most products are “ticketed” with a price tag by the manufacturer, meaning pricing decisions are happening months before they land on shelves. This status quo made it difficult for retailers to rapidly adjust their prices in response to tariffs, which led some to explore alternatives like waiting to ticket items until they arrive in the US or forgoing on-garment ticketing entirely and relying on signage instead.

Jacqueline Martinez, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group and former VP of pricing and promotions at Michaels and Pier 1 Imports, told Erin:

“Retailers—especially ones that care deeply about how they’re perceived on value—are going to want to make sure their customers see them as being transparent, fair, and honest about the pricing,” she said, but if “uncertainty continues for another year,” retailers may change their tune and invest more in solutions that allow for pricing agility.

Another more controversial alternative came up in a piece Erin wrote—which I imagine inspired this excellent follow-up—exploring allegations shared on social media that Walmart and Target were asking employees to tear prices off tags.

Read the original story: As tariff impact hits, retailers are shifting pricing strategies—down to the tag—AV

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