If you were on TikTok earlier this summer, you may remember the viral video from the Debt Collective asking: “What’s a scam that’s become so normalized that we don’t even realize it’s a scam anymore?”

A stitched response from lifestyle expert Preston Konrad called out white-labeled furniture products as a scam, and pointed users to a new website called Spoken that’s helping consumers identify the deceits—the video has racked up 12.9 million views. White labeling is a practice used across categories—from furniture to food—when retailers buy the same product from a third-party manufacturer but market it with different branding, prices, and often images.

• Those elements make them hard to track, but that might be changing, as tech founder Dane Hurtubise teamed up with friend Geoff Abraham last year to introduce Spoken.

Spoken was born out of a common furniture-assembly headache: that singular, elusive missing part. While moving to a new apartment last year, Spoken co-founder and CEO Hurtubise found that the missing part of the Urban Outfitters’ Kirby coffee table ($129) he bought wasn’t actually made by Urban Outfitters, but furniture manufacturer Sauder. A Google search for Sauder brought up the same piece of furniture from Home Depot—which, at the time, was sold there for “half the cost,” Hurtubise said.

“It turned out that everything that I already bought from Urban Outfitters, I could find at Home Depot or Walmart, but it was given the manufacturer name, not the name that Urban Outfitters gave it,” he said. “And that was kind of the genesis of the whole thing.”

Third-party crasher: Spoken debuted in November with 50 items Abraham and Hurtubise found on Urban Outfitters, Hurtubise said, and listing places where consumers could find the same pieces for less $$.

• For example, the Urban Outfitters Ciara Flower Vanity Stool ($139) is sold at Bed Bath & Beyond as Leah Velvet Upholstered Vanity Stool for $135, and at Walmart under the name Linon Seraphina Vanity Stool for $119.99.

Next, it started “codebreaking,” as Hurtubise put it, to map product data across other online furniture stores, introducing 40 “shops” for popular furniture sellers like Wayfair.

Keep reading to learn more about how furniture retailers are using white labeling.—EC

On Tuesday, CNBC reported that “Starbucks has informed workers at two locations that their stores will be closing, a move that the coffee chain’s union says is retaliation for organizing efforts.”

Starting late last year, Starbucks locations made headlines after successfully voting to unionize their stores. What followed was an avalanche of unionization efforts across a variety of companies that, up until now, rarely thought unions were coming for them.

A smattering of recent union efforts:

Like Starbucks, Apple is reportedly ratcheting up its push against unionization, as a handful of locations across the country look to make it a reality. Apple retail employees in Towson, Maryland, voted in June to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

• Since then, Apple announced a 10% increase in retail pay, and the bargaining committee is getting ready to negotiate a contract, per The Verge.
• Employees at the Towson location claim Apple representatives are giving “anti-union talking points.”
• All this came after Apple workers in Atlanta withdrew their petition for an election in June.

Trader Joe’s employees at locations in Western Massachusetts and Minneapolis voted to unionize in mid-August. Woody Hoagland, who’s worked at the Hadley, Massachusetts, location for 14 years, told Vox that historically, workers were treated well, but “then it started to slowly get chipped away and it really took a pretty precipitous fall during the pandemic.”

• Some employees at the Trader Joe’s wine shop in NYC told CBS News they believe the store was abruptly shut down due to an upcoming union drive.

Keep reading here.—KM

People want to look good again. Ulta Beauty last week reported strong Q2 earnings—net sales increased 16.8% YoY to $2.3 billion while net income went up 17.8% to $295.7 million—signaling, perhaps, that consumers are ready to put their best face forward.

• All major categories exceeded the company’s expectations, as “consumer engagement with beauty remains strong, reflecting a deep, emotional connection with the category,” president Dave Kimbell told analysts Thursday.
• Ulta raised its fiscal 2022 outlook, now expecting net sales between $9.65 billion and $9.75 billion, up from $9.35 billion and $9.55 billion.

“The brand is also benefitting from a relatively strong position as physical events and work return, giving an added value and place for the products on offer,” Ethan Chernofsky, VP of marketing at Placer.ai, told Retail Brew in an email. “The combination of a strong brand, effective decision-making, and a beneficial environment all combine for a high-performing retailer that shows no signs of slowing down.”

Ulta’s strong quarter is reflected in foot traffic, as visits this year are outpacing 2021 and pre-pandemic levels, according to Placer.ai. In July, visits were up 6.6% YoY and 12.6% YoY in June.

• July visits were up 30.6% compared with July 2019, and visits in June grew 21.3% from June 2019 levels.
• Placer.ai attributes some of Ulta’s success to the “lipstick effect”—the idea that consumers will spend on small, discretionary purchases like lipstick to boost their spirits during difficult economic times.
• Ulta’s prestige and mass makeup delivered double-digit comp growth in Q2.

Keep reading here.—KM

Today’s top retail reads.

At play: The latest driver of growth for Lego is an unexpected demographic: companies and individuals bringing Legos into the office to help with “creativity, anxiety, and communication.” Lego Serious Play (LSP) is a training tool that involves asking employees to build small Lego models and explain their work. (the Wall Street Journal)

We all scream: Vermont-based ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s may have lost the bid to prevent its products from being sold in the West Bank, but the company’s political activism has taken many other forms flavors. (Quartz)

Taking names: When AriZona Iced Tea debuted in the early 1990s, the co-founder who came up with the name had never traveled west of the Mississippi. (CNN)

Consumers are likely to spend more than ever in 2022. Insider Intelligence’s team of analysts share 3 of the biggest trends in the retail industry that every commerce professional should know.

At the mall, it’s where band tees are the only tees. In Retail Brew, it’s where we invite readers to weigh in on a trending retail topic.

Rising costs have driven consumers to change how they shop beauty. Customers are not ready to toss out their empties along with their beauty aspirations; instead, they’re “trading down” to more affordably priced private-label beauty brands.

• About 6.8% of sales at Sephora came from private-label beauty, in the year ending June 2022, per 1010data.
• While overall online beauty sales at Sephora and Ulta slumped 25.5% between April and December 2020, private-label Sephora Collection and Ulta brand items rose at 0.5%.

“If you see that the shampoo…that you bought last month or three months ago went from $10 to $14, you just might say, ‘I’m trading down. Let me see what I can get in a private label,’” Marie Driscoll, managing director of luxury and retail at Coresight, told Retail Brew.

You tell us: How are you dealing with rising costs when it comes to beauty?

Circling back: Last week, we asked how rising grocery prices have impacted your dining habits. About 75% of respondents said that they were going to restaurants with the same frequency as before and weren’t impacted by the grocery prices. Over 12% of you said you ended up frequenting restaurants more often partly because of the grocery costs, and the same percentage just went to restaurants more often, but didn’t blame grocery prices for the shift.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• We went metaverse shopping, and here’s what we found
• LVMH Americas CTO on the bold “connection” strategy that will define luxury retail
• How Partake Foods recession-proofs its merchandise