Enter the Timberland flagship store on Carnaby Street in London, and you may feel less like you’re shopping and more like you’ve stumbled into the new environmental exhibit, Our Future Planet, at London’s Science Museum, a few Tube stops away: Potted trees grow nearly to the ceiling. There is a living green wall, and hung in front of it is a sign that reads, “Nature Needs Heroes,” the name of a Timberland campaign that includes a pledge to plant 50 million trees all over the world by 2025.

Large glass-topped exhibit cases feature items such as soles made from recycled rubber, to highlight the environmental priorities of the brand, which has committed to having a net-positive impact on the planet by 2030.

And recently, like Timberland stores throughout the world, the flagship added receptacles for consumers to drop off used Timberland footwear, clothing, and accessories as part of its Timberloop program. As the text on the floor and the receptacle reveals, the program vows to keep the items from landfills by either repairing them (if needed) for resale, or breaking them down into their component parts for recycling.

The store, which was designed by London-based brand innovation studio Dalziel & Pow, has 2,594 square feet, and yes, plenty is dedicated to shodding the feet of customers. But it also highlights a conclusion that retailers are increasingly drawing: Stores aren’t just for displaying products.

They’re also for displaying values.

Boots on the ground

“Whether we talk to our consumers in Europe or in New York or Tokyo, they come to the store with the need to not only buy products,” Drieke Leenknegt, VP of global marketing and CMO at Timberland, told Retail Brew. “They come to the store to engage in your brand beyond product.”

Scott Denton-Cardew, principal and executive creative director of Denton Cardew Design, a creative consultancy that’s done retail-design projects for brands including Levi’s and Nike, said he recently read about the Timberloop in-store receptacle program—and was impressed.

• “No pun intended, but there’s going to be a dedicated footprint for that,” Denton-Cardew told us. “They’re going to commit to putting this [receptacle in] and saying, ‘We’re not selling you anything. This is just who we are.’”

Click here to read the full story. And check out our series on store design here.—AAN

“We’re currently living in a hellscape of availability,” according to Zoe Feldman, GM of consumer at Momofuku. And at all costs, the company wants its consumers to know what’s happening.

The Asian American food brand published a blog post in late February announcing it was raising prices—for the first time ever, Feldman said—across its CPG portfolio by at least $1. (For example, its popular Chili Crunch is now $13, up from $12.)

In the post, which was shared in its email newsletter as well, the company laid out how the increased costs of logistics, ingredients, and labor each accounted for a third of that dollar.

• The price of shipping containers from Taiwan has increased tenfold from $2,700 in 2020, it noted, while the black-truffle powder it uses in its Black Truffle Chili Crunch has reached $400/pound (causing a $3 price jump to $20 a jar).
• Both are at the highest levels the company has seen thus far, Feldman told Retail Brew.

“A lot of people don’t fully realize what goes into making consumer packaged goods products,” said Feldman, who previously focused on new ventures at Chobani and PepsiCo before joining Momofuku in October. “I’ve spent my career trying to educate people on the number of hands that touch it, the price that goes into it, the labor. Now we’re obviously living in a very extraordinary time, and it’s now more important than ever to try and get that point across.”

Steering clear: Being transparent with consumers “wasn’t a hard decision,” Feldman said, noting that breaking down the numbers made the price increase more understandable for them.

Click here to read more about how Momofuku approached its price hikes.—EC

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Val Geisler is the customer advocacy lead at Klaviyo, a data and marketing automation platform that helps entrepreneurs connect with their customers one-on-one. And before Klaviyo, she was an email marketing consultant for companies like Kettle & Fire, a bone-broth brand, and Refersion, a software firm. We’ll let her share more.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? My job is to listen to our customers every day, learn more about who they are, what they want most in the world, and how we can help them. My team and I are obsessed with improving how brands and customers connect, and digging into the best ways to use different channels to make lasting connections.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Customer interview ride-alongs—a program that allows employees outside of customer advocacy to listen in on customer interviews.

One trend you’re most excited about: There has been a lot of disruption in our space in terms of regulations on third-party data, and we are helping our customers understand what this means for them and teaching them how to build a brand that withstands customer data privacy changes. It’s so exciting to see brands figure out how they can use owned marketing to foster better relationships with their customers and grow faster in ways they can control.

Hands down, the best fast food restaurant chain is…Chipotle. I can (and do?) eat Chipotle multiple times a week, and the fact that they launched a swag store…takes their awareness of the market to the next level.

Today’s top retail reads.

Hard sell: After Etsy announced a hike in its transaction fees last month, some longtime sellers are considering a jump to competitors like Shopify. (Input)

Channel surfing: BMO Capital Markets senior analyst Simeon Siegel delves into how brands should balance DTC and wholesale. (Remarkable Retail)

Ad up: Walmart’s retail media network, Walmart Connect, helped the big-box store rake in $2.1 billion in ad revenue last year. “I know how America shops more than anybody,” said Jeff Clark, officer and VP of the service. (Marketing Brew)

Keep ’em entertained. With the Loop player, you can stream digital signage and hundreds of music and entertainment channels throughout your business. Perfect for waiting rooms, restaurants, and shops, and all you need is a TV. Oh, did we mention it’s free? Order yours today.*

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

• Why stores—like one permanent pop-up—should be designed more like Lego sets
• The shoeless shoe store connecting e-commerce with brick-and-mortar shopping
• A last-mile delivery robot company switches gears

*Note: This event is brought to you by Square.