Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know
Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.
Happy Halloween Eve, everyone. For those of you who won costume contests this weekend, we hope your hangover and Sunday scaries weren’t too bad. For those who saved their couple costumes for tomorrow, remember, all kids want is the big candy bar, and they don’t like to wear jackets over their costumes. We hope this helps.
Let’s get into what’s going on this week in retail.
In events: Apple’s looking to hit us with a jump scare tonight at 8pm EST during its “Scary Fast” event on the company’s website and YouTube channel. It’s not entirely clear what it will entail, but some speculate that Apple could reveal new products including a 24-inch iMac and new MacBook Pro.
- Bloomberg reported last week that new iMacs and MacBook Pros have been in the works for awhile now, and it’s been 30 months since the last iMac came out.
On Thursday, Apple will also reveal its Q3 earnings. Bloomberg reported that iPhone 15 sales, particularly in China, have not met expectations, coming in 4.5% lower than the iPhone 14 in the first 17 days of release.
In earnings: CVS will release its Q3 earnings report on Wednesday, which comes in the midst of an ongoing downsizing; in 2021, the company announced it would close 900 stores by 2024 as part of a new “retail footprint strategy.”
- CVS is hardly the only pharmacy taking such measures. Rite-Aid and Walgreens are also slimming down their physical footprints in the face of heightened competition from Amazon and pharmacies at big box chains, CNN reported.
- Pharmacies have struggled in recent years. Some have pivoted into healthcare services. Earlier this year, CVS acquired Oak Street Health and Signify Health, and Walgreens recently brought on a new CEO whose background is in healthcare services.
- For what it’s worth, CVS’s Q2 earnings in August beat Wall Street’s expectations, as the company had undertaken other cost-cutting measures, including laying off 5,000 employees.