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.

Retail Brew

Erin Cabrey

retailbrew.com

Valentine's Day chocolates in a store aisle 

Valentine's Day confection prices increase

Confection giants like Hershey and Mondelez continue to implement price hikes

Valentine’s Day indulgences are coming at a higher price this year

The Farm Bill's impact on retail 

 The multiyear landmark legislation for food and agriculture has governed programs and policies since 1933.

A new Farm Bill is coming this year, and it promises to impact the retail industry

Too Good to Go users have formed a community around getting the best haul for the lowest price

Consumers are using this food-waste app to cut down their food spending

Simply orange orange juice, milk, eggs, ice cream and paper towels in front of goPuff bag

Food & Bev

Andrew Adam Newman

Sure, the UK makes sodas sound fun and festive by calling them “fizzy drinks,” but new regulations aimed at reducing their consumption are no joke. New 

 on high-sugar drinks that took effect on October 8 ban both free refills and multibuy deals (like buy one, get one free) in restaurants and supermarkets.

British tabloids have shown their characteristic restraint in covering the ban, with The Sun—referring to South African grilled-chicken chain Nando’s, which is extremely popular in the UK—intoning in a 

: “FINAL STRAW: Nando’s fans devastated as chain limits Coca-Cola refills to ONE glass saying ‘we are living in the end of times.’”

Spelling out its newly tweaked free-refills policy on its 

, Nando’s explained “we can no longer offer Bottomless Coca-Cola Classic because of its high sugar content,” adding “customers are allowed one glass of Coca-Cola Classic but can still help themselves to any of our other low-sugar bottomless drinks.”

The law applies to hot drinks, too. Supermarket chain 

 posted signs in its in-store cafés: “Due to a recent change in legislation, our Hot Chocolate and Mocha are now excluded from our Free Refills offer.”

“They’ve come for the hot chocolate and mocha in Morrisons!” @BMM1882 posted on X. “Hot chocolate!”

The UK also is rolling out advertising restrictions on products that are high in fat, sugar, and salt, including banning advertising the products on television before 9 p.m. Beginning in January, the products will be fully banned from advertising online.

Meanwhile, France beat the UK to the (fruit) punch, 

Holding a cup at soft drink self service machine pouring cola at a restaurant.

England bans free refills and BOGO offers for sugary drinks

It’s part of a broader UK effort to encourage lower fat, sugar, and salt consumption.

As grocery prices soar—inflation hit a 

 in August—Giant Eagle is betting on slashed prices for essentials as a strategy to keep shoppers coming back.

The regional, family-owned grocery chain, which operates 200+ stores spanning Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, and Indiana, late last month introduced its new “Because It Matters” strategy, encompassing improvements from price cuts to fresher produce and new shopping carts.

It’s been a “big year” for the nearly 100-year-old retailer, Justin Weinstein, EVP and chief merchandising and marketing officer at Giant Eagle, told Retail Brew. The chain, headquartered outside of Pittsburgh, 

 its GetGo convenience store arm to Circle K-owner Alimentation Couche-Tard for $1.6 billion and 

 filling prescriptions for closed Rite Aid locations in Pennsylvania and Ohio with its in-store pharmacies.

“Those two things really laid the groundwork for, ‘How do we create a plan for the investment back into our business?’” he said.

With its three-pronged strategy, the grocer is investing $100 million to provide 

 for price-conscious consumers, improving product quality and service, and upgrading its in-store shopping experience. The efforts, it hopes, will combat waning loyalty as it vies with larger players for a share of 

 on its home turf from retailers like Walmart. In addition, Wegmans is 

 its first Pittsburgh-area store in 2027.

“We’re eyes wide open about the fact that our customers have a lot of choices, and people are looking to the discounters, they’re looking to the club stores,” he said. “This entire strategy is based on, ‘How do we give them more reason to put more in their basket and come to us?’”

The savings portion of the plan is divided into two efforts. The first was promotional, with a one-week $1 Deal initiative offering 1,000+ items in its stores for $1 in late September. The discounts included popular items like drinks, pasta, yogurt, and baby food. Additionally, the retailer is lowering prices across 300 staple items—with an average reduction of 17%, the company said—through the rest of the year to give customers “immediate relief from inflation.” These lowered prices span eggs ($2.99 for a dozen), Cheerios ($3.99 for 10.6 oz), and Land O Lakes butter (1 lb. for $4.99), along with products like honeycrisp apples, Idaho potatoes, Barilla pasta, Campbell’s Soup, and Oreo cookies. Several of those prices are competitive with pricing at Pittsburgh-area Walmart and Target locations, Retail Brew found.

While a rise in sales volume is a metric for success with this strategy, Weinstein said the effort is aimed at maintaining customer loyalty and attracting new customers.

“We want to be that destination through the holiday and we don’t want people to question week to week, ‘Can they get that value with Giant Eagle or not?’” Weinstein said.

While he said the grocer will continue to grow its private label assortment (and many private label items like canned beans, brown sugar, frozen vegetables, and shredded cheese are included in the lower-price effort), national brands continue to play an important role in stores. Weinstein said Giant Eagle worked “hand-in-hand” with them on these pricing and promotional shifts to prioritize what customers care about, particularly when it comes to value.

“If items ultimately are sitting at the end of that tail, we’d rather have more at a lower price of the items that customers want than the 100th item that doesn’t necessarily appeal to them,” Weinstein said, clarifying that cutting down large amounts of its assortment isn’t part of the strategy.

Giant Eagle is investing not only in lower prices, but also upping product quality and the overall in-store experience based on both customer and team member feedback.

The grocer is training more in-store butchers, bakers, cake decorators, and cheesemongers, and increasing training to improve customer service skills. It’s also reviewing the supply chain for its most perishable produce categories (e.g. berries, grapes, tomatoes, and salads) to provide more fresh options for consumers and renovating a dozen locations in Pennsylvania and Ohio, improving decor, fixtures, food cases, and store layout, and growing its prepared food section. Plus it’s replacing its metal shopping carts—which tend to “creak and crack” as shoppers roll them through the store—with all-plastic ones.

“Retail is detail,” Weinstein said. “It’s how you pull all of those things together that makes us successful.”

Giant Eagle is investing millions to cut prices and retain customers

Giant Eagle hopes its new “Because It Matters” strategy with keeping shoppers loyal as grocery competition grows. 

This regional grocer is investing millions to cut prices and retain customers

Halloween spending is set to hit an all-time record this year, and the scary-high prices across many spooky season categories could be contributing to the jump.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported Halloween spending this year is set to reach $13.1 billion, up nearly 13% from last year’s spending, with per person spending increasing ~$11 to $114.45. That increase doesn’t necessarily mean shoppers are buying more or that more of them are in the spooky spirit this year—about the same percentage of consumers (73%) plan to celebrate the holiday as last year (72%).

Most shoppers (79%) said they expected prices on Halloween items to be higher because of tariffs, per NRF. Anticipated spending on candy rose over 11% from $3.5 billion in 2024 to $3.9 billion this year, with spending on costumes and decorations up about 13% and 11%, respectively. The amount of consumers turning to discount stores for Halloween shopping (42%) is also up five percentage points from 2024.

And inflationary worries are creeping into shopping plans: A recent survey by Empower found that half of consumers are scaling back Halloween spending due to inflation—with 19% saying rising candy prices and inflation will lead them to spend less on candy.

According to Circana data shared with Retail Brew comparing year over year prices for the 34 weeks ending August 31, Halloween-related categories including chocolate and non-chocolate candy, mass cosmetics, paint and painting supplies, fabric and paint markers, and toy paints kits (including face paint) all saw price increases.

Retail Brew identified a handful of jumpscare-worthy price tags. At Target, Haribo’s Sour Bats candy saw a 15.5% price jump to $1.49 this year. Both a 18.71 oz. bag of fun-size Halloween Snickers candy and a 16.38 oz bag of assorted miniature Hershey’s chocolate soared 22% from $6.79 to $8.29 this year. Those prices are higher than the 8.1% annual rate for candy and chewing gum the Bureau of Labor Statistics most recently reported.

Even pumpkins are more expensive this year, with a weighted average price of $5.11 each compared to $4.86 last year, according to a USDA national retail report from October 3.

And some costume prices have notched up, too. The price of a Disney adult 

 Sally costume jumped from $35 to $45 (over 28%!) at Target, while all children’s costumes in Costco’s Teetot line rose 5.6% to $37.99 this year. Those too, surpass the 0.2% apparel inflation rate.

Halloween chocolate candy display at Target

Expected Halloween spending rises in tandem with inflated prices

Spending on the holiday could hit a record high this year as items like candy and costumes become more expensive. 

America’s booze cruise has entered choppy waters, with 

 of Americans in July telling Gallup they consume alcohol—the lowest since Gallup began tracking drinking behaviors in 1939.

But it’s decidedly smoother sailing for cannabis-infused beverages, with sales expected to 

 from $1.1 billion in 2024 to $1.38 billion this year, and to more than triple by 2032, to $4.19 billion, according to a report by Whitney Economics, a cannabis business consultancy.

Now 1906—the 10-year-old cannabis brand—is introducing its first beverage. But unlike popular canned flavored beverages like 

, the company is introducing 1906 Spirits, a neutral cannabis spirit meant for mixed drinks like cosmos that it’s calling “the vodka of cannabis.”

A 1.25-ounce shot contains 10 milligrams of THC, and with 5–10 milligrams being popular 

 dosages for edibles, cannabis users will have a sense of whether they want to start with a half or full shot for their maiden voyage.

It’s the first beverage for 1906, which specializes in THC tablets that contain plant extracts and claim specific effects, with product names like Bliss, Chill, and Genius.

Peter Barsoom, founder and CEO of 1906, said he’d been hoping to introduce a beverage since the brand launched in 2015.

“If you think about the three legal intoxicants or psychoactive substances that we have—nicotine, caffeine, and alcohol—two out of those three are in something that we could drink,” Barsoom told Retail Brew. “We are used to consuming psychoactive substances in a liquid format, and so the evolution into THC-based spirits is consistent with market and consumer demand.”

 as more Americans adopt a sober-curious lifestyle, but Barsoom said they may fall short for some consumers.

“Mocktails are great, but they lack the feature that we often look for in alcohol, which is, ‘I want to feel less stress, more relaxed [and a] reduction in social inhibition,’” Barsoom said.

Posts promoting 1906 Spirits on social media claim that it also spares users one of booze’s downsides: a 

The product launched in September online and in about 75 liquor stores in New Jersey, with plans to introduce it in liquor stores in other states including Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, Barsoom said.

Its THC is derived from the hemp plant, which means that because of a 

 in the 2018 farm bill, its sale and distribution do not face the same 

 of restrictions as other cannabis products.

While vodka brands gravitate to clear bottles to highlight clarity, 1906 Spirits is slightly opaque and is bottled in matte brown glass. Its design, by Joe Doucet x Partners, has a broad-shouldered silhouette reminiscent of 

While the new product is not yet served in any bars, it is Barsoom’s expectation that it will be someday, and that informed its design.

“I can’t wait for the day that it’s sitting next to a bottle of Hendrick’s” in a bar, Barsoom said. “The design inspiration definitely came from the belief that it’s got to look gorgeous behind a bar.”

Side-by-side photo of the 1906 Spirits bottle alone, and being poured into a martini glass to make a red cocktail with a lime.

1906 Spirits, the "vodka of cannabis," promises a buzz but no hangover

1906 Spirits is the first beverage from the decade-old 1906 brand.

This ‘vodka of cannabis’ promises a buzz, no hangover

Retail Brew was in Las Vegas last week, but not to gamble, see a 4D version of 

 at the Sphere, or attend the Backstreet Boys residency (they weren’t in town—we checked). We were in Sin City for Groceryshop to hear retail and CPG leaders break down the winning strategies and continuing struggles in the grocery business today. Here are the topics everyone was talking about.

The word “value” has long been used in the grocery industry, but as the topic’s meaning has shifted and risen in importance amid continued inflation and consumers’ spending constraints, the topic was especially emphasized during this year’s edition of the show.

In a session centered on “value-obsessed” shoppers, Ryan Draude, head of loyalty and digital at Giant Food, noted that value has historically centered on convenience, assortment, and being a one-stop shop, but the grocers need to pivot as customers—even those that are part of its loyalty program—are heading to different retailers to chase deals, leading to dropping sales.

In a keynote session, Joel Rampoldt, CEO of Lidl US, said consumers are more focused on value than ever before, and as a discount retailer, it’s focused on finding efficiencies to “really grind out every nickel, dime, and penny of the cost to get to the best possible value.”

,” is doubling down on more deals and sales than ever, its chief merchandising and marketing officer, Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, said. It aims to have a “sea of yellow” sale signs when customers enter the store, and customers are relying on it; growth on sale items is double that of non-sale items year over year, she said. The retailer has also been expanding its private label offerings with both conventional and organic items, to emphasize both “relative value” as well as “absolute value,” AKA, a low price point, Oblisk said.

While AI and its applications remain a buzzy topic among retailers and brands, with companies like Walmart, Colgate-Palmolive, and DoorDash eager to dig into the topic, many leaders and showgoers also showed signs of being jaded, too—a few even joked about the obligation to talk or ask about it.

“There is such a focus on AI, if you take a shot every time you hear it in this conference, you’d be drunk by 10am,” Giant’s Draude noted. While he said the grocer will be using AI-powered personalization through a new partnership with Upside, he also noted that 40% of its consumers don’t even use the Giant app, so it’s also turned to offering deals through in-store kiosks.

“Don’t try to force something that’s not meant to be,” he said.

Others touched on the importance of humans being involved in the AI process. When asked about AI, Nitin Murali, VP of supply chain excellence at Gallo, referenced the recent “

” study from Harvard Business Review and said the wine giant is “focused on human collaboration,” and that companies need to fix “human-to-human problems” before bringing in AI.

“AI is an amplifier,” he said. “It amplifies great collaboration. It amplifies bad collaboration as well. It makes bad collaboration catastrophic.”

Similarly, Sambit Dutta, VP of digital strategy and transformation at Nestlé, noted the CPG giant aims to keep “humans in the loop” when using AI, ensuring humans are ultimately the final decision-makers.

GLP-1s and their impact on retailers and brands was also mentioned across a number of sessions (including one with Danone North America CMO Linda Bethea, moderated by Retail Brew).

Joe Sta-Romana, US chief customer officer at Haleon, mentioned a successful information campaign with Walgreens that emphasized its brands like Centrum and Tums aimed specifically at the needs of GLP-1 users. Whole Foods’s Oblisk, meanwhile, said the retailer isn’t marketing directly to consumers using GLP-1s with specific campaigns or devoted in-store sections because she said it naturally (pun intended) has a focus on foods suitable for these consumers.

 emphasizing the 500+ ingredients it bans from stores with new paper bags listing them on the outside, in line with many discussions at the show that also centered

around terms like “ultra-processed foods,” the movement to remove 

 from products, and shifting consumer preferences as more shoppers scrutinize ingredient labels. While neither RFK or his 

 tied to these efforts were mentioned by name, Thrive Market CEO Nick Green alluded to a “political moment where folks are really standing up and taking a stand.”

And the closing main stage keynote featured two “better-for-you” brands, Poppi and Sweet Loren’s, with Allison Ellsworth, Poppi’s co-founder and chief brand officer, underscoring that products with a lack of artificial ingredients and dyes and lower sugar will continue to be big.

This is what everyone was talking about at Groceryshop this year

Grocery and CPG leaders hit on a number of pressing topics—sometimes a little begrudgingly—at the show in Las Vegas. 

At a campaign event last August where tables were filled with grocery items, then-candidate Donald Trump promised to 

 food prices “starting on Day One,” but more than 

 days into his second term, food prices are up all over the place.

The average price of a regular cup of coffee was up 2.9% year over year in August, to $3.52, according to new restaurant data from Toast, a digital technology platform used by about 148,000 restaurant locations. Cold brew prices rose even higher, up 4.6% YoY in August, with a median price of $5.47.

A hindrance to coffee prices coming down anytime soon may be—you’ll never guess!—Trump’s tariffs. Brazil, which accounted for 35% of US unroasted coffee imports in 2023, 

; Colombia, which accounts for 27% of coffee imports, is subject to a 

Other menu items that in August saw YoY median price increases, according to Toast:

 evaluated an August 26 cabinet meeting where Trump said that prices of “groceries are down” and “energy is way down” and ruled the statement “half-true.”

Citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s consumer price index of the period between December 2024 and July 2025, Politifact noted that the price of eggs, which had previously shot up because of a bird-flu outbreak, had fallen by about 13%. The price of bread fell by 3.2% and vegetables by 0.7%, according to the data.

But overall, food and beverage prices rose 1.5% over the period, Poltifact reported, including ground beef (up 11.6%), coffee (up 11.3%), sugar and sweets (up 3.7%), and bacon (up 2.9%).

Americans are not just concerned about grocery prices but 

 from the Associated Press and the University of Chicago’s NORC, a nonpartisan research institute.

Among US adults, 53% said the cost of groceries were “a major source of stress” and 33% said they were “a minor source,” according to a survey conducted in July. Only 14% responded that grocery prices were not a source of stress.

It’s worst, naturally, for poor Americans, with 64% of those with household incomes under $30,000 saying groceries are a “major” stressor.

Change purse with a receipt coming out of it

Food prices climb at restaurants and supermarkets

Cost of groceries “a major source of stress” for 53% in the US, poll finds. 

CPGs may have some commitment issues, because it’s suddenly splitsville for a number of food and bev giants.

 its 10-year relationship is dunzo, splitting up barbecue sweethearts Heinz ketchup and Oscar Mayer, among others, into two separate companies.

The conscious uncoupling is the latest in a string of recently announced spinoffs across major CPGs that includes Keurig Dr Pepper and Unilever, and follows the Kellogg Company’s separation in 2023. The spinoff strategy isn’t necessarily new—if you look through Kraft Heinz’s family tree, you’ll see it was created through a previous spinoff that ultimately created Mondelez—but it’s one that’s recently been picking up steam.

The volume of spin-offs might be making your head spin, so we’re breaking down the breakups—what’s going on, why they’re happening, and if we can expect even more CPGs to part ways next.

Over the past few years, many CPGs have broken up on largely similar grounds (no, not irreconcilable differences).

Earlier this month, Kraft Heinz said it’s splitting into one company focusing on sauces, spread, seasonings, and shelf-stable meals like Heinz ketchup and Kraft Mac & Cheese, and another on grocery staples like Kraft Singles and Oscar Mayer. The move, the company said, will help “more effectively deploy resources” between the more high-growth sauces and slower-growth grocery categories.

The recently announced split comes a decade after Kraft Heinz was created through a merger between H.J. Heinz Company and Kraft Foods Group (the latter of which was formed after Kraft Foods 

 its snack unit in 2011 to become Mondelez when its growth was being hampered by its grocery biz). The 2015 merger’s goals were essentially the exact opposite of its recent breakup—promoting “synergies” and “increased scale” by combining, the company said in a statement at the time—but that move “didn’t turn out to be a brilliant idea,” investor Warren Buffett 

The Kraft Heinz split is the latest in a series of CPG divorces. Last month, beverage giant Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) shared its plans to buy Maxwell House owner JDE Peet’s for ~$18 billion and subsequently split itself in two, with one centered around North American beverages and one on global coffee. Similar to Kraft Heinz, KDP said the move will help its portfolio brands “win in their respective markets by leveraging operating models optimized to unique category dynamics” and is also set to untangle a recently formed tie-up, as Dr Pepper Snapple and Keurig Green Mountain merged to create KDP in 2018.

And last year, Unilever said it’ll spin off its ice cream business to become The Magnum Ice Cream Company, stating that the category has a “a very different operating model” than others in its portfolio, like Hellmann’s to Dove. (Unilever-owned Ben and Jerry’s, meanwhile, has been 

Then, of course, there’s Kellogg Company. In 2023, it broke into Kellanova, encompassing snacking, international cereal, and frozen foods (bought by Mars last year), and WK Kellogg Co, a cereal company that Ferrero said this summer it plans to acquire. CEO Steve Cahillane 

 at the time the split was intended to keep categories like its “high-growth” snack biz from competing for resources with its cereal biz, much like KDP and Kraft Heinz.

 According to Stephen Zagor, a Columbia University business school professor with a focus on food businesses and restaurants, the spinoff strategy is “accelerating” as CPGs face a flurry of headwinds. Consumers are becoming more judicious. As inflation soars, the grocery store is a “battleground of pricing,” he said. At the same time, younger shoppers are turning away from processed foods offered by many big CPGs, opting for healthier options and interesting flavors.

All these shifts have required CPGs to do something a bit more “drastic” than divesting a brand here or adding a new product there, Zagor said. Now, a “new strategy of appearing small but being big” has emerged, he added, as major CPGs are stepping back to take a look at their portfolios and realizing the potential of breaking down into smaller parts (smaller, in this context, still means multi-billions in net sales, of course).

“It’s hard when you’ve got 200 products to treat each product like a total entrepreneurial business and have all of the resources, the financial and all the things required to make it work well together under a large culture,” Zagor said. Now, they can separate the trendy or profitable segments from ones that might be harder to grow, and even open themselves up to more noteworthy acquisitions.

 “I definitely think every major CPG company is looking at Kraft Heinz,” Zagor said. “If they haven’t already thought about breaking or divesting or we’re getting rid of, I’m sure they are [now].”