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

 spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click 

Jeff Ustin is vice president at bagel seller Western Bagel, which opened Los Angeles’s first bagel bakery in 1947.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? 

I make sure our customers have a consistently great experience—from the quality of the product to the warmth of our service—while keeping the business healthy and growing. That means leading our team, managing operations, and making decisions that connect our brand to the community in meaningful ways. At the heart of it, my job is about making sure every guest or customer leaves happier than when they came in.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? 

I’m not active on LinkedIn, but one thing you might not know is how hands-on I am with day-to-day operations. I spend time in the stores, talk with our teams, and interact directly with customers. I believe great leadership means being present where the work happens, listening to feedback, and staying connected to the people who make our success possible.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on?

 Overseeing a product refresh that balanced tradition with innovation—introducing seasonal flavors while keeping our classics exactly the same. It was exciting to see customers try something new while still coming back for the bagels they’ve loved for years. For me, it was a reminder that our products are more than food; they’re part of people’s routines, memories, and family traditions.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about right now, and why? 

The “experience-first” movement, where customers don’t just buy a product, they connect with a brand story. In food retail, that means creating moments beyond the bagel itself, like knowing they are being made fresh or sampling new creations in-store. But the real magic is in who eats the bagels—families gathering on weekends, friends catching up over breakfast, and regulars who’ve made us part of their daily routine. Those shared moments are what turn a simple bagel into a lasting memory.

I don’t drink coffee, but I do appreciate how popular our black coffee is with customers—simple, classic, and dependable. I’ve seen it bring people together at the counter in the morning, the same way a fresh bagel does.

Worst piece of advice you’ve received? 

“Just follow trends and you’ll stay ahead.” I’ve learned that chasing every trend can dilute a brand’s identity. The real key is knowing your customers, staying true to your core, and only embracing trends that genuinely align with your brand. That’s how you build trust and keep customers coming back—not because you’re chasing the latest thing, but because you consistently deliver something they value.

What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now? 

A plain bagel with cream cheese—and it still is today. It’s simple, timeless, and just as satisfying now as it was back then. I love that something so straightforward can still bring joy to people of all ages, whether they’re grabbing breakfast before school or picking up a dozen for the office.

A portrait of vice president at Western Bagel, Jeff Ustin.

Coworking with Jeff Ustin

He’s vice president at Western Bagel.

Andrew Adam Newman

 to know that grocery prices have been increasing, so it will come as no surprise that prices at US restaurants have been climbing, too.

 cold brew coffee rose 4.2% YoY, to $5.49, according to new 

 from Toast, a restaurant software platform with more than 148,000 locations. Less steep (and less steeped) was the increase for a beer, with the median price rising 2.2% to $6.47.

Moving from drinks, some median restaurant food prices for September to chew on:

 that US menu prices rose 3.7% YoY in September, slightly less than the 3.9% YoY increase in August.

 from restaurant software provider Restaurant365, 91% of restaurant executives reported that their food costs have risen this year, with 13% reporting some of their ingredients have increased by 15% or more. Nearly 80% said they expected tariffs to have an impact on their business this year.

Menu prices rising on items including cold brew, burritos, and wings 

Both Toast and the National Restaurant Association are clocking the increases.

Since TikTok Shop’s launch two years ago, brands large and small have worked to turn the platform’s 170 million U.S. users from scrollers into shoppers. Increasingly, that’s included more food brands, offering products ranging from limited-edition Doritos and trending Swedish candy to fresh halibut.

TikTok Shop continues to gain traction, with overall sales up 120% YoY, and the food category’s growth more than doubling, according to Amanda Parker, head of food at TikTok Shop. While 

 has led the way, food is the second biggest category on the platform, accounting for nearly 14% of sales, according to Capital One Shopping.

And it isn’t just a place to find smaller, digitally native brands. Big CPG players like Frito-Lay, OLLY, Cholula, and Keurig now sell on the platform, too—even grocer Lidl 

 in the UK this year—along with a slew of emerging brands, like 

While the level of brand recognition may vary, the novelty of TikTok Shop for food presents a sort of level playing field for brands on the platform as they vie for the piece of the pie.

” has emerged to denote social platforms that’ve added e-commerce capabilities, Parker refers to TikTok Shop’s experience as “discovery commerce.” Often, the platform is driving first-time purchases, and in food, products like bundles or variety packs (as seen with brands like Poppi, whose 6-pack variety pack is its only direct TikTok Shop offering), tend to do well. Some brands, like viral Swedish candy maker BonBon, offer TikTok-exclusive products. For nonexclusive items, after that initial purchase, consumers might turn to TikTok Shop just to buy the one flavor they like from the pack, or to another platform to continue buying it. In that sense, TikTok Shop is “a feeder for an omnichannel business,” Parker said.

While it started rolling out a subscribe-and-save feature earlier this year to boost repeat purchases—used by brands like Hormbles Chormbles—Parker said “it’s squarely in that discovery of commerce zone that we definitely are excelling.”

TikTok Shop utilizes what they call an ACE framework (assortment, content, and empowerment) for partnerships, but this approach differs from brand to brand. Some, like native DTC brands, want to “accelerate” what they’re already doing well, and will work with cross-functional content teams to capitalize on trends and viral moments.

“We’ve seen some that have gone from zero to wild amounts of revenue on TikTok Shop really alone, and they’ll have a very different mechanism for partnership than, let’s say, a Mars or a big CPG player,” Parker said. DTC brand EZ Bombs (which makes bath-bomb-like seasoning “bombs” for recipes like birria) was a standout on TikTok Shop and found success through live shopping, Parker noted, and has since gained distribution at retailers like Walmart, Target, and Albertsons.

Those giant players, meanwhile, approach the platform more as an “offshoot” of a larger marketing push, and will work with TikTok’s ads team, she noted. While these big CPG brands will be making the bulk of its sales in retail stores, they’re still turning to the platform to test new flavors, identify trends, and attract new shoppers. Mars’s Skittles, for example, leaned into the freeze-dried candy trend last year with Skittles Pop’d, which it launched on TikTok Shop before it hit retail shelves.

For brands both large and small, the bulk of revenue is driven by affiliates, Parker said, which ultimately “democratizes” the opportunity for brands.

“At the end of the day, you can have all the budgets in the world or all the brand recognition off platform in the world, and the reality is that a small brand like EZ Bombs may have just as much success, if not more so, than a larger brand fully based on how they lean into all of the levers we have,” she said.

 Successful products on the platform have “combination of uniqueness”—flavor, appearance, exclusivity—and categories like puffed snacks, jerky, protein bars, and, of course, Dubai chocolate, have been recent standouts. But this year, TikTok Shop has been experimenting with offering fresh and frozen perishable products as well. This summer, it 

 with Pike Place Fish Market, a Seattle-based farmers market known for its fish-slinging to 

 on its platform. The effort drew “quite a crowd,” she said.

TikTok Shop is still in the “early stages” of selling these types of products, which are currently only allowed on an invite-only basis on the platform, but as large players like Omaha Steaks have also recently joined the platform, Parker said these foods could present “interesting gifting opportunities” this holiday season.

The opportunity for food brands on TikTok Shop

Emerging brands and big CPGs are turning to the platform to boost discovery for their food and beverage products. 

From freeze-dried candy to fish: The opportunity for food brands on TikTok Shop

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.