Express Checkout #118

Hello hello!

Another crazy week ahead of us! I’m currently in Las Vegas for Shoptalk Spring 2025!! I’ll be soaking up all the retail knowledge and sharing the highlights here and on my socials. 🫡

If you’re at Shoptalk too, I’d love to say hi—reply to this email to plan a meet-up!

🚨 cool (paid) opportunity for brands 🚨

My friend helps brands integrate into and around TV shows, films, and IP through product placement, partnerships, and content—and currently is seeking brands for a unique opportunity:

In May, they’re shooting for a new fitness show on Amazon Prime (to air globally in Q4 2025 or Q1 2026) and are looking for fitness apparel companies, BFY foods, and supplement companies!

Reply here or email me [email protected] to get connected!

News From the Week

Remember Edible Arrangements, those chocolate-dipped fruit bouquets you likely associate with either funerals or Mother’s Day? Well, they just took a hard pivot and launched Edibles.com—a marketplace for hemp-derived THC products.

The full scoop:

• Edible Brands officially launched Edibles.com on March 20th (a month early?), starting in Texas with plans to rapidly expand to Florida, Georgia, and other Southeastern markets

• They're partnering with established cannabis brands like Cann, Wana, and 1906 to offer THC-infused drinks, gummies, and wellness products

• The company is leveraging its existing franchise system to offer same-day or next-day delivery

• A flagship brick-and-mortar store in Atlanta will serve as a prototype for future franchise locations!

The bigger THC picture:

This launch is just one more sign that THC is going fully mainstream in CPG. The floodgates are opening:

• DoorDash recently expanded to include hemp-derived THC products in select states.

• The cannabis beverage market alone is projected to hit $2.8 billion by 2025, growing at almost 18% annually.

• Major beverage players are all in—Heineken's Lagunitas already has THC-infused drinks, while Constellation Brands (Corona) has invested heavily in cannabis.

So how is this like….legal? We thought the same thing. Turns out, the 2018 Farm Bill created a clever loophole: products are legal if they contain less than 0.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight and come from hemp.

• By making edibles large enough, companies can include effective THC doses while technically staying under this threshold.

• This has created a booming gray-area market that regulators have largely left alone.

Our take? This is a smart move. Edible Brands is embracing a joke that's followed them for years ("No, not THOSE kinds of edibles"), while tapping into a market that's exploding right now. They're bringing their trusted reputation, delivery infrastructure, and retail expertise to an industry that desperately needs more legitimate players.

And let's be honest—we all kinda saw this coming when they dropped "Arrangements" from their name in 2023, right?

CPG & Consumer Goods

• Time for Ben & Jerry to take back the reins. Ben & Jerry's is suing its parent company Unilever, claiming that CEO David Stever was unlawfully fired in retaliation for the company's political activism (regarding support for Palestinian refugees).

  • The lawsuit alleges that Unilever violated a merger agreement by failing to consult with the independent board before removing Stever and has attempted to censor the company's social media activity—Unilever denies these claims.

• The lemonade stand → spiked bev pipeline. Coca Cola’s Minute Maid—the star of every 2000s lemonade stand—just launched Spiked Vodka Punch in four flavors and a Pink Lemonade variant, following the success of their wine-based cocktails released in 2023.

  • They're following in the footsteps of other popular beverage brands that have launched alcoholic versions, including Sprite, 7UP, Ocean Spray, Welch's, and SunnyD.

  • This continues Coca-Cola's expansion into alcohol through strategic partnerships—like Topo Chico Hard Seltzer and Simply Spiked (Molson Coors), Fresca Mixed (Constellation), and Jack Daniel's & Coke (Brown-Forman)—through its Red Tree Beverages subsidiary to contract with established alcohol producers rather than producing in-house.

• Bad day to be a beef stick. A voluntary recall has been issued for ~30,000 pounds of Chomps Original Beef Stick Mild due to the potential presence of…metal fragments. 😳

  • Chomps has benefitted from being perceived as a “natural” on-the-go alternative to protein bars, making it an influencer fave. But when literal metal enters the most “whole-ingredient” option, it’s worth asking: is it the food processing itself that's the problem, regardless of how "clean" the ingredient list appears?

• From the streets of NYC to your local grocery store. Zucker's Bagels is launching their first retail product, Par Baked Frozen Bagels, available in Plain, Sesame, and Everything varieties. A portion of sales will benefit The Bowery Mission to help combat hunger in NYC.

• The world needs more delis! Manischewitz is launching its first-ever "Deli on Wheels," a mobile Jewish deli that will serve classic Jewish cuisine year-round, debuting on March 27th just before Passover. The food truck will offer free samples and a menu featuring traditional favorites like matzo ball soup and all-beef hot dogs, aiming to make Jewish foods more accessible and engage a broader audience.

  • What a great way to engage with a larger audience and share the rebrand and amazing products that Manischewitz's offers! If you want to learn more about their amazing rebrand read our deep dive here!

• Pennies for a billion-dollar brand. Poppi reached a proposed settlement of $8.9 million with a class action group of consumers who claimed they were misled by the company's gut health assertions.

  • The settlement, which Poppi does not admit fault for, will provide compensation to U.S. customers who purchased the product between January 2020 and the notice date.

  • Now, Poppi (/Pepsi?) plans to shift its focus from gut health claims to promoting its soda as a lifestyle alternative.

• Influencer brands are still roaring. TikTok beauty influencer Mikayla Nogueira is launching her cosmetics brand, Point of View Beauty, on March 26, backed by Imaginary Ventures.

  • The brand will offer a five-product range focused on makeup preparation (AKA products that help your skin look flawless before applying makeup—think serums, primers, moisturizers).

• Another chain restaurant goes CPG. Popeyes launched its most popular sauces, including Blackened Ranch, Sweet Heat, and Mardi Gras Mustard into grocery stores nationwide.

  • Similar brands, including Panera, Nando’s, and of course Chick-Fil-A, have successfully launched CPG versions of their fan-fave condiments and seen great success.

• One of the cleanest celeb brands. Courteney Cox's personal care brand, Homecourt, is expanding into the laundry product market with a range of items such as laundry concentrate, linen spray, and fragrance oil, all available in signature scents.

eCommerce

• Your new personal (grocery) shopper. Instacart introduced new AI-powered tools to enhance grocery personalization by better predicting customers’ dietary needs and refining product recommendations:

  • Smart Shop tailors shopping experiences, while the new Health Tag system allows users to filter products based on specific dietary preferences.

• Capitalizing on the $32 billion creator economy. Best Buy is launching an influencer program that allows creators to build their own branded digital storefronts, like Amazon.

Retail

• Baby boom. 🍼 Target is enhancing its baby aisles by introducing new brands, including the premium baby brand Lalo.

  • This move aims to attract more Gen-Z and millennial parents, by providing a curated in-store experience and a wider selection of baby products.

• Gen AI for merchants. Walmart launched Wally, a generative AI tool for merchants, which automates data entry, analysis, and operational queries. The tool aims to enhance product performance understanding and allow merchants to focus on more strategic tasks.

• Why am I not surprised… Amazon Fresh is closing two of its locations in Thousand Oaks, California, and Manassas, Virginia.

  • This news comes as the company plans to open new stores—remaining committed to its brick-and-mortar grocery expansion.

Supply Chain

• Same-day or bust. Target and Walmart are heavily investing in supply chain technology to enhance their delivery capabilities, expanding same-day delivery options and improving inventory management. This arms race for faster and more reliable delivery has become crucial for maintaining customer loyalty in a competitive landscape.

• Canada launched a $3 million program to support domestic ingredient manufacturers and food processors in adapting to changing trade dynamics with the U.S.

  • The initiative aims to encourage the reformulation of products using Canadian-grown ingredients and offers reimbursement for eligible project costs.

Funding news

• There’s serious money in food distro tech. GrubMarket raised $50 million in a Series G funding round, achieving a valuation of over $3.5 billion as it aims to enhance its AI technology for the food distribution industry.

  • Despite economic uncertainties, GrubMarket is on track for $2.4 billion in revenue this year and is expanding its operations internationally.

• The Kardashian Empire grows. Skims acquired Skkn by Kim from Kim Kardashian and Coty, transferring both Kardashian's 80% stake and Coty's 20% stake to Skims.

  • This acquisition aims to expand Skims into beauty, skincare, and fragrance by 2026.

• Back to focusing on Bed Bath & Beyond? Beyond, Inc. (the new name of Overstock.com, owners of Bed Bath & Beyond) announced the sale of a 75% stake in its Zulily brand to Lyons Trading Company the operator of leading online off-price retailer Proozy.com, for ~$6.7 million.

• A winning week for plant-based alts:

  • New Culture, an animal-free dairy company, secured $5 million in initial demand for its precision fermentation animal-free mozzarella from pizza chefs and restaurant operators.

  • Savor introduced a novel butter alternative made using a thermochemical process that combines carbon and hydrogen.

    • With $33 million in funding, Savor aims to revolutionize the production of animal-equivalent fats at its pilot facility in Illinois.

• Nice guys secure funding first? GoodSam Foods, a regenerative food company focused on cocoa products, raised $9 million in Series A funding to expand its team and product lines while supporting smallholder and indigenous farmers.

Weekly Pickups

The incredible team at Experiment launched their latest product, Molecular Mesh. It, like all their other products, is absolutely incredible and effective. I literally use every single one of their products. Super Saturated is my favorite though, I subscribe!

@nate.rosen

Congrats @Experiment Beauty and my friend @Lisa on the launch of Molecular Mesh!!! Add to the lineup of already incredible products!

Jeni’s Ice cream is coming in hot with some seriously tasty line of spring ice creams and bars!! (All of which I tried at 9am…)

I love the Tropical Bloom, tasted like an elevated Baskin-Robbins Rainbow Sherbet!! And their churro bar, insane! These should be available very soon!!

See ya next week!

Nate + Jenna :)

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