Express Checkout #95 - the latest in CPG, Retail, and eComm

Hello hello!

To my fellow Jews, I hope you had a good and easy Yom Kippur fast! And if you’re looking for some fun treats (Jewish or not), I made a now semi-viral TikTok post about fun modernized Jewish foods!

@nate.rosen

Just in time for the high holidays, the nex tgeneration of Jewish food is here and I for one am very excited for it! And it soeaks to a br... See more

🎉 🎂 Next month marks two huge things for Express Checkout, 2 years and 100 issues. Which means one thing: I’ll be hosting a major celebration in NYC! Want to partner to help put this on? Email me for more info!

Also, sponsorships are open for 2025 👀. I have a new website coming (featuring more long-form editorial content), a podcast, and YouTube channel! Plus I host tons of events each quarter. Don’t miss out on the chance to partner—spots will fill up fast.

The drama around BetterBrand. For those who don’t know what happened, here’s the lowdown:

A TikToker (@kelly_morrow) posted a video about how she ordered a Better Bagel over a month ago and hadn’t heard from the company. So she went to the website…only to find that the site was down and the brand wasn’t answering emails.

This kicked off a domino effect. CPG nerds like myself (+ Snaxshot, The Information, Nosh, and many others) are still trying to piece together what in the hell is happening. Investor, retailers, vendors all come out of the woodwork claiming they haven’t heard (nor have been paid) by this company in weeks and months.

A few days pass and the founder and brand break their silence to share their side of the story, claiming a few rogue employees were supposedly stealing from the company. But they provided some hope. Apparently, their “new” 3PL partners would swoop in to save the day:

…which, as of today, is now also being brought into question:

Honestly, there’s a lot to noodle on. But as this story continues to develop, I’m focused on the capital-L lesson here—one that my friend Kendall Dickieson broke down perfectly in her newsletter.

One of the biggest takeaways? Flashy packaging and a sexy idea won’t save a bad product. In the food and beverage space, it’s essential to have a product that delivers on taste and experience. Sure, great branding might grab a consumer's attention and get you that first purchase. But if the product doesn’t live up to the hype, that’s all it will ever be—just one purchase.

It doesn’t matter how much you raise, which design agency you hire, or how much press you generate. At the end of the day, quality speaks louder than branding ever could.

🛒 CPG & Consumer Goods

• High-protein everything. Chobani launched of a new line of high-protein Greek yogurt and drinks, including yogurt cups with 20 grams of protein and drinks with 15, 20, and 30 grams of protein.

• Roger that. Bravo Sierra is relaunching its military-themed personal care brand with a new line of eight hair and skin products, supported by $2.5 million in funding. The collection features modernized packaging, elevated fragrances, and new formulations.

• Water brand gets a refreshing refresh. Open Water got a new logo, website, and packaging. This update aims to enhance their identity in the consumer packaged goods market.

  • My thoughts? It’s small…yet impactful. They already have great distribution—think: Cava, Just Salad, Chipotle—and recently became the official water the LA Clippers! The new design is more playful and welcoming to consumers trying aluminum bottles for the first time.

🛍 Retail

• Saving Saks. Authentic Brands Group and Saks Global launched a new joint venture called Authentic Luxury Group (ALG) to incubate luxury brands like Barneys New York, Judith Leiber Couture, Hervé Léger, and Vince, expanding their reach—following Saks' merger with Neiman Marcus.

  • Over the past year, Saks has reportedly fallen behind on payments to vendors, with some brands claiming they’re owed thousands of dollars.

  • This consolidation could help Saks compete more effectively in the luxury market and (hopefully) improve its financial position.

• Leaving it to IKEA. Banana Republic discontinued its furniture line just over a year since its launch, shifting focus to textiles and accessories instead. Despite initial plans to integrate home furnishings into its brand, the initiative struggled amid a challenging post-pandemic retail environment.

  • While I can’t speak to furniture’s quality, the aesthetics were definitely there:

    

• If 666 is the devils number, what’s 444? The number of underperforming 7-Eleven locations across North America that are now closing—around 3% of its total stores.

  • Despite these closures, 7-Eleven plans to continue investing in food offerings, its highest sales category.

• From retail back to DTC. The Sill, a traditionally-DTC plant company, closed its last brick-and-mortar store after a decade of physical retail to focus solely on its online business, citing the need to support product expansion and reach more customers.

• From DTC to retail. Cozey, a Montreal-based online furniture brand, opened its first U.S. showroom in Manhattan. The 12,000 sq. ft. pop-up features a variety of furniture and lighting products, and will be open until January.

• From wholesale to direct sale. Voluspa opened a new flagship store in Newport Beach, California to enhance its DTC business—which has apparently 3x in size since 2019.

• No holiday is safe! Spirit Halloween is introducing Spirit Christmas stores in 10 locations, offering holiday-themed products and experiences.

• Content is king…and Best Buy clearly gets it. They unveiled Best Buy Studios, a 70,000 sq.-ft. creative space to enable the creation of custom content more rapidly and efficiently across various channels.

• Let us bulk buy in peace. Sam's Club is opening its first all-digital store in the Dallas area, where customers will use a smartphone app called Scan & Go to make purchases without traditional checkout lines.

• …but the cashierless market’s looking bleak. Grabango, a startup focused on cashierless checkout technology, is shutting down after failing to secure necessary funding—despite previously raising over $73 million.

• Got any games on that smart-cart? Instacart launched new gamified features for its Caper Carts—including interactive quests, location-based coupons, and aisle-aware advertising—in partnership with retailers like Schnucks and Wakefern Food Corp.

🏭 Supply Chain

• Is this the future of inventory management? Dave Clark, former CEO of Amazon's consumer division and Flexport, launched a new supply chain venture called Auger—a secured a cool $100 million in seed funding. Auger aims to develop an AI-powered tool that integrates with existing inventory management systems to provide real-time insights and improve supply chain efficiency.

• From startup to food manufacturer. Voyage Foods is opening a 284,000-sq.-ft. facility in Ohio, funded in part by a $25 million USDA loan, to meet the growing demand for alternatives to chocolate affected by climate change. The plant, operational by early next year, will produce 10,000 metric tons of cocoa-free chocolate annually.

  • Voyage makes a few interesting products…that all sound like witchcraft: Peanut-free peanut butter, cocoa-free chocolate, bean-free Coffee, hazelnut-free chocolate spread.

💸 Funding news

• That’s a lot of wine. Butterfly Equity announced its $2 billion acquisition of The Duckhorn Portfolio, a leading luxury wine company in North America.

  • The wine industry is making moves lately! Just the other week I interviewed Neha Kumar, founder of Full Glass Wine.

• . The Jackfruit Company, owner of the Jack & Annie’s brand, raised a $5 million series B extension to expand its jackfruit-based meat alternatives, following a previous $23 million round.

  • The company develops products using young jackfruit, which offers a texture similar to pulled pork, and accounts for about 70% of retail jackfruit product sales in the U.S!

😋 Brands and things I’ve tried this week

Elavi recently dropped high protein brownies that are sweetened with dates and are vegan & gluten free!

Snacking noodles, AKA S’noods recently came out with its first sweet SKU: sweet kugel! They are cinnamon-y, buttery, and super crispy. I freaking love ‘em.

Now this stuff isn’t for me, but for my girly-pop Ginger! She’s been a picky eater and honestly this has been the only food she’s been enjoying lately. I’m very impressed with this stuff!

See ya next week,

Nate :)

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