Competition

General articles on the competitive situation and competitive forces in retail.

  1. Department & Category

Bojangles Repositions for Relevance: Mini-Meals, Snackable Dayparts, and the Rise of Interactive Eating

  At a time when traditional meal occasions continue to fragment, Bojangles is leaning into one of the most durable macro shifts in foodservice: the rise of snacking as a primary consumption behavior across all generations. With the launch of Bo’s Chicken Rippers, the brand is not simply introducing a limited-time offer—it is recalibrating its […]
5 min read
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  1. Stores & Formats

Plans For NYC-Owned Grocery Stores Take Shape

The New York Times reports that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is beginning to lay out his plans for city-owned grocery stores, looking to fulfill a core campaign promise he made during last year’s election. According to the story, Mamdani said the plan is to open all the stores before the end of his […]
5 min read
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  1. Channel: Ecommerce & Digital

Footwear Market Trends: Running Growth, Brand Share Shifts, and Changing Consumer Spend

Download our latest report to learn how shifting channel performance, evolving brand competition, and changing consumer behavior are reshaping the footwear market and what it means for growth. The footwear market is evolving, with growth patterns diverging across channels, categories, and brands. While overall category growth remains modest, in-store performance has outpaced online, and Running […]
< 1 min read
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  1. Media & Marketing

Winning in Social Commerce with Gildan’s Jason O’Toole & Katie Tripodi

The CPG Guys are joined in this episode by Jason O’Toole, Head of Connected Commerce & Media, and Katie Tripodi, Director of US Digital Merchandising and eCommerce Expansion at Gildan, a leading manufacturer of everyday basic apparel. The Company’s product offering includes activewear, underwear, socks, and intimates sold to a broad range of customers, including […]
2 min read
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  1. Department: Nonfood

TikTok Shop Pet Supplies Report: Category Growth, Subcategory Trends, and Top Brand Performance

Download our report to understand how Pet Supplies is scaling on TikTok Shop and how subcategory trends and brand dynamics are evolving. Uncover where growth is accelerating across the category. Pet Supplies is rapidly emerging as a high-growth category on TikTok Shop, with strong momentum building throughout 2025 and into early 2026. Growth is being […]
< 1 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

French Door Refrigerator Market Share Trends: Brand Shifts Across Costco, Lowe’s and Home Depot

Download our report to learn how French door refrigerator market share, brand performance, and shopper purchasing behavior are evolving across major retailers to uncover where growth is happening in the category. French door refrigerators remain a key segment within major appliances, but shifts in retailer dynamics, brand competition, and purchasing behavior are reshaping performance across […]
< 1 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

March 2026 Retail Metrics are in!

March 2026 Retail Metrics: March gave us a tale of two floors — more opportunity, but less to show for it. In mattress, traffic and prospecting surged, but conversion fell sharply as time with customers dropped, turning more conversations into missed closes. In furniture, the opposite pattern showed up — teams are converting slightly better, […]
2 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Kohl’s and Tween Apparel Trends: The Growing Role of Private Label Brands

Download our latest report to better understand where market share is shifting, how private label brands are scaling, and where shoppers are spending across the girls’ apparel market. The girls’ apparel market is evolving as younger shoppers shift toward value oriented, assortment driven, and trend responsive products across retailers. As competition intensifies, changes in market […]
< 1 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Grocery Stores Race for Relevance with Time-Starved Consumers

  Today’s consumer is not just value-driven—they are time-starved, convenience-focused, and increasingly replacing restaurant visits with retail meal solutions. This behavioral shift is forcing grocery retailers to rethink their role, moving from traditional food sellers to meal solution providers competing directly for “Share of Stomach.” Stop & Shop: Repositioning Dinner Around Convenience Stop & Shop […]
4 min read
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  1. Channel: Home Improvement

Plumbing Report: Toilets and Faucets Performance, Pricing, and Cross Purchase Trends at Home Depot and Lowe’s

Download our report to better understand how faucet and toilet sales, pricing trends, and shopper behavior are evolving at Home Depot and Lowe’s to uncover where growth is happening across the category. Faucets and toilets remain core categories within home improvement, but shifts in pricing, brand competition, and shopper purchasing behavior are changing how these […]
< 1 min read
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  1. Trends & External Forces

The Big Three PBMs’ 2026 Formulary Exclusions: MFP, Private Label Biosimilars, and Direct-to-Patient Threats for PBMs (rerun)

This week, we’re rerunning some popular posts while we prepare for Friday’s live video webinar: PBM Industry Update 2026: Trends, Challenges, and What’s Ahead. Click here to see the original post from January 2026. For 2026, the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)—Caremark (CVS Health), Express Scripts (Cigna), and Optum Rx (United Health Group)—have once […]
3 min read
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  1. Technology & Innovation

Guest Column:  Thom Blischok on “Retail Restructured”

Content Guy’s Note:  I don’t run a lot of guest columns on MNB, but when I read this LinkedIn posting from Thom Blischok, of The Dialogic Group, I decided that it was exactly the kind of piece that should be featured here – it focuses on how three major retailers are engaging in fundamental rethinking […]
3 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Grocers’ Biggest Strategic Misfire: Chasing Shelf Rent While Consumers Chase Dinner Tonight

  The data is not ambiguous—it is directional and disruptive. According to FMI – The Food Industry Association, the percentage of consumers replacing restaurant meals with deli-prepared foods jumped from 12% in 2017 to 28% in 2025. At the same time, 53% of consumers are assembling hybrid meals, blending prepared foods with items already at […]
5 min read
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  1. Trends & External Forces

The VETO Vote Wins: What Amy’s Drive Thru Closure Signals About Organic & Vegan Foodservice

  The closure of Amy’s Drive Thru—including its final unit at San Francisco International Airport—is not an indictment of organic or vegan food. It is a case study in consumer relevance, price elasticity, day-part fit, and the ultimate authority of the “consumer-facing VETO vote.” From the perspective of the Grocerant Guru®, the takeaway is clear: […]
5 min read
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  1. Department: Consumer Durables

Lululemon Athleisure Trends 2026: Slowing Growth and Footwear Expansion

Download the report to explore the latest athleisure and apparel market trends, including category performance, footwear growth, and evolving shopper behavior. The athleisure and athletic apparel market is entering a more measured phase in 2026, with shifting demand across key categories and increasing competition for consumer spend. This report analyzes recent performance trends, the role […]
< 1 min read
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  1. Merchandising

Why Retail Is Not Just Another Sales Channel (And Why Brands Fail When They Treat It That Way)

For years, commerce has been dominated by digital-first thinking. The rise of direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands promised higher margins, owned customer data, and complete control over brand storytelling. But today, that narrative is shifting. Customer acquisition costs are rising, online competition is intensifying, and many digital-native brands are hitting a growth ceiling. As a result, brick-and-mortar […]
4 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Smartwatch and Wearable Trends at Target: Brand Share, Promotions, and Shopper Demographics

Download our latest report to understand how smartwatch and wearable demand, brand share, and shopper behavior are evolving at Target. Smartwatch and wearable dynamics at Target are shifting as new entrants reshape competitive positioning and pricing strategies. Using transaction-level data across Target’s B&M and online channels, YipitData analyzes how brands are gaining and losing share, […]
< 1 min read
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  1. Trends & External Forces

CVS Tests Small Store, Rx-Only Format.  A Harbinger Of The Future?

From Forbes: “CVS Health is pushing forward with plans to open nearly 20 smaller “pharmacy-only” stores by the end of this year. “The healthcare giant Monday opened the first such pharmacy-only store this year on Chicago’s West Side where access to healthcare and pharmacy services can be a challenge. Executives said the new pharmacy will […]
2 min read
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  1. Associates & Employees

Labor Pains

There were a number of stories that were reported over the past few days that illustrate the state – and state-of-mind – of the US workforce. •  Gallup is out with a study saying that “the personal and professional environment of U.S. workers was worse at the end of 2025 than at any point in […]
4 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Easter 2026: A $25 Billion “Grocerant” Moment — What Restaurants, C-Stores, and Grocery Must Do To Win

  Easter is no longer just a holiday—it’s a high-velocity, cross-channel food commerce event. With consumers projected to spend nearly $25 billion this year, Easter 2026 represents a record-setting opportunity to capture incremental visits, increase basket size, and reinforce brand relevance across restaurant, convenience store, and grocery channels. Data released by the National Retail Federation […]
4 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Mix & Match Meal Bundling Is an Invitation to Customer Migration: Why Little Caesars’ Four-N-One Stix Signals the Next Competitive Battleground

  From the vantage point of Foodservice Solutions® in Tacoma, WA, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the fastest way to steal share in today’s foodservice landscape is not through price alone—it’s through strategic bundling that invites customer migration across dayparts, channels, and occasions. The latest move by Little Caesars—its new Four-N-One […]
4 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Descript vs Veed vs Kapwing: Who’s Winning AI Video in 2026?

By Jenny Liu, Director of Product @Yipitdata New YipitData analysis of 1,300+ mid-market and enterprise companies shows Descript widening its lead in AI video editing, driven by accelerating customer growth and a step-change in monetization. Descript is emerging as the clear leader in AI video editing — and the gap is widening. That’s the pattern […]
6 min read
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  1. Trends & External Forces

Final Talking Retail Live prize draw winner revealed

Dover retailer Sashi Saru has been named the penultimate winner of the ‘win a signed England cricket shirt’ competition being run by Talking Retail Live. Saru is assistant manager at the Whitfield Budgens store. The 2026 Talking Retail Live conference and networking event takes place… This story continues at Final Talking Retail Live prize draw […]
< 1 min read
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  1. Data & Insights

Who’s Winning in AI Video? Synthesia vs HeyGen vs Runway (2026 Data)

By Jenny Liu, Director of Product @Yipitdata New YipitData analysis of 900+ mid-market companies shows HeyGen surging in adoption, Synthesia leading in spend, and Runway dominating AI video generation. See the latest trends. Who’s gaining traction, how is monetization evolving, and where are competitive dynamics starting to take shape in the AI video market? In […]
7 min read
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  1. Channel: Restaurants

Darden Restaurants: From Dining Rooms to Doorsteps—The Strategic Evolution of Takeout, Delivery, and Bundled Meals

  Few companies illustrate the transformation of American dining habits better than Darden Restaurants. Known for powerhouse brands like Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, Darden has steadily repositioned itself from a dine-in dominant operator to a multi-channel foodservice leader where off-premise occasions drive incremental growth. The Historical Shift: From Dine-In to Off-Premise Dominance Historically, Darden’s […]
5 min read
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  1. Channel: Restaurants

Darden Restaurants: From Dining Rooms to Doorsteps—The Strategic Evolution of Takeout, Delivery, and Bundled Meals

  Few companies illustrate the transformation of American dining habits better than Darden Restaurants. Known for powerhouse brands like Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, Darden has steadily repositioned itself from a dine-in dominant operator to a multi-channel foodservice leader where off-premise occasions drive incremental growth. The Historical Shift: From Dine-In to Off-Premise Dominance Historically, Darden’s […]
5 min read
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  1. Department & Category

The Grocerant Guru® on Everytable: Why “Better-for-You” Food Is Better for Everyone

  The U.S. food industry is undergoing a structural shift. Consumers want food that is convenient, affordable, flavorful, and nutritionally responsible—all at the same time. That convergence sits directly at the heart of the Grocerant Guru® thesis: the future belongs to food retailers and restaurants that blur traditional lines and deliver ready-to-eat meals with retail […]
5 min read
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  1. Shopper & Customer

Why Local Retailers Outperform Algorithms When It Comes to Knowing Their Customers’ Needs

Digital platforms promise precision. They track clicks, monitor behavior, and categorize preferences. Algorithms now shape much of modern commerce, directing what consumers see, what products surface, and what brands rise. Yet despite this technological dominance, product discovery remains fundamentally human. Local retailers continue to outperform algorithms because they understand context. Independent store owners and staff […]
2 min read
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Editor’s Choice

  1. Trends & External Forces
  2. Shopper & Customer
  3. Technology & Innovation
  4. Trends & External Forces
  5. Associates & Employees
  6. Merchandising
  7. Stores & Formats

Walmart to Expand Digital Shelf Labels Chainwide

Walmart will deploy digital shelf labels (DSLs) chainwide this year, doubling the approximately 2,300 U.S. locations currently using the technology (Walmart U.S. operates more than 4,600 stores). With more than 120,000 items in a typical Walmart store, managing price changes manually requires significant associate hours. Additionally, these DSLs are equipped with LED lights that make […]
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