Retail Brew // Morning Brew // Update

April 09, 2025

Hi hi. In an effort to appeal to Gen Z’s desire for a little sweet treat, Cinnabon this week announced a new store in collaboration with sister brand Carvel called Cinnabon Swirl, serving up offerings like an ice cream sandwich featuring panini-press Cinnabon buns. Oh man, you know what they say: Never write a newsletter hungry.

In today’s edition:

—Andrew Adam Newman, Alex Vuocolo, Erin Cabrey

SUPPLY CHAIN

Make or break

An open egg carton box with its lid open and containing a dozen brown eggs.

Miguel Alvarez/Getty Images

There’s a lot to worry about eggs these days. Will prices, which reached an all-time high in February, continue to drop? Will restaurant chains like Denny’s and Waffle House reverse their egg surcharges on menu items? And will thrifty celebrants resort to dyeing and hiding potatoes this Easter?

But here’s one thing we don’t have to worry about as much as our forbearers did: a dozen white jumbos breaking on the way home from the grocery store.

So ubiquitous are egg cartons that they don’t come in for much glory. And yet they are a marvel of form and function, keeping products as delicate as porcelain teacups safe on long hauls and short Trader Joe’s runs, with no tissue or bubble wrap, only ingeniously designed cardboard or plastic.

“As food packaging has become more sophisticated—from aseptic linings in cartons of milk to vacuum-packed fish—the humble egg carton has changed little,” noted the BBC. “Shock absorbing and cheap to produce, the carton has also become a signifier for what it contains—you don’t need to see the eggs to know what it contains.”

But before the cartons became commonplace, figuring out how to ship eggs without breaking many of them was an obsession for farmers and grocers. And it was a challenge for inventors who, iteratively and incrementally, arrived at the carton design that’s so familiar today.

Keep reading here.—AAN

From The Crew

Investing news, Brew style

From Reddit rebellions to AI revolutions, the rise of the Magnificent 7, and the fall of NFTs, investing is changing dramatically. Each weekday afternoon, Brew Markets helps you make sense of it all. Read about the latest market news and analysis of the trends shaping the investing landscape—with a dash of the classic Brew style you know and love. Subscribe now.

RETAIL

Not so fast

Thanasis/Getty Images

The fast fashion industry is facing a triple threat from tariffs, the end of the de minimis loophole, and an ongoing shift by consumers to secondhand markets, according to LVK Logistics CEO Maggie Barnett.

In a LinkedIn post, Barnett wrote that “leveraging the de minimis for the 20%–35% cost savings that fast fashion relied on has evaporated, making ultra-cheap, high-volume fashion financially unsustainable.”

The way forward, she argued, is for brands to diversify their supply chain outside China and Vietnam, shift their assortment to more “timeless basics” as opposed to trend-driven “fast elements,” and implement “pre-sale models” that “validate demand before production.”

“The brands that will thrive in this new era will be those rethinking their entire approach to inventory,” she wrote. “When 76% of Americans anticipate making changes to their shopping habits in response to tariffs, the old model of overproduction and discounting is financially unsustainable.”

Barnett elaborated on her thinking in an interview with Retail Brew.

Keep reading here.—AV

COMMUNITY

Coworking with Cleo Davis-Urman

Cleo Davis-Urman

On Wednesdays, we ~~wear pink~~ spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Cleo Davis-Urman is co-founder and CEO of vitamin and adaptogen patch brand Barrière.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? The role and responsibilities of building a brand and running a DTC business are probably the same as running any business, regardless of the category. A business owner is responsible for the overall direction, growth, and daily operations of a company, including setting strategy, managing finances, overseeing marketing, customer service, and product development—all while aiming to achieve the business’s goals. I wear many hats, and no two days are the same, but on any given day I am creating and implementing marketing strategies, managing our customer care and loyalty programs, forging partnerships with creators and brands, pitching our products to wholesale partners and distributors, and developing new products.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? That I’m customer care!

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Building Barrière and formulating/launching our patented vitamin patches has definitely been the most challenging and rewarding project I’ve worked on so far, especially because I had a personal reason for developing our patches! A standard blood panel revealed that I had dangerously low levels of iron and B12 even though I had been taking oral supplements with those very ingredients from a trusted vitamin brand. To raise my levels, I was treated with an iron transfusion and went to a hospital for weekly B12 injections, a process that was painful, time-consuming, and cost-prohibitive, so I was eager to find a different solution.

Keep reading here.—EC

Together With Global Payments

What’s trending + what’s ending. Global Payments’ 2025 Commerce and Payment Trends Report has rounded up 6 key trends for business leaders to peep. From brick-and-mortar to social media, this report highlights a wide variety of growing opportunities retailers can get in on now. Give it a read. PS: It’s free.

SWAPPING SKUS

Today’s top retail reads.

Suit yourself: The Retail Industry Leaders Association has chosen not to proceed with a potential lawsuit targeting President Trump’s authority to impose trade tariffs. (Bloomberg)

Eating the cost: Stew Leonard Jr., CEO of grocery chain Stew Leonard’s, said the company is in a “wait and see mode” when it comes to price increases. (ABC News)

Guardian angels: Victoria’s Secret CEO Hillary Super has named three new brand presidents leading the Victoria’s Secret brand, Pink, and beauty. (WWD)

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