Retail Brew // Morning Brew // Update

May 20, 2026

Hi there. The retail world has lost an iconic inventor: Greg Hyman, co-creator of Tickle Me Elmo, died this month at the age of 78, the New York Times reported yesterday. With the giggling plush doll, Hyman created a retail phenomenon in 1996, with frenzied holiday shopping and even black market sales, revealing a version of chaotic consumerism that continues to be alive and well today—most recently in the form of the Labubu craze.

In today’s edition:

—Andrew Adam Newman, Kristina Monllos, Erin Cabrey

MARKETING

Cap on keeping on

Bar Keeper’s Friend

It would be hard to overstate the ardor Reddit users display for Bar Keeper’s Friend, the 144-year-old cleanser brand. Subreddits including r/CleaningTips, r/cookware, and r/StainlessSteelCooking, are effusive about the abrasive, with users posting before-and-after photos of pans, sinks, and candlesticks that have been transformed from unsightly to gleaming with a couple shakes of the stuff and a bit of elbow grease.

But the Reddit community has been decidedly less impressed with the product’s packaging, the composite paperboard can with a shaker-top also used by old-school cleanser counterparts Ajax, Comet and Bon Ami. Its container has no lid, meaning that once users peel the sticker off the top, there’s nothing to prevent the product from spilling out if the can is knocked over or, in especially humid climates, from the powder occasionally clumping.

The primary reason the product is lidless is cost, Felicia Zhang, head of marketing at Bar Keeper’s Friend, told Retail Brew. The product, she said, retails for “under $3 at most places” (including Walmart and The Home Depot as of this writing), and a lid would add to the cost. Also, while the brand puts its soft cleanser in plastic bottles, the package for its original product is plastic-free, and the brand wanted to keep it that way.

“We’re very conscious of that particular SKU not having any plastic,” Zhang said, adding the flagship product is “our largest selling SKU, and we want it to be something that would be good environmentally.”

Keep reading here.—AAN

Sponsored By The Ibotta Performance Network

Summer spendin’, happened so fast

It might not feel like summer weather just yet, but try telling your wallet that. The summer shopping season has already started, and the way shoppers are spending their hard-earned dollars is changing big-time.

Ibotta’s got all the deets in their data deep dive on the summer spend shift. We’ve got a sneak peek of the stats just for you:

Convenience-drive categories like frozen meals, snacks, and refrigerated ready-made meals are down an average of 9.25% in daily purchases.
Shoppers are taking fewer trips this year, with 68% of them citing cost as the reason for going on vacation less frequently.
Seasonal categories are growing organically, with sunscreen and tanning rising at 16.8% weekly.

See where dollars are going this summer.

FOOD & BEV

Can do

Heineken

It’s always been hard to break the ice with a stranger. It’s a little easier when there’s common ground—like a shared hobby, interest, or cultural taste.

That’s the thinking powering The Clinker, a smart band that wraps around Heineken beer cans and bottles and alerts drinkers to shared interests when they tap their cans together. The beer brand debuted the technology last month at Coachella, where attendees who signed up and synced their music streaming data could, if they toasted other festivalgoers, find attendees with similar music tastes. The company plans to use it at other festivals and experiential activations around the globe this year.

The initiative marks the latest effort in Heineken’s push for in-person connection in marketing communications.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—KM

COMMUNITY

Coworking with Frasier Neil

Frasier Neil

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

Frasier Neil is chief sales officer at smart cart platform Cust2Mate, deployed by retailers like Morton Williams and Carrefour.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I help retailers make shopping faster and less frustrating. Most stores still have small friction points, such as locating items, queuing, and checking out. These add up. My job is to work with retailers on how to remove these pain points in a way that actually translates in real life, not just in a demo.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? You wouldn’t guess how much of my position involves psychology. A big part of my role is understanding how shoppers behave in store, what frustrates them, what they ignore, and then translating that into something retailers can act on. It is less about selling a product and more about providing retailers with solutions that enhance the customer experience.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? The best projects are the ones where you see behavior genuinely shift. When a retailer moves from skepticism to complete buy-in, fueled by faster, frictionless customer journeys, the focus naturally shifts from technology to commercial results. That’s when it gets interesting.

Keep reading here.—EC

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Play to profit

Morning Brew Inc.

Most video strategies stop at “watch.” The best ones drive “buy.” Join us May 27 to learn how to turn content into a true commerce engine by connecting video to data, platforms, and performance. We’ll break down the moves that shift video from a cost center to a conversion driver—no big-budget production required.

SWAPPING SKUS

Today’s top retail reads.

Bullseye: Target’s Q1 earnings and revenue topped Wall Street’s expectations, as the retailer increased its sales outlook for the full year. (CNBC)

Sour lemons: Inside the email exchange between Lululemon founder Chip Wilson, executive chair Marti Morfitt, and new board member Chip Bergh that led to Monday’s public rejection of Wilson’s nominated board members. (the Wall Street Journal)

Exec moves: Banana Republic named PVH Americas CEO Donald Kohler as its next global brand president and CEO. (WWD)

Summer shopping spree: Shoppers are ready for the summer, and their spending habits prove it. Want all the deets? Read Ibotta’s data deep dive on the summer spend shift to follow the money.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

State of industry report

Retail Brew

Even in the age of AI, retailers continue to bet big on brick and mortar. Nearly 78% of retailers report moderate or significant in-store investment, and with more than 5,000 store openings forecast for 2026 (Coresight Research), this isn’t a boom. It's a recalibration. Learn more about what's driving it.

Check it out

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☕ New lids on the block