Tableware purchasing is tanking, shares the Wall St. Journal, partially due to notable price increases.  Prices are higher due to tariffs and the war. 
 

What can a store do to protect itself? 
Great news: While self-purchase tableware spending is down 25%, our same store gift registry sales for nearly 1,500 indie store are up 37%. We’re seeing that the wedding registry space is a safe harbor in this tumultuous industry. We invite all indie retailers to offer a powerful wedding

Today’s Wall St. Journal shares how AI tools like ChatGPT deliver results vs. traditional services like Google.  
 

Unlike Google, there is more focus on:

- FAQs

- Reviews

- Reddit and message boards

- Summaries

- Personal narratives

Read more:    

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/google-search-seo-ai-tactics

Read the full article: 

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/fast-free-shipping-retailers-fedex-ups-amazon-e6ba5967?st=dMM4o1

Read the full article: https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/bloomingdales-department-stores-saks-bankruptcy-bf1801f9?st=B8EkkB

Are you a member at Costco? If so, what was your logic when joining?  You likely estimated how long it will take to recoup your annual membership fee investment.

Your math may resemble this:

• When you join Costco for $99/year, you may save 10%.
• You’ll get your fee back after spending $900, which would cost $1,000 elsewhere.
• Anything spent above that, and you’re getting a ‘free’ 10% off.

We do similar ROI math in other parts of our lives. A movie ticket now costs nearly $20. When I pay Netflix $20

A Michael Aram cocktail shaker is lauded as an item to help one enjoy their jet and yacht journeys in today’s Wall St. Journal.   

Read the full article: 

https://www.wsj.com/style/design/what-the-wealthy-want-in-their-private-jets-46b94ea0?st=o9pGJR

Offering a customer the opportunity to contact you reduces customer anxiety about the process at hand. Note: this doesn't mean sending more solicitations to the customer results in more sales. The study finds that your business's message quality (i.e. including contact information) matters more than the messaging quantity. Read the full article: https://www.wsj.com/business/people-trust-humans-e37a6fa5?st=Sxx8S2

The WSJ shares how famous brand names like Radio Shack and Linens n’ Things were caught up in a scandal:

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/tai-lopez-radioshack-pier1-investors-sec-66352aab?st=9uwmMH

Christofle’s Mood flatware is mentioned as a status item in this weekend’s WSJ. 

Christofle, a Shop Local partner, helps its indie stores sell its prestigious items via our Product Syncing service. 

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/saks-is-shutting-down-its-luxury-partnership-with-amazon-a95e30cc?st=PFGrsS

Brands are increasingly hiring “storytellers,” shares the Wall St. Journal. These storytellers are using social media, podcasts, and other novel marketing approaches to share a business’s story. Ironically, earned media, such as the WSJ newspaper (where I read about this trend), is not seen as a leading medium. Print newspaper subscriptions have fallen by 70% since 2005. (I'm a lone holdout: I still get the Times and WSJ each week; I used to get four print papers each day. My poor newspaper

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/amazon-orland-park-illinois-opening-13362c97?st=DYZBKJ

Read the full story: 

https://www.wsj.com/business/saks-stylist-scam-shail-kwatra-81cc3aba?st=GGCwVo

Read the full story:

https://www.wsj.com/style/fashion/norms-hemorrhoid-cream-3666a4e8?st=5Hsiry

Read the full WSJ article:

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/fao-schwarz-personal-shopper-6801c453

People are more likely to give low quality, low priced goods better reviews than high quality, more expensive goods, shares the WSJ.  In sum, people often value price over quality. 

Read the article: 

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/star-ratings-online-shopping-deals-2fef84ab

Louis Vuitton built a football field-size, faux ship in a mall in Shanghai, shares the WSJ. Part museum, cafe, store, and spectacle, the ship showcases the grand lengths the brand takes to showcase itself and drive sales. 

Read the full article: 

https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/louis-vuitton-shanghai-ship-pietro-beccari-lvmh-8ecb0667

The WSJ shares some key stats about gift cards: 
 

• An unused gift cards often has a balance of $244.
• One-third of Americans have lost money on a gift card.
• Many gift-card recipients spend 30% to 40% above the card amount in efforts to “use the full card,” and pay any difference out of pocket.

Read the full article: 

https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/gift-card-balance-how-to-use-f1a7b2dc?st=LrFNkp&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Read the full article: 

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/shop-with-ai-how-to-start-bc19c27f?st=vFSeEh&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

We’ve probably all had one of Taco Bell’s crazy inventions, including a Cheesy Street Chalupa, Doritos Locos Taco, Nacho Fries, or Baja Blast. A recent Wall St. Journal article shares that Taco Bell’s Chief Food Innovation Officer, Liz Matthews, often spends years creating a single new item for the menu. (Read the full WSJ article here.) Sometimes these items are available for a brief time only, aka they’re a limited-time offer (LTO). 

This article made me wonder, “What are Shop Local’s LTOs