News Briefs

A China-based ice cream and beverage chain has landed in the United States.

Mixue opened its first U.S. store in Los Angeles on Dec. 19, with locations soon to follow in New York City. The chain’s core menu features ice cream, pure tea, fruit tea, milk tea and freshly-brewed coffee with "customizable sugar levels" and toppings. The brand is known for its lower price points, with most items priced between $1.19 and $4.99. 

Mixue operates more than 53,000 locations worldwide, with approximately 4,700 stores found outside of China across 13 countries, including Australia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore.

Mixue says it plans to further expand its presence across the Americas. In addition, the company says it will strengthen its supply chain by “expanding sourcing capabilities, improving logistics efficiency, and investing in production capacity and research and development.”

To mark the U.S. debut, Mixue hosted a series of launch activities at the Los Angeles store, including street pop-ups featuring its Snow King mascot, themed photo experiences and more.

[READ MORE: Gong cha to enter three new states — here's where]

"Mixue is actively advancing its global strategy,” said the head of Mixue U.S. upon the Los Angeles opening. “Given the substantial market potential in the U.S., the first store serves as a starting point. Moving forward, the company will steadily expand its store footprint, allowing more local consumers to enjoy high-quality, affordable drinks.”

Shopify is entering a new partnership to deliver complete, AI-enabled visibility of the entire digital customer experience journey to retailers on its platform.

In collaboration with AI-equipped digital analytics provider Contentsquare, Shopify is offering its retailers granular behavioral insights spanning first click to checkout via the new . Specific features include:

• A session replay solution that lets users watch key customer sessions to see exactly where shoppers struggle or drop off in the checkout flow.
• Heatmaps that display which parts of a page customers engage with or ignore.
• Zoning capabilities automatically break each page into individual elements to enable performance measurement at a granular level.
• Performance, error and frustration signals surface technical issues and friction that may impact revenue, from slow-loading steps to broken elements.
• AI-based insights and recommendations flag the biggest opportunities to improve the shopping experience and tells users where to focus to drive conversion and reduce drop-off. 

[READ MORE: Shopify Plus retailers can now deliver via Uber]

"Shopify gives brands the foundation to grow, and Contentsquare shows them how to make every customer interaction count," said Jean-Christophe Pitié, chief marketing and partner officer at Contentsquare. "With this partnership, teams finally get full visibility into the moments that drive revenue — and the ones that create friction — so they can fix issues faster and deliver an enhanced shopping experience."

Users can also leverage Contentsquare experience analytics features across the rest of their storefront, including experience monitoring, user lifecycle analysis, and “voice of customer” feedback monitoring capabilities.

Barnes & Noble is continuing to expand its retail footprint amid a resurgence in brick-and-mortar bookstores. 

The bookseller plans to open 60 new locations across the country in 2026, reported USA Today. According to a list obtained by the publication, Barnes & Noble plans to open stores in Ohio, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Colorado, Washington state, California, Virginia, Georgia and Washington D.C., with "several openings" in these states scheduled between now and June 2026.

"Barnes & Noble is enjoying a period of tremendous growth as the strategy to hand control of each bookstore to its local booksellers has proven so successful," Barnes & Noble said in a statement to USA Today. "In 2024, Barnes & Noble opened more new bookstores in a single year than it had in the whole decade from 2009 to 2019."

In November, Barnes & Noble entered into an in-store partnership with indie film studio and entertainment company A24 to open "A24 Shop” experiences in select locations.

Barnes & Noble opened over 60 new stores across the country throughout 2025, according to the report. The retailer currently operates about 600 bookstores nationwide.

Barnes & Noble was acquired by British private equity group Elliott Investment Management in 2019. The all-cash deal was valued at about $683 million. The deal followed Elliott’s 2018 acquisition of Waterstones, the largest retail bookseller in the U.K.

A longstanding regional pizza business has its eyes on expanding in a big way.

Sally’s Apizza, an 87-year-old pizza business founded in New Haven, Conn., is plotting a major expansion along the East Coast and beyond with the goal of reaching 1,000 units nationwide. The brand currently operates seven locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts, with several locations planned for 2026 in both its home state and new markets such as Boston, Long Island, N.Y. (Roosevelt Field Mall), and Boca Raton, Fla.

"We are fortunate to have great demand up and down the East Coast as a result of, not only the popularity of our original New Haven location, but in markets we have recently opened in like Dorchester, Mass., and Wethersfield, Conn.,” Chris Bonaventura, brand advisor at Sally’s Apizza told Chain Store Age. “As we start to leverage more of these opportunities, we are quickly ramping up our development cadence. The timing of future Sally's openings will really depend on the opportunities that present themselves."

[READ MORE: Consortium Brand Partners in group to acquire California Pizza Kitchen]

Sally’s Apizza says that its compact, 3,000-sq.-ft. store footprint is ideal for expansion into strip centers across suburban markets. According to its website, the chain is targeting a double-digit store presence in multiple states over time, including 45 in Texas and 35 in Florida.

"Sally’s ambition is to be the Chipotle of pizza,” said Bonaventura. “What does that mean? That means being the highest-quality culinary product in its category at a 1,000 location scale.”

Founded in 1938 by Salvatore "Sally" Consiglio, Sally's Apizza is famous for baking its pizzas in a 3,000-degree oven.

President Donald Trump has issued an executive order that eases federal regulations on marijuana without legalizing its use and loosens CBD restrictions.

In a new executive order, President Trump has directed U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi to expedite completion of the process of rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substance Act. 

Previously, marijuana (the part of the cannabis plant containing the psychoactive ingredient THC), had been classified as a Schedule I drug with high abuse potential, no accepted medical use, and lack of accepted safety. Other drugs still classified as Schedule I include heroin, LSD, and MDMA (popularly known as ecstasy).

[READ MORE: THC users are more likely to order from these online retailers…]

Trump’s order does not legalize medical marijuana usage at the federal level but does allow for greater research that could lead to the lifting of federal restrictions. Currently, 40 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have state and local medical marijuana programs, and 24 U.S. states allow at least some recreational marijuana sale and consumption. CBD is legal to some degree in every state and the District of Columbia.

The order also directs the White House to work with Congress to research and enable access to "appropriate full-spectrum CBD products" containing cannabidiol, a cannabis-derived ingredient which does not provide the "high" effect of THC and is used in some personal healthcare and food and beverage products. 

In commentary emailed to Chain Store Age, Paula Savchenko, Esq., founding partner of Cannacore Group and PS Law Group, said rescheduling marijuana is a "pivotal moment" for the hemp industry. 

"For years, hemp operators have functioned in a fragmented and often contradictory regulatory environment," said Savchenko. "Marijuana rescheduling has the potential to bring long-needed clarity, stability, and legitimacy to the broader cannabinoid marketplace."

Twin Peaks Restaurant is set to enter a new market.

The “sports lodge” concept has signed a three-unit franchise agreement to open its first locations in Connecticut. The future lodges will be located in the state’s key markets, including New Haven, Hartford, Danbury, Stamford/Bridgeport and Waterbury.

The new locations will be developed by New London Hospitality, led by business partners Deepak Verma and Kam Singh. The two entrepreneurs have a background in scaling hotel brands including, Red Roof Inn, Choice Hotels and Hilton.

“Deepak and Kam bring a powerful combination of hospitality expertise and operational discipline,” said Kim Boerema, CEO of Twin Peaks. “Their experience growing multi-unit concepts makes them ideal partners as we enter Connecticut. We are confident they will help anchor Twin Peaks as a new favorite for sports fans throughout the state.”

[READ MORE: Twin Hospitality Group names new marketing leader]

Twin Hospitality Group operates 115 Twin Peaks locations in the U.S. and Mexico, as well as more than 50 Smokey Bones restaurants across 16 states. Both chains are part of the FAT Brands portfolio of restaurants. 

“Twin Peaks delivers everything guests want in a sports bar — scratch-made food, 29-degree draft beer, and the best place to catch every game,” said Verma. “We look forward to introducing the brand’s signature lodge experience and welcoming Twin Peaks girls to Connecticut, establishing a new home base for local sports fans and food enthusiasts.”