News Briefs

An eco-friendly, comfort-driven global footwear brand is expanding in the United States.

Vivaia has opened its second U.S. location, at Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, N.Y., with another NYC metro area location set to open on May 10, at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J. Seven more locations are set to roll out during the year.

Vivaia opened its first permanent U.S. store in spring 2025, in New York City’s SoHo district. The brand also has wholesale partnerships with select department store, including Nordstrom, Dillards and Von Maur.

Roosevelt Field  

Vivaia said its store at Roosevelt Field Mall is inspired by “wabi sabi” principles of simplicity, asymmetry and imperfection. The 650-sq.-ft. space combines light wood-toned furniture, minimal design, and curated lighting to create a calm, natural shopping experience.

"The U.S. is our most important market and a key driver of our online growth, so expanding beyond New York is a natural next step," Jeff Chan, co-founder of Vivaia said in a statement. "By combining strong digital momentum with physical retail, we're able to serve more customers and bring our comfort-driven, eco-friendly products closer to them."

Committed to eco-friendly innovation, Vivaia partners with certified Repreve suppliers to transform recycled PET bottles into high-quality yarns, using advanced 3D knitting to create durable, low-waste footwear. Its signature elastic knit uppers are designed to provide a flexible, custom-like fit for all-day wear.

Founded in 2020 as a DTC brand, Vivaia surpassed 75 stores worldwide in 2025, with offline retail doubling year-over-year and strong traffic at its SoHo location, the company said. 

(Photo: Vivaia, Roosevelt Field Mall)

Boll & Branch continues to expand in brick and mortar.

The digitally-native luxury bedding and home textiles brand has opened its first permanent location in the Chicago area, at Westfield Old Orchard, in Skokie, Ill. Three additional locations are planned to open through the remainder of the year.

The 1,430-sq.-ft. store features Boll & Branch’s luxury bedding and bath collections. It also offers in-store design services, including one-on-one sessions with a stylist to explore collections and design goals.

Boll & Branch currently operates 15 stores nationwide. By expanding in markets where it already has an established customer base, the company said it is strengthening a “seamless” online-to-offline experience that allows customers to engage with products in person while maintaining continuity across its digital channels. 

“Following our successful pilot at Oakbrook Center, we are thrilled to be opening our permanent home in the Chicago area at Westfield Old Orchard in Skokie," said Katia Unlu, chief commercial officer at Boll & Branch. "What makes a Boll & Branch store unlike anything else is the level of service we bring to every customer. From personalized bedding consultations to in-home installations and custom bed styling, our team is here to make the experience of creating a beautiful home effortless."

Amazon continues expanding its partnership with a major developer of next-gen artificial intelligence solutions.

The online giant is integrating solutions and features from OpenAI, developer of generative AI model ChatGPT, into its Amazon Bedrock AI platform. Amazon is building on a multi-year, $38 billion strategic partnership it entered with OpenAI in November 2025 and increased to near $140 billion in February 2026.

[READ MORE: Amazon, OpenAI expanding partnership to almost $140B]

Amazon is now launching a limited preview of three new offerings from OpenAI on the Amazon Bedrock platform:

For the first time, customers of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services subsidiary will have access to OpenAI frontier models through the services they already use for model access, fine-tuning, and orchestration. 

This means customers can evaluate and deploy OpenAI models alongside models from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, Amazon, and other AI providers, all through a single service with unified security, governance, and cost controls.

With Codex on Amazon Bedrock, enterprise users have access to the OpenAI coding agent within the AWS environments where they already operate at scale. Customers can authenticate using their AWS credentials, process inference through Amazon Bedrock infrastructure, and apply Codex usage toward their AWS cloud commitments. Codex on Bedrock is available through the Bedrock API, starting with the Codex CLI, the Codex desktop app, and Visual Studio Code extension.

Bedrock managed agents combins OpenAI frontier models and agentic capabilities with AWS global infrastructure, security and services. Agents are production-ready and can be deployed without developing supporting infrastructure. Users can also leverage the Bedrock AgentCore open platform to build, connect and optimize OpenAI agentic solutions.

Amazon and OpenAI say they will continue collaborating and bringing new capabilities to Bedrock.

[READ MORE: Papa Johns expands Google AI partnership]

Papa John's International Inc. is co-headquartered in Atlanta and in Louisville, Ky. and is the world's third-largest pizza delivery company with more than 6,000 restaurants in approximately 50 countries and territories. 

A regional convenience chain has doubled its footprint through an acquisition.

North Carolina-based Legacy Markets has announced its expansion into South Carolina with its acquisition of 10 PowerTrac convenience and liquor stores. Set to be rebranded as Triangle Stop stores, Legacy Markets now owns and operates 20 locations concentrated in southwestern North Carolina and northwestern South Carolina.

Legacy Markets has made Marathon the new branded fuel partner for the currently unbranded PowerTrac stores, providing Marathon’s fuel and loyalty benefits. In addition to enhancing the food, beverage, and merchandise programs at the PowerTrac stores, shoppers will also benefit from the addition of the Triangle Stop loyalty program and smartphone app.

PowerTrac was founded by Ankur and Krishna Patel of Piedmont, S.C. Beginning with one location, they steadily grew the business to 10 stores.

[READ MORE: Cumberland Farms to acquire 54-store Coen Markets]

“I want to congratulate Ankur and Krishna on the successful business they built,” said Jack Helmick, CEO of Legacy Markets. “We are excited to welcome their team members to the Legacy Markets family. We look forward to bringing our fast, friendly, and local philosophy to the Piedmont area."

A North Carolina-based quick-serve chain has expanded its footprint to another Southern state.

Fried chicken chain Bojangles has opened its first store in Oklahoma, in the northern section of Oklahoma City, the state's capital and largest city. Customers in the area will now be able to enjoy the chain’s Southern staples, including seasoned hand-breaded chicken, scratch-made biscuits and sweet tea.

Officially opened on April 28, the first 100 customers at the door received $100 gift cards, custom Bojangles merchandise including denim caps, and Oklahoma City-themed items. In addition, 10 lucky customers were randomly selected to win free breakfast for a year.

The Oklahoma entry is just the latest growth for Bojangles, which has its stores primarily located in the Southeast. Earlier this year, the chain made its debut in Michigan, and re-entered New York City after a several decade hiatus.

"We are ecstatic about introducing Bojangles to the Sooner state and bringing our unique Southern charm to its capital city," said Jose Armario, CEO of Bojangles. "Our recent expansions into markets have been met with tremendous enthusiasm, and we are confident that the community will embrace our delicious offerings with the same excitement."

[READ MORE: Bojangles expands Spanish ordering capabilities]

Founded in 1977, Bojangles operates more than 850 restaurants in 23 states.