News Briefs
- 12/12/2025
Lululemon founder wants board changes to help with CEO search
The founder of Lululemon weighed in on the news that CEO Calvin McDonald will exit in January with a blistering statement slamming the board for what he sees as its lack of succession planning.
[READ MORE: Lululemon CEO to depart — interim chiefs named]
"As one of the largest active shareholders of Lululemon, I am deeply concerned about what appears to be a tremendous failure by the board to competently plan for the future and manage an effective succession process,” stated Chip Wilson. “This latest failure in my opinion only amplifies the urgency the company faces and the obvious need for the CEO search to be led by new, independent directors with real experience.
Wilson has been a vocal critic of McDonald and has called for changes at Lululemon, whose performance has faltered. In October, he took out a full-page advertisement (“Lululemon: in a Nosedive”) in The Wall Street Journal detailing his complaints. Wilson said the company had “lost its edge.”
"The board's praise for Calvin McDonald, a CEO who has overseen massive value destruction over the past two years, with a 62.8% drop in LULU's share price, shows blatant disregard for its shareholders,” Wilson stated in his most recent statement. “In my view, the board has failed to properly hold management accountable to deliver product innovation and instead has led with complacency. The erosion of premium brand value in the company's core markets demonstrates that the board does not understand its target customers anymore or what will drive shareholder value at Lululemon over the long term.”
To read Wilson’s full statement, click here.
- 12/12/2025
Stater Bros., Kowalski’s, Big Red Liquors to offer Uber delivery
Three regional grocery and alcohol retailers are partnering for online delivery with a major third-party platform.
Stater Bros. Markets, Kowalski's Markets, and Big Red Liquors will all begin providing an online delivery option via Uber Eats, the on-demand delivery subsidiary of Uber in December 2025. Stater Bros. operates grocery stores in Southern California, while Kowalski’s Markets is a gourmet, organic, and specialty grocer operating in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area and Big Red Liquors has stores in Indiana.
"Our goal is to make it effortless for customers to get everything they need from the stores they already love," said Hashim Amin, head of grocery & retail for North America at Uber. "As we close out 2025, we're especially proud of the progress we've made in growing our selection of regional grocery and alcohol partners, because these are the brands that truly define their communities."
Customers at all three chains can order Uber deliveries by opening the Uber Eats app, tapping "grocery" or "alcohol" and then tapping "shops." They can then select their local Stater Bros., Kowalski's, or Big Red Liquors store, add items to their cart, choose on-demand or scheduled delivery, and track orders in real time from store to their door.
All three retailers also partner with DoorDash for online deliveries. In addition, Stater Bros. offers online delivery fulfillment via Instacart and partners with omnichannel location technology provider Flybuy by Radius Networks to improve its third-party delivery experience.
[READ MORE: Southern California grocer Stater Bros. optimizes third-party delivery]
- 12/12/2025
Fanatics leverages AI to deliver relevant online offers
A leading sports merchandise brand is partnering with an e-commerce platform to help ensure online shoppers see content and promotions that matter to them.
Fanatics is utilizing artificial intelligence-based technology from Rokt to surface relevant, exclusive content and offers to customers before and after checkout across its owned platforms including Fanatics.com, as well as team and league sites.
[READ MORE: Fanatics to run on-site retail for World Wrestling Entertainment]
"Fanatics' focus remains on relentlessly enhancing the fan experience, and that includes constantly thinking of ways to make shopping with us more seamless and relevant," said Michael Rubin, CEO of Fanatics. "Rokt's technology will help us deliver on our promise to fans."
Fanatics will initially leverage the Rokt Pay+ and Rokt Thanks solutions. The retailer plans to expand its use of Rokt's broader product suite, including Rokt Ads and Rokt Catalog, to other areas of its business. The partnership covers Fanatics' international presence across the North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific regions.
"Fanatics has redefined what it means to deliver an exceptional fan experience," said Bruce Buchanan, CEO of Rokt. "We believe we'll be able to help Fanatics unlock even greater relevance throughout the e-commerce journey, beginning with Rokt Thanks and Pay+."
Fanatics has a global partner network with more than 900 sports properties and over 2,000 retail locations, including Lids retail stores.
- 12/11/2025
Amazon to reportedly pilot fast in-store pickup
Media reports indicate Amazon will test a "rush" in-store pickup service in 2026.
The online giant plans to pilot one-hour pickup of online orders at its brick-and-mortar store banners in the first quarter of 2026, according to Business Insider. The omnichannel service will enable shoppers to place a single online order containing items both from its e-commerce site and its physical store inventory and then pick the order up within an hour at a local Amazon-owned store.
Amazon’s brick-and-mortar store banners include the Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market grocery brands, as well as the Amazon Go convenience chain. Business Insider based its reporting on an internal Amazon document which also said the company’s senior VPs are tracking the effort.
A source who Business Insider said is familiar with the project indicated that the pilot may occur later than the first quarter of 2026. Chain Store Age reached out to Amazon for comment but so far has not heard back.
Amazon has recently been increasing efforts to speed up its deliveries in the U.S. The company is testing a service called Amazon Now in Seattle and Philadelphia that is its fastest delivery service to date, delivering thousands of household essential items and groceries to customers’ doorsteps in about 30 minutes or less.
In addition, Amazon Pharmacy is expanding same-day delivery of prescription medications to more metro areas across the U.S. and Amazon also recently doubled the reach of same-day grocery delivery to more than 2,300 cities and towns.
[READ MORE: Amazon expands same-day perishable grocery delivery]
- 12/11/2025
Pacsun launches curated resale shop
Pacsun is taking a deep dive into vintage shopping online and in store as Gen Z's infatuation with pre-loved fashion continues to surge.
The apparel retailer has launched a curated resale shop with a dedicated collection, "PS Vintage Powered by Springy," featuring thousands of one-of-a-kind pieces for men and women. The assortment, which includes graphic tees, hoodies, denim, jackets and more, was hand-selected in collaboration with Springy, a leader in online secondhand retail. The collection is live online, with a nationwide in-store rollout coming to 15 Pacsun stores in January 2026.
Pacsun said it selected pieces sourced by Springy to create an initial collection whose designs capture the retailer’s key pillars: fashion, art, culture, sports, and music. Every item is distinctive, with limited restocks, and labeled using the Springy system, by size, year and category.
“Vintage shopping has become central to our community, and with this launch, we wanted to make that experience authentic and accessible," said Richard Cox, chief merchandising officer of Pacsun. "Guided by strong consumer listening, our trend-driven curation delivers on the style our consumers love while reflecting the sustainability they value."
PS Vintage Powered by Springy was developed with direct input from Gen Z through Pacsun's Youth Advisory Council.
(Image courtesy of Pacsun)
- 12/11/2025
Holiday shoppers are adapting to the economy — here's how
The vast majority of consumers are making changes to their holiday shopping plans to address economic issues.
More than eight-in-10 (83%) consumers surveyed by Qlik are altering how they shop for the holidays in response to economic factors. Of those respondents changing their plans, 40% are buying fewer gifts and 35% started their shopping earlier to stretch budgets across more pay periods.
Inflation was cited by 39% of respondents as the primary factor affecting their holiday spending decisions, far ahead of tariffs (15%) or economic concerns about an “AI bubble” (9%).
Looking at holiday shopping trends by generation, Qlik found that 32% of Gen Z respondents said they deliberately seek out substitutes for premium brands. Secondhand and thrift stores are holiday shopping destinations for more than 20% of all respondent generations except boomers (13%), with Gen Z (31%) most likely to frequent them.
One-in-five respondents, and 30% of Gen Z, spend more at the time of a product return than the value of the returned item(s). A majority (54%) of Gen Z respondents have purchased something online expecting they will likely return the item, followed by millennials (43%) and Gen X (32%).
“Gen Z is giving retailers a preview of the next decade,” said Qlik CEO Mike Capone. “They want the latest trends, they are ruthless about value, and they treat returns as a normal part of how they shop.”
[READ MORE: Circana: Consumers’ holiday shopping plans include buying differently]
Research for the Qlik Annual Holiday Shopping Survey was conducted by Censuswide among a sample of 2,000 nationally representative U.S. respondents age 18 and up Nov. 27 – Dec. 1, 2025.
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