News Briefs

McDonald’s is closing all locations of its small-format, beverage-focused restaurant concept.

The quick-serve giant unveiled CosMc’s, which has four locations in Texas and one in Illinois, in late 2023. It is named for a former mascot — a fun-loving alien from outer space who craved McDonald’s food — who appeared in the chain’s advertisements in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“We’ve learned so much, so quickly from the CosMc’s test,” the company said in a press release. “As part of this next testing phase, starting in late June, we will be closing all stand-alone pilot CosMc’s locations on a rolling basis and discontinuing the CosMc’s app.”

McDonald’s said that, building on insights gained from the pilot locations, beverages inspired by CosMc’s will soon be tested at its U.S. locations as part of the chain’s upcoming U.S. beverage test. (In March, the company announced it had put together a new dedicated category team focused on beverages.)

McDonald’s launched CosMc’s as it looked to expand in the fast-growing beverage space, where it faces growing competition from the likes of the drive-thru Dutch Bros chain and others. The company said the concept allowed it to test “new, bold flavors and different technologies and processes —without impacting the existing McDonald’s experience for customers and crew.”

“By creating a Learning Lab — in a way that only McDonald’s can —the CosMc’s team was able to test-and-learn in real customer-facing environments, which allowed for greater agility and speed,” McDonald’s said. “Quick adds and edits to the menu based on feedback led to more focused choices for our fans as the test continued.”

The already crowded digital pizza delivery market is gaining a major new entrant.

Warehouse club retailer Sam’s Club, a division of Walmart, has been selling its private label Member’s Mark 16-inch hot baked pizza at in-store cafes for years. 

However, based on what the retailer says has been consistent customer feedback, it is now delivering hot Member’s Mark baked pizzas for online orders at most stores across the U.S. and will have the offering available from all stores by the end of May 2025.

The pizzas cost $8.98 and come in pepperoni, cheese and four-meat flavors. Online pizza orders can be combined with other items and are eligible for express delivery, arriving less than three hours after an order is placed. Pizzas are also still available for in-store or curbside orders.

According to Sam’s Club, the launch of pizza delivery is the latest step in a bigger shift to providing shoppers digital ease in ways that save time, add value and deepen customer connections, such as its new digital-first store format.

[READ MORE: First Look: Sam’s Club’s digital-first, store of the future]

"When we talk about innovation, it’s not just about what’s new — it’s about what makes life easier for our members," said Kurt Hess, group director, operations and implementation at Sam’s Club. "Pizza delivery is a perfect example: it brings together value, convenience and one of our most-loved café items in a way that fits how people shop today."

Bentonville, Ark.-based Sam’s Club, a division of Walmart Inc., operates nearly 600 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

[READ MORE: Return policies key to online purchases, customer loyalty]

Chain Store Age is now accepting nominations for its Top 10 Retail Center Experiences awards, which honor open-air centers, malls, retail-based mixed-use centers, and neighborhood centers that set the mark for making properties destinations for events, fine dining, and recreational pursuits--as well as great shopping.

Last year’s winners included Triple 5’s Mall of America in Minnesota, Kimco’s Dania Pointe lifestyle center in Florida, and the JLL-operated Ka Makana Ali’i in Hawaii.

The nomination should include:

• The name and location of the nominated property;
• The name of the property’s owner and operator;
• The nominator’s name, title, email address, and phone number;
• And most importantly, what your center does to draw more guests to your properties on more days of the week and keeps them there longer.

Click here for the nomination form. (All nominations will remain strictly confidential.)

CSA will unveil the 2025 list of Top 10 Retail Center Experiences in CSA's July/August print edition. 

The nomination deadline is June 17, 2025.

Questions? Please contact Chain Store Age real estate editor Al Urbanski at [email protected].

Retail workers say that understaffing and poor schedule management is having an impact on their productivity.

That’s according to the 2025 Logile Labor Planning & Optimization Report from AI-powered workforce solutions firm Logile, which found that 80% of retail workers say unpredictable schedules and short-staffing add stress to their jobs, with 82% feeling regularly overwhelmed at work. More than three-quarters (77%) of retail workers say their store regularly loses sales due to poor scheduling or staffing decisions.

More than half (51%) of retail workers said their store is short-staffed during busy periods most of the time, with 25% saying this happens almost every time their store gets busy. Nearly a third (31%) of frontline workers are actively considering quitting due to poor scheduling or lack of hours, with another 22% saying they’re close to that point if conditions don’t improve.

[READ MORE: Survey: 76% of retail workers looking for career change]

Seventy-four percent of frontline associates say they’re open to automated, traffic-based scheduling tools, but adoption hinges on trust. Those surveyed said that systems must consistently deliver accurate, fair schedules that earn buy-in over time.

“There’s a clear disconnect between plan and practice. Retailers have made meaningful strides in prioritizing workforce initiatives, but our research shows that many are still missing the opportunity to fully connect their planning efforts with store-level reality,” said Purna Mishra, founder and CEO of Logile. “By integrating real-time demand data and modeling store-specific labor needs more accurately, retailers can close the loop between planning and execution — improving service, supporting staff and strengthening the bottom line.”

Logile’s survey was conducted on 500 American retail store associates via Pollfish.

The wind down of a former retail pharmacy powerhouse continues.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court of New Jersey has given the green light to CVS Pharmacy bids on the prescription files of 625 Rite Aid pharmacies across 15 states in areas that CVS serves, as well 64 physical Rite Aid stores in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. (The court also approved the sale of certain Rite Aid prescription files to Walgreens, Kroger and others.)

“We’re well-positioned to serve our existing customers and patients, as well as those who may be transitioning to us from Rite Aid,” CVS said in a statement. “We’re working closely with Rite Aid on plans to ensure that the transition will be seamless for patients and customers and access to pharmacy care is not interrupted. Once the sale is finalized, we look forward to welcoming Rite Aid colleagues who are interested in applying to join the CVS team.”

Rite Aid has been winding down operations, including closing stores, since it declared bankruptcy earlier this month and said it was pursuing a "strategic and value-maximizing sale process" for substantially all of its assets. The company, which had some 1,300 stores at the time of its filing, is still looking to sell some of its stores to other retailers, with an auction planned for June.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, CVS had more than 9,000 retail pharmacy locations nationwide.