News Briefs

A popular — and affordable — young women’s apparel brand is going big in New York City.

Teen favorite Garage, part of Canada's Groupe Dynamite Inc., will open its largest and most immersive flagship to date in Manhattan’s Flatiron District. Located on the corner at Fifth Avenue and E 21 St., the store is set to open in spring 2027.

Spanning more than 9,500 sq. ft., the multi-level space is designed to be a content-creation hub, the company said. The flagship will blend the Flatiron's signature bones, soaring ceilings and industrial texture with Garage’s signature aesthetic.

Following the Flatiron launch, Garage will unveil similar multi-level destinations on Newbury Street in Boston, and M Street in Washington’s D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood.

“This flagship location represents a major milestone for the brand, allowing us to showcase our full expression of Garage in one of the world's most dynamic retail markets," said Romina Kolodziejska, VP of global real estate & store development at Groupe Dynamite Inc. "Expanding in New York at this scale underscores our confidence in the brand's continued growth, and our commitment to meeting our customers where they are."

In March, Garage opened its first U.K. stores, on London’s Oxford Street and at Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent. Additional U.K. expansion is in the works, with planned locations at Manchester Arndale and Trafford Centre, both of which are located in Manchester.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. is enabling eligible customers to pay over time for digital purchases via a new partnership.

The home decor retailer is letting shoppers across its brands including Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock and BuyBuy Baby to choose Affirm at online checkout (real-time eligibility check required). This enables online customers to pay over time for their purchases in biweekly or monthly payments with no hidden fees, late fees, or compounding interest. 

“Bed Bath & Beyond is where customers come for everything home, from the everyday essentials to the perfect seasonal touches, to the projects that transform a room,” said Lisa Foley, COO, Bed Bath & Beyond. “Affirm gives them the flexibility to pay their way and to bring their vision to life on a timeline that works for them.”

As part of a largescale expansion strategy, Bed Bath & Beyond has been building what it calls a “unified technology and data platform” that connects its omnichannel retail experience, home services, product ecosystem and financial capabilities into a “single, intelligent system.”

[READ MORE: Bed Bath & Beyond names leader to oversee tech transformation]

Other recent examples of customer-facing technology initiatives include unifying rewards across all Bed Bath & Beyond banners, adopting a new omnichannel pricing strategy and acquiring Fathom Holdings Inc., a national, tech-based real estate services platform.

“Homes change as life changes,” said Pat Suh, senior VP of revenue at Affirm. “Whether someone is moving into their first apartment, preparing for a new baby, or creating space for a growing family, Affirm gives customers a clear, transparent way to pay over time and choose a payment plan that fits their budget.”

Amazon is making a major financial commitment to compress the timeline of artificial intelligence rollouts for Amazon Web Services customers.

The online giant is creating what it calls a Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) organization for its Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosted cloud subsidiary. Backed by a $1 billion investment, the AWS FDE embeds groups of engineers called “AWS frontier teams” directly inside customer business, engineering, and security teams to build and deploy production AI systems with the customer’s data, governance and processes.

According to Amazon, AWS FDE reduces development times from months to days, and it is designed so customers are self-sufficient when a deployment ends. AWS FDE teams focus on building agentic AI  solutions that run in a customer’s own environment. Deployments are structured around shared goals and business results rather than billable hours. 

AWS FDE uses agentic deployment technology and the AI-Driven Development Lifecycle, what Amazon calls a new approach to software development that emphasizes AI-based execution with human oversight. FDE teams also deploy a semantic layer into the customer's AWS account which is designed to connect to enterprise data sources, enrich metadata and use AI to publish a governed, versioned knowledge graph. Security is built in with hardware-based isolation, end-to-end encryption, and customer data that never leaves the customer's governance framework.

[READ MORE: Uber leverages Amazon AI]

“Unlike traditional consulting that assesses, recommends, and treats each deployment as a standalone project, AWS FDE builds for the long term,” said Francessca Vasquez, VP of frontier AI engineering and services, AWS, in a corporate blog post. “Customers leave AWS FDE deployments with both new solutions and new engineering capabilities. Along with agentic systems running in their own AWS environment, they gain lasting AI skills, workflows, and patterns they can use to innovate independently. 

Federal Realty, the operator of innovative mixed-use projects such as Assembly Row outside of Boston, has announced the hiring of a prominent real estate technologist to “accelerate innovation and AI across the business,” according to a company press release.

Paige Pitcher — who previously led technological strategy globally at Hines and introduced tech adoption at some of the nation’s largest REITs — now takes her practice to the Long Island-based developer as its first senior VP of digital innovation.

"For more than sixty years, Federal Realty has created value by knowing our real estate and our retailers inside and out," said Don Wood, Federal’s president and CEO. "The opportunity in front of us is to bring that same instinct to how we use data. To understand our centers and get great retailers open and operating sooner. Paige has spent her career helping real estate companies turn that kind of potential into results.”

Pitcher joins Federal Realty from Bigger Pitcher Advisory, where she drove AI integration and enterprise digitization for real estate firms and proptech companies.

"Federal Realty has one of the best portfolios and teams in the business, with the data and relationships to match," said Pitcher. "AI has changed the pace of business, and Federal intends to set the pace in retail real estate."

Pitcher holds a master of science degree in real estate development from MIT and serves on the Blackstone Proptech Advisory Board and the board of the Center for Real Estate Technology.

The offices of Chain Store Age will be closed on Friday July 3, in observance of the Federal holiday for Independence Day.

Our daily newsletter, DayBreaker, will resume publishing on Monday, July 6. We wish our readers a happy and safe holiday!

Nearly half of CPG retailers agree that one issue is causing them problems with fulfillment.

In data exclusively released to Chain Store Age, 48% of 50 CPG retail executives recently surveyed by Dynata on behalf of Radial identify technology integrations and data visibility as a top fulfillment pain point (more than one answer accepted). Other leading responses include e-commerce/direct-to-consumer fulfillment speed (38%) and retail routing guide compliance and chargebacks (30%).

[READ MORE: Survey: Delivery performance key for brand opinion among consumers]

Despite the existence of these pain points, respondents are overall happy with their current fulfillment solution. More than eight-in-10 are either very satisfied (44%) or satisfied (40%) with their fulfillment technology. Another 14% are neutral and only 2% are dissatisfied (none are very dissatisfied). 

When asked how significant retail chargebacks are to their organization, 40% said very significant while a leading 42% said moderate. About one-in-six (16%) said chargebacks are of minor importance and 2% said they are not applicable to their organization.

Third-party logistics

The survey also asked questions specifically focused on 3PL partners, including:

Which platforms or systems does your 3PL need to integrate with?

• Salesforce (order management/CRM) 58%.
• SAP/Oracle/Netsuite (CRM) 56%.
• Amazon Seller/Vendor Central 56%.
• Shopify/Shopify Plus 50%.
• EDI (business-to-business orders) 30%.

How important is it that a single 3PL partner can handle both retail replenishment and e-commerce fulfillment?

• High importance 66%
• Critical - unified operations are essential (16%)
• Moderate importance 14%
• Low importance 2%
• Not important – separate providers are fine 2%