We’ve talked about the fact that retailers are removing self checkout machines because of product loss and customer frustration. Added measures to control shoplifting often make the machines throw errors, requiring more employee oversight and making self checkouts cost more in overhead. They’re not cost effective for retailers at this point, which is good news for those of us who hate them. It turns out that self checkout machines also make people less loyal to a store. A study in the Journal of Business Research found that people have a poorer impression of stores when they have to use self checkout for larger numbers of items. No wonder Target is limiting self checkout to 10 items or less, although I doubt that will solve this problem. Here’s more on that study:

A recent study published in the Journal of Business Research found that self-checkout systems can lead to less customer loyalty when compared to a regular checkout staffed by an employee, especially for large purchases.

“Retailers are actually facing some dilemma regarding whether it’s really a good decision to install self-checkout systems,” said the study’s coauthor, Yanliu Huang, associate professor of marketing at the Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.

Huang set out to understand how customers’ loyalty to a store is affected by whether shoppers choose to scan items themselves at a self-checkout kiosk or have an employee ring them up at a regular counter.

“More than one-third of U.S. customers use self-checkout systems, so it’s very relevant to both retailers and customers,” said Huang, who coauthored the research with Farhana Nusrat, her former student.

Huang and Nusrat ran five separate studies, some of which included asking hired participants to imagine themselves in different shopping scenarios at a grocery store or having them recall their recent grocery shopping trip.

Participants in some of the studies were asked to respond to questions or prompts about their sense of loyalty to the store based on their shopping scenario or experience. Questions focused on how likely the shopper was to return to the store, how valued as a customer they felt, and how the savings during their purchase made them feel rewarded.

Huang and Nusrat discovered that the amount of groceries being purchased matters.

When participants were put in scenarios where they only had six items, the sense of loyalty a customer felt was pretty similar if they used self-checkout or an employee rang up their order. When the purchase was 18 items though, that sense of loyalty was significantly higher for the customer that used regular checkout compared to the self-checkout.

“When you only have a very small basket size, it’s easy to use [the] self-checkout system,” said Huang.

Self-checkout kiosks represent about 38% of checkout lanes in grocery chains in the country, and the global market size of the machines is expected to continue to grow in the coming years, the study notes.

[From GM Today]

The findings of this study are definitely true for me. I very rarely go into grocery stores at this point and use delivery and pickup services for the most part. I typically only shop in person at Food Lion, which has no self checkouts and very friendly employees. I’ve never had a bad experience at a Food Lion! That may be due to corporate culture and the fact that their stores have predictable layouts. In comparison the competing grocery stores in my area, Kroger and Walmart, are awful. You often have to wait a long time to get service, at Kroger the aisles are often too small, and every location has a different layout. A few years ago they mixed up the aisles at most Walmarts to force you to make more impulse purchases too. When you’re ready to pay, you have to wait a long time for a cashier or you have to check out yourself and wait for someone to clear your error messages. It’s very tricky to figure out and anticipate why the machines require approval for purchases, which is surely by design.

As for Target, I recently placed a pickup order to include some Clevr Blends. I’m sure that I spent over $100 less than if I was browsing the store for items myself. I’ve learned through some very annoying experiences that it’s no longer pleasant to shop there in person.

Also I agree with this mom blogger that self checkouts ruin the social experience of shopping too.

 

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Justin Timberlake has new music and he’s desperate for people to pay attention to him. I was trying to ignore him for as long as I could, just for fun! But I can’t ignore this. After JT performed on SNL last weekend, Britney Spears posted a general apology for her memoir, which was pretty rough on Justin. She wrote, in part: “I wanna apologize for some of the things I wrote about in my book. If I offended any of the people I genuinely care about I am deeply sorry… I also wanted to say I am in love with Justin Timberlake’s new song ‘Selfish’.” She also complimented Justin and Jimmy Fallon, writing that whenever she saw them together, she “laughs so hard.” Britney ended up deleting that whole post. For good reason – Justin doesn’t deserve any apologies. During a performance in NYC this week, Justin also took back his previous apologies:

Justin Timberlake celebrated his birthday with a one-night-only show in New York City, and made it clear he has “nobody” to apologize to.

The former *NSYNC frontman turned solo star turned 43 on Wednesday and celebrated by playing a free show at Irving Plaza, performing both a slew of his career-spanning hits and some of his new music of his forthcoming album, Everything I Thought It Was (which is due out March 15).

Before singing his 2002 hit “Cry Me a River,” Timberlake took a moment to share some candid thoughts with the crowd. “I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to absolutely f—ing nobody,” Timberlake said before the song, a concertgoer confirmed to PEOPLE.

Timberlake also performed the song at the opening of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas in December, but shouted “No disrespect!” before beginning the tune.

[From People]

God, what a douche. Britney thinks so as well – soon after the reporting of Justin’s comments, Britney posted this to her Instagram: “Someone told me someone was talking s— about me on the streets !!! Do you want to bring it to the court or will you go home crying to your mom like you did last time ??? I’m not sorry !!!” I’m sorry but Britney remains hilarious. She’s just naturally funny and Justin is just a dweeb and a loser. It’s driving me crazy that Justin has launched his comeback and people (with the attention spans of gnats) are like “oh wow, Justin is the best, I can’t remember any of the terrible things he’s done!”

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid, Avalon Red.

Robert Downey Jr. doesn’t think Margot Robbie is getting enough credit for her performance in Barbie. I agree completely. [JustJared]
Henry Cavill is sort of remaking his career these days. [LaineyGossip]
Did Taylor Swift write Argylle? LMAO. [Hollywood Life]
Diane Lane looks amazing as she promotes Feud. [GFY]
Nicki Minaj’s Barbz need an intervention or prison time. [Pajiba]
People describe their favorite “poor man’s meals.” [Buzzfeed]
Why certain artists are disappearing from TikTok. [Socialite Life]
Courteney Cox was on Seinfeld. [Seriously OMG]
Who will wear these Giambattista Valli gowns at the SAGs and Oscars? [RCFA]
The trailer for Tarot, which… could have been a lot scarier. [OMG Blog]

If you told me Kate Hudson did an album ten years ago and it faded into obscurity I would believe you. She’s just someone who has her finger in a lot of pies, like Fabletics, a vodka brand and a supplement line. She’s said “I’m an Aries. I get bored. I gotta keep moving,” which might explain her latest foray into music. Kate has released a single co-written with venerable multi-Oscar nominated Linda Perry and Kate’s fiance, musician Danny Fujikawa. It’s called “Talk about Love” and it’s very mid, for lack of a better word. First here’s People Magazine’s writeup about it. In her press release for the song, Kate said “I wanted it to be something delicious and sexy and all the things that I believe in.”

Kate Hudson’s debut single has landed!

The actress-turned-singer’s first song “Talk About Love” has finally dropped after weeks of anticipation from fans, providing a burst of blended rock/pop sounds for listeners to enjoy.

In the song — co-written with Linda Perry and Hudson’s fiancé Danny Fujikawa — the actress, 44, celebrates having a love connection at the deepest level possible while belting out vocals over columns of synth, guitars and a jumping rhythm track guaranteed to raise the mood.

“You only have one first single,” Hudson said of her musical debut in a press release. “And I wanted it to be something delicious and sexy and all the things that I believe in.”

“I wanted it to be open and seeking, searching to find something powerful. But I also wanted the music to be the rock, the pop, the dance music and even a bit of the alternative records I love,” she continued. “It was a lot to put into one song, but thankfully, I had some wonderful people working with me. And so, here we are!”

Hudson worked independently with producer Johan Carlsson and Fujikawa to form a fresh sound for the song that also felt natural to her. The collaboration developed into the makings of an album which the actress has teased will be released later this year.

[From People]

This single, which is below, isn’t bad. I like the retro vibe, but it’s like a theme song on a CW show. It’s budget Lady Gaga without the soul or variety. The refrain is OK and it grew on me I just don’t find it memorable or catchy. Good for Kate for doing music if she wants though. There are so many other musicians who are doing complex, nuanced and haunting music who don’t get much attention at all. I’m thinking specifically of Chadwick Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, who sings as sahn. Her music is phenomenal and some of her videos on YouTube have less than 2,000 views. She’s in a different genre and she does slower jams but they just have so much heart. I’d love it if she got wider recognition. As for Kate, sometimes celebrities dabble in things they want to do rather than things they’re passionate about and it shows.

Here’s that single from Kate.

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We’re actually days/weeks into another cycle where the British media tries to convince everyone that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s business is crumbling, that they’re about to lose their Netflix money, that Spare didn’t make tens of millions of dollars for Harry, etc. The worst part of all of that crap is that, from time to time, the Hollywood trade papers end up mimicking those same deranger talking points. It all becomes a vicious cycle where the Sussexes are held to different standards than literally everybody else in the film/TV production world. In any case, there’s some good news – Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria spoke this week about what Archewell has in the pipeline for Netflix:

There’s been a lot of speculation as to the future of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s deal with Netflix. Fueled by their recent appearance at the premiere of Bob Marley: One Love in Jamaica, reportedly at the invitation of Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins, there’s been much talk as whether the duo would continue working with the streamer.

However, Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria seemed to quell these doubts by teasing a few more royal projects in the works from the pair, who signed an overall deal in 2020.

“Oh, what are they working on,” said Bajaria at a Netflix slate event. “They have a couple of unscripted things they’re working on with Brandon [Reigg]. And they actually have like a bunch of development, they have a movie in development, a [scripted] series that they’re working on. So all very early development, with a movie, a TV show and a couple of unscripted shows. But yeah, the movie’s great.”

Bajaria didn’t disclose what any of these projects were but last year the duo, who run Archewell Productions, acquired the screen rights to Carley Fortune’s Meet Me At The Lake novel to turn into a movie. It tells the story of a couple who meet in their thirties, and deals with themes of childhood trauma, including losing a parent in a car crash, mental health challenges and post-natal depression.

The Harry & Meghan docuseries from the couple launched in December 2022 with six episodes. They also made Live To Lead, an interview series featuring the likes of Greta Thunberg and Gloria Steinem, and Harry’s Heart of Invictus documentary series launched last year.

[From Deadline]

“A couple of unscripted shows” – please, let it be Harry & Meghan: The Second Season. I need another docuseries like that. I would also love a second season of Heart of Invictus, I loved that series and I found the veterans’ stories so compelling and moving. As for Meet Me at the Lake, the author confirmed that Archewell and Netflix purchased the rights to her book and she was happy that they were producing it. It sounds like they have a lot of different stuff they’re doing now.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Netflix.

In 2020, Chris Evans launched A Starting Point, which was supposed to be a political-explainer site with short videos in which politicians and experts could explain laws, bills and policies in short video clips. The site was supposed to be for Gen Z (the youths) and Chris got a lot of well-deserved pushback for engaging in both-sidesism and for platforming fascists. I actually didn’t know that A Starting Point was still a thing – I thought maybe Chris had quietly folded it or re-engineered it. But no. It’s still happening, and on Wednesday, Chris co-hosted a youth forum at the White House AND he got to meet President Biden.

Chris Evans and Mark Kassen, co-founders of the civic engagement not-for-profit A Starting Point, were speaking to Jean-Pierre and other White House officials for a youth forum about the environment, climate change, and the economy.

“We thought we could help shine a light on certain issues and create more civic engagement,” Evans told CNBC’s Emily Wilkins at an appearance at the National Press Club on Monday. “We each have our own social media [accounts]. We each have our own opinions, but that only reaches a certain amount. I think we both felt more good could come from creating a mechanism, a platform, where it is more about engagement, about education, demystifying issues to create a government that more accurately reflects who we are, because if you have half of the country not voting and not using their voice, you will never have a government that understands where we are going.”

Evans and Kassen have said that they don’t want to be at the center of A Starting Point in the longterm. Evans, for instance, had been very vocal in criticism of Donald Trump on Twitter, now known as X. Evans said, “I’ve made my opinions known so vocally that you don’t want someone at face value to think that we are pushing something. The nature of the site is information based and not my opinion. I am not an expert. I’m not a journalist. I have no right to be in this arena, other than as a voter, as an American, who wants to play on the one string I have, which is my voice, as we all should.”

When Wilkins asked if either of them thought about going into politics, they each said no even though they admitted to being intrigued. “I don’t think so,” Evans said. “I think there’s better ways to be a part of the world without having to do the work that goes into being an elected official.”

[From Deadline]

I suspect that – unlike the political reporting to the contrary – the Biden administration won’t be using celebrities as election year “surrogates” per se, but the administration will be using celebs like Chris to push voter engagement and education, and then GOTV. After the forum, President Biden did a video with Chris and apparently there are official Biden-administration aviator sunglasses now??? When did that happen?? Is Ray Ban doing a White House collab? Biden told Evans, “What you’re doing with the kids matters, so thanks for doing this…I’m a fan.”

Chris, thanks for everything you’re doing to get young folks engaged in government and public service.

Because of you, our country’s youngest leaders are getting off the sidelines and helping build the backbone of their communities. pic.twitter.com/TmN1Wk1qer

— President Biden (@POTUS) January 31, 2024

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, White House video.

Not to brag, but I think I could make a killing on Wheel of Fortune (ok it’s a brag). I’m sitting on a 100% win rate on Wordle, plus I also play Quordle and Duotrigordle everyday. And when I have a spare moment (ha!) I dip into one of my crossword puzzle volumes for The Washington Post, LA Times, or Boston Globe. (I swear I am an adult and taking care of adult business daily, as well.) So I was thrilled when I got a callback to do a first round audition last fall. Now I’m in the contestant pool for one year!! If/when I make it onto America’s Game, I will be sure to pay extra attention to my volume and diction. A recent contestant who made it to the bonus round has caused a minor brouhaha online over whether or not she gave the right answer. Host Pat Sajak didn’t hear it, but the interwebs disagree.

Are there better ways you could spend your time than getting mad at Wheel of Fortune clips? Yes. But also, I don’t blame people for thinking it’s bullsh*t how one contestant was “robbed” of winning $40,000 during a recent episode of the game show.

Contestant Megan Carvale made it all the way to the bonus round where the category was Living Things. After getting the customary “RSTLNE” letters and guessing a few of her own, she was left with P_N__RC__D. Megan wasted no time in trying to solve the puzzle. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to. “You might have been overthinking a type of orchid. I’m sorry that didn’t work out for you,” host Pat Sajak said as the board revealed the correct answer: Pink Orchid.

But as noted by Decider, “Viewers at home were convinced that Carvale had guessed ‘Pink Orchid’ right as the countdown began. Because the countdown music was playing at the same time, her first guess is a bit difficult to understand.” It’s hard to tell: it could be “pink orchid,” but it also might be “something orchid.” The Wheel of Fortune community has weighed in, though, and they’re convinced Carvale should have won.

[From Uproxx]

I have watched this video over and over again, and it’s just the final consonant of the first word that I cannot make out. Megan’s answer (the first guess, by the way) sure sounds like “Pink Orchid” except for the definitive K sound trailing off. She either said “Pink Orchid” or “Ping Orchid.” Or maybe Pat thought he heard her say “Pinq” and dismissed the answer due to the Q spelling. The thing is, once the answer is revealed Megan deflates and acts like she knows she just lost. Why would she do that if she had said the right answer? Nerves? And there are a lot of people in that studio, so I’m kind of inclined to believe that someone from production is tasked with listening closely. That’s it — we need the sound tech to weigh in! Hold on, after watching the video one extra umpteenth time I am cautiously confident that she says “someTHING orchid,” with the first syllable very softly spoken. Meanwhile, since I now have “Pink Orchid” stuck on a loop in my head, all I can think of is how it sounds like a perfume. Pink Orchid by Wheel of Fortune… always the right answer.

photos are shreenshots from YouTube/Wheel of Fortune

Queen Camilla was pretty much the only senior royal out and about in the month of January. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh also did a handful of events (Edward was even abroad), but ever since King Charles and the Princess of Wales’s dual medical issues were revealed, it’s been all about Camilla. Camilla out and about, doing events. Camilla making sure to be seen visiting her husband repeatedly in the hospital. Camilla holding down the fort and giving updates about Charles’s condition, while mysteriously never being asked about Kate’s condition. Everything’s coming up Camilla! Which is the point of this latest Telegraph piece – it’s mostly a summary of previously reported, positive PR for Cam, but the framing of it is very “Camilla is the last one standing.” Some highlights:

Last woman standing: The King is recovering from hospital treatment for an enlarged prostate, the Princess of Wales is convalescing at home, and the Prince of Wales is focused on supporting his wife and taking care of their three children. That leaves just one woman standing: Queen Camilla, holding the fort… This means the 76-year-old Queen – who has been out and about every day this week – is practically ruling solo, with support from the other “women of Windsor,” the Princess Royal and the Duchess of Edinburgh.

A busy schedule?? The ever-capable Camilla has ploughed on with a busy schedule of public engagements, too. On Wednesday, she opened a new Maggie’s cancer support centre at the Royal Free Hospital in London. She promised to pass on well wishes for the King, who she said is “getting on” and “doing his best”.

Camilla’s shoes: The secret to smiling in the face of a never-ending list of engagements? Comfortable shoes. “Camillla has found a way to dress elegantly for royal engagements without sacrificing on comfort. You’d never see her in a spindly stiletto – all her shoes tend to have the same sensible low block heel which the late Queen Elizabeth relied on into her 90s,” says Bethan Holt, Telegraph Fashion Director and author of The Queen: 70 years of Majestic Style. “She favours British brands like Sole Bliss, Eliot Zed and Russell and Bromley whose shoes and boots are crafted to withstand long periods of standing while looking good, too,” Holt adds. “The Queen’s longtime dresser Jacqui Meakin works with a small circle of designers including Anna Valentine and Fiona Clare to source outfits which will make Camilla feel effortlessly good.

Stoicism & good humor: A double Royal health blow presents unprecedented circumstances. But the Queen’s approach is nothing different to her usual attitude of stoicism and hard work coupled with good humour. “She has a great twinkle, and it comes out very readily… it puts people at their ease very quickly,” said Lady Lansdowne, a close friend of the Queen’s, in a recent BBC documentary about the Coronation year.

A stiff drink: Indeed, as a voracious reader and the patron of several literary charities, relaxing with a good book (with or without a gin and tonic, said to be her favourite tipple) is one of the ways the Queen takes care of her own wellbeing when faced with a busy and demanding schedule. Another is riding or walking, either at Clarence House or the private Wiltshire residence she has owned since the mid-1990s – although it is doubtful there is much time for a countryside retreat at the moment.

Running the show: Not long ago, it would have seemed impossible that the Queen would be running the show solo. And yet she has proved she is a very safe pair of hands.

[From The Telegraph]

What’s also sort of funny about the whole “Camilla is holding down the fort/she’s the last woman standing” thing is that before January, it felt like Camilla was being slowly downgraded in importance. She didn’t do well during the Kenya trip, and the trip to France wasn’t a galloping success either. There were more and more stories about how she didn’t want to travel, how she and Charles were spending more time apart, and she was “overwhelmed” by the workload and expectations of being queen. I got the feeling that she missed having more downtime to day-drink at Ray Mill. But something about Charles and Kate’s medical issues has given Camilla a spring in her step. She’s always happiest when she’s playing some kind of angle and screwing over one of her enemies. Something to keep in mind.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.

It’s been more than a week since the Oscar nominations were announced and we learned that Oscar voters didn’t think Greta Gerwig deserved an Oscar nomination for directing Barbie, nor did the voters think Margot Robbie’s performance as Barbie was worthy of a Best Actress nom. Those same voters absolutely thought America Ferrera and Ryan Gosling were worthy of Oscar noms though, and Barbie is nominated for Best Picture, which means Margot is nominated as a producer. Greta is nominated in adapted screenplay – because her original screenplay was “adapted” from… dolls. Again, the whole thing is still shocking, ridiculous, sexist and asinine. AMPAS continues to look so foolish. Margot didn’t issue any statements about the snubs last week, but she took part in a SAG-AFTRA screening on Tuesday, and she ended up addressing the situation:

“There’s no way to feel sad when you know you’re this blessed,” Margot Robbie said during a panel at a special SAG screening on Tuesday night.

“Obviously I think Greta should be nominated as a director, because what she did is a once-in-a-career, once-in-a-lifetime thing, what she pulled off, it really is,” Robbie said. “But it’s been an incredible year for all the films.”

Barbie is the only billion-dollar film solely directed by a woman, and it outstripped all other films at the box office last year, bringing home $1.4 billion worldwide. As Robbie said, the reaction to the film has become a kind of cultural phenomenon: “I just suspect it’s bigger than us. It’s bigger than this movie, it’s bigger than our industry.”

Robbie also clearly pointed out that she is “beyond ecstatic that we’ve got eight Academy Award nominations, it’s so wild.” Those nominations include Best Picture, Supporting Actress for America Ferrera; Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling, Costume Design, Production Design and Best Adapted Screenplay for Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. “Everyone getting the nods that they’ve had is just incredible, and the Best Picture nod,” Robbie said.

“We set out to do something that would shift culture, affect culture, just make some sort of impact. And it’s already done that, and some, way more than we ever dreamed it would. And that is truly the biggest reward that could come out of all of this.”

Robbie had the SAG screening audience laughing as she described listening in movie theater bathrooms for audience reactions and then being in a pub in Scotland overhearing a group of men on a bachelor party trip discussing the film. “It was just truly fascinating,” she said. “There were people at the table who refused to see the Barbie movie. One guy was like, ‘Dude, it is a cultural moment, don’t you want to be a part of culture?’ And the other guy was like, ‘I’ll never see it,’ and by the end he did want to see it. It was a whole thing.” Robbie recalled she couldn’t resist approaching the group to say hello. “It took a full minute for them to realize, and I was practically out the door. And then they were like, ‘Ohhhh!’ It was very funny.”

“People’s reactions to the movie have been the biggest reward of this entire experience, whether it’s having a moment like that, or whether it’s listening in the bathrooms, or whether it’s seeing what people are writing online, or even just seeing how much pink I can see in this room right now. I’ve never been a part of something like this. Not like this. I’ve done comic book stuff and that gets a big reaction, but this felt very different. It still feels very different. And I can’t think of a time when a movie’s had this effect on culture. And it’s amazing to be in the eye of the storm.”

[From Deadline]

A completely mature and measured response from a woman who executive produced and starred in a film about how women are diminished, marginalized and dismissed. What else can she say, really? “Those f–king misogynistic douchebags!” Of course not. She’s still got to play the game to some degree. I hate that she has to eat those snubs and she’s still expected to show up with a smile on her face, to be grateful for those eight nominations. If only there was a well-written speech about just that in Barbie!! But I also agree with her that Barbie’s cultural impact is huge, and the film’s impact on the industry is huge. Which makes it all the more egregious that she and Greta were snubbed.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

This week, the British media has been extremely focused on Archewell’s manager stepping down and taking another job. They’re desperately trying to make “the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s business is in trouble” into a thing. Meanwhile, nary a peep about a huge expansion for Clevr Blends, the oat-milk latte company. In late 2020, the Duchess of Sussex invested in the small, California-based company and over the course of three years, Clevr Blends has grown and grown. To the point where Clevr Blends is now in 500 Target brick-and-mortar stores across America AND Target is now carrying the latte blends online. Here’s more about how the deal came together:

After months of tweaking the look and cost of their products, two better-for-you coffee brands are ready for their first major U.S. retail launches. Clevr, which makes instant-drink mixes of plant-based lattes, is bringing four of its most popular flavors (Matcha, Chai, Coffee and Sleeptime) to 500 Target locations across the U.S. this week. Blume, a Canadian brand, is entering 90 Targets in the U.S. this week with four plant-based latte powders (Blue Lavender, Salted Caramel, Matcha Coconut and Reishi Hot Cacao). Both will sell their products — which customers make by mixing in water — on Target.com, as well.

Clevr and Blume are part of the emerging better-for-you coffee movement, which emphasizes vegan, organic drinks as an alternative to sugary, over-caffeinated drinks. So-called “superlattes” are a large part of this market and tend to contain probiotics, inflammatories or adaptogens (herbs, roots and other plant products like mushrooms that help the body respond to stress). Not all contain caffeine, although three of Clevr’s new Target blends do.

Several years ago, products such as these were considered highly-niche and needed to be purchased in health food stores. Now, more major big-box retailers are putting coffee alternatives on shelves. In the U.S., Target is seemingly leading the way, giving the category an extra boost with its newly-announced focus on wellness products.

Clevr, which was founded in 2019, began as a direct-to-consumer brand but now also sells through Amazon and 10 Erewhon supermarkets. Today, some 90% of Clevr’s business comes from DTC, although the brand is now focused on expanding to more retail partners, CEO and co-founder Hannah Mendoza told Modern Retail.

To help with this, Clevr spent the past 12 months making its packaging more straightforward. Clevr’s Target products will be the first to include this updated look, which Clevr will then roll out to all of its products. Whereas previous packaging did not list the ingredients on the front, the new packaging does. It also includes a picture of the finished latte, lists the amount of sugar and explains that the drinks can be made hot or iced. Clevr tested this branding with seven rounds of Target customers, making changes in between.

“It was amazing how much wasn’t clear that we thought it was clear,” Mendoza said. “You can’t assume anything in terms of what people are getting from your product.”

The Target products are different from the rest of Clevr’s new lineup in a key way. Clevr’s versions for Target have a smaller pack size (eight lattes instead of 14) and a cheaper price point ($17.99 instead of $28). Clevr made these changes, Mendoza said, to better fit in with coffee competitors sitting in the $16 to $19 price range in Target’s coffee aisle. “It was really important to us to have something that was sub-$20,” she said. As a result, the new packaging is approximately 6.8 ounces by weight, instead of 12 ounces.

Target approached Clevr about the expansion last January when working to build its wellness portfolio, Mendoza said. Clevr will sit in the coffee aisle at Target, alongside others that include more sugars or preservatives. It’s those brands, not other wellness ones, that Clevr sees as competition.

“What we’re asking people to do is disrupt a centuries-old ritual and routine with coffee… look at our rising stress and anxiety levels as a nation and try something new,” Mendoza said. “It’s a really big task. And so, to have one of the biggest retailers in the nation [Target] behind us and that mission is really helpful.”

[From Modern Retail]

It really is huge for the company! It’s amazing that Target reached out to Clevr Blends one year ago and Clevr redesigned their packaging and developed a smaller bag to fit in with the under-$20 range. That’s so smart, not only for the price point, but people will simply be more willing to try a product if they can get a smaller bag, not knowing if they’ll like it. Meghan’s investment in Clevr is looking smarter and smarter. And what’s even more wild is that Meghan boosted the company’s profile and product’s profile without being online – she’s never done an Instagram post about Clevr (she doesn’t have an IG account) and she’s never really given an interview specifically to support the company.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instagram.