The Modern Retail Podcast Digiday

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff starts off discussing Shein's strategy to quietly raise its prices ahead of its anticipated IPO. Meanwhile, TikTok Shop is beginning to compete with Google and other platforms by testing a new image search. Finally, a new report by The Vitamin Shoppe shows a spike in sales of nutritional supplements like protein and meal replacements thanks to the rising popularity of medications like Ozempic and Wegovy.

Most people don't think about the brand behind their disposable plates, but Repurpose is trying to change that.
The company, which is now sold in major retailers like Kroger and Costco, makes eco-friendly disposable products like plates, cups napkins, trash bags and toilet paper. While its prices are competitive, they still are at a slight premium to foam and plastic players.
"It just felt like, why couldn't this be its own little category and brand that represented a whole kind of better-for-you disposable product?" said Repurpose co-founder and CEO Lauren Gropper.
Gropper joined the Modern Retail Podcast and spoke about the 14-year-old company's growth.
While Repurpose is in most major retailers today, it took a lot of work to convince buyers. "Any of the buyers that had any experience with it in the past [were] like, 'This doesn't work -- we've tried it, so don't even bother,' said Gropper.
But after multiple news headlines around plastic disposable products hurting wildlife, more retailers began to seek out better alternatives. "We went from being in the knocking-down-every-door business to the incoming-call business," she said.
Repurpose's growth has helped it figure out a sustainable business model. The idea from the get-go was to make products that could be competitive with the likes of Dixie. While the company had very slim margins at first, volume has helped Repurpose cut down on costs.
"In the early days, we just went in with a lower margin knowing we're going to make this up as time goes on," Gropper said.

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the latest changes at Shopify, including the reported sunsetting of Shopify Plus branding. Meanwhile, after five years of trying to grow Walmart Health, the retailer shut down the health-focused business after reportedly losing nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. Lastly, better-for-you soda brand Poppi is facing a class action lawsuit in California by customers who say they were duped by its gut health claims.

Online resale may be a hot retail buzzword now, but ThredUp has been around for over a decade building out its business.
This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, ThredUp CEO and co-founder James Reinhart spoke about rising demand for resale and how the platform has expanded its offerings. Not only does ThredUp have its own marketplace business, but the company has been building out its resale-as-a-service offering, allowing brands to use its infrastructure to create their own consignment programs.
"In some ways, I describe us as really the infrastructure and backbone of how resale works on the internet," Reinhart said.
Compared to some of the recent fast-fashion upstarts, ThredUp is an older player. The company was founded in 2009, and went public in 2021. Still, ThredUp has been able to stay current with recent business movements. The rise of Shein and Temu -- as well as the backlash to their fast-fashion value-focused offerings -- has given ThredUp some helpful tailwinds, for example.
"It's easy to have a boogeyman," Reinhart said.
Reinhart also said that resale as an industry should be treated like other nascent technologies contributing to a greater good, like electric vehicles and solar energy. As such, he's calling for more government assistance as companies try to figure out ways to build new sustainability-focused technology.
"I'm a big believer that government has a role to play in bridging the economic and innovation gap that it takes to develop some of these new technologies," he said.

On this week’s Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses how Hoka went mainstream in the last few years and how the company's roadmap will cater to this newfound customer base. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime is facing pressure from memberships like Walmart+, prompting the company to constantly expand its included perks. Lastly, store brands and private labels continue to see growth as Americans trade down from higher-priced national brands.

Century 21 was an iconic New York off-price store that is now trying to return to its former glory.
After filing for bankruptcy and shutting down all 13 of its locations, Century 21 reopened its lower Manhattan locations.
"We are, in fact, an iconic legacy piece of New York, and we're happy to be back," Larry Mentzer, the retailer's chief operating officer, said on the Modern Retail Podcast. Mentzer spoke about the strategy with the reopening as well as plans for the future.
The retail landscape has been transformed over the last four years -- and Century 21 has had to reckon with those changes. As part of the reopening, the company dramatically cut down its store size as well as the types of products it sells. Now, it focuses predominately on apparel and less on areas that didn't sell as well, such as home goods and kids shoes.
"We really made a conscious effort to edit the assortment, keep it tight, turn faster, carry less inventory and show the customer really must-have designers and must-have items that you can't come back tomorrow and get it," he said.
While foot traffic and sales have gone up and down over the last year, Mentzer says things are looking promising. "I can tell you that Q1, which was February, March and April of 2024, was better. And Q2, which we're just recently rolling into, is incredibly better. So we're excited about the summer," he said.