As an editor of Retail Dive, it’s my job to keep tabs on every piece of retail-related news—the good, the bad, and the silly. From Ikea’s breakfast in bed to Whole Foods’ effort to attract all the hip cool kids, here are some of the most interesting reads from the past week.
Target ball-ers
Take a ball, add a rocket. Take a ball, add Connect Four. That's the idea behind the latest social media trend, “Target balling,” where people snap all kinds of creative poses with the ubiquitous giant red balls outside of Target stores.
Day 344: this connect four piece won't fit but it's ok because I already won! @target #targetballing (tag a friend that you would smash in Connect Four)
Posted by Cullen and Katie on Monday, March 16, 2015
Day 338: "We're going on a trip, in our favorite rocket ship, zooming through the sky..." @target #targetballing
Posted by Cullen and Katie on Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Nap time
Dreamers everywhere (or at least in London), Ikea has heard your call. The furniture retailer is opening a pop-up café in London that will serve customers traditional Swedish breakfasts as they sample a number of their beds, according to the Wall Street Journal. Naptime is also available in the afternoon.
Soothing tension ‘with a salve of toast and jam’
In a thoughtful yet somewhat melodramatic ode to the department store restaurant, Racked’s Angela Serratore looks back at the reliable comfort she has come to expect from eating in her favorite Bloomingdale’s restaurant:
“It's a place to pause and just be amidst the organized chaos of all the things I might own, and also a place to cast off consumer anxiety, the terror of hearing ‘That doesn't come in your size’ or ‘This lipstick is from France and you'll never pronounce the name correctly so don't even try.’
Also, nothing on the menu costs more than fifteen dollars.”
‘Half Paycheck’
In an effort to shake its “Whole Paycheck” epithet, Whole Foods announced this week that it will launch a lower-priced brand to attract highly coveted millennial customers.
A $5 million February
And you thought your winter was bad. In addition to reporting its quarterly earnings, Kohl’s revealed that it spent $5 million in February alone to remove snow from the front of its stores. Fortune did the math, and it seems that the retailer’s spend falls somewhere between Chicago and Milwaukee’s budget for snow removal.