As one of the editors 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 Kanye West’s sweatshirt fervor to retail’s most dapper stoner, here are some of the most interesting reads from the past week.
Where Ikea gets all those product names
Ever wonder where Ikea gets those unique-albeit-unpronounceable names for its products? Ikea design spokeswoman Janice Simonsen told Huffington Post that they are derived from a “database maintained by Ikea of Sweden,” with bookcases named after professions and Scandinavian boy names, and rugs named after Danish places, for example.
The hoopla about hoverboards
Wal-Mart told Buzzfeed News that it will begin selling “self-balancing scooters,” also known as “hoverboards” (but not really hoverboards per se, more like handle-less Segways) on its U.S. website by the start of the holiday season. For those of us not well-versed in the latest hip transportation craze—here's (almost) everything you need to know about the hoverboard phenomenon.
The classiest toker
Men’s Wearhouse founder George Zimmer gave a keynote speech at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo in Los Angeles in support for marijuana legalization. Zimmer has been a big fan of the drug for years, and has been working to pass recreational marijuana legalization in California since 2010.
"I've been smoking marijuana on a regular basis for about 50 years. As you can see, it's really impacted me in a negative way," Zimmer joked to CNBC.
Millennial bait
Macy’s is luring younger shoppers to its newly renovated flagship store with a basement dedicated “to the whims of the millennial shopper,” according to Digiday. Features of the space include a “selfie wall,” Instagram wall, and a 3D printing section.
'Sweatshirts are [expletive] important'
Kanye West had an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair after his Yeezy fashion show, which was streamed to 40 movie theaters around the world. Amid discussions of a 2020 presidential run and his obsession with Gap, he dropped some dazzling (and explicit) words that we should all take to heart:
“Sweatshirts are [expletive] important. That might sound like the funniest quote ever. How can you say all this stuff about running for president in 2020 and then say sweatshirts are important? But they are. Just mark my words. Mark my words like Mark Twain.”