A US Labor Department survey from March is raising concerns about how clothes are made in the US.

The report surveyed more than 50 garment-sewing contractors and manufacturers—which make garments for retailers like Nordstrom, Bombshell Sportswear, Neiman Marcus, and Dillard’s—in Southern California and found that the Fair Labor Standards Act was potentially violated in 80% of the investigations, including how and how much workers are paid.

In one instance, a contractor was paying wages as low as $1.58 an hour. Other instances of violations included paying workers off the book and paying them based on the number of garments they worked on.

The report follows the California Garment Worker Protection Act enacted last year that required companies to pay a minimum hourly wage to workers and made them more accountable for wage theft.

Susan Scafidi, founder and director at the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham College, said that while early labor laws in the US were passed to improve labor conditions across garment factories, some manufacturers have continued to “live down” to the reputation for exploiting workers.

“The US Department of Labor investigation indicates that more needs to be done with regard to enforcement of minimum-wage laws in this sector,” she told Retail Brew.

While Scafidi said it is unlikely the retailers themselves engaged in any alleged wage theft since they often don’t hire workers directly, “having their names in a DOL report and potentially in media headlines will put pressure on retailers to increase oversight of their supply chains—or risk both consumer and investor backlash,” she said.

Keep reading here.—JS

Retail marketers have a lotta questions these days.

Which TV streaming services are my audience watching? Does anyone listen to radio anymore? How are Americans responding to a possible TikTok ban? 2023 is a total whirlwind, so what’s the trick to coming out on top?

You gotta hit the books and plan it out. Fortunately, Attest is here to help. They surveyed 1k US consumers to explore year-on-year changes—and what they mean for your 2023 media planning. Say hello to sharp insights and eye-opening data.

Want more deets? Attest loaded this bad boy with tons of top tips to help you make the most of the opportunities, from analysis of the latest media trends to insights on the broader market. You don’t wanna miss out on this invaluable resource.

Map out 2023 with Attest’s report.

This earnings szn, we’ve seen a familiar narrative pop up around CPG giants, namely that they’re continuing to do notably well despite continuous price hikes. And as QSRs reported their first-quarter results over the last few weeks, we’ve heard pretty much the same thing as sales and traffic rise despite the numbers on the menu ticking up. But there have been a few signs that they are starting to feel the crunch of higher prices.

Quick off the mark: Chipotle’s revenue grew 17.2% year over year to $2.4 billion on the back of ~10% higher menu prices compared to last year. Those price hikes, along with lower avocado prices, helped boost its restaurant-level margin 25.6%. Chipotle raised prices twice last year, though chair and CEO Brian Niccol said the company has not made any “definitive plans” on pricing actions for the remainder of the year.

“If we see inflation that warrants us needing to take additional pricing, we’ll take it,” he said. “I think we’ve now demonstrated we do have pricing power. We have a really strong brand and we don’t want to be in front of the inflationary environment, but we also don’t want to fall behind.”

Traffic grew 4% for the quarter, and Niccol said Chipotle continues to receive steady business from higher-income consumers, while its volume of lower-income consumers base is “still not all the way back” to its levels a year ago, but has improved over the past six months.

Keep reading here.—EC

It’s bad enough when you bite the bullet and decide, yes, you’ll shell out $6 for bottled water at the airport. But then you scan it at self-checkout and are prompted to add a 10% to 20% tip?

That’s what Garrett Bemiller told The Wall Street Journal happened to him at an OTG gift shop at Newark Liberty International Airport recently, and he called it “emotional blackmail.”

We told you about tipflation in a two-part series earlier this year, detailing the broadening range of scenarios where consumers are encountering tip-prompt screens, including at fast food drive-thru windows or for takeout orders at restaurants.

But the WSJ report heralds a new order of magnitude for tipflation, with consumers at self-checkout being asked to tip for a service they are providing.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Today’s top retail reads.

(Won’t) see you again: Pandemic-era behaviors might become permanent as fast food restaurants and diners are seeing fewer and fewer in-person customers. Delivery might be the future of dining, and their restaurants have a chance of becoming obsolete. (Vox)

Not faithful: The most dedicated of shoppers frequent loyalty programs, but some brands—including Dunkin’ and Sephora—might neuter their programs if the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. (Modern Retail)

Pay attention: Today, we’re talking about the Amazons and Walmarts of the world, but there will come a time when other companies rule and they might just be on this list—and make headlines sooner than you think. (CNBC)

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The numbers you need to know.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and the United States seems to understand this more than Europe.

A new study found that US retailers and brands are using more advanced product imagery than those in Europe, with 73% of those in the US employing context-rich imagery—defined as detailed and accurate product shots—as opposed to 52% of their European counterparts, according to Nfinite data in partnership with Coresight Research.

• And 74% of US companies employ image performance testing—A/B tests—as opposed to 60% of those in Europe.

According to the study, 42% of US brands and retailers have made investments in 3D and CGI technologies compared to 39% of those in Europe. Plus, 47% of European brands and retailers lack knowledge of CGI product visuals, compared to 38% of those in the US.

“CGI and 3D image creation are critical for online product visualizations, and we are starting to see the real impact they can have on driving sales conversion, reducing the costs to create and manage product visuals, improving speed-to-market and reducing product returns," Coresight CEO and founder Deborah Weinswig said in a statement.

However, it’s not entirely lost on European companies that product image creations are valuable for online merchandising, given 65% of European brands plan to invest more in interactive images, compared to less than half in the US (48%).

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Wayfair’s customer experience analysis may soon run on AI
• What hemp industry leaders hope to see in the 2023 Farm Bill
• The retail startups to watch