Chances are you’ve never heard of Margaret Getchell LaForge, but she was—by many accounts—the first woman ever hired as a retail executive when Rowland Hussey Macy promoted her, in 1866, to the superintendent of his then eight-year-old dry-goods store in Lower Manhattan, R.H. Macy.

Business journalist Stephanie Forshee had never heard of LaForge herself, until early in the pandemic, when she was reading Robert Griffo’s 2008 history of the retailer, Macy’s: The Store, The Star, The Story. Griffo was laudatory, quoting an employee at the time who called LaForge “the brains of the establishment,” but devoted just three pages to her life and contributions.

Forshee, who previously covered finance for Morning Brew, wanted more, and thus began a three-year journey learning about LaForge. While initially researching with the intention of writing a historical novel with LaForge at the center, she put that project on the back burner to write a biography for children, Hidden Gems: Margaret Getchell LaForge.

We asked Forshee how LaForge shaped Macy’s in its infancy, why women CEOs are still underrepresented in retail, and why she took to Kickstarter to fund the book.

Keep reading here.—AAN

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Beverage giants cracked open solid second-quarter results over the past month, reporting rising sales and revenues on the back of price hikes—but flat and slightly dipping volumes signal some consumer pullback and trading down to cheaper private label products.

The Coca-Cola Company: Coke’s net revenues rose 6% to $12 billion, and it increased its full-year guidance to 8%–9%. US volume fell 1% for the quarter—most categories were flat, with a decline in water, sports drinks, coffee, and tea, though there was a rise in Coca-Cola Zero Sugar.

Chairman and CEO James Quincey said the company has seen “some willingness” from consumers to trade down to private label products, particularly water and juice, as they become “increasingly cost conscious.” Quincey said price hikes are largely affecting developed markets like North America and Western Europe, noting it’s “more important than ever to be consumer centric.”

Keurig Dr Pepper: The maker of 7-Up, Snapple, and Canada Dry raised its full-year net sales outlook after reporting a net sales bump of 6.6% YoY to $3.79 billion. The beverage company also said its gross margins grew for the first time since Q3 2021.

The company’s US Refreshment Beverages segment saw 11.8% sales growth but flat volume, while US Coffee, which includes Green Mountain and Donut Shop, saw declining sales and volume. Chairman and CEO Robert Gamgort said the corporation’s new partnership with La Colombe—it took a $300 million 33% stake in the coffee company last month—will strengthen its position in the coffee segment.

PepsiCo: The beverage company reported a 10.4% net revenue boost in its second quarter, bumping up its full-year revenue outlook from 8% to 10%. Volumes dropped across North American Quaker Foods and PepsiCo beverages divisions, as CEO Ramon Laguarta noted consumers are “shopping in more stores” and “looking for better deals.”

“We’re seeing lower-income consumers strategizing around obviously optimizing their budgets, but we’re seeing the majority of consumers staying within our categories, staying within our brands,” Laguarta said.—EC

That’s right, folks, we’re back in the heart of Q2 earnings season. Industry titans Amazon and Apple reported their earnings last week with mixed results, so let’s dive in and see who faces the music this week.

In earnings: On Tuesday, UPS will report its earnings after a tumultuous few weeks during which workers were preparing to strike over a labor dispute, before reaching a tentative agreement late last month. Major sticking points? Pay increases and better safety conditions.

• In Q1, UPS reported $22.9 billion in revenue, a 6% YoY decrease.

Alibaba will report earnings on Thursday. Its stock took a major tumble last week after the Chinese government recommended limits to screen time for children, and a number of tech companies in China took a hit.

• If the draft guidelines are approved, it could also affect other major players in China, including JD.com and Tencent, according to The Motley Fool.

In sales: Monday marks the beginning of a monthlong summer sale in Egypt, when participating retailers can mark down their prices. To participate, store owners must receive the go-ahead from the Supply and Internal Trade directorates.

• It’s part of an effort on the part of the Egyptian government to boost domestic consumption.

In inflation: On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the consumer price index (CPI) for July, and we’ll see if inflation continues to ease. Last month, inflation rose only 0.2%, the lowest rate in more than two years.

Across the pond, food inflation fell in July to its lowest level this year.—KM

Today’s top retail reads.

Hard times: Fresca and SunnyD are now making spiked versions, and there’s no sign of slowing when it comes to popular beverages introducing a boozy offering. “We’re not near a peak on this,” said Duane Stanford, editor of Beverage Digest. “We’re really at the very beginning.” (CNN)

Kicks starter: How an American-made sneaker popular with retirees in the US became a hit overseas. (the Wall Street Journal)

But wait…there’s more: “As Seen on TV” companies Telebrands and Ontel have faced lawsuits from product inventors over allegedly stealing their ideas. (CBS News)

At the mall, it’s where band tees are the only tees. In Retail Brew, it’s where we invite readers to weigh in on a trending retail topic.

To help reduce the incidence of packages being stolen by porch pirates, UPS’s shipping insurance division is introducing a “predictive analytics solution” called DeliveryDefense. It determines how likely a package is to be stolen at a given address, and if it’s likely, senders can opt to deliver it somewhere other than the address, like a nearby UPS store.

You tell us: Should online retailers send products somewhere besides a customer’s home if they determine it’s apt to be stolen there? Cast your vote here.

Circling back: Last time, we asked you about a debate among executives at companies that design and launch resale sites for brands. One school of thought is that when a brand launches a resale website, it should look good, but not as good as the brand’s primary website so that shopping for new items is a more elevated experience. The other school of thought is that there should be parity among all ways consumers shop on a brand’s website, whether they’re shopping for new or secondhand items. So we asked which camp you were in.

Most of you (62.4%) thought a brand’s new-products site and resale site should have parity and look equally good, while 34.1% thought a brand’s new-products site should look better than its resale site. Only 2.4% thought a brand’s resale site should look better than its new-products site, and 1.2% did not know or weren’t sure.