Amazon’s biannual Prime Day sales event is over, but it’s hardly over when it comes to expectations around shopping during the holiday season.

Like last year, shoppers are still pinched for dollars, and now resuming student loan payments are another factor retailers have to keep in mind. But Amazon’s second Prime Day sale simply greased the wheels for the holiday shopping season. Experts told Retail Brew that retailers across the board should, of course, anticipate more spending in the coming months but to also temper expectations given current economic conditions.

• Last week marked the biggest October Prime Day for the company, as shoppers saved more than $1 billion and Prime members purchased more than 25 million items with same- or next-day delivery.
• According to Amazon, apparel, beauty, home, and toys were the bestselling categories across the two-day shopping event.

“Prime Big Deal Days was a strong start to the holiday shopping season, offering Prime members an exclusive early opportunity to save and surpassing our expectations. This event outpaced last year’s holiday kick-off event, with more Prime members shopping this year,” Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, said in a statement.

The second Prime Day is very much an experiment for Amazon as the company hopes to drum up demand in the middle of summer during its first sale and then preempt the holiday shopping season with the second sale, Rob Garf, VP and GM of retail at Salesforce, told Retail Brew.

Keep reading here.—KM

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​​Spirit Halloween executives aren’t the only ones scouting out shuttered department stores this fall: Health system leaders are also eyeing up empty retail and office spaces to expand outpatient offerings and reach new communities.

While it may seem weird for patients go under the knife at a location that once sold knives, Jim Crispino, the healthcare leader at design firm Gensler, told Healthcare Brew that the “medtail” phenomenon—a trend in which healthcare providers open shop in former retail spaces—makes sense both financially and operationally.

Read the whole story here on Healthcare Brew.—SY

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Through FirstLook and Distrobox, Brian Folmer is helping connect brands with early-stage inventors and DSD distributors.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? My job is to get products from emerging consumer brands into the hands of the right people. At FirstLook, I send products from brands raising capital to early-stage investors so they can experience, learn about, and potentially invest in them. At Distrobox, I send products from brands to DSD distributors so they can experience, learn, and potentially distribute to stores for consumers to buy.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? I ​still handpack boxes​ out of my parents’ garage with ​help from my wife.​ She’s the best.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? My favorite project has to be the CPG Industry Master Calendar I created. It’s a free, public Gmail calendar industry folks can subscribe to which has all the major conferences, pitch competitions, and key events unfolding in the space. It took a bit of work to launch, but luckily we now have over 1,500 subscribers and people submitting events which further improves its usefulness.

Keep reading here.—EC