If you’ve shopped on Ikea.com lately, you may have noticed the phrase “New Lower Price” in red letters above certain products. You may have also noticed that underneath the current price is the “previous price,” in case you didn’t get the message that after two years of hiking prices up to 80%, the Swedish furniture company is now on a “journey toward more affordability, accessibility, and convenience for the many,” according to a press release.

Joining other price-cutting retailers such as JCPenney and Walmart, the company in November announced its “New Lower Price” initiative, which promised to lower the cost of around 600 items up 20% with a focus on popular low-cost items (or key value indicators in industry parlance) such as the Kallax shelf and Billy bookcase.

“We are decreasing the most famous Ikea products first, so many more people can afford them,” CEO and chief security officer Javier Quiñones told Retail Brew in an exclusive interview, adding that consumers are “more conscious today because of the economic situation.”

He also stressed that it was always Ikea’s intent to reduce its prices after raising them in recent years due to skyrocketing supply-chain costs following the pandemic.

Keep reading here.—AV

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“Employers typically view layoffs as a necessary evil that will benefit the future of the organization. But they can cost an organization, too,” writes HR Brew’s Amanda Schiavo:

Handcrafted goods retailer Etsy announced on Dec. 13 that it laid off 11% of its workforce, or approximately 225 employees.

Etsy wasn’t the only retailer reducing its workforce. On Dec. 11, toy giant Hasbro said it would dismiss 20% of its talent over the next 18 to 24 months.

Read the whole story here on HR Brew.

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Sanrdo Roco is the founder and CEO of Asian-inspired sparkling water brand Sanzo, sold in retailers like Albertsons, Whole Foods, and Target.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? In my experience, building a beverage brand is as much about building with our retail and distribution partners as it is about the end consumer. Most folks, especially those with a heavy leaning in direct-to-consumer, see a brand’s Instagram or TikTok as a proxy of its success. And certainly, it can be directionally correct and creating a community can differentiate a brand from others in a competitive category, but that digital presence can be less meaningful if your retail execution doesn’t back it up.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? Four and a half years in, the journey is admittedly still a grind that in many ways requires me to operate both in the very tactical day-to-day as well as be thinking one, three, five and even 10 years down the line, all at the same time. I think most people would imagine that at this point my role would be mainly strategic, but at the end of the day, we are still a small business.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? I’ve been so fortunate that we’ve gotten to work on projects that coincide with major cultural moments at the intersection of the Asian-American experience and overall pop culture. If I had to pick a favorite, it would have to be our partnership with Marvel Studios for the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Keep reading here.—EC