In 2023, the Petco in New York’s Union Square relocated to…Union Square. It moved just a block east, from the park’s northwest corner to its northeast corner, but when it comes to design, the store’s in another galaxy.

Visiting the old store, for example, you may not have noticed that it had a pet grooming department, tucked as it was in a corner of the basement. But enter the new store, which occupies the 95-year-old Tammany Hall building, and you can’t miss it: There it is, just to the left, looking like a classic New York barbershop. There’s a barber chair, black-and-white mosaic tile floors, and a gold-leaf sign painted on the window: “Ruff’s Barker Shop.”

A fluffy dog getting a summer cut can be adorable to behold, and that’s not lost on Petco.

“It’s not just dropping your dog off for grooming,” Rick Neira, VP of creative, visual merchandising, store design, and merchandise operations at Petco, told Retail Brew. “Now there’s theater in it.”

Keep reading here.—AAN

Reach millions of customers by selling on Walmart.com. You’ll be able to scale your business by streamlining fulfillment, advertising to millions, and automating pricing on a platform invested in your growth.

Right now, new sellers save up to 50% on referral and fulfillment fees when you sign up.

Learn more.

Crocs, Inc. just turned in strong quarterly earnings, despite its Heydude brand continuing to see declines in both wholesale and DTC revenue. For the company as a whole, DTC revenue increased 6.8% and wholesale fell 4.6% in the fourth quarter, but much of that decrease stemmed from Heydude’s losses.

• The comfort footwear brand, which Crocs bought in 2022, saw wholesale revenue drop 28% in Q4 and DTC fall 9% compared to the year before.

The upside is that Crocs moved to make Heydude’s sales more profitable by pulling back on price matching, which involves lowering prices to keep up with competitors. As a result, the average sales price for e-commerce jumped 15%.

The company also shed a sizable amount of Heydude’s inventory in 2023, dropping 38% from last year and 6% from the third quarter.

Keep reading here.—AV

Starbucks is introducing new accessibility features that the company hopes will benefit disabled employees and patrons at its new US retail locations.

Starbucks unveiled its Inclusive Spaces Framework on Feb. 16 at the newly opened store in Washington, DC’s Union Market neighborhood, and will incorporate it into all new US locations going forward. The move is part of the company’s overall strategy to make its stores more accessible to employees and customers with disabilities.

Keep reading here on HR Brew.—KP

Creators are the captains . Shopping is a unique journey for consumers these days. How to crush it? Embrace LTK’s latest national study insights. Their new white paper has all the deets on how creators can take consumers from discovery to purchase in fresh and novel ways. Let creators take the reins.