Vice President Kamala Harris’s love of Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars was well-established even before then-candidate President Joe Biden tapped her as his running mate in 2020.

“I have a whole collection of Chuck Taylors,” she told The Cut in 2018, while serving in the US Senate.

Harris was often seen on the campaign trail in 2020 wearing Chucks, and even wore a black pair on the cover of Vogue in 2021. That same year, October 28 officially became Chucks-N-Pearls Day, which according to website Days of the Year is celebrated by participants “wearing Chuck Taylor sneakers and pearl accessories, reflecting Harris’s signature style.”

So it should surprise no one that on the week in July when President Biden shuffled off the Democratic ticket and Harris became the presumptive nominee, Chuck Taylors spiked on Google Trends, with online searches for the sneakers the highest they’d been since the presidential inauguration in January 2021.

Getting your Chucks in a row: On social media, in the 30 days that ended August 2, mentions of Converse Chuck Taylors (and iterations including “Chucks” and “Converse”), rose 4,500%, according to Hootsuite data compiled for Retail Brew. In all, there were 1,300 mentions of the sneakers from 1,200 unique authors, for a total engagement of 22,600 and a potential reach of 4.7 billion scrollers, per Hootsuite.

Keep reading here.—AAN

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As consumers seek ways to save $$, retailers have been doubling down on their private label offerings—with many expanding, revamping, or introducing new lines in recent months—but who’s rising to the top?

Recent data from Numerator for the 12 months ending June 30 reveals which private labels have been the most dominant across sector, channel, and retailer.

Aldi leads the retail pack in terms of private label sales as a percentage of overall sales, at 80%, followed by Trader Joe’s (69%).

• There’s a significant drop-off for third—Costco—at 34%, trailed by HEB, Sam’s Club, Walmart, and Dollar Tree.
• Walmart’s private labels dominated household penetration among private label brands, with six of its own brands among the top seven. Its Great Value scored 86% household penetration, followed by Equate (75%), Mainstays (70%), Marketside (69%), Freshness Guaranteed (67%), and Pen + Gear (47%).

Zoom out: Private label share has been strongest among general merchandise categories like office (38.7%), home and garden (32.5%), and home improvement (29%), per Numerator.

Keep reading here.—EC

Walmart has long promised consumers value with its “every day low prices,” and when it comes to where and when it places ads, the retailer seems to be getting the most bang for its buck, too.

Compared to the average of other department stores, Walmart’s spots on both linear and streaming TV in Q2 were 144% more effective. So says new data from EDO, a platform that calculates internet searches for advertisers in a two- to five-minute period after their commercials air.

The next most effective advertiser was Target, followed by Old Navy, Kohl’s, and TJ Maxx.

Dayparts unknown: While having great creative certainly doesn’t hurt, part of what makes some commercials more sticky than others is when the advertisers choose to place them. Like the Boomtown Rats, viewers of department store TV ads apparently don’t like Mondays—ad effectiveness on that day during Q2 was 6% less effective than the average. The best day to place an ad in the category was Thursday, when ads were 5% more effective.

We’re among friends, so let’s talk about dayparts. The least effective time to place ads was during the unsavory-sounding “late fringe,” when ads were 40% less effective than the average, with overnight (the period that follows late fringe) close behind, when they were 37% less effective.

The most effective time was during “early fringe,” which precedes prime time, when ads were 15% more effective than average, followed by afternoon, when they were 14% more effective.

Land of the free (with purchase): Not that it’s going to stamp it on license plates, but Nebraska was the state where ads were the most effective: Residents were 50% more likely to be engaged by them than the average. In Wyoming, meanwhile, residents seemed more likely to see commercials as cues for bathroom breaks; ads there were 64% less effective than the average.—AAN