In 1992, one of the beverage industry’s most iconic products—the 99-cent, 23 oz. Big Can of AriZona iced tea—was introduced. More than 30 years later, the company is welcoming consumers to see how it’s made in an experience it’s dubbing AriZonaLand.

Located on a 3-million-square-foot campus in Keasbey, New Jersey, AriZonaLand includes a factory tour breaking down the beverage bottling process, plus its first-ever retail store and exhibits on the company’s history, like its innovations, branding, and dedication to the 99-cent price tag.

The company began in Brooklyn, with two iced tea flavors, Lemon and Raspberry, and now produces 85 types of tea, juices, waters, and beers. Its 600,000-square-foot New Jersey factory, opened in late 2019, manufactures 4,730 beverages every minute (including the Mucho Mango flavor on the line when Retail Brew visited—you could smell it), coming out to 6.8 million bevs daily.

While it welcomed its first tours this month, the factory—adorned with the brand’s trademark aquamarine and pink color palette throughout—was built with a walkway down the middle to give consumers a “bird’s eye view” of the production process, Don Vultaggio, AriZona’s co-founder and chair, told Retail Brew. At AriZonaLand’s grand opening, we caught up with Vultaggio to chat about the new experience and AriZona’s evolving manufacturing strategy.

Keep reading here.—EC

While Costco may be known for its massive warehouse stores, the membership club continues to grow its online business, and it’s ramping up deliveries and pick-ups in the process.

Comparable e-commerce sales were up 18.9% last quarter, compared to a more modest 5.4% bump in comparable sales overall. These gains were partly fueled by sales of gold bricks, which along with silver coins generate $200 million in sales per month, but CFO Gary Millerchip told analysts on Thursday that other items are gaining traction online as well.

Keep reading here.—AV

Fall officially started last week, but the early holiday sales season doesn’t really get going until next week, with promotional events from retail giants such as Walmart, Target, and Amazon. In the meantime, it’s a little quiet around here. To hold you over until the real action starts, here is what’s going on in retail this week:

In earnings: Nike is set to report its latest earnings report on Tuesday, and the results could provide a window into the brand’s ongoing efforts to resuscitate itself after a string of business failures and bad press, including a new release, the Panda Dunk, which some sneaker heads called “the worst sneaker of all time.” It will also be the last earnings call with CEO John Donahoe, who announced that he is stepping down in October. Longtime executive Elliott Hill is set to replace him.

Keep reading here.—AV