Hello there. It’s that special time of year when the air is crisp, the leaves are golden, and the pumpkin spice lattes are flowing. Fall is hands down in the top two seasons, and it’s not No. 2!  

In honor of the back-to-school, sweater-weather glory, we’re hosting a giveaway. This week, anyone who refers five (or more) retail pros to this here newsletter will win a custom Retail Brew coffee mug.

Want in? Start sharing today. 

In today’s edition: 

• Amazon’s pandemic hiring spree
• Locus Robotics's acquisition
• Our cannabis hits (so far)

—Jeena Sharma, Julia Gray, Glenda Toma

LABOR

Just hired

Retailer after retailer has gone on a hiring spree this year. But, is it just us, or does it feel like Amazon makes a new push every other week? 

Last Tuesday, the e-comm giant said it will add 125,000 warehouse and transportation workers, including delivery, across the US (at an average starting wage of $18/per hour). That’s in addition to hiring 40,000+ new corporate roles. 

That was just this month. (And apparently more than 1 million people applied for its career-day event.)

A look back: The pandemic-led surge in online shopping set Amazon on an accelerated hiring spree, and starting in July 2020, the company was bringing on about 2,800 employees a day, mostly in its warehouses. 

• By October 2020, Amazon’s workforce topped 1 million worldwide; ~500,000 new jobs were added last year alone. 
• 2021 began with even fiercer hiring goals, and the company in April said it would invest $1 billion to boost wages by up to $3/hour for 500,000+ of its employees. (Amazon’s minimum wage has been $15/hour for all US workers since 2018.)
• In the second quarter of 2021, Amazon said it employed an additional 64,000 people.
• With almost 1 million workers in the US, Amazon is the second-largest employer in the country behind Walmart, which employs 1.6 million people. 
• One in every 169 American workers now works at Amazon. 

Zoom out: The fight for labor remains tight—especially ahead of the holiday shopping season—with more job openings than unemployed persons and workers less willing to settle for low-paid jobs with limited benefits. 

While Amazon recently announced it would cover tuition costs for its 750,000 hourly employees (education benefits appear to be retail’s new incentive), the New York Times reported in June that the e-comm company is struggling with high turnover as it—and its workers—try to keep up with supercharged growth.—JS

M&A

Automate me

The robot takeover is upon us. Fresh off another $50 million funding round, Locus Robotics, a unicorn company that makes autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for fulfillment warehouses, is acquiring Waypoint Robotics, another industry leader in AMRs. 

• The deal will strengthen Locus’s e-comm, case-picking, and pallet-picking operations and tools. (Terms were not disclosed.) 

Bot boom: The future of robotic automation will be “driven by the explosion of online ordering and supply-chain challenges and exacerbated by a significant—and growing—labor shortage,” Rick Faulk, CEO of Locus, told Retail Brew. 

Locus’s Waypoint acquisition will help the company “respond nimbly to the volume spikes and growth currently becoming the norm,” Faulk added. And in a statement about the deal, Faulk said that it will “accelerate our ability to meet these global needs in just months rather than years.” 

• Waypoint could help Locus boost productivity by 2x to 3x, Faulk claimed.
• Locus also recently signed a deal with DHL to digitize its supply chain by employing 2,000 bots in the logistics company’s 1,400+ global warehouses and offices.  

Flashback: When we spoke to Brittain Ladd, chief supply chain and marketing officer for tech solutions provider KPI, about the rapid grocery delivery boom, he emphasized the need for automated fulfillment centers. “[These companies] will fail if [they] continue down the path of using small manually operated centers,” he told us. “If you invest in automation, you are guaranteed to have a much better opportunity in not only surviving, but thriving.”—JG

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CANNABIS

Hit it

You might have picked up on a trend this month: We’re digging into all things cannabis—from CBD bevs to how dispensaries open up shop—and so are our friends at Emerging Tech Brew and Marketing Brew. We pulled together a wrap-up of their coverage so far so you don’t miss a single hit, standout quotes included:

• How cannabis businesses get around a web of online advertising barriers: “What used to be a strong ‘No’ has now morphed into a ‘Yes, but only here,’ or a ‘Maybe in the future,’” said Juanjo Feijoo, CMO at Weedmaps.
• Limited by other platforms, weed marketers are flocking to podcast advertising: “Podcasts were initially a trial for us, then we realized that we could scale. We haven’t found that in any other media outlet,” said Missy Bradley, VP of marketing at Caliper. 
• LA’s only dispensary owned by a Black woman is using OOH to work around tricky ad restrictions: “If we give people something to talk about, then that word of mouth with social media really carries,” said Kika Howze, who leads marketing for Gorilla Rx. “We’re the first, but we’re doing this to make sure we’re not the last.”
• Weed farmers are using drones as crop cops: “Because cannabis itself is very persnickety, it’s very delicate for a weed, growers are very, very, almost secretive—and protective—to not let any foreign...pathogen enter the space, including through drones,” said Jason Warnock, chief revenue officer of Flora Growth.
• How a cannabis-focused AI platform helps growers predict yield: “Some people expect us to go in, turn a button on, and be able to predict things like the next day,” said Himansu Karunadasa, cofounder and chief technology officer at FolioGrow. “That doesn’t happen, right? So you have to collect thousands of data points to be able to build the model, train the model, and then actually make the predictions. So that has kind of become an issue.”

Don’t worry, there’s more to come.—GT

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• DoorDash is adding alcohol delivery to 20 states, plus Washington, D.C., Australia, and Canada.
• Pineider, the writing and leather-goods brand, opened its first US location at Rockefeller Center. 
• CVS wants to hire 25,000 employees ahead of flu season. 
• Walgreens will pay out one-time bonuses of $1,250 and $1,000, respectively, to its full-time and part-time pharmacists.

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SWAPPING SKUS

Post it: Inside the force that is Diet Prada—amid a nearly $700 million lawsuit. (Vanity Fair)

Poured over: The counterfeit wine market is thriving and high-end wineries are deploying ultra-violet ink and holograms to fight it. (Insider)

Sign of the times: Does the world need Taco Bell’s new subscription service? (The Atlantic) 

FROM THE CREW

There’s nothing quite like drinking a hot brew from a custom ’Brew mug while reading your afternoon Retail Brew. Trust us.

Here’s the deal:

• Refer five of your smartest retail pals using your custom referral link by Sunday (9/26) at 11:59pm ET, and you win!

Don’t miss out on this kitchen necessity. Share your referral link and cozy up with Retail Brew!

*US winners only. For more rules, see terms and conditions here.

HOT TOPIC

At the mall, it’s where band tees are the only tees. In Retail Brew, it’s where we invite readers to weigh in on a trending retail topic.

Ikea hosted its first-ever virtual 24-hour “festival” last week, which featured digital concerts and even a museum. While that event was focused on inspiring people to shop, the livestream bug is spreading. Next month, Macy’s, Guess, and other brands will participate in Coresight’s holiday livestream event. And livestream shopping platform Whatnot recently closed on a $150 million Series C and became a unicorn.  

Our question is: Are these virtual shopping events finally poised to pick up in the US? Or are they just hype? Cast your vote here.

And, and, and: Last week, after Facebook debuted its first line of smart glasses, we asked if consumers are ready for wearable tech: 30.6% of you said, “Bring it on, baby!” But an overwhelming 69.4% responded, “It’s a no from me.”

ICYMI

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• It’s good hair days ahead for Mielle Organics
• Holiday sales will hit up to $1.3 trillion this year: Deloitte
• Grailed raises $60 million in funding