Wedding bells are ringing and retailers are hearing alarm sirens to get ready. The US is gearing up to host 2.5 million ceremonies in 2022, the most since 1984, per Reuters.

• Wedding-related goods and services are expected to hit $68.66 billion in sales this year, surging 31% from last year, according to The Wedding Report.

More weddings means more business for apparel companies with gown departments. It also means that prep and planning started *checks watch* yesterday.

Love is in the air: Anthropologie’s BHLDN doubled its wedding inventory from 2021, Reuters reported. Rent the Runway’s special-occasion collection has expanded by 10% since before the pandemic. Meanwhile, Macy’s and Kohl’s both increased their evening-gown and party-dress categories, the latter upping space dedicated to them by 75%.

Intermix is another retailer leaning into the spirit. Last month, the company rolled out the Wedding Edit, a section of its website with 200 bridal styles, including white mini dresses, jumpsuits, and slips. The company is also holding a NYC pop-up to showcase its wedding goods and exclusive bridal looks from designer labels.

• CEO Jyothi Rao told Business of Fashion that the bridal campaign was informed by customer data. Intermix’s website racked up 300,000+ wedding-related searches in the past year.

Crunch time: Jefferies analyst Ashley Helgans told Reuters that while the supply chain was supposed to be functioning efficiently by the end of the year, “as we move into wedding season...it doesn’t feel like supply is totally back to normal.”—JG

Walmart wants to keep on trucking. Yesterday, the retailer announced it would raise its starting wage for truck drivers in order to combat a shortage that’s crippling the industry.

• Pay will now be between $95,000 and $110,000; the average first-year wage was $87,500.

The trucking industry was short a record 80,000 drivers in 2021, according to the American Trucking Associations, with retention being a major issue. About 300,000 truck drivers leave the profession each year, per the Department of Transportation.

“They’ve all been asked to do so much during the last 18 months,” Piyush Golia, president of PCA Group, told Retail Brew last October. “A sense of fatigue is stepping in between all the deliveries, whether it’s a small parcel or even long.”

On wheels: In addition to the pay raises, Walmart said it would introduce a training program for employees to earn a commercial driver’s license, and cover the costs. The 12-week program will be held in Sanger, Texas, and Dover, Delaware, and will initially be open to supply-chain workers near those two locations, Walmart spokesperson Anne Hatfield told CNBC.

• It will eventually extend to all employees, and Walmart hopes to bring in between 400 and 800 new drivers this year. The retailer has about 12,000 drivers in its fleet, adding a record 4,500 truckers just last year.

The takeaway: The trucker shortage has major downstream effects, from inventory shortages to delivery delays. Beyond pay bumps, retailers are still searching for solutions—like even buying their own trucking companies.—KM

Beyond Meat is going beyond the grocery store: Yesterday, the company announced a partnership with Rite Aid, which will carry Beyond Meatballs and Beyond Burgers across ~2,000 of its stores nationwide.

• The pharmacy chain joins retailers like CVS and Target in stocking Beyond Meat.

The big number: Plant-based food sales hit $7.4 billion in 2021, per data from the Plant-Based Foods Association, the Good Food Institute, and SPINS. But growth in the alt-meat category was flat (the caveat being that 2020 wasn’t a typical year amid Covid stockpiling)—and competitors keep crashing the space.

Zoom out: Things won’t get any less crowded any time soon. When we explored what the future of alt-meat has in store earlier this year, experts said innovations like cleaner ingredients and whole cuts will be key.

“What is someone doing in terms of the process that is just really hard to replicate? Or what have they unearthed that just makes their product really, really unique? It could be the way that they manufacture it. It could be the way that they put the formulation together. But something different than just somebody being in a kitchen and developing something new,” Stray Dog Capital partner Johnny Ream previously told us.—JS

Today’s top retail reads.

On the ground: From donating Canada Goose coats to Ukrainian volunteers to attempting to return spring inventory to vendors, the buying director of Tsum Kyiv, one of Ukraine’s largest department stores, details the impact of the war on its business. (Vogue Business)

Popping in: The international popularity of K-pop and Squid Game has upped demand for Asian goods from non-Asian consumers, said Alex Zhou, founder of online Asian market Yami. (Bloomberg)

Show me the money: Nine interactive visualizations of Jeff Bezos’ wealth, answering burning questions like, “If wealth equaled heat, how hot would Jeff Bezos be?” (The New York Times)

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Three of the stories below are real...and one is most definitely not. Can you spot the fake?

1. Waffle House is teaming up with Adidas to make a golf shoe.
2. Frito-Lay, the owner of Cracker Jack, has introduced a new mascot: Cracker Jill.
3. Costco shared plans to open three standalone restaurants that replicate its food court.
4. Wendy’s announced it will create its first virtual restaurant in the metaverse.

Keep reading for the answer.