Retail Unwrapped from The Robin Report

Richard Baker: The Robin Report Retail Miss of the Week, 2.27.26

Warren Shoulberg — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

OK, play it again one more time. At first, I thought I was reading the satirical Onion when I saw an interview with former Saks/Neiman’s/HBC/Lord & Taylor/etc., self-styled entrepreneur. He said he “saved” luxury department store retailing in the country. Really? We know he owes Chanel, Zegna and Akris more than $700 million. We’ve lambasted Baker more than once and after his exit from the Saks Global business earlier this year when they filed for bankruptcy, we figured we might not have a chance to kick him around anymore. So, this interview in The New York Times was a bonus treat. How else would we have had the chance to hear him say he was the only person “on Earth” who could have kept those businesses and going for as long they did. He also said, “I’m happy to be out of the department store business.” So are we. He may be the only person “on Earth” to consistently leave scorched retail earth behind him. Maybe, just maybe the Richard Baker Misses are coming to an end. But let’s not forget his family owns a real estate company with over 10 million square feet of shopping centers.

Kohls: The Robin Report Retail Miss of the Week, 2.21.26

Warren Shoulberg — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

The idea of full price retailers setting aside a dedicated promotional area in their stores goes back at least to the famous “O” tables (opportunities) merchandised by up-and-coming junior buyers at A&S including Allen Questrom and Mike Gould. And then there were the Blue Light Specials at Kmart in its heyday. The best manifestations more recently were the Target Bullseye Dollar Spots, which have since lost much their luster and focus like so much else in the store. So, Kohls’ introduction of a similar merchandising concept called the Deal Bar doesn’t get any kudos from us. In fact, what worries us is Kohl’s chronically poor execution at the store level. Why can’t they get this right; it’s not rocket science. This could easily turn into a pile of leftovers, markdowns and irrelevance. We hope not but Kohl’s track record on such programs continues to be pretty dismal.

Eddie Bauer: The Robin Report Miss of the Week, 2.14.2026

Warren Shoulberg — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

They say the third time is supposed to be charmed but in this case it’s more like three strikes and you’re out. The third bankruptcy filing for this iconic outdoor apparel and home brand founded in 1920 is likely to be the last time and that’s a sad moment. For a long time, Eddie Bauer was one of the strongest names in this space, right up there with LL Bean, North Face and Patagonia. But a succession of owners who lost their way telling a wonderful origin story while loading on the debt in the process sent Bauer off into the retail wilderness. The label will no doubt stick around but in other people’s stores. It just goes to show that no matter how compelling a brand name is, it can crash and burn. After chapter 33 you can put this story down…for good.

Is Netflix House the Next Big Retail Thing?

Warren Shoulberg — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

I have seen the future of the Great American Shopping Mall…maybe. And I survived. As department stores crash and burn, specialty chains fold up like cheap lawn chairs, and food courts become Ozempic victims, a new potential victor has arrived on the retail scene. And it’s not coming from a traditional retailing company, startup from techdom or a visitor from another planet. It’s from a streaming entertainment behemoth.

Is Netflix House a new retail paradigm? And the answer is: More likely it’s the latest shiny, new retail toy. But it does have a few superpowers: capturing the attention, imagination and wallets of its loyal fans. Is it sustainable with repeat visits? We’ll see.

Streaming Retail

Netflix House is the latest riff in retailing, with its first two stores having opened late last year, and at least one more on the way in 2027 in Las Vegas. It represents a potential new format that could rescue shopping malls from the ongoing deterioration in American retailing. Then again, it could be the latest colossal failure in a long line of retail concepts that promised big things and ended up with padlocked doors and large going-out-of-business signs in their windows. Or worse, dream malls that became food courts and carnivals.

I just got back from Dallas, where Netflix House has set up shop; its other location is in King of Prussia, PA. And I’m here to tell you it’s exciting, innovative and was packed on a busy Saturday afternoon. Whether it will succeed is, of course, an entirely different matter. We’ll see how it fares in a whimsical customer-driven retail marketplace.

What’s in the House?

The Dallas Netflix store, opened in December in what had once been a Belk store in the still popular upscale Galleria, including Nordstrom, Macy’s, Louis Vuitton, an ice-skating rink and architecture inspired by Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele shopping space. Netflix measures out at 100,000 square feet on two floors with direct access from both the interior and exterior of the mall (with a big red square emblazoned on the store’s wall that Netflix hailed as an homage to its mail-in DVD envelope origins). The King of Prussia store is similar in design.

While it’s free to enter, once inside, the meter starts running the minute you actually want to do anything. The star attractions are two interactive experiences (c’mon, what else can you call them?) based on wildly popular Netflix series: Stranger Things Escape the Dark and Squid Games Survive the Trials. Tickets for these immersive experiences run about $40, depending on the timed entry and other factors. What do you get for that? Good question. As we were clearly not the right target demographic for either room (in fact our mere appearance at the place brought up the average age of the crowd by a factor of two), all we can tell you is that they are part game room, part escape room and part nightmare. The Stranger Things room carries a “parental supervision required for guests under 14 due to graphic content” warning.

Long lines to enter both spaces called “Studios” on a busy Saturday afternoon seemed to indicate they had winners on their hands, though you have to wonder how many repeat visitors these kinds of things will get. We also thought it odd that both these experiences were located on the lower level of the place (we can’t quite call it a store) rather than more visibly on the larger main floor. For such a hot ticket, it seems shortsighted to have only one kiosk on-site to purchase tickets. But just like movie theaters, the popular online ticketing service guarantees timed reservations.

Level Up

The main floor showcased the Netflix Bites restaurant, which, in addition to the usual teenage wasteland burgers, pizza and fries assortment, features a few Netflix property-themed offerings such as Red Bite Green Bite fried chicken and Perfect Pickle Pie. If you have to ask, you probably are sticking with the burger. There’s a bar with more Netflix tie-ins like Streaming Optimism and Passion on Demand. There’s also plenty of giant servings of iced tea; this is the South, after all. It should be noted that Netflix road-tested the Bites concept last year with pop-ups in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, both of which are now closed as the company has moved to the House concept.

Then there’s the game room, called RePlay, featuring a wide assortment of arcade games, many of which are naturally themed to Netflix properties and offer multi-player competitive contests. Again, Netflix’s targets of loyal fans (and next gens) totally get how to play these games

The Merch

Of course, there’s the prerequisite, high-margin gift shop. It’s huge, maybe 10,000 square feet and full of anything and everything you’d ever want in Netflix products. Given the creativity shown in the rest of the House, we were a bit disappointed to see a fairly standard assortment of apparel, water bottles and fashion accessories with only the occasional inspired item. How could they not sell squid?

No matter, the lines were long here, snaking through a checkout lane that offered last-minute pick-up items in the best tradition of a Bed Bath & Beyond and Sephora. And they weren’t giving anything away either, mind you.

Is a House a Store?

As well done as Netflix House is on most levels, let’s remember it’s not exactly a new concept. Disney tried—and failed—with urban shopping area themed attractions two decades ago. In the 1990s, Radio Shack rolled out a giant retail concept called Incredible Universe which, while it didn’t include interactive areas, was a theme park kind of experience. It too failed. And American Dream in the swamps of Jersey is nothing if not an amusement park masquerading as a shopping center with rides, a water park, ice skating and enough interactive storefronts to keep a family of four occupied (and broke) for days at a time. It remains to be seen if it will be the success its developers keep saying it will become. All said, the Harry Potter immersive stores seem to be holding up.

If you’re in the retail business, you really need to see a Netflix House. It is onto the most compelling reasons for retail to succeed: customer engagement, surprise and delight. It captures the imagination and attention, plus the dollars of its fans. See for yourself and decide if this is truly the next big thing. Retailing has always been a game. It’s Netflix’s (potentially) winning move right now.

Walmart: The Robin Report Retail Hit of the Week, 2.7.2026

Warren Shoulberg — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Take that Amazon and Google and all the rest of you entitled Magnificent Seven: You’ve got a new trillionaire member, and it’s not another tech bro AI and agentic wannabe. This week the value of Walmart topped $1 trillion, putting it in an elite class of American companies that are valued at all those zeroes. Walmart is the first traditional retailer ever to hit this mark. To put it into perspective, Walmart is worth more than Costco, Home Depot and Target —combined. It’s a stunning affirmation of how The Boys from Bentonville have truly become a class of one in the retail sector. And it’s a generous goodbye gift from Doug McMillon to John Furner as he takes the helm with aspirations to no doubt push that number higher.

Costco: The Robin Report Retail Miss of the Week, 1.31.2026

Warren Shoulberg — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Yeah, you’re reading this right, the do-no-wrong-best-retailer-in-the-business Costco might have just screwed up. A proposed class action lawsuit has reportedly been filed in San Diego claiming that Costco’s labeling on its famed $4.99 rotisserie chicken contains “No preservatives, MSG, gluten, artificial flavors, or colors” is…foul (fowl?). The suit alleges that the chickens contain “additives sodium phosphate and carrageenan.” We have no scientific definition of what those are, but they sound suspicious. On the best-retailer-we-know plus side, Costco now says it will remove the “no preservatives” signage and explains that these substances “support moisture retention, texture, and product consistency during cooking. Both ingredients are approved by food safety authorities.” OK, Ok, although watchdog consumers don’t want you to have to read the small print. This has to count as a blemish on a company that has just about the best reputation in the retail world, not to mention the most loyal customer base. We’re fans of their chicken, by the way, and this misstep isn’t going to stop us from getting just about the best bargain out there. But Costco has clearly lost a game of chicken with its customers.

It’s Walmart 4,606, Amazon 1

Warren Shoulberg — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Is Amazon ever going to get its physical retail right? We have written for years about its Achilles Heel: lack of experienced retail leadership. Our namesake founder Robin Lewis always made the point that Amazon’s big problem was that they didn’t have any merchants, only tech wonks. So they could never figure out how to operate a retail business…much less physical stores. It’s why they open stores and then close them. This week, all Amazon Go and Fresh stores are being shuttered. It’s an Amazon roller coaster made possible by deep pockets and the willingness to fail.

And now there’s all the hoopla about Amazon’s plans for a new giant store in the Chicagoland market that is expected to lean heavily on grocery and online fulfillment as a billboard for a direct challenge to Walmart’s dominance in physical stores. But please, let’s not forget one thing: this is ONE friggin’ store. Walmart has 4,606…as of this morning.

And just to put a finer point on that discussion, it is yet another attempt by Amazon to find the right formula for physical retailing. Up until now, those efforts have been pretty dismal with more dead ends than a suburban residential development. Why should anyone think this one will be any different? Maybe the fulfillment part of the store will save it, but it’s another gamble.

Can Amazon ever make it in its own physical stores? And the answer is: Unlikely.

The Big Store

This new Amazon store, when it opens in 2027, is, in fact, big: 230,000 square feet. It’s twice the size of the typical Walmart and even more compared to other category competitors like Costco and Target. You can forget about supermarkets like Kroger or Jewel-Osco brands, which are perhaps a third or a quarter the size. Located in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park (about 25 miles southwest of downtown), the store will devote about half its space to conventional retail, dominated by the grocery sector, although there will also be general merchandise. The rest of the space will be used as a fulfillment center for digital orders, either placed online or in the store itself.

The model follows other retailers like Target and Walmart that use physical stores as online fulfillment depots. The difference in Amazon’s case seems to be that online orders will be picked and packed from the warehouse side of the building rather than from store shelves. That also follows Amazon’s strategy of setting up fulfillment centers closer and closer to where its customers live rather than just having giant DCs on the outskirts of towns. So far, so good for a plan.

But Then There’s This…

Amazon always seems to have plans that have failed for expanding into physical stores. Whether it’s been small and mid-size grocery stores under a dizzying assortment of banners, general merchandise outlets like its Four Star or bookstores, or any number of pop-up locations with a variety of merchandise mixes and assortments. To repeat, the only constant has been that most have failed. By one estimate, Amazon has shut down at least 100 different stores, and now it will add to that total with the closing of its Fresh and Go locations, about 70 in total between the two nameplates. It plans to convert some of them to Whole Foods.

This circling the wagons around the Whole Foods name would seem to be long overdue, rather than this bizarro brand fragmentation strategy the company has pursued in the grocery business. Amazon bought the upscale foodie in 2017 and now operates about 530 locations, with a track record of having opened and closed stores along the way. This was supposed to be Amazon’s ticket to the grocery sector, as a learning curve to master the business and serve as its base to become a big player in food. It hasn’t worked out quite as they envisioned. Amazon has clearly spent a lot of time, resources and money trying to find the right hook for groceries.

Wouldn’t you love to see how much money they’ve lost trying to figure out the store business? One of the few times it said anything publicly was in 2022 when it posted a $720 million “impairment charge” for store closings in its fourth quarter. All together, what they’ve lost has got to be a lot more… and a lot more than a rounding error, even for a guy like Bezos.

And now this focus on the Whole Foods name would seem to run counter to plans for this new ginormous store in Chicago. Why restart the Amazon name in food when clearly it hasn’t worked, and you’re now saying Whole Foods is your meal ticket in grocery? Are we missing something here?

Do the Math

Amazon is believed to control somewhere around 40 percent of the entire ecommerce sector; food has been anointed as the holy grail of expansion. Along with fashion, it’s the only category that will provide the size and scale it needs to move its $635 billion needle further to the right. Adding another frying pan or a pack of batteries is just not going to make that revenue grade.

Across the retail landscape, Walmart is pursuing its own strategy. With in-store revenues growing at a slower pace than in its heyday, the Boys from Bentonville see ecommerce as the way to build its total sales. To be fair, Amazon has had its struggles in physical retail; it’s taken Walmart quite a while to figure out its online strategy with its own collection of dead ends and wrong turns—anybody remember Bonobos or Moosejaw? Once Walmart finally figured out that it was grocery where it should be putting its digital emphasis, things began to click…literally. Still, it is miles behind Amazon in ecommerce with its market share still roughly in single digits.

At its current rate of digital growth, it will take Walmart years—decades, in fact—to get close to Amazon in ecommerce. In fact, projections are that Amazon will pass Walmart in total corporate revenues, although this does include AWS web services, Prime streaming and whatever else is in the company’s bag of tricks. Then again, Walmart also has an increasingly bigger business in non-retail sectors like online advertising, so comparisons are getting harder and harder to judge.

So, it’s a moving target, and that’s the problem Amazon faces in the grocery business. Even if this new Chicago store is the absolute best thing since sliced bread, and sells a ton of it every day, it has a daunting task to catch up to Walmart, or even smaller players like Kroger or Costco. How long? If by some crazy push, Amazon opens 30 or 40 giant supermarkets a year, that’s at least 100 years before it gets in Walmart’s league. See you in 2127 if you want to mark it in your datebook.

We get it that every retailer is going after market share and trying to expand into classifications where it is not a big player. That’s just good business. But before everyone gets bent out of shape on this new Amazon store, let’s remember their track record on new store formats. And let’s remember to have our calendars handy too.

We might have seen this movie before.

Lululemon: The Robin Report Retail Miss of the Week

Warren Shoulberg — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Will somebody at Lululemon please put up a sign in the product development department that says, “No more see-through pants! Stupid.” Once again, the apparel company has had to pull a new line of pants because of sheer body revealing problems, which even to us non-yoga types know is a big no-no. What is the matter with these PD people? Not to mention management for signing off on these products? Lululemon has been on a losing streak for some time—its stock is off by more than 50 percent in just the past year. This misfit isn’t going to help. Talk about a downward dog!

Aldi: The Robin Report Retail Hit of the Week

Warren Shoulberg — Sat, 17 Jan 2026 05:01:00 +0000

Hard to believe but Aldi has been in the American market for 50 years this year. And it’s even harder to believe that when this year closes out it will have almost 2,800 locations in the U.S. en route to its goal of 3,200 by the end of 2028. That will put it neck-and-neck with Kroger and trailing only Walmart in the number of stores in this country. People talk about Amazon trying to disrupt the grocery business, but the true disrupter is Aldi which has a low-cost, tightly edited merchandising plan that consumers are responding to big-time. These are the guys Walmart and Kroger should really be worried about.

The Top 10 New Stores to Watch in 2026

Warren Shoulberg — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 05:01:00 +0000

It was one wacky year for the retail business, but any number of brands endured—even prospered. We expect the same unpredictability in 2026 when both individual and fleets of new stores arrive on the retail landscape. No doubt there will be a few last-minute surprises but, for now, here’s our preview of what’s in store for the new year. We’ve also included a few late-2025 arrivals that may not have been on your dance card.

Limited Openings

Primark Herald Square New York: The Irish-based deep discounter has stepped up its expansion efforts in the U.S. these past few years, but this opening marks its first Manhattan location, and it went high-profile to be sure. It’s across the street from Macy’s in the former Old Navy flagship. At four stories and 78,000 square feet—54,000 square feet of selling space—it will be the biggest store on the block and should attract serious crowds. The irony that shouldn’t be lost on anyone is that Old Navy was a market leader in its day. Primark, carpe diem.
Wayfair: The giant home furnishings retailer, so far limited to one full-line store outside of Chicago, will open in Atlanta in the spring and later in the year in the Denver metropolitan area …if all goes according to plan. At around 150,000 square feet, these stores are meant to be the physical manifestation of the online shopping experience, with just about everything and anything somebody could want for their home, including the kitchen sink.
Netflix House: Technically, the streaming service’s first two stores opened in late 2025, in the Philadelphia and Dallas markets. The next one is not scheduled to open until 2027 in Las Vegas. This retail concept belongs on our list, given how few people in the business have actually been in a Netflix store. These 100,000-square-foot interactive—dare we say immersive or experiential—stores offer countless attractions keyed into the network’s shows, including Stranger Things and Bridgerton. They are free to enter, but the meter starts running pretty soon thereafter. Is this the future of shopping mall anchors? Visit one, and then you tell us.
Von Maur: We need to stretch the calendar one more time for this one in what will be the midwestern department store chain’s first location in the broader New York metro area. The Freehold, NJ, store is set to open in 2027, but for many snobbish New Yorkers, this will be their first time seeing a Von Maur store in person. Equal parts Nordstrom, Dillard’s and a touch of Macy’s, it will also remind some of vintage Stern’s. Let’s see if it cuts it in the decidedly more volatile and promotional wilds of Jersey.
Zale’s: In 2025, the moderate jewelry specialty chain opened four new concepts it calls The Edit. For 2026, there are several more on the way. As with any variation on a retail theme, these new stores may have subtle points of differentiation: open layouts, more private shopping spaces and additional digital bells and whistles. As a mid-market player, the chain is clearly trying to offer a fresh face for a shrinking market segment. New stores in Atlanta and Jacksonville are on tap for the first quarter of the year.

Is physical retail contracting or expanding in 2026? And the answer is: From limited-run openings including Primark and Wayfair to a mega 450 new locations for dollar stores, physical retail reflects optimism and courage in the new year.

Retail at Scale

Walmart: There’s still no hard count on how many new locations the Boys from Bentonville will open in 2026, but it’s probably fair to say the year will mark its largest expansion in a number of years. Walmart is riding a hot hand these days and smelling blood from its biggest competitor, Target. You can bet it’s all about market share.
Dollar General: However many stores Walmart opens, it will be a rounding error compared to this dollar giant, which says it will open 450 new locations in 2026. All the big dollar brands have always opened large numbers of stores each year, but let’s not forget that many of these are replacements for locations they have closed. Still, 450 is an outrageous number, and we doubt any national chain has ever been this ambitious. By the way, do the math and this works out to 1.2 stores a day…including Sundays.ow HG
Barnes & Noble: Rising from the dead, it wasn’t all that long ago that this bookstore chain would have been on a list of companies closing stores. Under new leadership supporting a localized merchandising strategy, B&N has undergone a remarkable transformation and says it will open 60 new locations this year, on top of the number it rolled out in 2025. Rumors of going public may alter those plans, and if those rumors are true, we hope that as a public company Wall Street doesn’t push the endangered bookstore model to do anything stupid.
Lululemon: While the activewear retailer finds itself in a proxy war with its founder trying to once again assert control, the retailer has an ambitious expansion plan in place this year. Unlike some other American brands, it includes overseas locations. Through its franchising model, it will open new stores in six overseas markets: Greece, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania and India. This comes as its U.S. growth seems to be stalling out, so it will be fascinating to see if it can succeed in Europe and Asia when so many other American brands have failed.
Buc-ee’s: The Texas-based, travel-center-on-steroids chain is opening at least five new locations in 2026. But what’s important here is they are entering three new markets: Ohio, Arizona and Arkansas. These represent a continued geographic expansion for this clever little beaver and prove the concept of 100-pump gas stations combined with 50,000-square-foot retail stores, restrooms bigger (and cleaner) than anything imagined before, and Texas barbecue has potentially endless possibilities. And don’t you dare call it a truck stop: Trucks are not even allowed at Buc-ee’s.

We expect other big expansions of retail brands over the next 12 months. But as is increasingly the case in the retail business, the big get bigger, and the rest end up in that big mall in the sky. Stay tuned.