Yesterday Amazon confirmed what buyers have been showing us for years: screens didn’t replace stores, but exposed what stores still do best. For a decade, “digital-first” was treated like destiny. Online was destined to win. Physical would fade. Stores would either become showrooms or disappear. Then yesterday Amazon announced its largest retail store ever: a 230,000-square-foot big-box location outside Chicago. Half retail, half fulfillment. Two separate entrances, two separate jobs. Why a...
1 day ago • 1 min read
This is the flip side of the volatility I wrote about the other day. In that note, I talked about how retail demand no longer moves in seasons. It moves in moments. Hours, not months. This is why I have long told clients that a truly successful campaign is nearly impossible to replicate. Not only can you not copy what worked for another brand, chances are that same brand cannot replicate it either. That used to sound like hard-headed cynicism. In 2026, it is plain mechanics. New retail data...
2 days ago • 1 min read
This year’s show wasn’t focused on better screens or smarter apps. It was more about machines doing real work in human spaces. CES 2026 made something unmistakable: AI is stepping out of the screen and entering the physical world. On the floor, robotics and physical AI systems have stopped being framed as futuristic demos or curiosities. They folded laundry. Prepared breakfast. Navigated kitchens. And negotiated stairs. Ordinary tasks (for you and me), performed competently, without a hidden...
3 days ago • 1 min read
If you’re scratching your head about why “Canada just made an EV deal with China,” you’re not alone. Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a landmark trade agreement with China that reduces tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles from a near-ban to a quota system with a much lower duty — allowing roughly 49,000 Chinese EVs annually at a 6.1 % tariff instead of the previous 100 % barrier. In return, China is cutting devastating tariffs on Canadian farm exports like canola and other...
4 days ago • 2 min read
Vision needs oxygen, but it also needs gravity. Reader Terry from New York wrote me after my recent post Every Inventor Needs a Trusted Skeptic, and his question is a good one. “I can see how innovators can fool themselves about an inflated Total Addressable Market,” he wrote. “You always want to project everyone who might buy the product. Investors need to share the fullest vision, stakeholders and team members have to see all the potential, and can’t be expected to on their own. How do you...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Uncertainty talks. Behavior decides. Lately, I keep hearing the same refrain, especially from Millennials. Cutting back. Tightening budgets. Buying less. Then I looked at the numbers. Planned holiday spending among Millennials jumped 30 percent year over year, hitting $896, the highest of ANY generation. The talk is cautious. The behavior, not so much. This gap matters. Public sentiment reflects uncertainty: emotional, social, defensive. Real purchasing decisions are quieter and more honest....
6 days ago • 1 min read
Could the most powerful signal a brand sends be the one it never planned? Reader Alex from Cleveland wrote me after my Knorr post and asked something intriguing: “You wrote about cooking being a green flag in a dating profile, but Knorr’s logo is literally a green flag. Coincidence, or are brands sometimes sitting on symbolism they don’t even realize?” Short answer: yes, all the time. Most brands think symbolism is something you add, and sometimes it is. Like a color choice. A logo tweak. Or...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Buyers dislike higher prices, but they do expect them. This month, Dollar Tree stores in the U.S. began adding items in the $10 range. That would have been unthinkable not very long ago. It feels jarring. At the same time, it is also fairly predictable. Sigh. Had to happen, right? Inflation does what it always does. It lifts baselines. The psychological floor price moves up, and buyers recalibrate even while whining about it. That tension affects product makers everywhere, not just in the...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Pre-orders are becoming one of the safest ways to launch physical products. I have seen this pattern increase across categories. When given the option, many customers legitimately like to pre-order. Not begrudgingly or impatiently. Happily. They want a guaranteed place in line. They want to feel early and proactive … not rushed. And they want to put the ordering process behind them, now. Tools like Shopify’s pre-order and reservation plugins have made this far easier to do without surprises...
9 days ago • 1 min read
