At the Hilton Anaheim on day three of Natural Products Expo West in California, hundreds of conference-goers clad in badges and sensible footwear are queuing up for coffee at the lobby Starbucks, squeezing in some networking, and simply enjoying having somewhere to sit down before another day of strolling the trade show’s seemingly endless aisles of booths.

Every March, 60,000+ attendees, including most major grocers, flock to the show to see the latest products showcased by everyone from farmers-market brands to giants like Nestlé and General Mills. This year, Albertsons sent 75 team members, and two of them—Jim Foltz, VP of business ventures, and Karen Ivanis-Rogers, senior director of ventures—sat down with Retail Brew during Expo West to discuss why they came to the show, what they’re looking for, and the evolving importance of trade shows for retailers and CPGs.

Tricks of the trade

Foltz and Ivanis-Rogers serve on the venture side of Albertsons’s biz, looking to invest in and form strategic relationships with emerging food and beverage brands. They attend Expo West, and its Philadelphia-based iteration, Expo East, annually.

“We’re looking for new and innovative brands that are satisfying some on-trend consumer needs,” in categories across the store from produce to meat to center-store items, Foltz said. “Anything that’s somewhat disruptive to the category.”

• The two particularly had an eye on fresh and frozen meal solutions, which Foltz noted is a growing trend among consumers.

With so many brands competing for space in a crowded industry, it’s common that brands exhibiting one year are out of the business the next, so determining which brands actually have legs is “a combination of gut and data,” Foltz noted.

Keep reading here.—EC

On an early Friday morning last week, journalists, fashion analysts, and executives gathered at the brightly lit top floor of The Shed at Hudson Yards in New York City.

The occasion? Kering—the parent company of Gucci and Saint Laurent, among several other luxury brands—was set to make a big announcement and had lined up speakers including: Marie-Claire Daveu, its chief sustainability and institutional affairs officer; Antonella Centra, Gucci’s EVP and general counsel of global sustainability and corporate affairs; and Ingvar Helgason, VitroLabs co-founder and CEO.

Then came the reveal: Kering was committing to cut down its greenhouse-gas emissions by a whopping 40% by 2035, using 2021 as a baseline.

“If we want to truly decarbonize our global businesses, we need to move from carbon-intensity reductions to absolute reductions,” François-Henri Pinault, Kering chairman and CEO, said in a press statement following the event. “I am convinced that impact reduction in absolute terms combined with value creation must be the next horizon for truly sustainable companies.”

All encompassing: The decision is part of the conglomerate’s larger sustainability strategy that comprises a series of other climate, biodiversity and circularity-related goals. Speaking at the event on Friday, Daveu said the goals were part of “three layers” of the company’s strategy starting with fair production. “It’s really to produce what we sell and of course [add] new technologies like artificial intelligence,” she said. “We will have to continue to have a better inventory interface, better tracking…so many operational policies.”

She added the company will also focus on pushing quality over volume and optimizing its processes and raw material sourcing. “I come back to regenerative agriculture, raw materials which are coming from a circular approach,” she said. “It will be a great tool.”

Keep reading here.—JS

Today’s top retail reads.

Sew much the worse: The Department of Labor found conditions in some California clothing manufacturers that violated several labor laws, including one “particularly egregious case” of a manufacturer paying some workers just $1.58 an hour and selling to retailers including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and Stitch Fix. (Insider)

Slow cooker: Why cultivated meat products are a long way off. (Marketplace)

Skin in the game: Tween boys are the newest target for skin care brands. “Typically in most households, boys are either using whatever products their parents or sisters have bought,” said Julie Bowen, co-founder of the brand JB SKRUB (and yes, Claire Dunphy on Modern Family). “So either it smells like strawberries or is too babyish.” (CNN)

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.

More people are using buy now, pay later (BNPL) for everyday purchases like groceries and home goods as opposed to more discretionary purchases like electronics, according to a recent Retail Brew story.

You tell us: Are you using BNPL for everyday items like groceries and home goods? Cast your vote here.

Circling back: Last week, we told you Amazon is facing a class-action lawsuit for not telling New York City shoppers in its Amazon Go stores that it was monitoring them with facial recognition technology, in violation of a 2021 city law that requires stores to post signs when tracking customers’ biometric information.

We asked if you thought businesses should be required to post signs notifying customers if they’re using facial recognition technology, and 84.8% of you do, while 13.8% of you don’t, and 1.4% of you don’t know or aren’t sure.

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

• The Holy Grail: delivery french fries that don’t arrive soggy
• This cannabis retailer has high hopes, but hurdles to clear
• Magnolia Bakery is entering grocery