Skip to content
‹ Back to IndustriesRetail

The Shortlist, August 7, 2019: Tariffs with a Side of Fries

It has been a tumultuous week in the stock markets with the announcement of a new 10% tariff on $300 million of Chinese goods slated to go into effect on September 1st. This is the first round of tariffs to target consumer goods, and retailers reeled accordingly. China responded to the tariffs by devaluing…

This story was produced through MarketScale. See how Retail teams put it to work with Sales Enablement.

Share
The Shortlist, August 7, 2019: Tariffs with a Side of Fries

Free workspace

Turn your Retail expertise into content.

Record interviews, organize footage, and write with AI in a free MarketScale workspace. Qualifying companies also get one professional video edit a month. No credit card.

Start free

It has been a tumultuous week in the stock markets with the announcement of a new 10% tariff on $300 million of Chinese goods slated to go into effect on September 1st.

This is the first round of tariffs to target consumer goods, and retailers reeled accordingly.

China responded to the tariffs by devaluing its currency to its lowest level since 2008. This sent American markets into their worst day of 2019.

Better Burgers Faster?

While America and China continue to take bites out each other’s economies, fast food chain Shake Shack announced a move to get more mouths on its burgers.

In the company’s Q2 earnings call on Monday, it announced a new partnership with delivery service GrubHub. Shake Shack CEO & Director Randy Garutti had this to say about the deal:

“With continued growth and importance of our digital evolution, I’m pleased to share that we’ve chosen to formalize and launch a partnership today with Grubhub, to deliver Shake Sack to hungry fans nationwide. During the deep learning of the pilot phase, we’ve benefited from taking our time to understand the needs of our guests, the important and necessary operational aspects of executing delivery well and the relative strengths of potential partners. We’ve learned a lot with each of the delivery providers with whom we’ve piloted, and we’re excited to move forward on this important part of our overall digital ecosystem and guest offering.”

The companies are currently piloting the service in four Shake Shack locations across the Northeast and Chicago.

What July Meant for Jobs

On Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the July jobs report, which revealed an addition of 164-thousand non-farm jobs. Overall, the report was in line with analyst expectations. Here’s what Merrill Lynch/Bank of America CIO Marci McGregor took away from the report in an interview with Yahoo Finance.

Unemployment stayed steady at 3.7 percent as well.

For the latest B2B headlines, check out our industry pages! You can also follow us on Twitter at @MarketScale! Join the conversation on our Market Leaders LinkedIn Groups!

Your experts belong here

Every story in MarketScale Retail starts with a company putting its merchandising leads, store operations teams, and category managers on the record. Buyers are already reading this topic. The only question is whose experts they find.

Category buyers trust operators, so your merchandising leads shorten the distance between first search and first call.

Get your team featuredSee how it works15 minutes, straight to a calendar.
B2B Weekly

The week in Retail, and sixteen other industries, every Monday.

Ten stories, one-line takes, five minutes. Free.

Retail: are you visible to AI?

Before they reach out, Retail buyers ask AI engines which vendors to trust. Explore how your experts, customers, and partners can become useful content for buyers and AI search.

Free plan

You just read one Retail expert. Your company is full of them.

This article was produced through MarketScale. The same platform turns your merchandising leads, store operations teams, and category managers into the articles, video, and social content Retail buyers are searching for. Create a free workspace and see it with your own people. No credit card, no demo required.

NPS +73 · 1,000+ creators · 38+ countries

What you get, free

Your own MarketScale workspace, up to 10 people
One professional video edit a month for qualifying companies
Media requests to your crowd, remote recording, AI writing tools
$0. No credit card. Company confirmation required.

More Retail Insights

Suja's CEO says wellness drinks win in produce, not center store

Suja's CEO says wellness drinks win in produce, not center store

Suja Life CEO Maria Stipp argues better-for-you beverages win or lose based on store placement, with the produce department offering an advantage over crowded center aisles by signaling freshness alongside organic produce. She pairs this with packaging guardrails around organic, low sugar and function, plus a commitment of roughly 10% of net revenue to full-funnel marketing aimed at building trust.

  • 01Cold-pressed juice treated with high pressure pasteurization can move from farm to shelf in eight days, matching produce buyer timelines
  • 02Average retailer carries low-teens SKUs despite 37,000 retail locations and 400,000+ distribution points; closing the SKU gap in existing accounts is the priority over new logos
  • 03Suja allocates roughly 10% of net revenue to full-funnel marketing—unusual in the next-gen category—to drive awareness and conversion through omnichannel tools

Sep 23, 2026

Deloitte: Holiday e-commerce to reach up to $319B in 2026–27

Deloitte: Holiday e-commerce to reach up to $319B in 2026–27

Deloitte forecasts U.S. holiday e-commerce of $316.1 billion to $318.9 billion for November 2026 through January 2027, up 7.5% to 8.4%. Total retail is projected to grow 4% to 4.8% to about $1.7 trillion. The faster online growth rate is a planning input for fulfillment staffing and site readiness.

  • 01Last season's total holiday sales grew 4.1% by Census Bureau count, above the 2.9% to 3.4% range Deloitte had forecast in fall 2025.
  • 02Deloitte's 2025 survey found 33% of U.S. consumers expected to use generative AI somewhere in their holiday shopping; product data quality now matters for machine readers as well as human ones.
  • 03Adobe's and Salesforce's holiday projections landed in late September and October last year, so the next two to six weeks should bring corroborating or conflicting numbers to plan against.

Sep 18, 2026

Club stores drove nearly half of the growth in $330B U.S. store-brand sales

Club stores drove nearly half of the growth in $330B U.S. store-brand sales

Circana reports U.S. private-label sales reached $330 billion, with store brands holding 24% unit share and 23% dollar share of CPG. Club stores drove nearly half of the growth. Circana expects share gains to continue through 2026 at a slower pace as national brands sharpen pricing and innovation.

  • 01Club channels account for nearly half of all U.S. private-brand growth, so a store-brand program benchmarked only against supermarket peers is missing where the volume is actually moving.
  • 02A one-point gap between store-brand unit share (24%) and dollar share (23%) suggests private label is no longer priced far below the market average, which changes the margin math for premium-tier extensions.
  • 03The EU's 50% private-label unit share is more than double the U.S. figure, a reference point for how much headroom exists even as Circana expects the U.S. pace to moderate through 2026.

Sep 17, 2026

Explore More Retail Insights

Read more expert perspectives from across Retail.

Browse Retail Hub

For B2B teams

Your experts could be publishing here

Stories like this one run on content MarketScale captures from real practitioners. See how your team's expertise becomes coverage in Retail and beyond.

Book a 15-minute demo

Or call us. No forms required. We pick up. 214-945-2512