• Glossy has a story about how Costco - looking to lower the age of its core customer from the current 65+ - is investing in beauty and cosmetics lines that it hopes will appeal to a younger demographic.
As part of this shift, the story says, "In 2017, Costco incorporated premium and luxury brands like Japanese brands SK-II, and by Feb. 2018, it added Korean, natural and Ayurveda categories to its website, before officially creating a Japanese beauty section in 2019. In 2015, its only categories were fragrances, cosmetics, hair care and skin care … In addition to adding new categories in the last two years, the wholesaler began adding buzzy brands like sun-care brand Coola, hair-care brand Briogeo, skin-care brand Perricone MD and, most recently, skin-care brand Boscia and sheet-mask brand All have core millennial customers."
Glossy writes that "outside of beauty, Costco has endeavored to adapt to millennial shopping habits. In 2018, the wholesaler began offering high-value items such as jewelry and electronics via e-commerce … At the time, millennials represented 40% of new customer signups but spent only a fraction of what Boomers did. In 2019, Costco also added digital membership cards through its app, but it has been notably slow in making digital investments."
• USA Today reports that "plant-based breakfast sausages are coming to Burger King as the Restaurant Brands International chain said it would add the Impossible Croissan'wich to its menu nationwide. … It is the first chain to put the Impossible Foods sausage alternative on its menu," though "Dunkin' Brands already offers rival Beyond Meat's plant-based sausage."
The story suggests that "the addition of the sausage offering represents an opportunity to expand beyond the confines of plant-based beef alternatives into pork and perhaps chicken."
