Issue #51: One Year Until The World Cup

Greetings from Italy! Currently, I am writing this on the train from Rome to Como. Spending the next two weeks traveling Europe, hence the slight delay in the issue. However, the show must go on, and with the World Cup in less than a year, I figured it was worth putting together an abbreviated issue.

Since I was a small child, soccer has always been one of my favorite sports, along with college basketball, of course. The first World Cup I remember clearly was in 2010, when it was hosted in South Africa. Combine that with the fact that I was living in Australia during that time, it made for some late nights/early mornings. Since then, I have long been interested in soccer, with the World Cup being the penultimate event in the sport, and arguably the biggest in all of sports. Just about one year from now, on June 11th, 2026, the Mexican national team will play a to-be-determined opponent at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. This World Cup is extra exciting due to the fact that it will be the first to be hosted across three countries (United States, Canada, and Mexico) and the first with 48 teams (up from 32 in prior tournaments). To put together the picture of how powerful the World Cup is, here are some statistics on the economic impact:

• An estimated ~4M people will come to the 11 host cities

• The GDP impact will be an estimated $10B in GDP for the United States and a total of $21B in GDP for the world

• 100,000 jobs will be created for the events

• Last time, when the US hosted, in 1994, the United States spent $0.5B to host, more recently Qatar spent $100B, Russia spent $16B, and Brazil spent $20B to host

• The City of Miami’s GDP is expected to be boosted by $1.5B from hosting, 3x the impact of the Super Bowl, albeit with six more matches

• FIFA is planning on spending $4B across the three countries to host the event

• The average tourist will spend $2,350 on their trip (travel, food, housing, and shopping)

• Potential negative effects seen in other countries: slightly higher inflation and an increase in crimes (theft, pick-pocketing, shoplifting, and burglary)

Clearly, there will be a big opportunity for retailers to leverage with the additional tourists and economic spending. What is the best way to capitalize on this opportunity, though? Here are five things retailers should do to prepare:

1. Be Ready For Payments - Make sure your POS (point of sale) and credit card readers are all enabled to do tap-to-pay. Additionally, if you do not accept cash or vice versa, do not accept credit card, make sure you accept credit cards. When fans come to your retail establishment, make sure you can get their money!

2. See Who Will Be Coming To The Area - Check out the matches in your area, in particular, which teams are playing and what languages they speak. Create a cheat sheet/SOP (standard operating procedure) for the retail team on common phrases and important relevant words to your business for your team to memorize. Also, encourage your team to download Google Translate, or a similar translation app, so if needed, your team can grab their phones to help translate. You can also consider adding menus or signs to key languages as needed.

3. Consider World Cup Themed Inventory (if appropriate) - With the World Cup coming up, there will be plenty of swag/gear from all the different teams and events. For those that it makes sense to sell, you should figure out how to capitalize on that by bringing in swag or creating your version of World Cup swag. For people who don’t typically sell these items, there are still many ways to capitalize, like merchandising products, decorating the store, or bundles that can still bring the World Cup energy to your retail establishment.

4. Develop A Marketing Plan - From a marketing perspective, there are many ways to capitalize on the event. Everything is on the table, including: social posts with the World Cup theme, Email notifications, SMS pushes, Special promotions, In-App notifications, Events, Influencer Partnerships, Collabs with other businesses, and more! I am not a marketing guy, but you get the gist!

5. Make Sure Ops and Supply Chain Are Ready - In addition to training people on communicating with people who may speak limited to no English, it is super important that the right products are in stock. To do this, look at demand from other popular sporting events (Super Bowl, March Madness, NBA Finals, Maybe Even Past World Cups, etc.). See what products did well, how much did you sell of each product during those special events, and if you need to bring in any special products for when the World Cup is happening. Then, on the labor side, you need to figure out if you will need to bring in additional help to account for the increased demand.

These are just a few of the many things retailers can do to prepare for the World Cup. What are you doing to prepare? Send over the concerns on your mind for the World Cup!

Caffe Panna Partners With Levain Bakery

I am a big advocate for cross-brand collabs that make sense. NYC-based brands, like PopUp Bagels, have been excelling at this strategy recently, albeit I may be a little biased being a resident here. In terms of collabs that make sense, how about cookies and ice cream? Last summer, Levain Bakery, the bakery that started the trend of huge cookies, decided to leverage that idea. Salt & Straw, an ice cream shop from the Pacific Northwest that rotates flavors monthly, was opening its first location in NYC. So, the two collaborated on an ice cream and cookie offering for just one weekend when Salt & Straw was opening. Unclear who drove the partnership, but it seems likely it was the Salt & Straw side. It seems that this product was successful, as Levain decided to roll out cookies and ice cream for the summer, this time with a different partner. Caffe Panna is an Italian-style ice cream shop founded by Hallie Meyer, the daughter of Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer. Now, at Levain Bakery locations all summer long, you can get a Levain cookie with a scoop of Caffe Panna Vanilla Ice Cream. Yum!

Mondelez Suing Aldi Over Very Similar Products

Aldi, the discount supermarket retailer in Europe and the United States with ~5,700 locations, only sells private label products. These types of products you cannot find elsewhere, as they are specially made for Aldi, even if they are normal products. All the branding, if any, is specifically catered towards Aldi shoppers. Private label items typically have a lower price because there is no branding and marketing expense like a typical item has. Instead, the retailers rely on their everyday low pricing across the store as their way to attract customers. When the customers get there, these products often look very similar, maybe even too similar. Last week, Aldi was sued by Mondelez for allegedly copying products. Check out the items below:

Those look pretty similar. In terms of whether there is a legal case, I am not sure. Regardless, from a retail POV, it will be fascinating to see what happens. Many retailers’ private-label products are similar to regular branded products, albeit the packaging is very different. Will that change?

• Summary: Buba Bureka is a bureka shop, only selling burekas, that just opened its first location in NYC. The burekas are much larger than normal size, and are reheated right before you get them. Each bureka comes with some sides and some sauces to dip

• My Take: Buba Bureka has all the ingredients to be the next special chain. Hot food + carbs + celebrity chef + social media + small footprint = winning formula

• Founder(s): Ben Siman-Tov (BenGingi on social)

• Funding: Unknown

• Number of Locations: 1 in Greenwich Village

• Social Media Following: 24K on Insta, 5.3M posts about it on TikTok

Additional Links:

1. A great deep dive into Uber and Open Table’s partnership (read more here)

2. Travel creators, The Bucket List, bought islands to create hotel experiences (read more here)

3. Retail job cuts up 274% year over year (read more here)

4. Amazon is laying off an additional 100 people in its book business (read more here)

5. Walmart launches campaign to let customers know about its brand refresh and 1 hour delivery (read more here)

6. A sports bar in Portland, Oregon, The Sports Bra, a sports bar that only shows women’s sports, is expanding to 4 new cities (Boston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, and St. Louis) via franchising (read more here)

7. Grubhub launches multi-store ordering and other big initiatives post-acquisition by Wonder (read more here)

8. Auntie Anne’s refreshes its brand in an attempt to attract more Gen Z consumers (read more here)

9. Ollie’s Bargain Outlet took over Big Lots leases, and it’s leading to more sales (read more here)

10. Starbuck’s brings back the COO role, first time having the role since 2022 (read more here)

Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here.

Have an idea or want to chat? Respond to this email.

Is the email not reaching your inbox? Try this trick.