Good morning,

The food delivery wars are officially leaving the road and heading into the sky. Papa John's has started testing drone pizza deliveries in North Carolina through a partnership with Wing, the delivery unit owned by Alphabet.

The pilot is small for now—limited to select menu items near Charlotte—but it signals how restaurant chains are increasingly experimenting with automation, AI, and ultra-fast fulfillment

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Amazon has rolled out Amazon Now, a new ultra-fast delivery service offering groceries and household essentials in 30 minutes or less, as the company intensifies competition in the rapid-commerce and convenience delivery market.

Instant Delivery: The service is already available to millions of customers across cities, including Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Seattle, with rapid expansion underway in markets such as Houston, Phoenix, Denver, Orlando, and Minneapolis. Amazon said it plans to expand the offering to tens of millions of U.S. customers by the end of the year.

What is Amazon Now? Amazon Now allows customers to order thousands of products ranging from fresh groceries and household essentials to electronics and personal care items. Prime members pay a discounted $3.99 delivery fee, while non-Prime customers are charged $13.99 per order.

Amazon said the new service relies on a network of smaller fulfillment hubs positioned closer to dense urban areas, enabling faster order processing and shorter delivery routes as competition intensifies across the instant-delivery, grocery, and local-commerce markets.

Key Stats: The launch marks Amazon’s latest push to accelerate delivery speeds across its logistics network. The company said Prime members received more than 8 billion same-day or next-day items in the U.S. during 2025, a 30% increase from the prior year, with groceries and daily essentials accounting for roughly half of total deliveries.

Walmart is converting smaller vacant retail spaces into localized delivery depots as the company pushes to accelerate last-mile fulfillment and compete more aggressively in rapid delivery.

Speed Race: The retailer has already opened three “Walmart Depot” facilities in Dallas, New Jersey, and Arkansas, with additional locations reportedly planned across states, including New York, California, and Virginia. The roughly 20,000-square-foot sites are not open to the public and instead function as micro-fulfillment hubs used exclusively by Walmart’s Spark delivery drivers.

How does it work? The facilities stock only the retailer’s highest-demand household and grocery products, allowing drivers to complete pickups significantly faster than at traditional Walmart Supercenters. According to reports, some Spark drivers can complete pickups in about five minutes compared with roughly 25 minutes at larger stores.

U.S. retail sales rose 0.5% in April, marking the third consecutive month of gains as larger tax refunds and strong stock market performance continued supporting consumer spending despite rising inflation and fuel costs.

Core retail sales—which exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials, and food services—also climbed 0.5%, while overall retail sales increased 4.9% year over year. Online retail sales rose 1.1%, electronics and appliance store sales climbed 1.4%, and gasoline station receipts jumped 2.8% as fuel prices surged.

Key Categories: Clothing and accessories stores led much of the growth, with sales rising 0.59% sequentially and 9.75% year over year, while digital products jumped 1.11% month over month. Sporting goods, health and personal care, electronics, and grocery categories also posted gains.

Big Picture: Economists warned that consumer spending may soften later this quarter as inflation begins outpacing wage growth and households rapidly draw down tax refund savings.

LVMH has agreed to sell fashion brand Marc Jacobs to a joint venture between WHP Global and G-III Apparel Group in a deal backed by up to $850 million in financing.

What’s the deal? Under the deal, WHP and G-III will each contribute up to $425 million to fund the acquisition. G-III will manage the brand globally, while WHP will oversee licensing and intellectual property operations.

Blast from the Past: Marc Jacobs’ departure closes a nearly 30-year relationship with LVMH dating back to 1997, when the company acquired a majority stake in the brand and appointed Jacobs as the first creative director of Louis Vuitton

Big Picture: Analysts say the deal reflects a broader shift across luxury conglomerates toward shedding non-core assets while brand-management firms increasingly acquire “accessible luxury” labels and monetize them through licensing-heavy business models.

Target is accelerating one of its largest store-transformation efforts in more than a decade, announcing plans to invest roughly $5 billion this year in store remodels, new locations, supply chain upgrades, and retail technology enhancements.

What’s the plan? The retailer said the investment will fund more than 130 store remodels and 30 new stores as it looks to modernize layouts, expand grocery assortments, improve fulfillment capabilities, and strengthen the connection between its digital and physical shopping network.

Target is also redesigning stores to better support same-day services such as Drive Up, Order Pickup, and next-day delivery while expanding key categories including beauty, wellness, baby products, and home goods. The company said remodeled stores typically generate low- to mid-single-digit sales increases, along with stronger customer traffic and engagement.

Shein accused rival Temu of carrying out copyright infringement “on an industrial scale” as a major legal battle between the two fast-fashion giants opened in London’s High Court.

Copyright Violation: Shein alleges Temu used thousands of its product photos to advertise copycat versions of Shein-branded clothing, arguing the company attempted to gain an unfair advantage by leveraging Shein’s designs and marketplace presence. Temu denied the allegations and said parts of the case had already been dismissed after Shein dropped several claims earlier this year.

Temu has also countersued, accusing Shein of using litigation and supplier exclusivity agreements to suppress competition.

Future Outlook: The case comes as both companies face rising regulatory pressure in Western markets following the removal of U.S. customs exemptions for low-value imports and the European Union’s plans to introduce similar restrictions later this year

Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz is seeking financing for a potential bid to take Wendy's private as the fast-food chain struggles with falling sales, rising beef costs, and intensifying competition across the restaurant sector.

Financial Backing: According to the Financial Times, Peltz’s investment firm, Trian Fund Management, has reportedly been in discussions with outside investors, including Middle Eastern backers, about financing a possible takeover. Trian already owns roughly 16% of Wendy’s and has maintained ties to the company for more than two decades.

Freefall: Wendy’s shares have fallen more than 40% over the past year and are down roughly 71% over the past five years as inflation, weaker consumer demand, and competition from chains like Chipotle Mexican Grill and Shake Shack pressure traffic and profitability. The company currently has an enterprise value of about $5.1 billion.

Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniel's, has rejected a $15 billion takeover offer from rival spirits company Sazerac amid growing consolidation pressure across the alcohol industry.

Spirited Takeover? According to a Reuters report, Sazerac offered $32 per share in cash for Brown-Forman in April, valuing the company significantly above its current market price. The proposal was backed by financing from Wells Fargo and Apollo Global Management.

No Deal: The rejected offer comes weeks after separate merger discussions between Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard collapsed. Industry executives increasingly view consolidation as a way to counter slowing alcohol consumption, weaker consumer demand, and declining sales volumes across the global spirits market.

A merger between Sazerac and Brown-Forman would have created one of the largest U.S. whiskey companies, controlling roughly 30% of the American whiskey market and significantly increasing negotiating power with distributors and retailers.

Whole Foods Market is expanding its smaller-format “Daily Shop” concept to Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia as the company pushes deeper into dense urban neighborhoods and accelerates its physical retail strategy.

What are Daily Shops? The streamlined stores are designed around quick grocery trips, grab-and-go meals, and curated everyday essentials, with layouts optimized for faster navigation and higher-demand products. Whole Foods said the format also allows the company to test new merchandising strategies and store designs that could influence future retail concepts across the broader chain.

The Daily Shop concept first launched in New York City in 2024 and has since expanded into Arlington, Virginia, and London. Whole Foods currently operates eight Daily Shop locations, with additional openings planned later this year.

Big Picture: The expansion comes as parent company Amazon continues integrating physical retail more closely into its grocery and fulfillment strategy. Amazon now operates more than 550 Whole Foods stores globally and plans to add roughly 100 more locations in the coming years.