Qdoba is going into overdrive and betting on franchising to grow its footprint.

The quick-service Mexican restaurant, which currently has 750 locations, expects to double in size during the next decade. Qdoba plans to open 40 new restaurants this year, followed by 60 in 2024. Starting in 2025, it will open 80-plus locations.

In August 2022, Qdoba was acquired by Butterfly Equity from Apollo Global Management. The chain was subsequently merged with Butterfly Equity’s Lemonade and Modern Market Eatery banners to form Modern Restaurant Concepts. (All three operate as separate brands.) 

"Qdoba is an exceptionally well positioned brand in one of the most attractive restaurant categories,” said John Cywinski, CEO of Modern Restaurant Concepts, parent company of Qdoba. “We possess long-standing momentum, strong unit economics, a compelling operating model, an extraordinarily passionate guest following, and significant untapped geographic potential.

Qdoba is currently 80% franchised with 85 franchise partners in the U.S.  

“We are in the process of aggressively accelerating new restaurant development in partnership with existing and new franchisees,” Cywinski added. “Once our pipeline is fully established, we expect to sustain a 10% annual growth rate through new restaurant development.”

In keeping with its selective refranchising strategy, Qdoba recently sold 77 company-owned restaurants to existing franchisee, North Fork Fresh Mex, which now operates 97 Qdoba locations Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Virginia. North Fork has also committed to build 73 new restaurants during the next seven years and is now the chain’s largest franchise partner. 

Qdoba has now posted 10 consecutive quarters of positive comp sales growth, with average unit volumes of $1.6 million. 

New analysis of hundreds of top-searched school supplies hero and carousel images on Amazon from image analytics software provider Visit reveals what online shoppers prefer.

Hero image trends

According to Visit research, when showing the number of products included with a purchase, hero images that used a cascading effect in the display performed better than those that relied on a mass of items.

In addition, more muted color palettes dominated high-scoring back-to-school hero imagery. And hero images that showcase packaging as it would be on physical shelves—such as closely cropped images of the front of the physical product package shot from a straight-on angle—earned low scores from shoppers. Stylized hero images were also more likely to generate appeal.

Carousel image trends

Meanwhile, visuals of people using school supplies with hands coming from the right-side border scored highly among carousel images. Carousel imagery that showed teachers using school supplies with groups of students also performed well, regardless of the age of the students shown.

Also, many high-ranking carousel images tracked by Visit included blue text detailing product capabilities or benefits on a yellow or orange background.

[Read more: NRF: Back-to-school shopping expected to reach “unparalleled” record high]

To call Kmart a shadow of its former self is a gross understatement.

The former powerhouse discounter, which once operated more than 2,000 stores nationwide, will close its store at Westwood Plaza in Westwood, N.J., this fall, reported NorthJersey.com. The closing will leave Kmart with only two brick-and-mortar locations nationwide, with one in Miami and another in Brideghampton, N.Y.  (The company also operates an e-commerce site.)

The upcoming Westwood closure follows multiple Kmart closings across the New York metro area in recent years. In July 2021, the retailer shuttered its nearly 25-year-old location in Manhattan, on Broadway at Astor Place. Wegmans Food Market will open its first Big Apple location on the site this fall.

The decline of Kmart has been slow but steady.   In 2005, it merged with Sears, creating Sears Holdings, with a total of about 3,500 stores. At the time, however, both brands were already in decline and closing stores, failing to keep up with changing shopper behaviors and such fast-moving competitors as Walmart and Target. The growing dominance of Amazon and other online competitors only hastened their downward spiral.

In 2018,  Sears Holdings, filed for bankruptcy. It emerged in early 2019  when its CEO, Eddie Lampert, secured a roughly $5 billion deal using his hedge fund ESL to buy the retailer’s assets out of court. The deal kept about 400 Sears and Kmart locations up and running under a new private entity, which is now called Transformco.  

According to various reports, there are only 11 Sears stores left in operation nationwide. Similar to Kmart, Sears operates an e-commerce site.

Sam’s Club, a division of Walmart Inc., is expanding its distribution network.

The warehouse club retailer will open a multi-purpose distribution center in Oklahoma City, Okla., in early 2024. The 300,000-sq.-ft.  facility will be located at the OKC Logistics Park. Sam’s Club  plans to make a capital investment of approximately $40 million to open the facility.

“We’re excited to enhance our supply chain capabilities in the State of Oklahoma,” said Joseph Godsey, chief supply chain officer of Sam’s Club. “We are on a journey to transform the entire Sam’s Club supply chain through strategic expansion and cutting-edge automation. This investment will help us provide a better experience for our members in the speed and availability of our products.” 

Local officials applauded the investment. Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said the new facility joins a growing distribution corridor in southwest Oklahoma City. Walmart is the state’s largest employer, with more than 35,000 jobs across Oklahoma.

“We are excited to extend our long-term partnership with Walmart and Sam’s Club to include this new distribution center,” Holt said. “Oklahoma City’s population continues to grow and as both our city and the company expand, we look forward to working together.”

Sam’s Club operates nearly 600 clubs in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Wawa has unveiled a store with no shelves.

The convenience store retailer has transformed its store at 3300 Market St. in Philadelphia’s University City neighborhood into an all-digital experience. All products (with one exception) must be ordered on in-store touchscreens or via Wawa’s mobile app, with the orders  filled by in-store employees.  Coffee, however, remains self-serve.

The format is designed to be a faster and more efficient. It will not result in the elimination of any jobs at the store, which is located near Drexel University and open 24/7, Wawa told the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The test store comes as Wawa is expanding into new markets. In May, the company broke ground on its first store in the state of North Carolina. In December, Wawa said that its long-term expansion plans include the launch of its first-ever stores  in the states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, along with  the previously announced state of Tennessee. 

Wawa stores are located in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida and Washington, D.C. with more than 1,000 locations to date.

Layoffs are coming to CVS Health.

The pharmacy giant is cutting about 5,000 jobs as it looks to reduce costs and increase its focus on healthcare services. The cuts represent less than 2% of CVS’ total workforce, which was made up of approximately 300,000 employees at the end of 2022.  The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

In a statement to Chain Store Age sister publication Drug Store News,  CVS said it does not expect the cuts will have any impact on its customer-facing colleagues in its stores, pharmacies, clinics or customer services centers.

“We do not anticipate there will be any impact to our clients and customers as we remain focused on our mission – continuing to provide the exceptional care and support our customers, patients and communities deserve and depend on,” the statement said. “Throughout our company’s history, we’ve continuously adapted to market dynamics to lead the industry. The difficult decision we are making will set the company up for long-term success."

CVS has increased its focus on the home health space in recent years. In March 2023, it completed its approximate $8 billion acquisition of Signify Health.  And in February, it entered into a deal to Oak Street Health in a deal valued at approximately $10.6 billion. Oak Street operates primary care centers that service people with Medicare Advantage plans,

CVS has more than 9,000 retail stores and 1,100 walk-in clinics nationwide.