Driven in part by supply chain headaches that arose early in the Covid-19 pandemic, some major retailers have been paring down the number of products in stores, with the added benefit that a more curated assortment better showcases the remaining products and spares shoppers the paralysis of deciding between 17 different spatulas.

If anyone knows curation, it’s MoMA, Manhattan’s modern art and design museum that opened in 1929. So it will come as no surprise that its newly redesigned MoMA Design Store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood has trimmed its product selection by 30%, and that a driving force behind the redesign was to improve discovery and engagement for shoppers.

“We’ve taken SKUs out of the store to give each SKU space to really shine,” Jesse Goldstine, MoMA’s chief retail officer, told Retail Brew on a recent visit to the store, which had been closed for the renovation since May 16 and reopened September 27.

Befitting the museum’s appreciation for classic design—like the 1956 lounge chair and ottoman designed by Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller furniture that are both part of MoMA’s collection and for sale in its design store—Goldstine said a priority of the redesign was to reveal long-hidden features of the SoHo building.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Ahead of the Indigenous Peoples Day weekend, consumers were either shopping to save or still paying off debts from previous holiday shopping sprees.

An early holiday shopping survey of more than 200 respondents by Wallethub found that 47% of Americans tended to shop for the holidays in October or even before that. Why? Well, for starters, about 2 in 3 people thought shopping earlier helped them save money.

With tariffs and rising costs, budgets are tight; 4 in 5 shoppers said their spending capacity would either match or fall short of last year’s.

Shopping for holidays seems to come with a lot of anxiety for some who had lingering holiday debts. More than 1 in 4 Americans surveyed were still paying off debt from the previous season.

To keep their holiday debt (and stress levels) in check, some (28%) of consumers opted for “strict budgeting,” while others (24%) skipped the credit card and were choosing to pay for their wish lists with cash or debit cards instead.

However, 24% of those surveyed went for a different debt avoidance strategy altogether: scattering their purchases over several months.

Keep reading here.—JS

Lay’s wants you to remember that it came from humble, homegrown beginnings. PepsiCo, which owns the chip giant, is giving the brand a makeover worthy of a movie montage: stripping its artificial dyes, updating the logo, and putting a potato right there on the packaging.

Remember the potatoes. New bags—matte-ified and designed to look like wood planks (like a potato crate)—will hold the chips with revamped ingredient lists. Lay’s promises that the baked, kettle-cooked, and original chips won’t taste different, they just won’t have any synthetic colors or flavors.

Keep reading here on Morning Brew.—MM

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