News about Retail & HoReCa

Despite inflationary pressures, Americans spent over $26.4 billion during Amazon’s Prime Day online sale. However, behind these impressive sales figures lies another trend: shoppers are hunting for discounts and trying to spend less on each order.

Saks Global, an American luxury department store operator, has completed bankruptcy proceedings and announced a name change. The company, which brings together Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman, will now operate under the brand name Exemplar Luxury Group, according to the Associated Press.

The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), in collaboration with Italian law enforcement agencies and Turkish customs authorities, has uncovered a scheme involving the illegal export of approximately 7,100 metric tons of textile waste from Italy to Turkey. According to investigators, the organizers circumvented costly environmental regulations by passing off the waste as reusable textiles.

The X5 Group, which operates the “Pyaterochka” and “Perekrestok” retail chains, has suspended purchases of products from Italy’s Ferrero Group. The company cited the supplier’s “unjustifiably high selling prices” as the reason for the decision.

In the last ten days of June, currants hold the top spot in terms of price in the seasonal berry segment of Moldova’s fruit market. The price for this berry in small-scale wholesale ranges from 90 to 110 lei per kilogram, while retail prices reach up to 150 lei per kilogram (for black varieties).

“We can’t sell a traditional blouse for 400 lei when our labor alone is valued at 400 lei,” says a craftswoman at Mirabela.

The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a number of advertisements by Adidas, Calvin Klein, and Uniqlo, ruling that the claims about recycled materials made in the ads could mislead consumers.

Currently, one of Moldova’s leading divin producers—Călărași Divin—is associated solely with divin, but this was not always the case. In the 20th century, the company also produced a wide variety of wines. As recently as the 1990s, their product range was quite extensive. A quarter of a century later, the time has come to revive this aspect of the company’s operations, as it has never strayed far from winemaking—after all, wine is the source of the distillate used to make divin.

Moldretail Group, which owns the grocery chains Linella, Fidesco, Fourchette, Cip Market, Bravo, Slavena, and Toto, as well as the Nuca coffee shops, intends to acquire the Merci deli chain.

Europe’s leading marketers will compete for the first time for the title of European Chief Marketing Officer (Best Marketing Director in Europe). This is a new industry award that will be presented as part of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Once tensions in the Middle East have de-escalated, prices will react in different ways to the “easing of international tensions.” Speculative pressure on energy resources will disappear, while food prices will remain high due to logistical challenges, market inertia, and a protracted recovery in production.

The global footwear market is entering a phase of structural transformation. Following a period of strong growth in athletic footwear, major department stores are observing a gradual shift in consumer demand toward more versatile and elegant styles. Sneakers remain a key category, but their dominance is gradually losing momentum, giving way to more balanced consumption patterns.

L’Oréal announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI aimed at expanding the use of artificial intelligence in marketing, sales, and the development of beauty products. The agreement was unveiled in Paris during the VivaTech technology exhibition.

High-quality products, fast order delivery, expert advice during the product selection process, and competitive prices—you can find all of this on a single website: SmadShop.md, the largest online store in the Republic of Moldova. The variety of products is provided by approximately 70 suppliers from Romania, more than 50 from Poland, as well as suppliers from China, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Turkey, Ukraine, and 180 suppliers from the Republic of Moldova. Thus, it can be said that the SmadShop.md platform features over a thousand stores offering more than ten thousand types of products.

Rising costs, regulatory pressure from the EU, and a decline in exports are calling into question the sustainability of the business models of Shein, Temu, and AliExpress.

Greece’s tourism sector is entering the new summer season amid strong demand for vacations and continued growth in accommodation prices. According to data from the analytics firm AirDNA, demand for short-term rentals in the country has risen by 9.3% compared to the same period last year. At the same time, the average rental price during the high season reached €174 per night, compared to €113 during the low season—a 55% increase, reports the Greek Reporter.

Thailand’s capital is shifting its tourism strategy. Instead of competing for mass tourism, Bangkok’s hotel market is focusing on affluent guests, premium service, and international luxury brands.

The global alcohol market is entering a phase of structural change: in the world’s largest countries, people are increasingly cutting back on alcohol consumption, and producers are having to seek new growth opportunities outside traditional markets.

The Danish restaurant Noma, which has repeatedly been named one of the best in the world, is preparing to reopen following a reputational crisis surrounding its founder and working conditions within the team.

Unilever South Central Europe, the Romanian import and distribution division of the Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever—one of the largest players in the global consumer goods market— reported a net profit of over 444 million Romanian lei in 2025, compared to 30 million lei the previous year, representing an increase of nearly 1,400%.