posted: 3 May, 2019

Welcome to the tenth edition of Dispatches, our meticulously hand-picked collection of the most interesting ideas, innovations, and insight from the global retail, fashion, and tech industry news… and other loosely-related stuff we feel honour-bound to share.

We have a mixed bag for you this week, from the surprisingly large number of Berlin shops that sell only one thing, to the story of how a sustainable fashion and technology company from the Isle of Wight uses automation and printers to upend conventional t-shirt manufacturing process, to a surprisingly engrossing tale of one man’s attempt to change the raisin industry for the better. Yes, raisins.

• Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail?
  One shop sells nothing but buttons, another sells only liquorice, and another is ‘the world’s first textile butcher shop’. In the age of Amazon, it seems the way to thrive is to specialise.
  [Guardian]

• Tiina Alahuhta-Kasko: revitalising an old brand
  The boss of Marimekko had to convince the company to unlearn the old ways and learn a new one.
  [Financial Times]

• How a British upstart forged a sustainable T-shirt revolution
  Born in a garden shed, Rapanui has grown into a T-shirt behemoth. How? Automation and printers.
  [Wired]

• The raisin situation
  One man wanted to change the raisin industry for the better. He got more than he bargained for.
  [NY Times]

• How a Canadian chain is reinventing book selling
  Indigo is expanding to the United States with its new model for how a big bookstore chain can thrive in the era of online retail.
  [NY Times]

• Retailers are tracking where you shop – and where you sleep
  Retailers are finding all kinds of uses for location data from customers’ phones.
  [Bloomberg Business]

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