News Briefs
- 6/9/2025
Bubble tea brand Gong cha looks to add more than 250 locations by 2028
Gong cha is continuing in U.S. expansion with plans to enter a new market and explore non-traditional locations.
The company, which calls itself the world’s leading bubble tea brand, is entering the Arizona market for the first time through a multi-unit franchise agreement with Blu Tea Arizona, with plans to open stores in Tempe, Mesa and Chandler. The deal expands Gong cha’s growing presence across the Western U.S. as part of its strategy to reach 500-plus U.S. locations by 2028.
Founded in Taiwan in 2006, Gong cha currently has nearly 2,200 locations across 29 international markets, including more more than 240 stores in the U.S. across 21 states and Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. The company recently appointed Michael Nedelkovich Jr. as VP of U.S. non-traditional franchise development. He will focus on scaling the brand through multi-unit partnerships in high-volume, experience-driven venues such as airports, universities, casinos, amusement destinations and big box retailers.
“These venues not only provide high visibility, but also allow us to tap into daily routines and impulse-driven purchase behaviors," he said. "Strategically, they offer scalable, multi-unit growth potential in environments where consumer demand for innovative beverage options continues to rise.”
Blu Tea Arizona is operated by an experienced franchisee group that has successfully developed Gong cha locations in other markets. This marks their third territory expansion with the brand.
“When we first explored diversifying our franchise portfolio with a beverage concept, we were looking for a category leader with strong demand, with a premium product, and a scalable model,” said Fernando Ochoa, president of Blu Tea Arizona. “Based upon this, we chose to partner with Gong cha. Our success in other markets has affirmed our confidence in the brand, and we see a strong opportunity to continue to scale into Arizona with a multi-unit deal. We plan to grow quickly with multiple stores across the Phoenix region.”
With year-round warm weather, strong segment awareness around bubble tea, limited direct competition and a high density of residents within the brand’s target demographic, Arizona is an ideal market for Gong cha’s continued U.S. growth, the company said. More than 22% of the state’s population falls between ages 15 and 29 — Gong cha’s core audience.
- 6/9/2025
Amazon reportedly testing human-like delivery robots
Media reports indicate Amazon is developing a very different type of delivery "person."
According to Guru Focus, Amazon is building a "humanoid park" in San Francisco where it can experiment with prototype humanoid robots provided by Chinese robotics firm Unitreethat. The robots reportedly would deliver packages from Amazon Rivian electric delivery vans to customer doors.
Engineers at the San Francisco facility are reportedly working on having the robots successfully and safely complete deliveries from a parked van using a simulated urban environment. In addition, Amazon is said to be developing agentic AI capabilities for the robots to understand and respond to natural language commands at its Lab126 research and development center in Sunnyvale, Calif.
Amazon has been taking a sharp focus on the speed of its deliveries for some time. The online giant delivered more than 9 billion items via same-day or next-day globally for Prime members in 2024 at record speeds.
[READ MORE: How Amazon achieved its fastest ever delivery speeds in 2024]
Amazon said its improved delivery speed in the U.S. primarily resulted from increasing its same-day delivery sites by more than 60% during the year. Presumably, having robots perform the actual delivery from the vehicle would shave more time off its delivery process.
Amazon has been actively developing and deploying robots in its warehouses for years, including "Vulcan," a robot with a human-like sense of touch; as well as Agility Robotics' bipendal robot, Digit, which is built in a human-like shape and can move like a person while also grasping and handling items with robotic "arms" resembling a human.
Chain Store Age has reached out to Amazon for comment.
- 6/9/2025
Survey: More consumers moving up back-to-school shopping to June
Potential price hikes from incoming tariffs have families moving up their back-to-school shopping.
A new survey from TeachersLists, a national source for verified school supplies lists, found that many families are adjusting their shopping timelines for the upcoming season. While July and August remain the most popular months for stocking up on new items, potential tariffs are having an impact, as the number of families planning to shop for school supplies in June has nearly doubled from 11% to 20%.
The survey also found that 61% of parents associate back-to-school shopping with words like "financially challenging" and "stressful." Overall spending on back-to-school supplies is expected to reach approximately $41 billion this year.
The new back-to-school shopping data from TeachersLists follows several surveys showing that consumers are beginning to curb spending and even pull ahead certain purchases to avoid increased prices. Recent data from e-commerce platform ESW revealed that 70% consumers plan to reduce overall spending once new tariffs on imported goods go into effect, while 45% have pulled forward spending on electronics, and 37% say they have started stocking up on groceries.
[READ MORE: Survey: U.S. shoppers already worried about rising costs of holiday essentials]
TeacherLists’ Preseason Parent Survey was conducted in May 2025 and featured 1,200 respondents self-identified as parents or guardians of K-12 students.
- 6/9/2025
Walmart optimizes social customer engagement
Walmart Inc. is effectively managing millions of mentions per year across disparate social media networks.
The discount giant had been struggling to sort, filter and when necessary, take action in response to 14 million social media mentions a year. Part of the volume is generated by local Walmart store pages on Facebook, where the retailer wants the customer experience to match that of their neighborhood store.
In addition, Walmart faces an ongoing need to minimize negative sentiment and social media incidents that can adversely affect its online reputation. Traditional social media efforts were fragmented across brand teams and customer care issues were not typically optimized for resolution.
Walmart turned to artificial intelligence-based business process improvement platform provider HGS to help improve its end-to-end social customer care, brand-building, and customer engagement.
HGS provided Walmart with AI and automation technology for filtering and tagging social media mentions, analytics, a crisis management solution coordinated with a public relations firm, and a customizable social media management platform to reply to and engage with more customers online.
In addition, Walmart was able to leverage a team of HGS social brand ambassadors, and a social media playbook. As a result, Walmart saved more than $12 million by filtering non-actionable mentions via enhanced automation and AI.
The retailer also obtained more than 1.2 million customer insights, removed more than 220,000 spam mentions (such as hate speech and bullying), engaged 180,000 customers with personalized responses across four social media platforms, and generated 200,000 e-commerce site visits from reactive comments.
[READ MORE: Walmart wraps up holiday promotion with omnichannel features]
- 6/6/2025
Dave's Hot Chicken acquired for $1 billion
The same private equity firm that purchased Subway last year has acquired an emerging fast-casual powerhouse.
Roark Capital has acquired Dave’s Hot Chicken for approximately $1 billion, which the company says will allow the chain to enter its “next phase of growth and innovation.”
Founded in 2017, Dave’s Hot Chicken has become one of the fastest-growing restaurant chains, with more than 400 restaurants expected to be open worldwide by the end of the year. The company says it has sold the rights to more than 1,000 franchise locations in the United States, Canada and the Middle East, and will open more than 155 locations this year.
Started by three childhood friends in Los Angeles, Dave’s Hot Chicken is known for Nashville-style hot chicken tenders and sandwiches. The chain’s leadership team will remain in place post-acquisition.
[READ MORE: Placer.ai: Raising Cane's, Dave's Hot Chicken top QSR, fast-casual sectors in Q1]
“This is one of the great entrepreneurial journeys of our time, and now we begin the next chapter in the story,” said Bill Phelps, CEO of Dave’s Hot Chicken, who took the reins of the company in 2019. “Our entire organization is excited about the fit between Dave’s Hot Chicken and Roark, and we’re looking forward to continuing to blow our guests’ minds and unlocking growth and value for our franchise partners.”
Atlanta-based Roark has roughly $40 billion in assets under management. Last year, the firm acquired Subway for an estimated $9.6 billion, making it one of the biggest deals in the restaurant industry since Roark’s Inspire Brands acquired Dunkin’ Brands for $11.3 billion in 2020.
Other restaurant chains in Roark’s portfolio include Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby's, Jimmy John's and Sonic.
- 6/6/2025
Little Caesars to make debut in India
Little Caesars is set to open its first stores in the world’s most-populated country.
The Detroit-based pizza giant is officially expanding into India, which will mark its 30th country of operation. The first store is set to open in the Delhi National Capital Region later this month, with plans for additional locations to follow.
Little Caesars’ expansion into India is led by Harnessing Harvest – a franchisee powered by nearly nine decades of legacy in the Indian food and hospitality industry. Recent international debuts include launches in markets such as Cambodia and Kuwait.
The chain says it has created an entirely new and unique menu exclusively for guests in India, blending its “signature quality and value with bold, local flavors.”
"Launching in India marks an exciting milestone for Little Caesars as we expand into our 30th country,” said Paula Vissing, president of global retail at Little Caesars. “With our delicious pizzas and unbeatable value, we're eagerly anticipating introducing a unique menu that we believe will captivate India. Our mission has always been to offer delicious, high-quality food at exceptional prices, and we can't wait to introduce Little Caesars to families, students, and busy professionals throughout India."
[READ MORE: These pizza retailers have the highest customer satisfaction ratings]
Founded in 1959, Little Caesars is the third-largest pizza chain in the world, operating more than 4,300 locations globally.
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