Welcome to our first episode of The Curious Consumer in 2026!! We're excited to be back and sharing some of the latest stories in consumer brands, from how the frozen aisle is changing to the next big format in protein (hint: it's weirdly.... juvenile).

The breakdown:

00:00 Intro + snacking resolutions03:25 The future of the frozen aisle13:37 Trader Joe's challenges Olipop and Poppi17:38 Canned protein milk's moment22:42 The nuanced story of plant-based brand shutdowns28:38 Beauty brands enter body care33:10 Domestic olive oil for the win?38:04 Conclusion

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📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

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💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome to our final podcast of 2025! We’re walking through some of the biggest themes and headlines from the year, from redefining “function” (with protein, THC, and caffeine) to the new target demographics for skincare + fragrance and the future of retail. Thank you for being a listener this year—we are so grateful, and can’t wait to continue providing more for you in 2026. If there’s anything else you’d like to see from us next year, feel free to reach out at [email protected] 😊

* Want to dig deeper into the protein trend? Check out our two protein podcast episodes: https://expresscheckout.co/p/protein-is-not-a-trend and https://expresscheckout.co/p/proteins-new-era

* Looking for more info on energy drinks? We got a pod on that too: https://expresscheckout.co/p/energy-drinks-are-for-the-girls

* And if you’re trying to check out all of the major headlines and themes from 202, snoop through our archive of newsletters at https://expresscheckout.co/archive

The Rundown

00:00 Intro

01:58 Biggest theme of 2025: Redefining “function”

02:52 Proteinification

06:21 Energy drinks (are for the girls)

08:55 THC category boom

10:26 Magnesium/sleep

13:04 The next gen of retail

20:37 Teens and men: The new targets of beauty/skincare

27:00 How the big guys streamlined

29:08 The crazy headlines you probably forgot

36:37 Winners of 2025

44:12 2026 predictions

49:08 Bye 2025!!!

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to The Curious Consumer wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

This week, we’re chatting about the sneaky strategy behind lip balms, the future of female-focused energy drinks, Rao’s rise to success, why Oreo and Instacart are getting heat, and so much more.

Our latest newsletter gets into more details on all of the above. Read it here:

https://expresscheckout.co/p/how-brands-are-winning-with-lip-balm

The Rundown

00:00 Intro

00:45 The “lipification” of beauty

11:07 Unwell’s new energy drink

19:08 Oreo Zero Sugar (and its response…)

24:21 The two camps of supplement launches

30:16 Instacart’s pricing controversy

33:32 Going all-in on pasta sauce

39:42 Conclusion

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to The Curious Consumer wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

This week, we’re ogling over crazy-fast shipping, wondering how “delicious” and "visceral fat reduction” have managed to enter the same product copy (@ Lemme), unpacking Live Nation’s latest bev partnership, and, obviously, learning how Nate dodged laced brownies in high school.

Our latest newsletter gets into more details on all of the above. Read it here: https://expresscheckout.co/p/the-drones-are-coming

The Rundown

00:00 Intro

00:20 Full Black Friday and Cyber Monday recap

03:39 Ultra-fast shipping innovations (Walmart, Target, Uber Eats + more)

14:10 “Gummifying” every supplement

20:14 Legit weed brownies 👀

23:58 Hiyo x Live Nation partnership

27:45 Anheuser Busch acquires BeatBox

33:30 Conclusion and wrap-up

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to The Curious Consumer wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox at expresscheckout.co.

Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode! If you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

We’re coming in hot off of Black Friday/Cyber Monday! In this episode, we’re sharing some results from this sale weekend, thoughts on Quince’s foray into food + wine, Aldi’s massive US expansion (and what that says about consumer behavior), and more.

If you’re fascinated by “dupe culture”, check out our recent deep dive on Quince!

Gift guides can all be found here!

As always, if you have any thoughts/questions/suggestions, feel free to email us at [email protected] :)

The rundown:

00:00 Intro + chit-chat

02:07 Gift guides recap!

04:27 Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 insights

11:54 Quince’s foray into food + wine

19:24 Aldi opening 16 stores in one day?!

26:36 Monogram Capital’s fund + the future of emerging brands

31:11 Wrapping up

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to The Curious Consumer wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox. Sign up at expresscheckout.co.

📱 Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more:

* Instagram: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode!

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome back to another episode of The Curious Consumer! This week, we’ve got a great lineup of consumer goods stories—from the beverage brand that’s secretly winning through foodservice, to the new era of medical-grade skincare platforms.

The breakdown:

00:00 Intro

00:48 Tractor Beverage: From foodservice to retail

05:18 The new era of non-alc beverages

10:18 Silk’s high-protein soy milk

15:45 The new frontier of skincare

22:11 How Credo Beauty is setting standards in clean beauty

29:47 Bath & Body Works takes Amazon

37:59 Target’s integration with ChatGPT

43:50 Outro

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to The Curious Consumer wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox. Sign up at expresscheckout.co.

📱 Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more:

* Instagram: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode!

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

Welcome back to The Curious Consumer! In our weekly podcast, we break down the latest news in consumer brands and retail. This week features some of the most controversial news we’ve covered yet (with our unfiltered, hot takes to boot).

Our Express Checkout newsletter subscribers know: we had a whole lot more news to share in writing this week, too. To get a full breakdown of all consumer goods + retail news, make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter, Express Checkout.

And as always, thank you for listening!!! Your support means so much to us :)Timeline

00:00 Intro

01:54 The controversial new kids’ skincare brand

09:48 Monster’s new energy drink “for women”

14:29 The rise of new energy drinks

23:25 Whole Foods and Amazon get cozier

32:11 PepsiCo’s new dye-free products

39:40 Outro

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to The Curious Consumer wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop weekly.

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox. Sign up at expresscheckout.co

📱 Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more:

* Instagram: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode!

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

🎯 Got a minute? Share this episode with a friend who’s always reaching for that energy drink. They might learn something that surprises them!

We are SO excited to share that this episode was sponsored by our friends at Glimpse!

Glimpse is offering brands 30 days FREE plus a 12-month lookback at their deductions to see where they could’ve saved $. Getting started is super easy—onboarding takes 15 minutes with a specialist. No CC or complicated forms required (love to hear it).

On this week’s episode of The Curious Consumer, we’re talking…

* Why branded produce is the next big thing (re: Fruitist’s massive raise)

* Two secretly sustainable celeb products

* Recess’s $30M raise and what it says about functional bev

* Bryan Johnson turning us all into suckers

* …and more.

If you enjoyed this episode, consider tossing us a like, subscribe, or share it with your friends :) It seriously means the world to us!!!

And as always, if you have thoughts to share (or want to sponsor an episode or newsletter 👀), shoot us an email at [email protected] and [email protected]

Welcome back to The Curious Consumer! In our (now) weekly episode, we break down the latest news in consumer brands and retail. Today, we get into:

* Why your dog is probably eating better than you

* Culture Pop x Noah Kahan

* Why plant-based alternatives aren’t working right now

* The new brand in teen personal care

* Bon Jovi’s son’s new brand incubator

* The brand reinventing car freshener

* The food insecurity crisis facing America (and how retailers are responding)

Please consider donating to Feeding America to help those impacted by the pause in SNAP and WIC benefits: https://give.feedingamerica.org/kTIc6StdKUebxV-HOloYVQ2

And as always, thank you for listening!!! Your support means so much to us as we grow this pod :)

🎧 Love the show? Subscribe to The Curious Consumer wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop every week

📧 Get the inside scoop Subscribe to Express Checkout, our newsletter packed with consumer insights, trends, and exclusive content straight to your inbox. Sign up at expresscheckout.co

📱 Let’s connect! Follow us for behind-the-scenes content, quick tips, and more:

* Instagram: @expresscheckout

💬 Join the conversation Have a product you’re curious about? DM us your questions or drop them in the comments—your topic could be featured in our next episode!

⭐ Help us grow If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It helps other curious consumers find us!

🎯 Got a minute? Share this episode with a friend who’s always reaching for that energy drink. They might learn something that surprises them!

Hello hello! We’re excited to test out a new format on the pod :) Every Monday, we share the previous week’s biggest news in consumer + retail in our newsletter, Express Checkout. Now, we’re bringing that newsletter to life—walking through each Monday edition on the pod. This week, we chat about:

* Gen Z males’ new fragrance obsession

* The latest protein-infused products (protein Pop-Tarts and Barebells’ protein soda)

* Supplement brands entering Target

* OpenAI’s partnerships with retailers

* Chobani’s latest funding round and expansion efforts

See you next week!

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:00 Male + Gen Z Fragrance Trends

13:04 Protein Pop-Tarts

17:13 Barebells’ Protein Soda

21:30 Target Supplement Launches

24:17 Retailers Partnering with OpenAI

26:34 Live Shopping with E.L.F Cosmetics

28:49 Chobani’s Growth

32:26 Mammoth Brands’ Expanding Portfolio

34:16 Conclusion