Retailers Heat Up Memorial Day With Holiday Deals and Pop-Ups

This Memorial Day, in addition to the usual round of holiday weekend sales, many retailers are getting more targeted about how they can insert their products into shoppers’ summer celebrations.

Walmart, for instance, as part of its push to lower prices in competitive categories, is offering up a pre-selected shopping cart of deals on products consumers would need for their summer cookouts including hot dogs, fixings, sides, beverages and desserts, promising to feed eight people for around $6 per person. These prices are available until mid-July.

Walmart isn’t the only retailer making a play for shoppers’ barbecue spending. Not to be outdone, Kroger announced Monday (May 20) a barbecue bundle that promises to feed people for “as little as $4 per person,” with burgers, fixings, sides and cookies.

In a similar effort to be deal seekers’ holiday retailer of choice, Target shared, in its announcement of plans to lower prices on roughly 5,000 “frequently shopped items” on Monday (May 24), how these price cuts make holiday shopping more affordable, noting that there would be additional discounts specifically for the holiday.

Indeed, price is top of mind for many grocery shoppers. PYMNTS Intelligence data revealed that 86% of consumers have made changes to their grocery shopping habits in response to rising prices. Fifty-eight percent have cut down on nonessential spending, 44% have switched to cheaper merchants, and 34% have reduced the quality of products they buy.

Meanwhile, fast-fashion brand Shein is forgoing the cookout to seize on a different kind of summer celebration — wedding season. The brand announced that, for the holiday weekend, it is hosting a pop-up chapel in Las Vegas, with (non-legally binding) ceremonies officiated by Lauren Speed-Hamilton and Cameron Hamilton from the reality show “Love Is Blind.”

The pop-up will of course also feature a retail component, with a shop selling goods for wedding participants and attendees, including bridesmaid dresses and bachelorette party accoutrement.

Indeed, buzzy, limited-time events of this kind can be effective at attracting new shoppers, as Kelly Cook, president of brand, technology and finance at David’s Bridal, told PYMNTS in an interview posted earlier this month discussing the wedding retailer’s pop-up vow renewal chapel. She noted the company’s prom pop-up last year yielded a “very high new customer acquisition rate” and its virtual live shopping bridal show pop-up garnered top-of-funnel engagement.

Additionally, with many consumers road-tripping during the holiday, popular snack brand Cheez-It on Monday announced the opening of a roadside Cheez-It diner in Upstate New York, with a menu including Cheez-It-topped burgers, fries, biscuits and even milkshakes and cheesecakes. The diner is open until midnight over the holiday weekend, looking to draw in Memorial Day travelers.

Plus, fashion brand Michael Kors is seizing on the holiday with a “Club Kors” pop-up lounge experience that launched Tuesday (May 21) and runs through Memorial Day on Miami’s Joia Beach, according to the Miami Herald, available only by reservation. The club, available only by reservation, sells a range of the brand’s beach-related merchandise on site, and everything from sun umbrellas to floaties are decked out with the company’s logo.