Kara Richardson Whitely is an outdoor enthusiast whose 2015 book, Gorge: My Journey Up Kilimanjaro at 300 Pounds, makes clear that adventure is not just for the thin. She’s also the founder and CEO of The Gorgeous Agency, which has helped brands including The North Face, L.L. Bean, and Columbia to reach the plus-sized market.

Richardson Whitely hopes that someday clothes shopping for plus-size people will be, if not enjoyable, at least less disappointing.

“I feel absolute dread when I need something,” she told Retail Brew. “It’s not fun.”

If you think plus-sized—14 and up for women—is larger than the norm, think again. Among American women, 67% are plus-sized, according to Richardson Whitely, who estimates their spending power at $40 billion.

And yet, in one of retail’s enduring paradoxes, the larger your body gets, the more invisible you become. While brands may make a show of featuring more non-waif models and mannequins in their stores, and offering extended sizes, those sizes often are available only online, Richardson Whitely told me.

But I wanted to see for myself. So we went shopping.

Keep reading here.—AAN

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.2% in February, and 2.8% year over year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week—a lower-than-expected increase. The index, which covers the first full month of the Trump administration, does not reflect the looming impact of tariffs beyond the 10% tax on Chinese imports.

The index for food inched up 0.2%, while food away from home jumped 0.4% and food at home stayed flat monthly, up 1.9% YoY. Four of the six major grocery categories saw declines, as CPI decreased for fruits and vegetables (0.5%), nonalcoholic beverages (0.5%), dairy and related products (1.0%), and other food at home (0.5%).

After a 0.4% drop in January, cereals and bakery products increased 0.4%. Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs rose 1.6%, thanks to a 10.4% rise in egg prices, up 58.8% YoY, which follows the 15.2% monthly egg-price increase in January. (While egg prices remain high, a demand drop has given producers a chance to gain ground on the egg deficit, leading to declining prices, the USDA said last week.)

Keep reading here.—EC

Ulta Beauty began the year with a Golden Globes sponsorship. Then, it showed up at the Super Bowl. Now, the pop culture train is still chugging, and the brand is also keeping an eye trained on DEI initiatives and the effect of tariffs, all with a new marketer at the helm.

At the end of February, Kelly Mahoney, who has been with Ulta Beauty for the last decade, was promoted from interim CMO to CMO, succeeding Michelle Crossan-Matos, who left the beauty retailer in January. We spoke with Mahoney about how the brand is balancing its various marketing priorities in this next phase, and what it will take to pull it all off.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—JN