It would be hard to overstate the ardor Reddit users display for Bar Keeper’s Friend, the 144-year-old cleanser brand. Subreddits including r/CleaningTips, r/cookware, and r/StainlessSteelCooking, are effusive about the abrasive, with users posting before-and-after photos of pans, sinks, and candlesticks that have been transformed from unsightly to gleaming with a couple shakes of the stuff and a bit of elbow grease.

But the Reddit community has been decidedly less impressed with the product’s packaging, the composite paperboard can with a shaker-top also used by old-school cleanser counterparts Ajax, Comet and Bon Ami. Its container has no lid, meaning that once users peel the sticker off the top, there’s nothing to prevent the product from spilling out if the can is knocked over or, in especially humid climates, from the powder occasionally clumping.

The primary reason the product is lidless is cost, Felicia Zhang, head of marketing at Bar Keeper’s Friend, told Retail Brew. The product, she said, retails for “under $3 at most places” (including Walmart and The Home Depot as of this writing), and a lid would add to the cost. Also, while the brand puts its soft cleanser in plastic bottles, the package for its original product is plastic-free, and the brand wanted to keep it that way.

“We’re very conscious of that particular SKU not having any plastic,” Zhang said, adding the flagship product is “our largest selling SKU, and we want it to be something that would be good environmentally.”

Keep reading here.—AAN

It’s always been hard to break the ice with a stranger. It’s a little easier when there’s common ground—like a shared hobby, interest, or cultural taste.

That’s the thinking powering The Clinker, a smart band that wraps around Heineken beer cans and bottles and alerts drinkers to shared interests when they tap their cans together. The beer brand debuted the technology last month at Coachella, where attendees who signed up and synced their music streaming data could, if they toasted other festivalgoers, find attendees with similar music tastes. The company plans to use it at other festivals and experiential activations around the globe this year.

The initiative marks the latest effort in Heineken’s push for in-person connection in marketing communications.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—KM

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Frasier Neil is chief sales officer at smart cart platform Cust2Mate, deployed by retailers like Morton Williams and Carrefour.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I help retailers make shopping faster and less frustrating. Most stores still have small friction points, such as locating items, queuing, and checking out. These add up. My job is to work with retailers on how to remove these pain points in a way that actually translates in real life, not just in a demo.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? You wouldn’t guess how much of my position involves psychology. A big part of my role is understanding how shoppers behave in store, what frustrates them, what they ignore, and then translating that into something retailers can act on. It is less about selling a product and more about providing retailers with solutions that enhance the customer experience.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? The best projects are the ones where you see behavior genuinely shift. When a retailer moves from skepticism to complete buy-in, fueled by faster, frictionless customer journeys, the focus naturally shifts from technology to commercial results. That’s when it gets interesting.

Keep reading here.—EC

Most video strategies stop at “watch.” The best ones drive “buy.” Join us May 27 to learn how to turn content into a true commerce engine by connecting video to data, platforms, and performance. We’ll break down the moves that shift video from a cost center to a conversion driver—no big-budget production required.

Even in the age of AI, retailers continue to bet big on brick and mortar. Nearly 78% of retailers report moderate or significant in-store investment, and with more than 5,000 store openings forecast for 2026 (Coresight Research), this isn’t a boom. It's a recalibration. Learn more about what's driving it.