Today In Retail: Walmart Looks For Crypto Leader; Walgreens Launches Health-Focused Credit Card

In today’s top retail news, Walmart is pushing ahead with its digital currency and cryptocurrency ambitions, and Walgreens has launched a new branded credit card that rewards consumers for healthy living choices. Also, some shopping malls are looking at what to do with an increasing number of vacancies, and rowing is getting the connected fitness treatment.

Walmart Seeks Crypto-Expert Product Lead

Walmart is seeking someone to bring the retail giant into the crypto age, posting a job listing on Monday (Aug. 16) for a digital currency and cryptocurrency product lead to help it develop a digital currency strategy. The ideal candidate will have a record of leading and scaling companies and will be an expert in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain. The job listing follows a patent filed by Walmart in 2019 for a digital asset that would be tied to generating a digital currency unit.

Walgreens To Incentivize Healthy Living Choices With New Credit Card Rewards Program

Walgreens has launched a new branded credit card issued by Synchrony Bank that will reward consumers not only for purchases made at Walgreens and other merchants, but also for doctors’ appointments, gym memberships and prescriptions. David Parkes, senior vice president of co-branded products at Synchrony, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster that the myWalgreens Mastercard was designed to reward people for healthy choices, whatever that may mean for the individual consumer.

After Brief Mid-Summer Surge, Weak And Stagnant Malls Threatened By Fresh Headwinds

Bankruptcies have left vacancies at many shopping malls, and the accelerated rise of eCommerce has only made the decline of B and C malls more pronounced. Some landlords have been repurposing empty Sears or JCPenney locations into vaccination sites, schools, medical facilities or corporate offices, while others are turning properties into “dark malls” that exist solely to fulfill online orders for same-day or same-hour pickup.

Rowing May Be Next Connected Fitness Frontier As Consumers Diversify Workouts

With gyms closed and COVID-19 keeping most people indoors in 2020, many people turned to connected fitness companies, such as Peloton, to get their exercise and attend fitness classes. But 30- to 45-minute classes don’t work for everyone’s schedule or may be difficult to get excited about. Andy Hoang, founder and CEO of connected rowing company Aviron, told PYMNTS that for him, it’s important that the workout is engaging and fun, which is why Aviron’s rowing machines focus on animated races and activities, not classes, in order to provide shorter, high-intensity workouts.