Raphael Stevens

Annual spending among teens is down 1% compared to last fall, according to a Piper Sandler survey.
Nike, American Eagle and Lululemon are among the most preferred brands among teens.
The age group is shopping more at off-price retailers such as T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, and less at specialty stores and discounters such as Target and Walmart.

A customer shops at the Nike store in Miami Beach, Florida, on Dec. 21, 2021.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Teens are a notoriously fickle bunch — but the group is also often on the leading edge of many trends the rest of us eventually adopt.
In many ways, the cohort’s spending habits reflect those seen in the U.S. at large.

Teens’ self-reported annual spending is down 1% to $2,316 compared to last fall, and down 4% from the spring, according to Piper Sandler’s biannual teen survey released Tuesday. Interestingly, male teens report spending 11% more than last fall, while females are spending 8% less.
High prices appear to be weighing on teens as much as they are on other age groups in the U.S. When asked about the biggest political and social issues today, inflation was second behind the environment — the economy was fifth.
When teens are spending, 37% said they are using funds earned from a part-time job, while 62% said parents contribute to spending.
One company reigned among teen spenders. Despite a rocky financial performance recently, Nike remains the favorite brand for apparel and footwear for both male and female teens for the 12th year running in the survey that has been conducted for 22 years. Other fashion and beauty brands have been moving around in preference during that time.

Clothing and apparel spending falls

Teens are spending 4% less on clothing compared to last year, down to $563 per year. Females are outspending males by about $180, slightly less than the difference in the spring version of the survey.

After Nike, American Eagle and Lululemon are the second- and third-most preferred brands among teens, the same as in the spring. While Shein moved up to the No. 4 spot from No. 5, overtaking H&M, the company’s market share fell 1 percentage point. 
Teens are also putting less money into footwear. Spending dropped 3% to $305 a year. Males outspend females on shoes by about $80 a year.
Converse held the spot for the second-most favorite brand behind Nike but dropped in market share by 1 percentage point. Adidas held the No. 3 spot, and New Balance gained 2 percentage points of market share to become the fourth favorite brand. It surpassed Vans, which lost share and fell to the No. 5 spot.
Crocs and Crocs-owned Hey Dude come in at No. 6 and No. 7, respectively. On Running emerged in the top 10, claiming the No. 8 spot. Birkenstock, which is set to go public this week, did not make the top 10, and hasn’t for at least the last four surveys.
Teens are shopping more at off-price retailers such as T.J. Maxx, Ross Stores, Marshalls and Nordstrom Rack, as well as online. They’re buying less at specialty stores, discounters such as Target and Walmart, outlets and secondhand options.
Amazon dominates as the online shopping site of choice. Shein comes up second, but with just 7% of share compared to Amazon’s 59%. StockX and Temu moved into the top 10 after not making the list in the spring. Princess Polly and GOAT fell out of the top 10.
When teens were asked what the top fashion trends were in school, “leggings/Lululemon” held the top spot for females as it has for at least the last four surveys. It was followed by crop tops and jeans at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. They rose from the No. 4 and No. 5 trend in the spring, as UGG Australia boots dropped from second-most named trend for females to sixth. “Baggy/saggy pants” were the fifth-most named trend for females.
When asked about top trends, males named “Nike/Jordans” as No. 1, as they have for at least the last four surveys. Athletic wear was second, and “baggy/saggy pants” was third for male fashion trends. Hoodies fell to fifth from second in the spring, and short shorts popped up at No. 9 as a top trend for males in school.

Beauty booms

Teens are spending $324 a year on beauty, up 23% from last year. The jump was led by a 33% increase in cosmetics, marking the highest spending level in the category since 2019.
In cosmetics, e.l.f. remains the top makeup brand, and gained in share from the spring and last year. Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty held the No. 2 spot and gained share over last year. Maybelline held the third spot. 
Skin care spending grew 19% over last year, and CeraVe was the top skin care brand. The Ordinary, owned by Estée Lauder, comes in second and L’Oreal-owned La Roche-Posay gained two spots to land at No. 3.
Fragrance spending, meanwhile, grew 14% over last fall. Bath & Body Works is No. 1 in the category, but its market share fell 7 percentage points from last year. Hair care spending increased 5% from last year. Olaplex was the favorite brand, though it held the lowest share seen in this survey. 
Teens are shifting where they buy beauty. Sephora unseated Ulta as the top destination for beauty for the first time in five years. Both Sephora and Ulta have shop presences within other major retailers’ stores, at Kohl’s and Target, respectively.
Target, Amazon and Walmart make up the top five in the beauty category. T.J. Maxx made the list at No. 10 for the first time in at least the last four surveys. 
Methodology: Piper Sandler’s survey results come from answers from nearly 9,200 teens with an average age of 15.7 years old, surveyed in 49 U.S. states with an average household income of $70,725. More

The Supreme Court declined to hear arguments in a case challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to reject approvals of flavored electronic cigarettes. 
Avail Vapor’s case is one of several challenges to the FDA’s regulation of the vaping industry.
E-cigarettes have hooked a new generation on nicotine while ballooning into an $8.2 billion market.

A woman smokes an E-Cigarette at Digital Ciggz in San Rafael, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear arguments in a case challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to reject approvals of flavored electronic cigarettes. 
The case is one of several challenges to the FDA’s regulation of the vaping industry, which has hooked members of a new generation on nicotine, and ballooned into an $8.2 billion market in less than a decade. 

The 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in December ruled that the FDA has the power to deny applications for flavored e-cigarette products because of its mandate to protect public health by discouraging younger people from smoking.
The lower court ruling rebuffed an appeal by Avail Vapor, a vape retailer, which argues that the FDA unfairly denied its product applications based on requirements the agency “secretly” changed without notifying companies.
Avail’s attorney, Eric Heyer, told CNBC on Tuesday that the company is “disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to review the flawed process by which FDA issued its marketing denial orders to Avail without adequate prior notice of the specific longitudinal comparative efficacy study requirements the agency ultimately imposed.”
The FDA issues marketing denial orders to reject product applications.
A spokesperson for the FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Supreme Court’s decision.

In 2016, the FDA determined that e-cigarettes were subject to its regulation, like traditional tobacco products. E-cigarettes are handheld devices used to inhale a vapor, which usually contains nicotine, flavoring and other chemicals. 
The agency gave companies until September 2020 to submit applications for approval of each of their vape products, even if they were already on the market. 
The FDA in March said nearly seven million applications were submitted by that deadline, but the agency has rejected more than 1 million of them.

Why did the FDA reject the e-cigarette applications?

The case is related to the FDA’s 2021 decision to reject all of Avail Vapor’s applications for its fruit- and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes.
The FDA said Avail did not present long-term studies demonstrating that its sweet-flavored vapes were more effective at helping adult smokers quit than tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes.
The agency said those studies are necessary to demonstrate that the benefits of Avail’s products to adults outweigh their risks to youth. Children, teens and young adults are more attracted to e-cigarettes that mimic the taste of sweet treats, according to the FDA.
Avail’s applications included four studies that surveyed patients on the safety and usability of a few of the company’s products and e-cigarettes overall, but that research did not make any comparisons to tobacco-flavored vapes. The company also outlined its marketing measures, including age verification for online sales, designed to prevent underage use of its flavored e-cigarettes. 
Avail in its appeal to the 4th Circuit had argued that the FDA had not said it would need to see long-term studies comparing the company’s fruit and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes with tobacco-flavored vapes. 
“The FDA says Avail and other retailers should have known what they were going to be looking for. Well, virtually nobody in the industry knew,” Heyer told CNBC.
“The lack of those comparative efficacy studies was one of the main reasons why the FDA denied these applications,” he added. “The FDA had five years to communicate this to applicants and they never did. Not a single word.”
Avail also argued that the FDA was obligated to consider the marketing plan included in its applications.

What are the implications for the vaping industry?

But 4th Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote in December that Avail “encourages us to neglect the forest for the trees” by focusing on procedural objections rather than the FDA’s mandate to “ensure that another generation of Americans does not become addicted to nicotine and tobacco products.”
Wilkinson said the FDA did not reject the applications due to their lack of specific long-term studies. He said the agency followed its mandate by requiring strong, product-specific evidence to evaluate the benefit of new e-cigarette products to adults, which Avail did not provide.
Avail exited the retail business after selling all of its 100 brick-and-mortar stores in October 2021, a month after the FDA rejected its applications.

JUUL advertising outside a vape shot in New York.
Melissa Fares | Reuters

Avail is not the only company to challenge application rejections from the FDA.
Last year, Juul Labs lost in its appeal of the FDA’s ban on its vaping products. The e-cigarette giant, which slashed nearly a third of its workforce in a bid to avoid bankruptcy, said the FDA conducted an incorrect and incomplete assessment of its data.
Upon review of the appeal and a temporary reprieve that allowed some of Juul’s products to come back to market, the agency determined Juul’s products still pose a risk to public health.
However, in some cases, the FDA has rescinded, or partially rescinded, rejections following the appeal process. To date, the FDA has authorized 23 tobacco-flavored e-cigarette products and devices.
Efforts to restrict e-cigarette flavors favored by teens may have fallen flat as new brands hit the market.  E-cigarette unit sales rose nearly 47% between January 2020 and December 2022. Many popular brands of disposable e-cigarettes on the market are not FDA-approved and are illegal. More

Daymond John’s Black Entrepreneurs Day will return for a fourth year Nov. 1.
John praised the corporations who continue to support the event and stay on the “right side” of the issue.
The event will feature a star-studded panel as well as the winners of the $25,000 NAACP Powershift Entrepreneur Grant.

Daymond John attends the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California, on March 12, 2023.
Leon Bennett | Filmmagic | Getty Images

“Shark Tank” star Daymond John is looking to give Black business owners a boost for the fourth year running.
The FUBU CEO’s Black Entrepreneurs Day, billed as a celebration of Black business, will return Nov. 1. The event will feature a lineup of celebrity guests such as Whoopi Goldberg and Shaquille O’Neal and insights from top Black business leaders.

Eight winners of a $25,000 entrepreneurship grant will also get the opportunity to appear alongside John during the event. The event will take place at the Apollo Theater in Manhattan and will also be broadcast online via livestream.
This year marks the fourth year of the event, which was first created in part to address “frustration over injustice” after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Black Entrepreneurs Day was launched later that year to “celebrate” Black business owners amid a focus on systemic racism and economic inequities.
“I remember when Rodney King happened,” John told CNBC. “I did not go and burn businesses — I built one.”

Early support wanes

Since 2020, Black Entrepreneurs Day has attracted big-name corporations including JPMorgan Chase’s Chase for Business and Shopify.
As the event enters its fourth year, enthusiasm among corporate sponsors has not matched what it was in 2020, when it launched on the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic and widespread Black Lives Matter protests pushing for racial equity.

“It was very easy [to get corporations on board] the first year,” John said. “I said, ‘Will you stand by me and say that you are on the right side of this discussion?'”
Many of the companies standing behind Black Entrepreneurs Day have launched initiatives to support the Black community. Chase allocated $30 billion as part of a racial equity commitment in 2020, which has since been used to deploy 15,000 small business loans, among other initiatives.
John said companies need to show continued support for Black businesses beyond a one-time commitment.
“If you don’t have people in your organization that look like the ones you are serving, then you’re going to chase what’s shinier every day,” John said. “You may think that the systemic issues were solved” by the donation you gave.
John lauded brands including Chase, T-Mobile, The General Insurance and Shopify, which he said have stayed on the “right side” of the issue. He said the companies don’t just hand over money, but also go the extra mile to invest in the Black community.
This year, Black Entrepreneurs Day will feature a star-studded guest list including Goldberg, O’Neal, Cedric the Entertainer, Anthony Anderson and Rick Ross, to discuss their journey as Black entertainers and entrepreneurs.
“People want to know what they did at their lowest point and how they got out of circumstances that many of us have been in or are currently in,” John said.

Grants up for grabs

Black Entrepreneurs Day will partner with the NAACP to give eight entrepreneurs $25,000 issued through the NAACP Powershift Entrepreneur Grant. Business owners who apply and win one of the eight grants will be able to get mentorship from John and join him during the event broadcast.
The grant gets tens of thousands of applications, even outpacing the entries submitted to “Shark Tank,” a globally recognized show, John told CNBC.
The Shopify Pitch Competition will return to this year’s Black Entrepreneurs Day. Current Shopify merchants will have the chance to pitch to three judges live during the broadcast. Winners will be awarded $25,000 and mentorship from John.
Black-owned businesses were hit especially hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, and when federal assistance became available, Black business owners saw less of that money than their white counterparts.
“When the money was issued throughout Covid, a lot of Black farmers and African American businesses got a very small percentage of it and it took them much longer to get it,” John said.
Paycheck Protection Program loans largely failed to reach areas with the highest concentrations of Black-owned businesses, CNBC reported in 2020.
Several businesses have flourished with the money and mentorship provided by the grant, John said, and some business owners are now able to keep their businesses open due in part to the grant funds.
Programming note: John will appear on CNBC’s “Mad Money” at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday. More

PepsiCo beat Wall Street’s estimates for third-quarter earnings and revenue.
The company raised its full-year earnings outlook.

Pepsi products at a convenience store in Crockett, California, June 16, 2023.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

PepsiCo on Tuesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beat analysts’ expectations and raised its outlook for its full-year earnings.
Shares of the company rose 2% in premarket trading.

Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: $2.25 adjusted vs. $2.15 expected
Revenue: $23.45 billion vs. $23.39 billion expected

For 2023, Pepsi now expects constant currency earnings per share growth of 13%, up from its prior forecast of 12%. It’s the third consecutive quarter that the snacking and beverage giant has hiked its full-year forecast.
Pepsi reported third-quarter net income attributable to the company of $3.09 billion, or $2.24 per share, up from $2.7 billion, or $1.95 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned $2.25 per share.
Net sales rose 6.7% to $23.45 billion. The company’s organic revenue, which excludes acquisitions and divestitures, climbed 8.8% in the quarter.

But PepsiCo’s volume, which strips out pricing and currency changes, fell again this quarter. Pepsi’s price hikes to mitigate inflation have weakened demand for its products. The company has also been shrinking portions and making smaller value packs to drive more transactions, Pepsi executives told analysts on a conference call. That strategy results in more affordable options for consumers — and lower volume sold.
Pepsi’s North American beverages unit reported volume declines of 6%. CEO Ramon Laguarta said the company has pruned some promotions, such as for its bottled water business, in order to preserve margins. But those deals drove volume for the drinks, gains that disappeared without the promotions.
There were some bright spots in beverages. Gatorade, for example, saw double-digit revenue growth. The company also plans to relaunch Mountain Dew Baja Blast, a fan favorite flavor that is available only at Taco Bell.
The company’s North American food divisions performed better than the beverages unit did. Quaker Foods North America’s volume rose 1%, while Frito-Lay North America’s volume was flat. Quaker Foods’ brands also gained market share in key categories, such as pancake mix and syrup, executives said in prepared remarks.
Looking to 2024, Pepsi anticipates organic revenue growth on the high end of 4% to 6% and core constant currency earnings per share growth in the high single digits. More

Roughly 4,300 autoworkers represented by Canadian union Unifor are now on strike after the union failed to agree on a tentative contract with General Motors.
The Canadian autoworkers will join roughly 9,200 United Auto Workers members who are on strike against GM in the U.S.
The Canadian strike affects an assembly plant that produces light- and heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado trucks; production of some V-6 and V-8 engines; and a stamping plant.

Lana Payne speaks to delegates after being elected as president of UNIFOR, Canada’s largest private sector union, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Aug. 10, 2022.
Richard Lautens | Toronto Star | Getty Images

DETROIT — Labor strikes are now an international issue for General Motors after the Detroit automaker failed to reach a tentative agreement by Monday for roughly 4,300 workers represented by Canadian union Unifor.
The Canadian autoworkers will join roughly 9,200 United Auto Workers members who are on strike in the U.S. at two assembly plants and 18 parts and distribution centers for GM. The U.S. strike started Sept. 15 and has since expanded.

The new strikes in the Canadian province of Ontario affect an assembly plant that produces light- and heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado trucks; production of some V-6 and V-8 engines used in a variety of vehicles such as the Chevrolet Equinox; and a stamping facility that produces parts for various cars and trucks.
Unifor National President Lana Payne said GM “continues to fall short on our pension demands, income supports for retired workers, and meaningful steps to transition temporary workers into permanent, full-time jobs.”

Striking United Auto Workers (UAW) members from the General Motors Lansing Delta Plant picket in Delta Township, Michigan September 29, 2023.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters

Unifor, which represents 18,000 Canadian workers at the Detroit automakers, took a more traditional approach to its negotiations than its U.S. counterpart. The Canadian union is negotiating with each automaker separately and using a deal first reached last month with Ford as a “pattern” for GM and Chrysler parent Stellantis.
Payne said in a release early Tuesday that GM is “stubbornly refusing to meet the pattern agreement.”
GM, in a statement, said the company is “disappointed” that a deal couldn’t be reached following “very positive progress on several key priorities over the past weeks.”

“We remain at the bargaining table and are committed to keep working with Unifor to reach an agreement that is fair and flexible,” GM said.
Ford’s three-year deal included hourly wage increases of up to 25%, reactivation of a cost-of-living allowance to battle inflation and a shorter progression for workers to reach top pay, among other new or altered benefits.
The agreement, which covers more than 5,600 workers at Ford facilities in Canada, was ratified by 54% of workers who voted. 
That traditional patterned bargaining approach runs counter to the UAW’s new strategy of bargaining with all three automakers at once.

The UAW has been gradually increasing the strikes since the work stoppages began, after the sides failed to reach tentative agreements by Sept 14. The targeted, or “stand-up,” strikes are taking place instead of national walkouts in which all plants simultaneously strike.
Only 25,200 workers, or roughly 17% of UAW members covered by the expired contracts with the Detroit automakers, are currently on strike. UAW President Shawn Fain previously said the union would increase the work stoppages based on progress in the negotiations.
Thousands of other UAW members have been laid off as a result of the strikes, including roughly 2,175 workers at other GM facilities. Most notably, the Detroit automaker was forced to idle production of a Kansa assembly plant that produces Chevrolet Malibu sedans and Cadillac XT4 crossovers. More