Wellness is showing up in more places — from the grocery aisle to food service to live experiences.
Target Goes Trendy
Target is adding roughly 4,600 new food items this year as it overhauls its grocery business.
- The retailer is expanding grocery space, curated shelves with products like mushroom coffee, collagen matcha, reduced-sugar candy, regenerative organic coffee, and exclusive launches from newer food brands.
- Food sales are already growing faster than the company overall, and Target estimates the overhaul could generate more than $2B in growth over the next few years.
While Walmart, Kroger, and Costco have the scale to compete on price, Target is leaning into discovery and products shoppers may not find elsewhere — positioning itself as a meaningful distribution channel for emerging food brands.
AI Meets the Cafeteria
SUMMITS and Hyphen are combining forces to bring personalized nutrition into institutional food service.
- The companies are parking SUMMITS’ AI software with Hyphen’s CAVA and Chipotle-backed automated makeline
- How it works: the system can pull in wearable data, food tracking, training information, sleep, and dietitian plans to generate individualized meals, then send the order to the kitchen for automated assembly.
Targeting colleges, gyms, hotels, and other high-volume food environments, SUMMITS and Hyphen will sell the precision layer while partner operators keep all food revenue.
The result: food service is becoming a programmable system where the kitchen provides the infrastructure, while software determines what gets served.
Sports Become Culture
81% of Gen Z say sports are gaining influence over culture, spanning music, fashion, and careers. And 78% of young people attend sporting events for the broader pop-culture experience beyond the game.
The movement is attracting serious capital:
- Josh Kushner and Bob Iger just agreed to buy the Lakers for a record $12.5B through Thrive Eternal, an investment vehicle focused on assets with qualities that can’t be replicated by technology.
- L Catterton is reportedly pursuing a major stake in HYROX, while Ari Emanuel’s MARI has raised nearly $3B to build a portfolio spanning tennis, endurance events, and other live experiences.
At the same time, wellness is becoming part of that same identity economy. Gen Z and millennials represent just 36% of US adults but account for 41% of annual wellness spending — making health and fitness part of how younger consumers live, socialize, and signal status.
As more of life moves online, participation-based businesses are in a powerful position to provide via showing up.
