Whatnow Media Group is expanding beyond restaurants, bringing its coverage of new physical business openings into retail.
The company, long known for tracking and reporting on new restaurant openings across North America, will now cover retail businesses in development, extending its focus on brick-and-mortar operators to a broader set of categories. As part of that expansion, Auris, a leading SMB payroll and HR platform has signed on as Whatnow’s first national partner supporting retail operators, building on a longstanding relationship within the restaurant space.
At the center of Whatnow is Whatnow.com, where journalists identify and report on physical businesses well before they open their doors. That process goes beyond coverage. Each story is built on direct conversations with operators, owners, and developers—surfacing verified, decision-maker-level insight at the exact moment those operators are actively making decisions about how their business will run.
That is what powers the broader Whatnow platform.
By engaging operators through its journalism, Whatnow is able to connect those same businesses with partners who can support them during development, when decisions around vendors, systems, and infrastructure are still being shaped.
With this expansion, that model now extends to retail.
Whatnow will begin covering physical retail businesses across c-stores, apparel, beauty, home goods, pet supply, fitness, grocery, and specialty retail—adding thousands of additional pre-opening businesses each year to its platform. The expansion is expected to increase Whatnow’s total coverage by more than 50 percent, creating one of the most comprehensive views of new brick-and-mortar business openings in North America.
For operators, the experience remains the same.
Retail businesses will be identified and featured on Whatnow.com early in their development, gaining visibility in their local markets while also being connected with partners positioned to support them before key decisions are finalized.
As a longtime partner to new and fast-growing restaurants, Auris works with operators before they open — helping them put the right payroll and HR systems in place. Auris supports operators with hiring, benefits, compliance, and people operations.
“Auris has consistently shown up at the right moment for operators,” said Caleb J. Spivak, Founder and CEO of Whatnow Media Group. “We used to double-check every payroll. Now we don’t. We use Auris ourselves.”
“The challenges of opening a physical business don’t change much between restaurants and retail,” Spivak added. “Auris understands that, and they’ve built their SMB-focused model around supporting local operators from pre-opening to scaling.”
“Whatnow has built something real. Direct relationships with retail and restaurant operators, trusted access, and a clear view into how local businesses actually run. This partnership is a natural fit,” said Chris Allen, CMO of Auris. “When you’re building a business, the systems you choose early matter. We make sure payroll and HR are setup for success from the start.”
The expansion into retail is now underway, with coverage and partner engagement ramping through Q2 2026.
About Whatnow Media Group
Whatnow Media Group connects organizations that work with brick-and-mortar businesses with the owners of new and expanding physical locations—before they’ve made key purchasing decisions. Through Whatnow.com and its partner platform, the company creates early access to operators and facilitates the relationships that help those businesses open and succeed.
For more information, visit www.whatnowmediagroup.com or contact: [email protected]
About Auris
Auris is redefining how small businesses operate with payroll and HR. We’re creating a system where pay, time, benefits, compliance work as one operation that anticipates what’s needed, catches what breaks, and owns outcomes instead of transferring risk. A dedicated expert knows your business patterns and verifies before issues reach your team. Over 50,000 small and medium size businesses trust us because they see the future we’re building: operations that don’t require constant monitoring.
Auris is part of Acrisure, the global leader in insurance and financial services. For more information, visit auris.io
