Anne 00:09
Hello, you are listening to the OMNI talk Fast Five brought to you in partnership with Microsoft, A&M consumer and retail group, Takeoff and Sezzle. The Omni talk Fast Five podcast is the podcast that we hope each weeks each week,
Chris 00:23
Each week
Anne 00:24
Each week make you makes you feel a little smarter but most importantly, Chris, a little happier each week too. Today is April 21. I’m your host Anne Mezzenga
Chris 00:33
And I am Chris Walton
Anne 00:34
Rejoined by Chris Walton and we are here once again to discuss all the top headlines making waves in the world of omni channel retailing. Chris, I missed you, you’re back.
Chris 00:43
You missed me did you?
Anne 00:44
I did.
Chris 00:45
Oh, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me? Yes,
Anne 00:47
Probably not. But
Chris 00:48
Yes, Yes, I talked to Chad Lusk of A&M consumer and retail group. And, you know, he was saying how you know, it like didn’t skip a beat. And I agree it didn’t actually you guys did a great job last week. But But AnneI got something to talk about today that I’m pretty excited about.
Anne 01:00
Is it that another retail headline of the year that you’re gonna announce this on the show?
Chris 01:04
No, it’s not smartass. But thank you. I resemble that remark very much. But no, Anne we passed a 400,000 listens all time on our podcast last week. Yeah.
Anne 01:13
I am glad you’re keeping track of that.
Chris 01:14
I know. It’s kind of one of the nerdy things I do. But for those that listened to the show you remember we were touting 300,000 listens, like in December last year. So that shows you how much our podcast is growing. And thank you to all for the support that you give us each and every week. At one point last week on a seven day period, we had 16,000 People listen to our podcast.
Anne 01:33
Wow.
Chris 01:33
Elective podcast. I was blown away. I was stunned.
Anne 01:35
Wow, I’m blown away too. We better keep making good content.
Chris 01:39
Yeah, I’m gonna try to do real good. And with really good grammar like that as we make this podcast, but ya know,
Anne 01:46
Are you making fun of me?
Chris 01:47
No, I was making fun of myself. You know, sometimes my grammar gets a little loose in this podcast.
Anne 01:53
All right. Well, Chris, speaking of reviews,
Chris 01:58
Yes Anne.
Anne 01:59
We, we were talking last week about reviews and how much that helps us. So if you like the show, you don’t like the show. We hope that you will leave us a review wherever you’re listening and it helps us continue to make the content that you are listening to. But we said we would give a shout out to somebody.
Chris 02:15
Yes, we did.
Anne 02:16
If they left us review, do you want to do the honours?
Chris 02:19
Yeah, I’ll do it. Sure. No, I think you’re gonna do it. I’ll do it for sure. So yeah, I want to give a big shout out to MJA1289, whoever the heck that is. And if you want to let us know, hit us up on LinkedIn because we’re dying to know who MJA1289 is.
Anne 02:32
Secretive I love it.
Chris 02:33
Yeah And is that like, 1289 when they were born? Or what? Like, I’m kind of curious, but and here’s what they had to say. Yes, YAAS! Number one retail podcast, Chris and Anne are killing it. They take the very best, most interesting retail news and synthesise in easy digestible way. OMNI talk features the newest and most interesting folks who chat retail trends, insight and implications A must listen for anyone working or supporting their retail in industry. Emoji with glasses, heart and then stars.
Anne 03:03
I feel like we are listening to Siri like heart emoji and glass smiley face.
Chris 03:08
But yeah, but MJ 1289 That gives me the biggest warm and fuzzy to read that and we’re gonna continue reading these each and every week. So if you’re listening on Apple podcast, leave us a review. Heart the podcast if you’re on Spotify, if you’re on Google Amazon music, just follow us and subscribe wherever you can. We really, really appreciate it and our numbers are a testament to your support. Anne should we get started?
Anne 03:29
Yes, let’s do it.
Chris 03:30
All right, Anne in today’s Fast Five, we’ve got news on Lululemons new memberships, Keeper counters at Fenway Park, I like the alliteration in that one, Champs Sports new store say that 10 times fast Champs Sports Champs Sports Champs Sports, grocer, Lunz, and barleys bring in pensa. But we’re going to take off with our first headline out of Amazon.
Anne 03:52
Yes. Let’s start with headline number one. So the first headline has us talking about the first letter to shareholders, from new Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. So in the letter, Jesse said that Amazon will strive to create safer working environments for employees increase their efforts toward reducing their carbon footprint. And there are a lot of additional company growth strategies and more. Chris, this was a lengthy letter. What were your takeaways from the first letter to shareholders from the first new see?
Chris 04:24
Yeah, I feel like this. I feel like this letter to the shareholder thing is taking on its own life just so you know, like, it’s kind of like it kind of gives me that kind of creepy thing feeling like ooh, like, like, ooh, the letter to the shareholder, you know, like, but anyway, I had two main takeaways, I think first, first, he devoted ample time to one-day shipping. That was really interesting, saying, “We’d made the decision to invest billions of incremental dollars over several years to deliver an increasing number of prime shipments in one day.
This initiative was slowed by challenges of the pandemic but we’ve since resumed our focus here.” I find that particularly striking because it basically says that Amazon is putting a stake in the ground on one day versus 30 minutes or less or incident, whatever you want to call it. And they’re also subtly saying that it’s hard. It requires a lot of expense, a lot of infrastructures to do even for Amazon, which calls to mind questions about the economics of instant delivery. So that was my point number one.
Anne 05:14
Okay.
Chris 05:14
Point number two, is what he says at the end where he talks about innovation. And again, I’m gonna quote him, he said, “Albert Einstein is sometimes credited with describing compound interest as the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it earns it, He who doesn’t pays it, we think of iterative innovation in much the same way in an iterative innovation creates magic for customers.” When I first read that quote, Anne I was like, Yeah, that makes sense. But then I got thinking about it. And I’m like, I don’t know if that I jive with that anymore. Like, it raised a lot of questions in my head, because it’s, it’s counter to what Bezos used to say about swinging for the fences. And when I hear the word iterative, I think of incremental,
Anne 05:54
Okay
Chris 05:54
Versus like that step-change approach, which is what they did with things like Kindle, what they did with things like Go. And so when I think he’s out there saying iterative, I think that kind of there’s more to it than that there’s more nuance to the conversation there. Where I agree, it’s an iteration of what was before and a consumer experience, but it’s a step-change iteration. And so when you’re trying to compare it to compound interest, I just don’t personally like that analogy. So it also makes me wonder if they’re stepping back a little bit or starting to step back a little bit from just walking out, like, do we go too fast with that? Are we curious about that? I don’t really know what to make of it. But those are my takeaways here.
Anne 06:29
Yeah, I mean, I guess I thought, a few things upon reading this. The question about speed, the key was talking about speed, not just in relation to same day delivery. But speed was like a theme throughout. I mean, the whole letter he’s talking about, we were going to be first to market like, that’s what we build our teams on, like we are number one going to be first to market. And I guess for me, I just, I’m really curious if any company can be like Amazon, I don’t know, I just kept thinking the whole time,
Chris 06:59
Infrastructural investment is just,
Anne 07:00
I just don’t I just don’t know, like, they know, there’s no other retailers that have the money to put towards running projects this way. And there’s no they’re like their teams. You can’t just go into a legacy retailer right now or any retailer for that matter, even new up and coming retailers and start working the way that they’re doing like, it’s like, it’s like the people that we give a little bit of a hard time to who start new companies who, who are founding new companies and creating these billion dollar DTC brands, but their parents also were like, invented Velcro. I mean, it’s just like
Chris 07:35
You start on third base.
Anne 07:36
Yeah, like so I guess for me, it was just like, setting in the background, just like, especially when you’re talking about AWS to start and like the chips and all of the the 40% increase in the amount of power compute power that that chip is creating. And now they’ve got another one. Like, it’s just like, there’s no way that anybody can catch up. So I was not paying attention to shareholder part of it. I was just thinking of like, what Amazon means in the greater retail environment.
Chris 08:01
I think that’s a really great point. Because the other tone I would take from reading it was that like, okay, we’re at a new phase of Amazon in terms of where it is as a company.
Anne 08:09
Yeah
Chris 08:09
It’s so big now. Yes, it did great in the past, but where are we going in the future? And the iterative idea just really kind of bothered me where it’s like, hey, now we’re just going to focus on making things a little bit better,
Chris 08:19
Right
Chris 08:19
Which is very different than what they’ve ever said. So so I don’t know it’s something to watch here as they start to put things into market, especially to go after physical retail.
Anne 08:27
Yeah. And I think I forget somebody on LinkedIn pointed out too but like, there’s no talk of Amazon ad revenue in this whole letter. It’s like that is that that was a huge miss. I think if I’m a shareholder, and I’m like, what about this giant source of revenue that’s projected to grow even stronger in the next couple of years?
Chris 08:43
It’s still being coy. And these loans are so funny. They’re like such there’s just like such strong ego strokes to it at the end of the day, like how great we are but anyway, all right. Speaking of additional revenue, Anne, According to CNBC, Lululemon will debut monthly memberships for clothes, events, and classes in a bid for loyal customers. The athletic apparel retailer this week said it will debut this fall two tiers of memberships one free and one paid in a bid to build a stronger base of loyal customers.
The free membership Anne will the free membership option, excuse me, will, “give users early access to Lululemon product drops and exclusive items as well as in invitations to in person community events” according to a press release, and the paid option will cost $39 per month the same price as an all access subscription to Lululemons at Home Fitness platform mirror, and will also feature content from a number of participating fitness studios including places like rumble pure bar, which I had to ask Anne how to pronounce and everyone’s favourite place to get sweaty the dog pound and keeping with the dog pound theme, do you think customers will lap up this new membership offering at $39 per month?
Anne 09:52
Yes,
Chris 09:52
you do? Wow
Anne 09:53
Oh my god. I do.
Chris 09:54
All right.
Anne 09:55
I I think that the power that this brand has over people continues to amaze me every day I mean I think that one this smells like Walmart plus when they’re like oh here members we’re gonna be moving you over to this new Lululemon subscription and also now we now we have you know 5 million mirror members all of a sudden in one month but I definitely can see people going to this membership and getting access to I mean it makes sense for Lululemon subscribers like you now basically have the equivalent of what peloton is doing peloton just raised their price to $44 a month now like this is a demand area for sure. And Lululemon is in a position to to command you know, their brand being at the head of this subscription offering.
Chris 10:45
So you love it?
Anne 10:46
I do love it. I do love it
Chris 10:47
You think people will sign up for it?
Anne 10:48
I absolutely think people will sign up for it. I think it’s going to take off and explode. I just I don’t know what this brand can do wrong here. But
Chris 10:56
okay
Anne 10:56
What do you what do you?
Chris 10:57
I think I like it too. Okay, I’d probably do some depth faking there. But like, I think I like it too. Because at the end of the day, I’m like, where’s the risk? But there’s a couple points I would I would call out here like Lululemon had the subscription that was like over $100, which sounds like that’s just fallen by the wayside. So it sounds like there wasn’t an appetite for that.
Anne 11:16
Well, it was just a pilot and there and they were not doing it in like a lot of markets. So yes, right.
Chris 11:20
But it sounds like they didn’t get enough feedback on that to roll that. So now they’re giving this free thing, which, yeah, okay, fine. The $39 one is more interesting to me, though, because for this for two reasons. One, it tells me Mirror’s in bad shape. Because, and, and the reason for that is it’s a tough sell, right? We talked about this when they started the equipment’s not. And the equipment’s not a required component of this, you can do all of the same things just with an app. And it’s a different selling process. You go into the stores, no one’s looking at the mirror, right?
Anne 11:50
Yeah,
Chris 11:50
Because it’s a different selling process. It takes a much more consultative type sell than like, selling apparel.
Anne 11:55
I mean, they’re using the mirror to look at articles. Right.
Chris 12:00
And so and I think you showed me this actually, is that you could provide the same value of mirror just through a good mobile interface.
Anne 12:07
Yeah
Chris 12:08
As your peloton membership attests to you, like you pay for the peloton membership. But you don’t have the bike.
Anne 12:12
Right
Chris 12:13
It’s not about the bike, not to intentionally, quote Lance Armstrong, but it’s not. It’s about a good mobile interface and a community engagement. That’s what they brought over with the leader from Amazon that’s doing this. It tells me they’re down shifting the emphasis on mirror as a component of that and trying to get good content in the community going through the mobile interface, which I think 100% makes a tonne of sense.
Anne 12:33
Yeah, I mean, I think you’re right on that they will they have put together a good collection of people, they already have a lot of relationships with a lot of these independent gym owners too. So I think that the potential for what they can gain from subscription revenue from this app will end the other perks alongside it in store, do I think we’re gonna start to see a bunch more people going to Lululemon for, you know, yoga classes and stuff and doing the in person stuff at Lululemon, maybe, but I don’t see that as like the hardcore destination. I do have, I do want to raise one slight concern that I have.
So for all those listening, I saw a few of you have been emailing me this week about the new Abercrombie documentary that came out on Netflix. So for those who don’t know, they there’s the new Netflix documentary, it talks about the history of Abercrombie, mostly about how they were recruiting and like what their whole strategy was. We’ll talk about it on another episode, perhaps. But when I was trying to think of like, do we have an Abercrombie brand from 1996 in 2022, and I think Lululemon could be that brand. And so I, I liked the trajectory here, I am an avid purchaser of Lululemon product. But I wonder if we reach a tipping point for this brand, where it falls down? Like we saw what happened with Abercrombie? I mean, I don’t know, I think you’ll see a lot of other brands being more inclusive, bringing in different types of partnerships, like Will we see a fabletics or somebody else come in and lap Lululemon? Or are they just on that same? Forward motion?
Chris 14:01
I think it’s a great point. I mean, I think the history of apparel retailing is littered with companies that hit the zeitgeist at the right moment and had a 10 or 15 year run. Right. And so and the other point I think it brings up in closing for me is, you know, peloton versus Lululemon, which is easier way to go be the apparel company first getting into the equipment, or B or getting equipment, then go to apparel. I think what this is saying, and that tells me at least they’re going to try is that potentially could be easier if you have a great mobile interface to create the community engagement around it, or the bike beat and the equipment outlay becomes inconsequential and gets you more people to get you more mass appeal. So anyway,
Anne 14:36
Right? Yes, I agree. I mean, I think we’ll see what happens as as we go forward. But definitely a smart move on Lululemon’s behalf to not just stick to apparel.
Chris 14:45
It’s so easy to try.
Anne 14:46
Yeah. All right. headline number three, according to grocery dive Instacart is working with hospitality provider Aramark, sports and entertainment to deploy Instacart caper counter automated checkout technology at refreshment stands in Boston’s Fenway Park. Instacart and Aramark will initially place three of the caper counter contactless payment terminals, which use computer vision to identify items in the baseball stadium and expect to add and and install additional units of the sports venue in the coming months. According to incoming according to an Instacart spokesperson, the partnership with Aramark continues Instacart diversification beyond its traditional business of providing online fulfilment stores, to services to grocery stores and other retailers. Now, Chris, I’m struggling today. This is also the put you on the spot question from A&M.
Chris 15:39
Oh, right. Okay.
Anne 15:41
You as we as we all know, you’ve been down on Instacart for multiple reasons, including the rant that you went on a couple of weeks ago. But you’ve really picked on them from their caper AI acquisition, not because of Fenway in the stadium specifically, but do you think that this expansion of the caper counter does it at all change your stance on the outlook of the caper and Instacart Deal? That’s question number one.
Chris 16:06
Okay, question number one, there’s two questions. What’s the second question?
Anne 16:09
Two parter. This is from Chad Lusk directly. Will this help the Red Sox suck any less than they do? Signed Chad Lusk. Yankees fan
Chris 16:17
All right, Chad. First of all, thanks for filling in for me last week, but I will I will actually take the second part of that one first Anne just to get it out of the way.
Anne 16:23
Okay.
Chris 16:23
And this comes from someone who was living in Boston when the Red Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino in 2004, and scoreboard shot, but I believe since then, the Sox have won a few more rings in the Yankees over the last 20 years. So So who sucks is how I would put that
Anne 16:37
I’ve always hated the Yankees.
Chris 16:38
Yeah, right. I mean, it’s nothing. There’s nothing. But getting back to the retail topic at hand Anne. I don’t think this changes my opinion of the caper acquisition one iota.
Anne 16:48
Okay.
Chris 16:49
What we have here to me is just another version of a self checkout machine that looks like a cool white box.
Anne 16:54
Yeah.
Chris 16:55
It may work in event space where your customer is new every time but for retailers to opt in for the extra seconds, this saves over traditional self checkout machines. When there are other solutions out there like scan and go computer vision based systems, even computer vision aided traditional self checkout. The likes of ever seen in Kroger, which we interviewed at NRF. It’s a bridge too far for me to cross. It really is. And most importantly, and I think you’ll appreciate this because I learned this from you talking about Macy’s, you still have to wait in line to use it. And that drives me crazy. Like there’s three of them, I guess, like in the in the stores like so it’s busy, like, I still have to wait to go to it like versus scan and go or just walk out. Like, that’s why this concept will get obsoleted over time. And it’s not one that Instacart I think can really hang his hat on when it comes to traditional retail.
Anne 17:40
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think no, I mean, I have to say I’ve always been of all the product offerings that capers put out. I’ve always been the biggest fan of this caper counter. But more in the use cases like we’re talking about of like bodegas where you have one person or two people have a family that owned the bodega and somebody’s stocking, and somebody’s got to be doing checkout. Like, I think this has the most applicability, but you’re right, I think the most better use case would be rolling out something like you know, what a file is doing at some of the stadiums where it’s a contained space, you know, or even like food lockers, like we’ve seen where you order ahead of time and you pick up your food from a locker where it’s able to serve multiple people at one time not three stations or three kiosks.
Chris 18:25
It’s a great Plus.
Anne 18:26
Plus, oh my gosh, I love that this is this move is continuing Instacart’s diversification like good PR right up on that one
Chris 18:34
PR gold right. And yeah, right. Yes. Continuing your diversification. Yeah, the other thing too that bothers me and why I’ve been hard on this too is we had the CEO of caper on it was a long time machine shop Yeah, come last like two years and he was saying how people were so interested in counter if I remember correctly, and like this is the first we’re seeing it, have it at the ballpark?
Anne 18:52
Yeah
Chris 18:53
So like, it makes me think that the receptivity to this is probably a lot less than you know, like you said, it’s probably good PR at this point in time. To headline number four Anne, according to modern retail Champs Sports is about to open its largest store yet next weekend, Champs Sports will host the grand opening of its newest retail concept, homefield, a 35,000 square foot store in southern Florida complete with an indoor multi sport court. The store will carry more inventory and plans to host sporting events to meet the needs of today’s modern athletes. Other features of the store Anne include, “A champs combine” a virtual reality machine that measures customer’s wingspans, vertical height, leaps and agility and of course, the always popular smoothie bar. And are you liking this concept?
Anne 19:43
You know
Chris 19:43
What do you think about this?
Anne 19:44
I don’t like it. I think this is a classic case of monkey see monkey do. Champs Sports, owned by footlocker they saw the Dick’s is doing this big rollout with their, you know, outdoor stores and their full Dick’s Sporting Goods concepts. And I think that they felt like well, if it’s working for Dick’s, then it should work for us, which is not a good strategy. I think. When I’m thinking about the power of a retailer like champ sports, I will be emphasising my time and resources on number one, the less sexy things have, what is my assortment? Do? How do I have track of my inventory?
How do I know exactly what’s in my store and what I can get to people that day, because as a, as a sporting goods retailer, with physical stores right now, your number one asset is being able to be the place where I can go that out within that hour to get what I need before that game. And I think that, you know, they are tying into the community here. They’re trying to, you know, let people in the community use the sport court that they built there for practices and things like that, which I think makes sense. Like always tying into local communities is an asset. But I never I think I would just be focused on those core components, not creating this like spectacle of a place, I’d make sure that you have inventory so that when I come there to get a baseball glove, because my kid lost it, and we’re on our way to the game, that you have that baseball glove, or that I know when I can get it and how I can get it quickly. So I do not like this move by Champs Sports. I think it’s just trying to be like,
Chris 21:14
Do you think this is distracting? Essentially to them? Yeah, yeah, I 100% agree. I actually think this content, I would actually go a little bit further to I might might even go on a rant here. But I think this concepts dead, dead on arrival. It’s DOA. And the reason I say that is, is the smoothie bar, like the smoothie bar in the in the in the in the digital interface. Like it’s like, okay, what digital interface can we put in that maybe makes sense that no one will use ultimately. But the smoothie bars the big tell for me.
Anne 21:41
Oh, really? Why?
Chris 21:42
Yeah, because everyone is doing them as the part of these experiential concepts.
Anne 21:46
Okay.
Chris 21:47
And I can tell you from having run a couple stores, I won’t say which concepts but having run a couple stores at Target with these kinds of concepts in them. No one uses them.
Anne 21:55
Yeah
Chris 21:56
They don’t. You don’t want to have a smoothie in your hand while you’re shopping for things like, it’s just not something you want to do. And, and so ultimately, like, it just gets really hard to run. And the other part that I don’t like about it is from an organisational perspective, now you have to have somebody dedicated at your headquarters to running the smoothie bar at this one store.
Anne 22:15
Well, this one is going to be run and operated by a local operator. So this is like an extension of their local
Chris 22:20
Yeah, I know, but you still have to have somebody managing the contract and the expectations around the contract. And you’ve had to build the infrastructure to put that in. And I think they’re gonna rue the day when it comes back down to it like, why did we put all this infrastructure in for a smoothie bar when it doesn’t really produce us any additional revenue in the long run? So that makes me think they’re just to your point, they’re trying to mimic something here 30,000 square feet, which is nowhere near the size of uh, you know, what Dick’s has got going on with their concepts? And so like, I just don’t think it’s gonna work and it just seems kind of misguided to me.
Anne 22:49
Yeah, I agree. Just focus on getting more product in your store that can better like learn what your your people your customers around you need and really focus on making sure that that is what you can provide them they can come there they can have a successful shopping trip and leave plus like they’re also doing HIIT classes like well how does Champs figure that they have the authority? Lululemon, Yes, go for it, but like, I’m not going to Champs Sports to go to a weekly HIIT class. I’m sorry, I that one,
Chris 23:17
I might wear my starter jackets, champ sports to do a HIIT class. But that’s kind of what that’s kind of what the connotation is right? Like it’s, you know, it’s like I mean, leftover from me from like, 99 Right and I go to champs right right. I’ve no, I’ve no idea what the youngins are thinking about
Anne 23:30
Trying a lot. They’re trying too much.
Chris 23:32
Seems like it’s too hard.
Anne 23:33
Alright, so headline number five. According to Supermarket News, Midwest grocer ones and barleys has tapped Penza systems automated solution to help improve inventory intelligence. Under a partnership announced Tuesday, Austin based pensa said that it plans to deploy its automated retail shelf intelligence solution at all 28 London barley supermarkets in our hometown, the Twin Cities market Yeah. To collect the shelf data, London barleys associates will scan shelves and product categories using pensez app on zebra scanning devices. Penta said its AI technology then captures and automatically analyses video streams of the hundreds of products. I mean, they just go up and down and scan super fast. All of those product images to identify out of stocks maximise item availability and improved demand forecasting and omni channel delivery. Chris
Chris 24:22
Yes,
Anne 24:23
But
Chris 24:24
I love that this story popped this week.
Anne 24:26
I know,
Chris 24:26
Because it’s a continuation of the conversation you guys had last week on Wakefern. And its robotics implementation.
Anne 24:31
Yeah.
Chris 24:32
And I think it’s important to talk about the connections here with those stories. And that story got a lot of heat like I had, and I’m going to talk about that a little bit because I had somebody email me who’s quite honestly probably one of the foremost experts on robotic implementations in grocery and I’m gonna tell you what he had to say about that. But anyway, like I said, I think it’s cool. One, Pena was initially you know, for the most part in the in the industry of the pundits that were, you know, where we the space that we occupy, it was the drone company, but it sounds like now they’re using computer vision by way of Zebra devices to scan aisles at, you know, routine times during the day, which is a cool twist on their model. But I kind of wish it was more inclusive of drones to to a degree for certain use cases, which I’ll get into.
And you gotta leave me some leeway here because I got a lot to talk about on this one. But that leads me to my next point, which is to I don’t like this concept as much as the robot concept you guys discussed last week. And to tell you why, I think that I want to tell you what Dave, Dave Steck of Schnucks told me, okay, who is one of like I said, they rolled out robots to every store edge next local grocer, one of the best grocers around, and they’re all in on robots. Yeah, from what he can tell me, here’s what he had to say, which I think is a really important quote, to listen to, I’m gonna read it in full for the audience, “When you have even more limited resources, and by that he’s meaning supply chain shortages, staffing, getting the loads to the shelf becomes a priority.
And then you just have to rely on your inventory systems to manage your outs. And by using computer vision systems in total, you get the added element of a rules based decisioning process to understand why that out is there. You don’t have to train new associates on how to do a job, which is key in terms of what I just talked about, that they don’t have enough time to do in the first place. But the rules based systems look to see if there’s something an associate can do about and out, and only have them address those out, if it’s out at the warehouse are already on its way from the fulfilment process, there’s no reason to send a teammate there” which I think is really a brilliant piece of insight.
So brilliant. And I had the chance to talk about this with Dave at like, for 30 minutes this week, even more so. And I’m more all in on what he’s saying. And the other point I bring up is he was he was very decidedly with Chad for those that listened last week against him ons argument that it’s more about the supply chain upstream. He’s saying no, there’s so much you can solve in aisle with availability, and he talked about it in that quote. So my take is it’s it’s cool to see the move of computer vision in aisle but the fact that people are involved in this means there’s even more subjectivity in the process where robots don’t allow for that it’s done the same way all the time. And then there’s the potential for the audit process to go out of bounds as a result of that. But with that said, there is one place where I like it a lot Anne, but before I share that, I want to get your thoughts.
Anne 27:12
Well, I was a little hesitant at first when we heard this story, because I thought it was a little too inside baseball, because it’s like, yeah, that’s right grocery store that’s between our two houses that we frequent on a regular basis. And I saw the one CEO in line at lunch yesterday. And I was like, oh, so hey, Trace, this is really cool. I’m really excited about Penza. And but I do think that what’s important about this, like you said, it signals a lot of the changes that need to be made in grocers that are these regional grocers, the smaller grocers in order to maintain profits, when they’re going to see pressure increased pressures, both from the demands of consumers, but also the competition from Amazon and others who are getting into the space and starting to take share.
I also think that it’s going to mean a lot of positive changes for us as consumers. And that’s what is exciting to me, you know, things being in stock, more fluid processes when we’re ordering products online. And we’re going to do pick up, you know, few fewer changes last minute, and just the speed at which we should be able to get groceries from our local providers that we we weren’t able to before but you have a you have another use case that you want to you want to love about this?
Chris 28:22
Well, I think what I’d say in closing would be like, you know, for grocers, given the points that Dave raised, and the points that I believe in to from having been an operator, I think robots or even drones that are you know, standardly going around the store at a consistent time are the way to go for the application of computer vision on the retailer side or the grocer side. But however, I think when you start getting into the handheld side, the zebra side, even your own mobile device, I love this for the CPG. The CPG sends a lot of teams in there to get shelf intelligence, and this is super powerful for them to do that as well. So I think you’re gonna The cool thing about this announcement is it’s just showing, there’s better ways to do it more efficient ways to do it. Depending on who wants to apply what grocery CPG there’s a lot of space for us to learn and understand what the best process is. That’s my take right now, could change as we learn more. But that’s where my head is right now.
Anne 29:10
And I think both from the operator side and the customer side, this is one of the greatest opportunities for increasing your ROI as a grocer, both from the CPGs and what you’re able to negotiate with them based on you know, what knowledge you have of how those programmes are activating but then also the the speed that you can produce a better customer experience and driving more customers to your stores.
Chris 29:32
Yeah. 100% All right, Anne let’s get to the lightning round. You go in first.
Anne 29:36
All right, I am, Chris.
Chris 29:38
Yes.
Anne 29:40
Sending a probe into Uranus has been labelled a top priority by the space science community, your thoughts?
Chris 29:46
Oh my god. My thoughts on that. Tread carefully. space explorers Many have tried, but none have succeeded. Anne Best Buy announcing electronics recycling programme where they’ll come to your home and pick up two large appliances. per year, and an unlimited amount of small electronics and recycle them for $199. What appliance would you be most embarrassed for someone to come to your house and pick up?
Anne 30:10
I for sure have a six disc CD changer boombox that I forgotten in college and still cannot get rid of
Chris 30:16
That would be my too. I bet that’s everyone.
Anne 30:18
Oh my god. It’s like
Chris 30:19
everyone still has that in there like
Anne 30:20
yeah, like a giant, like laundry basket to haul that thing out and I just can’t get rid of it. All right, Chris Albertsons incentivized. Do you see what I did there?
Chris 30:30
I did see
Anne 30:32
Shoppers this past week in partnership with Kraft Heinz using scented diffusers to pump in the aroma around coolers filled with Philadelphia cream cheese. As a former frozen foods buyer, what products would you be choosing to pilot this on next?
Chris 30:47
Oh, that one is so easy. I actually made this this morning for my son. I made him a Jimmy Dean breakfast, Sammy.
Anne 30:53
So that’s the smell you are pumping.
Chris 30:54
Yeah, yeah. Oh my god, it smells so good coming out of microwave, but in React but the other thing I’d say is I love this idea. I think real time correlations with POS to smells and even to your favourite music are a total untapped Goldmine if people could just harness that, no one’s done it yet. But there’s something there. So if they take this to correlate to POS boom, boom town. Alright. Anne last question. Olivia Rodrigo just became glossier’s first celebrity spokesperson. When you were a live his age he’s currently 19 years old. What was one beauty product you couldn’t live without?
Anne 31:25
Definitely frosted blue eyeshadow
Chris 31:27
Frosted blue eyeshadow and just when you were 19 huh
Anne 31:30
I mean, yeah, pretty much just when I was 19 Have you seen the filters on tick tock or unrealz or snap where like, you can change the look, see what makeup looks like on you based on the year? The 2010s The 2000s and the 2010s is absolutely hilarious. Like we looked like that. We looked like that.
Chris 31:48
I haven’t done that. But I have to do that after watching. I have to do that and watch the Abercrombie documentary this weekend.
Anne 31:53
Yes, you do.
Chris 31:54
All right. Happy Birthday today to James McAvoy, Queen Elizabeth. And the man who alliterative first and last names are just too good for this show to to ignore the great Rob Riggle. And remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business make it OMNI talk. Our Fast Five podcast is the quickest fastest rundown of all the week’s top news. And our twice weekly newsletter tells you the top five things you need to know each day and also features special content exclusive to us and just for you and we try really hard to make it all fit within the preview pane of your inbox. You can sign up today at http://www.omnitalk.blog. Thanks as always for listening in. Please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcasts or on YouTube. And of course, as always, be careful out there.
Automated Voice 32:36
The Omni talk Fast Five is a Microsoft sponsored podcast. Microsoft Cloud for retail connects your customers, your people and your data across the shopper journey delivering personalised experiences and operational excellence and is also brought to you in association with the a&m consumer and retail group. The a&m consumer and retail group is a management consulting firm that tackles the most complex challenges and advances its clients people and communities towards their maximum potential. CRG brings the experience tools and operator like pragmatism to help retailers and consumer products companies stay on the right side of disruption. And takeoff, takeoff is transforming grocery by empowering grocers to thrive online. The key is micro fulfilment, small robotic fulfilment centres that can be leveraged at a hyperlocal scale. Takeoff also offers a robust software suite so grocers can seamlessly integrate the robotic solution into their existing businesses. To learn more visit takeoff.com And Sezzle, Sezzle is an innovative Buy now pay later solution that allows shoppers to split purchases into four interest free payments over six weeks. To learn more, visit sezzle.com
Omni Talk is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga founded Omni Talk in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail. 