Anne 0:09
Hello, you’re listening to the OMNI talk Fast Five brought to you in partnership with Microsoft, the a&m consumer and retail group takeoff sezzle and new for this week, Home delivery world.
Chris 0:22
That’s quite a read Anne
Anne 0:24
The OMNI talk fast five podcast is a podcast that we hope makes you feel a little smarter. Most importantly, a little happier each week too. Today is July 7 2022. I’m your host, Anne Mezzenga
Chris 0:36
And I’m Chris Walton,
Anne 0:37
and we are here once again to discuss all the top headlines making waves in the world of omni channel retailing. Chris Did you like home delivery home delivery world?
Chris 0:46
Yeah, it’s like where’s Michael Buffer when I need them?
Anne 0:49
I have no idea who that is.
Chris 0:49
But yeah, but I’m excited. Are you excited?
Anne 0:51
Yeah, I mean, West Philadelphia born and raised on the playground is where I spent most of my day we’re going to Philadelphia.
Chris 0:56
Who is that? Who’s
Anne 0:57
Fresh Prince?
Chris 0:58
Oh, Fresh Prince. Right, right.
Anne 1:00
You hear that rap at the beginning. He comes from West Philadelphia to Bel Air.
Chris 1:03
Are we still allowed to reference him? I don’t know. Like, what’s the what’s the what’s the rule post Oscar slap
Anne 1:09
Oh I don’t know
I think it’s okay now.
Chris 1:11
Yeah. nostalgic days too Yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, but Anne I’m pumped. I mean, here we come. You know, I see. I think more Rocky theme like Dina na
Anne 1:21
okay.
Chris 1:22
Oh you want me to stop. Don’t you
Anne 1:23
No, that’s fine. I just yeah, I didn’t go to Rocky I went to fresh prince.
Chris 1:27
I think Rocky’s more synonymous with Philadelphia
Anne 1:30
Hands on who you’re talking to
Chris 1:31
Liberty Bell the whole nine yards. Last time I was there. I was 10 years old, but I’m pumped because this is without a doubt the summer event in the retail logistics world Anne
Anne 1:38
Yes
Chris 1:39
There’s gonna be like 5000 people there I think some 300 speakers 300 exhibitors, and we’re gonna be moderating sessions there, too. We just got a panel, we’re deciding our pick of the litter in terms of what we want to monitor moderator deliberating on that question. But yeah, I’m pretty pumped that conferences from the 31st of August to September 1, so two days takes place in the Philadelphia Convention Centre.
Anne 2:00
Yeah.
Chris 2:00
And the coolest part Anne
Anne 2:02
What?
Chris 2:03
It’s free to register,
Anne 2:04
No way
Chris 2:04
Costs nothing to register. So for those of you that are interested in attending can get out to Philadelphia. I know it’s a pretty close, you know, train ride or drive from New York, Washington, DC jersey. Just visit http://www.terrapinn.com/homedelivery. That’s terrapinn.com/homedelivery. And you can register for free it’s that easy. But Anne before we get to the headlines today
Anne 2:29
Yeah,
Chris 2:30
I think people inquiring minds want to know who won the Iron Chef Mezzenga match over this Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Anne 2:38
Well, we did not
Chris 2:40
not surprised
Anne 2:41
we can in the second place. our flare our flare was good we had good we made pork carnitas tacos with blue corn chips and Mr. OMNI talk made that like weird strawberry jalapeno thing
Chris 2:54
strawberry chutney
Anne 2:56
That was not a good idea turned out to really be our the end for us. But my brother and sister in law we had one person do a crunch rap, which I mean, how can you beat a crunch rap?
Chris 3:08
Yeah
Anne 3:08
But actually the winner was my brother and his wife and avid listeners Thomas and James who are avid omni talk listeners. They they’re quoting the omni talk podcast at while they’re winning their Fourth of July.
Chris 3:20
That’s awesome
Anne 3:21
For taking home. The pork belly coleslaw. And Siracha mayo on sourdough.
Chris 3:27
Oh wow sourdough. That sounds good. How many people were in this competition when you placed second?
Anne 3:32
It was three,
Chris 3:33
Three. Okay. Just want to make sure that
Anne 3:35
we gave middle of the road
Chris 3:36
our job Anne at Omni talk to always provide the context of the stories that we’re sharing.
Anne 3:40
Yeah,
Chris 3:40
I thought that was an important tidbit.
Anne 3:42
Yeah, it is.
Chris 3:43
Okay.
Anne 3:43
It’s important. Yeah. Okay, so I want to get to some reviews from other people my young nephews, but
Chris 3:50
This might be my favourite review of all time
Anne 3:53
For sure for sure. So today’s review comes from CLW2006. And you know what they said, Chris?
Chris 4:00
I do but yeah why don’t you share it.
Anne 4:02
They gave us five stars. They called us which might be the best moniker ever. The dose EQ, of retail podcast. They said I don’t always listen to retail podcasts. But when I do I prefer Omni talk.
Chris 4:12
I am putting that out on social media today.
Anne 4:13
Yeah,
Chris 4:14
for sure.
Anne 4:14
Absolutely. That might be one of my absolute
Chris 4:17
It’s so good. It’s so good.
Anne 4:18
But just a reminder, if you are listening on Apple podcast, please leave us a review. Heart the podcast if you’re on Spotify, Google Amazon music and please follow and subscribe the podcast y’all so we can keep making that content for you. And we will just read it aloud one day for all the listeners to hear.
Chris 4:37
That’s right, thanks to CLW2006 for that great review. And like we said we’ll read them each and every week. Just keep them coming. They mean a lot to us. Alright, Anne let’s get to the headlines in today’s Fast Five. We’ve got news on tick tock reportedly shutting down its live stream shopping efforts in the UK and the US. An important follow up to the Bed Bath and Beyond story that we talked about last week. This one’s really interesting,
Anne 4:58
Juicy
Chris 4:59
Juicy as hell Ulta popping up inside the outdoor Soho store. Amazon’s recent investment in Grub Hub, but first we’re gonna take off with big news out of Kohl’s this past week which again Anne leading off with Kohl’s and Bed Bath and Beyond Two weeks in a row what is wrong with this world?
Anne 5:15
I don’t know. I hope we can retain the listeners attention. That’s right, Chris. I know you’re disappointed to find this out but Kohl’s is no longer for sale. In what was a many months long process that saw Kohl’s engaged with as many as 25 companies according to chain storage, and which saw the Franchise Group emerge as the most attractive bidder most recently at $60 per share. All deals are now off the top of the table. Cole’s Board Chair Pete Bonaparte said this about the deal. He said quote despite a concerted effort on both sides, the current financing and retail environment created significant obstacles to reaching an acceptable and fully executable I can’t even
Chris 5:56
executable Anne
Anne 5:57
Executable agreement, jeez. He then went on to add that Kohls quote is a financially strong company that generates substantial free cash flow and has a clear plan to enhance its competitive position and improve performance over the long term end quote, Chris, this, this is so I can’t even read it. But what do you think about this?
Chris 6:20
It’s yeah, we’re warming up vocally here this morning. I just think the whole thing smells off to me at this point.
Anne 6:24
Like what about like, what is sticking out?
Chris 6:27
Like what sticks out to me the most is this part where he quotes a clear plan,
Anne 6:30
okay,
Chris 6:31
Which I think is just absolute hogwash, because if you remember, for those of those loyal listeners out there, you remember that this strategic plan is essentially composed of three main parts. And to remind those, those listeners of what those are one is the focus on your assortment on the healthy and active lifestyle, which, as we’ve said many times who doesn’t do that, and why does kohls have the right to win that quite honestly, it doesn’t. To is the expanding the Sephora partnership. Okay, I get it.
But I don’t see a doubling in your share price from that over the long haul. I don’t even see really that much of an accretive increase in your share price over the long haul, Right? And yeah, it tells you something else too. Right. Great point. But my favourite part in this whole strategy is that they’re going to build out 100 smaller format stores. Which fun fact because I’ve been trying to get an answer to from Kohl’s on this and is that they said they’ve already tested the small format in 20 stores and plan to roll out just four more of this year. Which smells really off to me too. Because like, Okay, if you’ve tested it in 20 stores, which by the way, I can’t get a definitive answer from them on where those 20 stores are. And they’ve never been reported on by anyone.
Anne 7:34
Yeah.
Chris 7:35
So like, how does that work that you’ve done? 20 you’re gonna roll out 100 But you’re only gonna do four this year, something is off. Something is way off. And for anyone listening that is at Kohl’s that maybe can shed some light on this message us on LinkedIn, because I’m really interested to hear what’s going on here. Trying to get answers from Kohl’s directly. I’m not getting them in the way that I want. But yes, something something I’m not I mean, they’re not there. They’re just sending me like, here’s what we’re doing next. But I’m like, I want to know what these 20 stores are. How much are you learning from them? Where are they? I want to go visit one of them if possible to put my own assessment on this strategy. Because honestly, who needs a smaller Kohl’s? And that’s my point. That’s why this smells off.
Anne 8:12
I don’t know. See, I disagree with you. I think I think that based on what we’re hearing some of the strategies that we’re hearing coming out of Kohl’s right now is like sell off and do lease buybacks and like all these things, like I think my biggest problem with this is that none of the moves they’re making are trying to make Kohl’s a better retailer. They’re not like making Kohl’s focus on having a better point of view on the product selections.
Like even bringing the curbing inventory like you don’t need the cold stores like exploding with stuff, like just figure out what your reasons are that people are coming to the store and provide that footprint that includes those things, and I don’t think it needs to be a giant coals box anymore. And I think that if you then can I mean, maybe I’m oversimplifying this, I definitely could be but if you could consolidate the space that a Kohl’s takes up, and then sell off, like sell the second floor of the Kohl’s? Do you need two stories of a cold store? I don’t know. And what could you get it? What could you be putting back into the company if you were selling off some of those assets completely?
Chris 9:14
I get your point. They’re like okay, yeah, I can maybe buy into the sale leaseback argument like you know, you know, we’re going to sell the inventory at the store assets that we have, because over time we’re going to get into smaller stores. But net net, that means you’re a less valuable company operating smaller stores and more of them, which if you had 25 offers on the table was not be the best move in the interest of shareholders for the long term. I thought of an analogy that I want to use here that I think totally encapsulates my feelings on this and it’s a Seinfeld reference in there was a great Seinfeld episode where Elaine is digging the sky.
And they both happen to think they’re ethnic. And then they find out at the end of the episode that they’re both white, and they’re like, oh, so we’re just a couple of white people. That’s what I feel after the story. It’s like It’s like kohl’s, wet just you’re just kohl’s again like yeah You’re just you’re just what I thought you were from the beginning. This was a lot of song and dance sound and fury Signifying nothing. I feel like exactly like Elane at the end of that episode. That’s just, it’s just so disheartening in a lot of ways.
Anne 10:11
I’m gonna have to think about that analogy.
Chris 10:13
It’s actually a perfect analogy, like, Oh, we’re not anything that great to write home about. But anyway, all right, let’s keep moving to headline number two. This is an interesting point, we left out a discussion last week with Bed Bath and Beyond,
Anne 10:26
Okay
Chris 10:27
And it was brought to light and by the Wall Street Journal this week that said that Bed Bath and Beyond is burning through its cash reserves. Here are the key points from the article, the retailer ended may with roughly 100 million in cash after burning through more than 300 million of its reserves and borrowing $200 million from its credit line. Second point it is working with advisors, specifically the Berkeley research group on cash management as an has prioritised trying to find a buyer for its byebye baby business makes sense.
The third point which is the key point that puts a new spin on Mark chitons departure CEO, in my opinion is that the Bed Bath and Beyond board also authorised in November 2019. Spending $1 billion on a three year share repurchase plan, which the company completed or isn’t scheduled to complete a year ahead of plan for contracts Bed Bath and Beyond spent $600 million on buybacks last fiscal year and another $43 million in the most recent quarter, when its losses started to balloon saying in as recently as November 21, that it planned to complete the share repurchase in full in this fiscal 2022 year. Anne I’m curious, does this shed any new light on things for you or or raise any new questions in your mind?
Anne 11:35
I don’t understand this at all, like for multiple reasons. I mean, I think listeners you might have to rewind 10 seconds to just play through and understand the points that are happening here. And I encourage you to dig in what was the you found? Oh, that was for Kohl’s. There was another interview that you listened to. But the Wall Street Journal does a really good job of breaking this down. But I think what I take away from this, the key points for me are they have $100 million left in cash reserves.
And if you recall, I’m gonna go back to that Ryan Cohen letter like right that’s that’s three salaries of the C suite. So what’s happening there like what what changes are being made at Bed Bath and Beyond here? They paid Mark Tritton $27 million just him in the last two years since they started this the buybacks and everything. And then I think the other part is even if they do sell bye bye, baby. They which according to Mr. Chu, Kumba of loop capital markets, who’s quoted in the article, the byebye, baby sale is only worth like $800 million. And then Bed Bath and Beyond is saying, oh, yeah, we reduced our expenses by $100 million. Even if they they do that I don’t understand how the whole thing pencils, like how Bed Bath and Beyond can stay afloat, with the stock buybacks with the you know, the the stock decreasing, like with nobody coming to the store, like how is this all? How is this still functioning?
Chris 12:57
Yeah, and I’m gonna Anne, I totally agree with you, number one, and I love that you dropped Mr. Chukwuma. Because I’m going to actually drop him as well and a quote, but like, I’m going to take what you just said and raise the ante on this.
Anne 13:07
Okay
Chris 13:08
Okay, because, I mean, I remember reading at the time, too. I was like, Wait, what are they doing? And I can’t believe I forgot this last week in the context of a conversation, but it’s why I love what we do, because we get to talk about this as much as we want, honestly. But, you know, I was like, why return money to shareholders in the midst of a turnaround? You’re not in a good spot,
Anne 13:24
Right
Chris 13:24
So to me, it either smacks of hubris, like supreme overconfidence, in your abilities, as an executive team and as a board, or at Oh, go ahead.
Anne 13:34
They’re paying them like they
Chris 13:37
And then conditioning to potentially making our options worth more value for basically deciding to put our money there versus putting in the company to turn it around, which I think is interesting. Which is means to me. So at best hubris. But at worst, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re looking at a class action lawsuit on behalf of SHIELD shareholders given this at some point. Because if I was a shareholder, I would want answers. Yeah. And especially if I’m an employee of Bed, Bath and Beyond, because the only people who like I said, the only people that win from a move like that is the C suite and the short term investors Anne you don’t believe me? Let’s go back to Mr. Chukwuma.
Anne 14:10
Yeah,
Chris 14:10
He said for the Wall Street Journal, and I quote, it’s unusual for a company in the middle of a turnaround that isn’t going well to buy back stock that aggressively here here in my opinion.
Anne 14:22
Well, let’s see what happens. I’m excited. And
Chris 14:25
it’s gonna be fun as hell to watch
Anne 14:26
Yeah, especially like I want to see stories together again. Yeah, I want to see another letter from Ryan code and see what he because he’s the 10% shareholder or something right, like so. He’s gonna definitely if anyone’s leaving that class action lawsuit. I have a feeling he might be
Chris 14:39
Yeah, maybe he did it. Yeah, that’s interesting, too. I don’t have a Seinfeld analogy for this one. Oh, I’m gonna have to come up with that later. Stay tuned friends.
Anne 14:47
All right, let’s move on to headline number three. So tick tock has reportedly halted its live e commerce Tik Tok shop initiative in the United States and the UK. According to the Financial Times and TechCrunch. After launching Tik Tok show Up in the UK last year the effort has failed to gain traction. People familiar with the matter told the Financial Times that the expansion plans have been abandoned after influencers dropped out of the project in the UK. And the venture struggled again to gain traction with users. Tick tock employee told the Financial Times that general consumer awareness and adoption is still quite low in the UK. As many tick tock shop lives the hardest thing to say yeah, all time achieved poor sales despite efforts to encourage brands and influencers to sell through the app. Chris?
Chris 15:31
Yes
Anne 15:32
This is also the a&m put you on the spot Question of the week
Chris 15:35
Ofcourse it is
Anne 15:36
Yes, they want me to say tic tac shop about fix Doctor doc shop. But they also want to know, here’s what they had to say we’re, we’re unclear where any confidence to take tick tock shop to the US after its struggles so far in the UK would come from. So given what we know about the typical tick tock user, and how they engage with content. What do you think is a better way for CPG brands to generate Commerce on Tik Tok than this QVC style livestream mechanism?
Chris 16:03
Oh, man, that’s such a good question. Such a good question, especially given the content that we’ve been focused on here at Omni talk, which is all been about live streaming and shopping shoppable video of late we’ve done as much content on that as anyone. My first take, though to before I get to that question. My first thing is, I’m a little sceptical of this article, like, I’m a little sceptical that journalism is honestly a little light on this. Anne I’m curious,
Anne 16:21
shot’s fired to Financial Times.
Chris 16:23
And I mean, it is like, I’m a little curious if they’re following the headline here. But you know, I don’t know. But so let’s take it at face value.
Anne 16:29
Okay
Chris 16:29
Then now, let’s answer the question. So, you know, to me, my advice to brands would be this would be, the thing that’s happened with this whole conversation we talked about a lot Anne is live streaming and shoppable video have been confused and brought in together as one topic. Whereas I don’t think in the American market and probably in the UK market, too, I don’t think it’s going to be as much about live streaming, like, I don’t think it’s going to be as much as about QVC.
And that, because there’s so many dynamics that are different from us versus Asian market. And so my advice would be, take a page out of Vincent yangu fireworks book as a CPG. And create just great video content, make the video content shoppable, it doesn’t have to be live, it can play in live time when you visit the CPG website or the retailer’s website, or whatever. And then the cool thing about that is, that’s where you’re where you want your traffic to go. And it’s very easy to then farm that out to all of the different social media platforms that are out there. So it’s essentially doing the same thing. But it captures the audience in a different way. It’s the eyeballs to your site in a different way.
And I think that just is the right approach versus trying to do something like, like actual QVC style live streams in these platforms. It just doesn’t make sense. That’s step one, if you want to go to that leader that you can, but again, I would argue you should do that from your own site, and then do like almost like simulcast it or rebroadcast it through these social media platforms to get the continued engagement. But what do you think you’re you’re much more of the aficionado on this subject than I am
Anne 17:57
Well, I think it’s important to call out again, that, you know, in the US, we use social for a different purpose than we do it then they do in Asian markets, especially in China and the success that they’re seeing there. And I think that it’s important, as you’re calling out for, it’s still there’s still a need for these social channels. But we interviewed Jeff Lucas from firework last week. And one of the things he was saying, you know, the average consumer spends 1.4 seconds on that content, not spending, you need more engagement, you need deeper engagement with the product for people to for this, like for live shopping to take off.
So I think that the value to answer any AIIMS question, the value, like you said, is to host the content on the retailer of CPG site, it gives it a longer lifespan. I mean, that was one of the biggest complaints like it hasn’t drawn audiences, they haven’t seen the numbers take off from this, but they’re not going to like it’s just not the it’s not the setting for that you still need the social networks to help drive traffic to the sites or you know, to take repurpose content from the content that you have on your own site.
But ultimately, if you want that good shopping experience, you have you have the confidence in that in what you’re buying is, you know, is verified it’s authentic product, you have a much better experience doing that on the retailers or CPGs website. And I think that’s really the focus here. It does not need to be done in the social shopping platform, which I’ll admit we might have to eat crow on that because I remember when like Instagram shaft, Facebook shops, tick tock shops, everything was coming out were like this is the next big thing this is exactly how it’s gonna go. I don’t know that we’re going to see that that’s going to transpire successfully or that’s going to scale successfully in the US market.
Chris 19:42
Yeah I think that’s the important thing is that the nuance matters, which is what I kind of joked about in the beginning is the context is important here like you we got to be careful the terms that we use in these discussions, which is why I fought hard for omni channel retailing for so many years. Like the key thing here is shoppable video first and foremost.
Anne 19:56
Yep.
Chris 19:57
Right that’s, that’s important that you want to do a live stream Do it do it on your own website because a live stream somebody has to engage with, they have to schedule the time to be there at that time for that extended period of time, right? Do it on your website, let it live organically however you want through whatever platform. And that’s the key to me here, which, you know, I don’t think a lot of people understood. And I think honestly, that could still be wrong to some degree too. But I think it’s what we’ve learned through our conversations with the people that really get this.
Anne 20:24
Yeah, absolutely.
Chris 20:25
All right Anne headline number four is fascinating to me.
Anne 20:28
is it though?
Chris 20:29
I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see. You’ve been known to surprise me a lot. So Ulta Beauty is now part of the allure pop up experience in New York City. For those Omni talk listeners that may not be as in the know in the Papa beauty scene as our very own Amazon got allure, allure, allure, as a store in Soho developed in partnership between a lawyer publisher Conde Nast and the retail media company store group. And and I hope I’m saying that right, because it has a little carrot over the O, which I’ve never actually seen really written in English language.
And I don’t know how to pronounce that. So apologies if I did not say that correctly. According to chain storage, the store is set to serve as a physical extension of the alert beauty magazine brand, the aforementioned Ulta Beauty pop up inside of alert will showcase a curated assortment of quote, coveted brands that will be refreshed monthly and complemented by experiential programming and events. And they plan for it to be open from July through September now Anne
Anne 21:24
Yes
Chris 21:24
I think the reason you’re giving me some grief is you fought really hard for this story. And what was quite honestly a very shortened retail News Week, as some of you listeners might be able to tell, why was that?
Anne 21:36
Okay? Because I love this opportunity for both Allure and Ulta. But specifically Ulta. I know it’s easy to read this headline and be like book, another beauty pop up, who cares? Like no big deal. But I think what this shows and what we need to be paying attention to here is that Ulta is testing small formats with a strong point of view. Hint, hint, kohl’s listening, like, this is what I was trying to get him
Chris 22:00
Yeah target too.
Anne 22:00
Yeah. But they’re doing this with smart partners, also the biggest beauty retailer in the US, I think that what the next steps for this could bring, you know, depending on the success of this pilot would be extending beyond the media outlets. So it’s starting to look at you know, taking and creating a store of all Ulta products based on like a beauty influencers picks based on you know, online, bringing online affiliate marketing, like into the physical world. And I think that this, they’re already doing this online, they’re doing this in stores, I think that this could just be a nice extension of of that experience and really teach Ulta how to partner and do small format, like even pop up stores in a really great concept and format.
Chris 22:47
So Mike, so basically, this is like the the testing ground for Ulta do micro implementations throughout the country. Okay, interesting. Okay, well, I didn’t thought about that. I just, I don’t I’m just not buying it that much. Like I think you’re I think we’re over subscribing to this. I mean, to me, it feels like just so much of the same stories we’ve relied upon for the last five years at Omni talk these ideas that are essentially like marketing concepts that have no chance of seeing the light. And today, they’re always in there seem like they’re always in Soho. I mean, a lot of ways it feels like story of a different colour to me, in my opinion.
Anne 23:18
Okay.
Chris 23:18
But you know, but if it isn’t going to hit mass, you know, I don’t know. I mean, maybe it hits through social media, or Instagram and Tiktok the mass market, but I don’t think there’s any way this becomes like, a repeatable physical concept over time. But maybe I mean, maybe maybe I give you the last word here, but maybe prove me wrong, because maybe there’s a way that they can learn how to do smaller installations throughout the country in a scalable way through this idea, but
Anne 23:44
I think the hardest one, I think the hardest part of this is how to do it in a physical setting. Like they’re already able to do this online. They’re running affiliate programmes they’re running like, that is all like functioning. I think now it’s figuring out like, you take a huge organisation like Ulta and figure out how to work more nimbly, how to do this and execute what they’re seeing success with online. Allure has been having tonnes of success across multiple retailers with their beauty programming, which they brought into the physical that now I think it’s time for the team at Ulta to figure out how to get flexible, but how to execute this, which I would go I mean, I would go to a destination if one of the influencers that I follow on Tik Tok or on Instagram was doing, you know, their collection of products like it would draw me into the store to be able to at least test them out. And odds are once you get me there, I’m gonna buy it. So I think it’s important for the Ulta team to really be thinking of how to work in this way.
Chris 24:38
All right.
Anne 24:39
All right. Let’s go to headline number five, so
Chris 24:40
This one’s juicy.
Anne 24:41
Yes, so Amazon has struck an investment deal with GrubHub. So according to Bloomberg yesterday morning, Amazon will receive options for a 2% stake in Grub Hub and will have the opportunity to increase their holding to 15%. Amazon stake is in the form of warrants, which will vest depending on how well the partnership performs and how many new customers it attracts. The steak is also part of a partnership where Amazon will offer us Prime members a one year membership to the food delivery service. GrubHub is parent company justeattakeaway.com also said in a statement on Wednesday, not surprisingly, as a result of this news, just eat stock jumped as much as 20%. Chris, what do you think about this one?
Chris 25:25
Yeah, I mean, aside from getting like a 80s Flashback warrant, like remember the band warrant? I always love whenever I see Amazon, and I don’t remember though, I can’t remember they’re not cherry pie, are they?
Anne 25:35
I don’t know,
Chris 25:36
I am gonna have to look that up or look that up. You can start one of us to start looking up as we’re doing this, but random. Okay. But there is I don’t know, essentially, I’ve got two takeaways on this one Anne.
Anne 25:45
Okay.
Chris 25:46
First of all, it shows me as we’ve long said on this show that the foods and you brought this up actually I give you credit for for bringing this idea to the floor. The food delivery business is a different hook than the standard same day delivery options, a lot Instacart Grub Hub, you know, heck even Amazon is known for. So I think that’s one thing that it kind of validates that strategic hypothesis to me. And my second point is, I think it’s a great move for Amazon, you know, going off now, I did some more math here. This is a math heavy show Anne
Anne 26:15
yeah
Chris 26:16
Going off GrubHub is previous valuation, which was which was at the time $7 billion is probably less now given the recent state of the economy in their business. A 2% stake essentially equates to $140 million dollar option that’s already gained 20% in value roughly give or take. So there’s no risk here at all, and they kill me have the option to escalate that bet. Should they want to so I don’t know what work would hold? I don’t know, but getting GrubHub with prime. That’s the most important point.
Yes
That is an incredibly compelling hook. Kudos to Jamil Ghani again, for his work on this. I know he’s been on social media talking about it, like our friend at Amazon, like good move, man, like free feed restaurant delivery with my prime membership. Sign me up. I can’t think of a better marketing hook honestly.
Anne 27:00
Yeah, exactly. I mean, the, it’s, it’s gonna be interesting here where they’re saying like, okay, so it’s, you know, we’re gonna see how this performs see how many members you get, okay, you have 150 million prime subscribers, that all have the ability to get a free GrubHub membership. And once they’re hooked on that, once they start doing that, my, my guess is they’re going to like doing that they’re going to continue to do it. It’s better for it’s great for Amazon. It’s great for GrubHub it’s great for the restaurants that are going to be participating in this too.
But the things I’m going to be watching out for are one, how much first party data is going to be shared between the two because I think that when you start to think about what people are, if any, what people are ordering from Amazon, what people are ordering, ordering from restaurant delivery, and like how that starts to kind of coalesce through the years,
Chris 27:48
Because they’re kind of enemies to this is like a frenimies of
Anne 27:51
Amazon had Amazon restaurant, right, they pulled it down because it wasn’t successful. But I think that it’s still you know, this is what I want to see like how those two worlds kind of collide. But then the other thing I’m wondering is if any Amazon logistics services will be brought into this like to help with Grubhub’s routing to help with other areas if we’re going to start to see any changes to that part of the business as time goes on. And their potential stake rises in Grubhub but
Chris 28:20
yeah, that’s a good point. I mean, it’s good point. Did you have it? Do you have an answer on the warrant thing?
Anne 28:24
Yeah, I do. They had a it was a band from the 80s and they had their hit song was heaven.
Chris 28:29
Heaven Okay, I can’t remember that song off the top my head.
Anne 28:32
It’s a power ballad?
Chris 28:33
Of course it is.
Anne 28:34
Yeah. Geez, I don’t even I’m trying to think of like, how that goes.
Chris 28:39
I don’t know either. But somebody out there will remember it and put the words in social media for us so that we can get that recall going.
Anne 28:45
Yes. All right. Let’s get to the lightning round. Chris. Lululemon launched their hike collection this week, including your favourite article of clothing, the ripstop pant, which they have Lulu ified to sound much better, and to be able to sell for much more money called abrasion resistant pants are you up for expanding your pant collection and trying them
Chris 29:05
You know me so well Anne it’s just kind of creepy because like, this is actually what gets me interested in this idea.
Anne 29:11
I know
Chris 29:11
Like the hiking can’t itself as like a casual pant. That’s kind of a khaki kind of not.
Anne 29:17
Yeah,
Chris 29:18
Could double is out if it’s very done very well. Yes. 100% I’m all in on trying this. 100% All right, Prime Day is next Tuesday Anne got your eye on anything for you or Mr. Omni.
Anne 29:27
Oh yeah. Pickleball paddles that we started playing pickleball last weekend at my parents for Fourth of July. And it is intense you know how competitive I am
Chris 29:34
Yeah right.
Anne 29:34
Oh, my
Chris 29:35
paddleball set. Oh, it’s wrapped up a court that you’re like the local
Anne 29:39
I mean, it’s this thing is taking the nation and like tennis courts actually. My husband went to Dick’s Sporting Goods yesterday and the the employee at Dick’s Sporting Goods told him that it used to have all racquetball four aisles of racquetball stuff that’s now all pickleball and do you know how much a pickleball paddle costs?
Chris 29:56
I don’t actually know how
Anne 29:57
it’s like, it’s like 70 dollars and higher things are like tennis rackets so I’m going to be looking for Prime Day deal.
Chris 30:04
What’s what the difficult phrases of this podcast pickleball paddle like, come on,
Anne 30:08
I don’t know
Chris 30:08
Like, but also, I’m calling to mind the words of the immortal chunk from Goonies nerd alert. All right.
Anne 30:14
All right, Chris armas is bringing its pop up gym experience to the Hollywood Athletic Club this summer featuring kickboxing with bracelets classes, and Irma’s scarf covered boxing bags. Which Hollywood personality would you most want to take a kickboxing class with Chris?
Chris 30:33
Oh god easy. Mickey Kelly. Mickey Kelly for sure for sure. I don’t know who I’d want to beat up the most I think that’s where you’re going you don’t question but
Anne 30:40
oh, I wasn’t I was like, Hey, you want to go take that bracelet? So that would be that would be my answer dollars of scarves definitively
Chris 30:49
Like it’s her and then everyone else has stepped down. All right. Anne last question. Jello skin is the latest viral trend taking over tick tock from South Korean beauty influencer Eva Lee. On a scale of lime green to Jello pudding pop, where would you say you fall?
Anne 31:03
Oh, the jello cake. It’s my favourite cake of all time.
Chris 31:06
What’s a jello cake.
Anne 31:07
It’s a regular cake like that You stick a fork in and then you pour the jello mixture and hot water on the cake. And then you cover it in Cool Whip and it is amazing.
Chris 31:18
Oh my god. You don’t like gravy but you like that.
Anne 31:20
Oh, love it. My grandma used to make it. It’s like it’s so good. I’ll make it and you can try it. It’s like very popular around the Fourth of July. She always used to make it.
Chris 31:28
Is that a Minnesota thing?
Anne 31:29
probably
Chris 31:29
Yeah probably
Anne 31:30
I actually no, it’s called the jello poke cake. It actually has a name. It’s on the jello box.
Chris 31:34
The jello what poke?
Anne 31:36
Yeah
Chris 31:37
Right. Okay. Sure. All right. Thank you for that. Thank you for that random walk through culinary history. Much appreciated. Alright. Alright, that wraps us up. Happy Birthday today to Bill Hader, Iggy Azalea and the man who definitely will find you if you piss him off. Liam Neeson
Anne 31:53
Yes, he will tuck in
Chris 31:54
You big fan of Liam Neeson?
Anne 31:56
I just liked that movie
Chris 31:57
That movie was pretty good.
Anne 31:57
Yeah.
Chris 32:00
Well, we’ve lost it. Alright. And remember, if you could 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 in just for you and we try really hard to make it fit all 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, YouTube and come join us at home delivery world again, you can register for free at http://www.terrapinn.com/homedeliveryworld. And of course finally, as always, be careful out there.
Anne 32:41
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 toward their maximum potential. CRG brings the experience tools and operator like pragmatism to help retailers and consumer products companies be on the right side of disruption and takeoff. Takeoff is transforming grocery by empowering groceries 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 solutions that allow 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. 