Anne 0:09
Hello, you are listening to the Omni talk fast five brought to you in partnership with Microsoft, the a&m consumer and retail group, takeoff and sezzle. Well, the Omni talk Fast Five podcast is the podcast that we hope makes you feel a little smarter, but most importantly, a little happier each week too. Today is August 25 2022. I am your host, Anne Mezzenga.
Chris 0:31
I’m Chris Walton.
Anne 0:33
And we are here once again to discuss all the top headlines that made waves in the world of omni channel retailing. Chris
Chris 0:41
Anne
Anne 0:41
Are you ready for this?
Chris 0:43
Oh yeah, I’m getting super pumped.
Anne 0:45
We got a big week next week. We are headed to Philly. I’ve like wanna sing a Philly song, back again,
Chris 0:52
back again coming into my head, right now for sure.
Anne 0:55
Yeah I bought fresh prints. We’ve got West Philadelphia born and raised like all these things. Check out
Chris 1:02
That’s a good draw
Anne 1:02
Next week. Tell the audience a little bit about what they’re going to be expecting from us next week from home delivery world.
Chris 1:08
Yeah, like I said, I’m super pumped. We’re both on stage I’m I’m doing a session on big and bulky delivery, which I just love saying.
Anne 1:16
That’s perfect for you
Chris 1:17
I think it’s my favourite title of all time, big and bulky delivery. And you just broke that instacart’s getting into big and bulky delivery this morning. But what’s your session on too?
Anne 1:25
So I am doing grocery the final frontier of home grocery delivery. We have a great panel Yeah, we just met yesterday I’m really excited. We have one of the founders and CEOs of freshly. Got Ali Ahmed from Robo Mart and a company that’s doing tracking cash up from I’m forgetting the name of the company but he does all the logistics and tracking around organising routing for for delivery. So we’ve got some fun conversations to have with that.
Chris 1:55
Yeah, it should be great. I mean, there’s I think they’re thinking there’s gonna be 5000 people there. 300 speakers 300 exhibitors give or take and, you know, honestly, it’s one of the best conferences in last mile logistics around both here in the US and abroad. And the best part about it is it’s actually free to attend like you can see all the exhibitors in the expo hall for absolutely nothing. And it’s super easy to register just go to terrapinn.com/homedelivery. There’ll be a link in the show notes as well. And then as well you get a discount code if you’re an Omni talk follower.
Yes, you get VIP registration Chris
That’s right
Anne 2:29
We’ve got our own VIP list and you can check out LinkedIn too, Chris and my posts have included that
Chris 2:35
I’ve put those in my notes too so yeah so so yeah, so you’re ready to get this show started Anne? We read this week’s review?
Anne 2:40
We gotta get to the review we didn’t have one last week I want to hear I want to hear Erica retail junkie’s review.
Chris 2:46
I know which is a great name by the way. I love that name. Erica retail junkie kind of wish I’d come up with that myself. But here’s what she had to say five stars again. I were just on a five star string
Anne 2:57
Let’s keep it that way
Chris 2:58
I know right. Let’s hope best news best retail news for retailers, she said, I’ve been a marketing executive and retail for over 20 years, I’m as you would expect cynical, sceptical and grizzled as a result. I read everything about retail. This does not make me popular at cocktail parties, but pretty smart about retail. And yet literally every week I learn something new from YouTube. I don’t always agree. But I always love the perspective. I just sent out your podcast to all the exes at my company. I think she means execs. Or at least Anne I hope she does
Anne 3:27
I hope Yeah. Oh man Erica, it’d be tough to work with All your exes in one company, especially if you’re as cynical sceptical and grizzled as, as many of our listeners are.
Chris 3:38
That’s right. And she marked it required reading. So yes, Erica retail Junkie, thank you for that. That’s exactly the type of review we love. That makes number 79 In terms of our reviews on Apple podcasts on a road to 100. So please, if you’re listening, leave us a review. Every difference makes a difference.
Anne 3:55
Yes. Even if you’re not a review person, that means you Tammy, who we talked to this week, you said I love listening, not a reviewer. Just take take a second. Tell us and you can email us directly too but take a second and give me a review. If you’re listening on Apple podcasts heart the podcast if you’re on Spotify, Google Amazon music, follow and subscribe so that we can keep making the best content for all of you listening. We just might read your review aloud. We will will read your, we listen to you without a question. Yeah.
Chris 4:28
No, it’s going to happen. It’s going yes, you just gotta wait for your turn.
Anne 4:32
Yes, Chris. But let’s give them what they want. Let’s get to the Fast Five.
Chris 4:36
All right Anne. Today’s fast Five is brought to you with the help and support of our good friends at groceryshop. Are you a retailer or brand thinking about attending groceryshop this year? Well don’t even think about it without using our promo code specifically for Omni talk listeners. We’re all about the promo codes for these shows. Just go to grocery shop.com and enter promo code my favourite promo code of all time RBOT1950. That’s RBOT1950. If you’re a loyal listener of the show i’m sure you have that emblazoned in your brain and you’ll get your special discounted rate in today’s Fast Five we’ve gotten news on Apple wanting to advertise more to you on your iPhone, Walmart buying up a gig labour delivery management platform, gap creating its own third party supply chain platform to sell to other retailers. Tesco expanding its checkout free relationship with Trigo to more stores. But first we’re going to take off with a crazy announcement from peloton, Amazon this week, Anne
Anne 5:27
Yes, okay, I saw this and I immediately sent it to you, I was like this is in the show without a doubt. headline number one. According to a peloton, press release yesterday peloton will begin selling its products outside of its own direct channel. Beginning with none other than Amazon. A new peloton store now exists on Amazon’s website. The products that are available at launch will include the peloton bike and guide. Apparel also things like accessories like weights, shoes and bike mats. As part of the Amazon experience the peloton bike will be available with a convenient in home delivery and customers will have the option to assemble the bikes themselves or select an add on expert assembly option available in the majority of the US. The in home delivery and expert assembly are offered at no additional cost to customers said peloton Chief Commercial Officer Kevin Cornell’s quote, We want to meet customers where they are and they are shopping on Amazon. providing additional opportunities to expose people to peloton is a clear next step as we continue to generate excitement for unparalleled connected fitness experience. end quote, Chris.
Chris 6:38
Yes?
Anne 6:39
This is also where a&m is gonna throw their weight in.
Chris 6:42
Oh, you’re gonna hit me right in the beginning today. All right.
Anne 6:44
I mean, this is this is like one of the best headlines we’ve had in a long time.
Chris 6:48
Yeah, okay. All right.
Anne 6:50
So it’s gone up and down. I’ll give you that it’s gone up and downWithin the last 24 hours.
Chris 6:55
They discovered I was super high in the beginning. So I want to definitely talk about but yes,
Anne 6:59
Yes. Okay, so their question for you, Chris. A&M wants to know last month, a&m CRG managing director Mike Samajik offered his perspective to retail brew, saying that peloton, quote, focus needs to be more on the user experience content generation and retention and growth of subscribers end quote, which is effectively downplaying equipment manufacturing, and DTC sales in favour of its core strength. Chris, do you think this move smartly plays into that philosophy? Or is peloton making a mistake here by selling through Amazon?
Chris 7:33
This is Oh man, that’s a really tough question. Holy crap. And it’s a great question too.
Anne 7:37
Yeah.
Chris 7:38
But to give some give some readers some insight into how the sausage is made to when we first read this story that headline said it was coming to Amazon stores, which I hate. Anne I don’t know about you, but I hate when people use the Amazon’s e commerce site and call it a store. Like I think the right way to say it’s going to be sold on Amazon. So you and I like lost our stuff on this. And I was like, That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard in my entire life if they’re using like Amazon Fresh storage, but thank God, that’s not what this is about. It sounds like it’s purely an E commerce play.
So to get to the question, you know, in a lot of ways, I think it kind of makes sense. Like, you know, selling through Amazon Sure, why not? The brand is strong, which I think is important. When you’re thinking about selling on Amazon, the brand is strong and can stand on its own. Amazon, as we’ve talked about in the show is the online mall at this point. So it makes sense to be there in a lot of ways.
Anne 8:25
Sure.
Chris 8:26
But the question I come back to which is kind of inherent to what a&m is asking is like, how does it help? You know, if you’re in the market for a peloton, is this really going to add volume to your business? Because everyone who wanted a peloton during the pandemic probably got one. But then I was thinking that I looked at some stats last night and as of June 30, I thought of last year, which was the height of the pandemic peloton craze, right?
Anne 8:47
Okay
Chris 8:47
You could say that’s effectively like, you know, the absolute apex.
Anne 8:51
Okay,
Chris 8:51
They had roughly 6 million paying subscribers
Anne 8:55
To the to the platform to the platform. Okay
Chris 8:58
Yeah. So what did you think about it the size US population? 330 330 million, then that’s probably worldwide. That number. I don’t know that for sure. But I’m pretty sure it is. It’s like total subscribers.
Anne 9:07
Yeah
Chris 9:07
That’s pretty low in comparison. So So it got me thinking like, Okay, this is what I think the strategy is now at this point, go on Amazon, allow the bikes they’ve even said they’re gonna allow the bikes to be assembled themselves. And then what I think is going happen next is you’re going to price cut this thing to get it okay and have more people to get it into more mass market adoption to make it more affordable because it still does price a lot of the market out when you think about it. I think that’s the strategy they’re going for, if that’s the strategy you believe in and that’s how you want to attain growth, then sure, I think it’s the right way that though I don’t think it’s what I would do.
I actually think I would have taken a very different approach. I think I would have gotten more all in on apparel as a concept versus and physical, possibly physical retail, as a concept as a shot in of itself away from the bike. I will try to stand up that arm of the business. I’ve talked about getting the studio’s through all the cities like what they do in New York, why can’t you do that in every city? Why can’t you have one of those? I think that’s a much better way to secure higher margins from your current base. But if you’re going for some great subscriber growth, I mean, I don’t know that I can argue this. I just don’t love it for the brand long term.
Anne 10:15
I agree with you. I think your point about how they’re selling it like pricing, the first thing that comes to mind, just in hearing what you’re saying, I guess is I don’t understand why they’re going on Amazon to sell this product. I’m
Chris 10:29
Yeah, right.
Anne 10:30
Because they already offer like shipping and deliveries aren’t a part of this. Like, that’s not you’re not leveraging the prime value there. And I think that you know, when you think about the the amount that Amazon’s gonna take out of that sale, and if you could pass that that value onto your consumer, I think you start bringing in a much larger audience and you start to build the moat with the subscription base, like the apparel and all the other things around that bike, if you can knock, you know, what is it going to be? I mean, Amazon can take up to 40% of a sale. So like, if you think about taking that off of the $1,500 for the bike, even if you took $200 off the bike like that’s a significant savings for the end consumer. I actually Chris, I like the store option.
I know you don’t like it. I pinged Sara Yakoub yesterday who’s in charge of the just walk out technology because she posted about this and I was like Sarah, are we going to see any physical store execution? Because I think that’s more valuable as a Peloton organisation than the Amazon partnership online. I don’t think you need to have a Peloton like salesperson on site. I think just getting the bikes I’ve talked about this before in previous episodes like getting I think target was ordered like Dick’s Sporting Goods would have been a much better partner than Amazon for an in store execution.
But I think that you know, it’s about getting the bikes in front of people showing them what the Peloton experience looks like. And I don’t think you’re doing that as well on Amazon. Second thing here I think Peloton is causing a threat for themselves by going on Amazon when you start to look at the accessories so like you purchase the bike once you’re not going to be purchasing that multiple times. But where you’re going to get growth is in the accessories and what you can see like say the the $150 peloton bike shoes for example, right as an Amazon customer, I have six other options for half price shoes right in front of me, and I’m definitely going to go for those instead of spending $150 on Peloton shoes, versus like having a full on Peloton experience within a store where you’ve got the shoes right there you’ve got the other accessories. So ultimately, the winner here is the Amazon customer because they’re going to get all the benefits of those peloton goods and much more affordable options right side by side there. I do want to see some sort of physical store execution though for Peloton.
Chris 12:48
Yeah wow. Ah, we can save that one for another show. Because we did talk about that I hate that idea. Like I like going on Amazon much more than I like going into Dick’s or anything else like that, because I think that just immediately cheapens the brand. And then you have to deal with the inventory placement and the potential markdown issues that ensue. So I think this is the smart
Anne 13:03
Even like guide shop, even a guide shop in a dick’s or target?
Chris 13:07
Why don’t think a guide shop really gets you anything differently too. You Know and it’s a very confusing experience. There’s a whole host of issues that arise with that you ultimately get back to the same place, which is the part I agree with you on is, is it seems like they’ve seems like they effed up their apparel, play their apparel, accessories, but it feels like that was something like in the vein of Nike that they could have gone after which I remember I forgot I actually have hypothesised that they had the ability to do that, like two or three years ago and my ending your NPs for Forbes and, and they didn’t do that.
And now what I worry about Anne to close it up here, and well, then we’ll move on is like, I worry that that ship has sailed and now they’re going after growth at all costs because of the pressures financially that they’re feeling, you know, internally and likely from the street. And that’s, that’s scary to me, because you know, then you’re gonna lose the cache the brand and somebody else will pop in and start to encroach on the space and they’ll never be the same, but I don’t know.
All right, let’s keep rolling headline number two in a headline that we probably should have done last week, but are doing it this week. Instead, Apple wants to serve up more ads in its iPhones. first reported by Bloomberg and later picked up by CNBC Apple is reportedly planning to expand its advertising business, which already generates about $4 billion annually. According to Bloomberg, Apple reportedly wants to now grow its ad business by double digits with advertising pushes into things like Apple Maps, books and podcasts. Meanwhile, it is important to note that last year, Apple released an update for iPhones with a pop up asking users if they want to allow apps on their phones to be used for ad targeting and if you didn’t know that you’ve probably been sleeping or hibernating for the past year. The privacy feature According to CNBC called App Tracking transparency, little ATT, as up ended the behind the scenes mechanics of many mobile ads, especially those that confirm whether a purchase or download was made. Anne there’s lots of layers Here’s to this story. I’m curious what you think.
Anne 15:02
I’m not surprised by this at all. I mean, I really I don’t think anybody should be surprised by this. I mean, I think that the canary in the coal mine was, you know, the whole move away from tracking that Apple launched with the update last year, I think that this should have been on the radars, radar screens of every single company in and around this arena. I think that
Chris 15:24
Right
Anne 15:25
Well, I’d be willing to, and I’d be willing to bet. I mean, Apple has a solid mission here, like there’s no competition there, you know, iPhone users aren’t going to stop using their iPhone, because they don’t want to be tracked, like, they’re not going to. Nobody’s going to give up their iPhones to prevent this from happening. I think the only thing I could see doing is like, there could be some regulatory pressure against Apple, or like, just in general Apple trying to, like be a good steward of saying like, Okay, well, we’re still gonna give you the option for the out to not be tracked or for us to not follow you.
But then charging, like, do we are doing like a freemium sort of version of their apps, like you’re, we’re seeing Spotify do or something where it’s like, okay, fine, you have to pay if you want maps, and you want apps and you want podcasts without the ads or without us tracking you, you need to pay for that. Now, it’s going to be, you know, another $2.99 a month, which is a nominal fee for the average Apple iPhone user. And then for Apple, like rakes in a bunch more money, but I think that’s what we’re gonna see. I I just, I don’t know, it was inevitable. What what do you think
Chris 16:28
That angle is interesting, although I feel like that’s still talking out of both sides, your mouth. I mean, I’m, I’m really conflicted on this one, like, 100%. Like, I guess the way I think about it, Anne is if they allow the same privacy controls within their apps that they are putting on everyone else, right, then I think this is a non story. You know, if you can say like, Hey, I don’t want ads served up to me in Apple Maps when I’m listening to podcast, then fine. You know, then that I think the playing field is level, right? For the most part.
Anne 16:28
There’s no way that’s gonna happen, though.
Chris 16:32
Yeah, that’s the thing like, right, you’re sceptical, right?
Anne 16:59
Yeah.
Chris 17:00
But but then like, I then I feel like we’re in like the, if they if they don’t do that, which I think is the right, altruistic thing to do that. I feel like we’re in the meat. We have the makings of like the Microsoft Internet Explorer kerfuffle, with antitrust written all over. Because, again, I looked up. I looked at stats again yesterday. And did you know that statistic estimates that 47% of all US smartphones in the US aren’t Apple iPhone?
Anne 17:25
Yeah
Chris 17:26
That’s crazy. So that means they control the hardware for half the market. And now, I mean, Apple’s essentially saying, We control 50% of the market, we’re not going to give it access to everyone else for ads, but we’ll advertise the cows come home on our own properties. That smells horrible to me.
Anne 17:42
Yeah. What are you gonna do? And
Chris 17:44
yeah, well, the other part too, that I hate about this, too, is that it’s not getting talked about is the short term long term impact is
Anne 17:44
Yeah
Chris 17:46
This is going to be horribly disruptive, on all the small direct to consumer brands that for for years, have made their lifeblood on selling things on Facebook advertising and other you know, sources of revenue. And so we’re gonna see a lot of layoffs from that most likely here in the coming weeks or coming months, and then look back 10 years from now, and Apple’s just going to be in a situation where they’re raking it in at the detriment of many other people losing their jobs, so the rich get richer, and that’s what pisses me off the most potentially about the story, but I’m reserving judgment until I see how they actually do this.
Anne 18:21
Yeah, I mean, but we can make a safe bet that they’re gonna do exactly what we are talking about.
Chris 18:27
I don’t know that I’m there yet. Actually.
Anne 18:29
I am. I mean, until that why not like why not make as much money if you’re Apple until you can, they don’t care about
Chris 18:36
Till the government tells you you can’t.
Anne 18:37
Exactly, exactly exactly I mean, that’s what we’ve seen. That’s been the trend with what we’ve seen. Yeah, I know. I know. Okay, well, before we get down very scary, like Reddit thread about capitalism. Let’s go. Number three.
Chris 18:53
Like awesome powers. Yeah, a capitalist I think is
Anne 18:55
Yeah. Okay. headline number three, Walmart has purchased gig labour management platform delivery drivers Inc, or DDI for short. According to grocery dive, DDI has supplied human resources, recruiting insurance, accounting and payment services to Walmart spark programme since 2018. Walmart Spark, of course, is the platform that Walmart uses to coordinate gig workers. To fulfil orders from both the retailer and their go local programme their white label delivery service. The spark driver platform reaches 84% of US households, and the retailer plans to continue growing the programme Nav Chadha, the Vice President of the Spark driver platform said in a company post on Wednesday, Chris,
Chris 19:39
Yes.
Anne 19:40
Where are where do you land on this? What do you think of this new acquisition?
Chris 19:46
To your question, I don’t have a lot of revolutionary things to say about this. I think it’s pretty basic. For the most part, I think it looks pretty clear to me that Walmart is trying to stand up its own third party delivery network.
Anne 19:56
Yeah
Chris 19:56
I mean, for all intents and purposes, I think this is clear, which makes sense. which makes a lot of sense why spend the money on acquiring and Instacart or something in that vein, if the technology is now there for you to build it out yourself confidently, so minimally, you aren’t paying the middleman fees by having to work through a third party anymore, you now can control that yourself. So if you got a good valuation on the deal, like that makes sense. So in a way, it kind of feels like a different potentially smarter version of ship 2.0 that target did when acquiring ship, but probably at a lower cost, too. So net-net I think the move makes make sense for Walmart would blow the doors off. I don’t know. But you know, I liked it in principle.
Anne 20:33
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think that it seems like from what we’re reading about DDI that, you know, they have another piece of the puzzle that Walmart was missing, they have the expertise that Walmart needs to make this machine, can you continue to make this a more successful arm of their business? I think you’re smarter bringing up the target example. I think also, you know, targets acquisition of deliv was very similar to this too like, how do we take in and build continue to build around at week have shipped? Like, how do we continue to make sure that routing is efficient that we’re optimizing delivery of products and movement of products, I think it’s clear like Walmart is going to try to do whatever they can to build this up. We also saw this week that they’re like launching, they’re doing the full launch of their new electric vehicles. They’re trying to make this as viable an offer for Walmart customers, like the end consumers, but then also other retailers that they’re working with, with the go local program. I’m just trying to figure out, you know, as as this continues to evolve, what other retailers are going to jump on the platform? I mean, they’re blowing out stats like crazy of how many, you know, over a million deliveries with go local, like, how does, you know, once they build up this network, how valuable is that to other retailer customers to actually make this a profitable arm of their business? But
Chris 21:47
Right, which is a great segue, actually too because that was actually the point I thought of in this next story, as well. But I think you know, net-net it’s kind of a it’s kind of one of those stories that like, seems important probably is and we’ll look back on it potentially, as being really important, but it’s not going to get a lot of fanfare. And that probably means it’s a good story to pay attention to in reality, you know, when you look at all the things we cover on a week to week basis, so why number four gap is similarly taking its own page out of American Eagles frenemy network,
Anne 22:14
Yes,
Chris 22:14
but are launching its own supply chain platform for other retailers and brands to use. As you just discussed, the coordinate chain storage, gap is introducing a new offering called GPS platform services by gap, Inc. Brings back memories and GPS, the hosted service will provide Supply Chain Solutions, that gap says meet the needs of direct to consumer and business to business copies across the supply chain. Specific advertise logistics and fulfilment capabilities include Are you ready Anne? See how fast I can do this scalable high volume automated e commerce fulfilment omni channel capabilities for b2b, wholesale and retail stores distribution, Self Service portals with API integrations to Shopify, Amazon, and other major commerce platforms and of course, a nationwide distribution network just to name a few. Anne what do you think on this any light to your last comment? I think it probably does.
Anne 23:04
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think this is interesting. You know, like, we saw malls talking about doing this a long time ago, like knowing Okay, we have all of these stores under our roof, how do we get them to start working together, but nobody pulled the trigger on it. So I think it’s interesting that like, American Eagle gap, everybody’s like, well, we’ll figure this out, we’ll figure out how to do this. Because the most important point of this, for me is it is not enough to just be a retailer anymore, retailers have to figure out how they’re going to gain alternate sources of revenue. And this is one way to do that. They’re looking at you know, okay, we’re gap, we have this huge logistics network. We have all these stores. We’re in, you know, malls across the country, like, how do we leverage our assets, which are our stores, which are our fulfilment and logistics capabilities?
And I think we’ll continue to see more retailers be like, well, this, we have this going already, how do we make more money off of it? I think we’re also seeing companies take this approach when they’re looking at technology. Like we’ve talked to a lot of retailers over the course of the last year, especially looking more specifically at like a build versus buy analysis, like, what are we going to build internally in house? How can we use that to make our processes more efficient as a retailer? And then can we sell that? Is it something that we can put out to other retailers or that we can create these frenemy networks.
And I think the last point where I think we’re also seeing this is with retail media networks, like that’s a quick way for retailers to earn another source of revenue outside of you know, the products that are on their shelves, like what is the total product offering that you as a retailer can offer, and that’s not always those those the t shirt on the on the shelf but at the gap. It’s definitely got to be some other capabilities in leveraging what you have. But Chris, you thought you thought there was some some light to that from the last story? I’d like your thoughts
Chris 24:53
I think your points are right. I think the one wrinkle I would add is I think as much as is on the revenue side, I would actually argue it’s even more so on the cost side of the equation too. There’s only so many retailers that have the strength and the national scale to build up something like this right? And so that’s that’s what I think is cool about it is like retailers are creatures of habit like shake card American Eagle was like kind of the first ones to be talking about this. I guess Walmart was angling for this too.
Anne 25:18
Yeah.
Chris 25:18
And now you got gap jumping into the fray. So the question for me is like how many duelling front of me networks are there going to be overturn and who wins that landscape. But the reason I think they’re important is actually not the revenue they provide for the front of me networks, but what they’re doing for the underlying cost structure of the businesses they’re supporting,
Anne 25:35
Right
Chris 25:35
Because if e commerce continues to grow like it has, and consumers want to shop that way, business models are going to have to change to adapt to that behaviour. And so you have to create frenemies, you have to get scale in your operation, you have to find a way to lower costs,
Anne 25:49
Right
Chris 25:49
There’s no way you’re going to go this alone, if e commerce continues to grow, and the cost of that business are just so expensive to do the shipping like you’re needing to do. So I think that’s the that’s another important point here that I would add.
Anne 26:02
Yeah, I love that. I love that, like alternate side of it, where it’s like, it’s more about the cost. It’s not about like, what I’m saying what I was saying earlier, like about the revenue that you’re bringing in, it’s about how do I reduce costs? And how do you know how many people can I bring together? And how I mean, I think that’s going to be really interesting to watch too, over the next few years is like how, who’s who’s partnering together? Like, what makes sense? How do you not have duplication in those efforts and like, figuring out how the money kind of disperses or the savings kind of dispersed among all of those partners will be? Yeah,
Chris 26:35
It’s a cool idea because both parties win, right?
Anne 26:35
Yeah. Right.
Chris 26:35
And that’s the that’s the idea of something that is a good idea. Really, ultimately,
Anne 26:36
Right.
Chris 26:38
That’s why I think we’ll see more of this for sure.
Anne 26:44
All right, let’s move on to headline number five. So Tesco is launching its second checkout free Getgo store on the Trigo platform. But this time, it comes with a twist according to the grocer the new store on Chiswell street near the Barbican, in London Barbican am I saying that right?
Chris 27:02
Sounds good to me. I’m sure somebody will correct it if we did it.
Anne 27:05
Somebody, some of our British fans correct me.
Chris 27:08
Barbican I don’t know.
Anne 27:08
Barbican, I probably sounds better with an English accent anyway. Okay, they’re opening a new store near the Barbican in London. It will also include self checkouts, which lie in stark contrast to Tescos first get go on high Holborn, that was completely checkout free. This also means that the Chiswell Street store will be accessed by any shopper. So unlike Tesco, high Holborn, which could only be accessed through the mobile app scan when you come in the store will now allow for any customer to enter the store. Chris, you really fought for this one to be included this week, why do you think the story is so significant?
Chris 27:46
Yeah, I did. I did. And I get you know, I get some of the pushback, too, because we’ve talked about Trigo. We’ve talked about Tesco a lot. We did the Trigo store tour over in Europe. And so but you know, ultimately, I think it’s I think it’s important for a couple reasons. First, on the tech side, yeah, Tesco is again, going with trigo, which if you follow us closely is super important that checkout free provider, landscape revenue, Tesco have all expanded their relationship after their first trial. There aren’t many providers of this type of solution that can hang a statement hang their hat on a statement like that.
Anne 28:17
Yeah
Chris 28:17
It’s few and far between. So I think that’s really, really important. You know, and for the most part, they’re doing this in a retrofit environment to they’ve shown that they have that capability. So, but the most important thing I think about this story, is the twist. You know, like you said, at the beginning, I thought it was a great way to put it. So kudos to you for that. But like, the hybrid option is becoming more important in my mind. Like I never liked it at the beginning.
Anne 28:40
Yeah
Chris 28:40
But I think I’m liking it more now. Because we we visited the Amazon Go Hudson, news store in the Chicago airport. And it was fascinating to watch. People have to deal with understanding how to enter that store. Like
Anne 28:53
Yeah
Chris 28:53
Some people were just leaving, some people weren’t doing it. And one guy comment on the way out, he’s like, what’s next? A microchip in my butt, you know, like, but I know he’s gonna go back and tell his friends and use it,
Anne 29:02
Right
Chris 29:03
So it’s really difficult for people to understand that so. And the other part of audit to me is if you do a hybrid solution, let’s not forget, you still get the full benefits of a computer vision experience, which includes everything from better inventory accuracy, better customer marketing, more flexible price changes as well that respond in the moment which and all those things are probably of better benefit to the retailer in the long run than the actual consumer being able to walk out checkout free.
So those that want to use it can use it. Those that can’t don’t have to So I’m thinking this is we’re starting to see this probably be the approach that most people are going to take to the adoption of this technology is my hunch. But I don’t know like all the Nord will be interesting as a college town like does the demographics play into this too? I have no idea but I’m starting to lean that way. But what do you think?
Anne 29:56
Yeah, I mean, I think we have to give credit to Tesco here because One they went in on what I, what I still believe is the right way to do this. I think if you’re going to be a retailer investing in this technology, I still feel like as if I was a retailer, I wouldn’t be going in on full on autonomous stores.
Chris 30:13
Right. That’s the way to start
Anne 30:14
I think so I think that’s great. I even in the airport example, like, yes, you have that first time, that hurdle to get over, which is going to keep some people out. I mean, we did see people turn away from that. But I think ultimately, like now that they have that first experience under their belt, once that starts going out to airports around the world, like it will become more common for people. So I think for the long term with the amount of investment that you’re going to put into an autonomous store, like I would go fully autonomous.
I do think, though, that Tesco is is correctly doing an A B test here, I think it’s important for them to see like, what happens when we build it to be fully autonomous, you retrofit it to be fully autonomous. But we also have self checkout in here for the interim like is that the smart move so that people can still feel like I Okay, I can have it if I’m not ready yet today, I can still go through and still spend at the store? And how does the future rollout for Tesco look like? Are they going to invest in both self checkout and, you know, this hybrid approach?
I also think we saw an interesting case a couple weeks ago at HEB, where they’re doing smart carts, you know, they have this concept where they’re rolling smart cards through a computer vision scanner, and then they’re sending they’re sending the receipt after I think, you know, some of these tactical things or outs for the customer, if they’re not ready for fully autonomous shopping are are a smart thing for retailers to be testing before they go fully in. I still think though, like what tree go and trust Tesco did with the fully autonomous store.
That’s where I would be focusing most of my efforts here. So still getting all the benefits. Like you said, Chris, of the full computer vision suite of offerings, you know, better inventory visibility, all those things make sense?
Chris 31:55
Yeah.
Anne 31:55
But I I’m still putting my my bets on on fully autonomous.
Chris 31:59
Oh, yeah, I think you’re right in the long run. That’s still where it will go. I love how you said the right place to experiment with what went right. Because if you don’t do the fully autonomous you don’t know the difference. You don’t know when you go that next step you can always go back.
Anne 32:11
Right
Chris 32:11
Which is why we’ve always advocated that and yeah, and and also they should be thing is cool. And I know we have a lot of HTB fans out there too. And we’re assuming it’s computer vision based we don’t know yet for sure. But if you want to let us know, please do but I think of this like I just keep coming back to like Starbucks mobile app in order pickup
Anne 32:11
Right? Like really
Chris 32:28
Some people gravitated towards it. It was a small percentage of the people but then once you do it, you never go back and you’re right. Once you do in the airport, you’re never gone back. No ever in your life. I mean, I’ve never gone back in general like it’s so easy. You can wave your hand to get in
Anne 32:44
Totally and all the concerns that people have like viable concerns that we heard from people outside of that store like how do I know I don’t get charged like how do I know like what I don’t have a receipt How do I know like all these things like once you do that once and you see that it can work like that will get you to do it like then you understand the value it’s just going to be getting over that
Chris 33:04
Which are all the same concerns when you order a fricking cup of coffee like let’s be honest right
Anne 33:08
Exactly your order grocery delivery for the first time like all of these things, it’s like just doing it once and then you’ll never look back
Chris 33:16
At my favourite Mitch Hedberg line of all time. My favourite Mitch Hedberg joke. I hope my body ovens listening is when he’s like, I’m at the donut shop and asked me if I want to receive he’s like, for what I’m not gonna bring it back. You know? It’s a donut.
Anne 33:26
Yeah, right.
Chris 33:27
What are we talking about here? But anyway, alright, let’s go to the lightning round. Let’s finish out this show.
Anne 33:32
All right, Chris. Ryan Cohen took full advantage of Bed Bath and Beyond meme stock surged and sold all the shares in the company. If you were Ryan Cohen, what are you doing with all of those giant wads of cash right now?
Chris 33:46
This is gonna be funny. You have to listen back to listen to the show before but I’m gonna get myself some good high quality wild sage Anne that’s what I’m doing.
Anne 33:53
I hope it’s not the wild sage from Bed Bath and Beyond. That’s all I’m gonna say
Chris 33:57
Probably not probably not. I don’t even know if you can find that anymore. Alright, Anne I noticed a trend on social media recently that the younguns are spelling the word fav. FAVE versus FAV. Is this something I’ve always gotten wrong? Some big change I missed or did the younguns need to talk in to set me straight on this. What’s your take?
Anne 34:17
No. FAV is like fav. FAVE is like a new word. It’s like, you know, this is like look it up an urban dictionary or something. It’s like, I don’t know that. It’s going to be in your Webster’s as like this is a correct word. But I think it’s like, you know, it’s a new part of the vernacular that so I need to get on this bandwagon you need to get on the fave band bandwagon.
Chris 34:39
Alright the fave bandwagon. All right, I’m on it.
Anne 34:41
All right, Chris. It’s back to school shopping time, especially for those of us procrastinator parents who are crossing our fingers and hoping that the delivery times are accurate and we’ll get all the school supplies that we ordered yesterday in time for school. I want to know what your most memorable back to school purchase was growing up.
Chris 34:57
Oh dude, that’s so easy. The Trapper keeper 1984. felt like such a Fosbury not to school.
Anne 35:04
WhatTrapper keeper did you have?
Chris 35:06
I don’t remember that.
Anne 35:07
Oh,
Chris 35:08
That’s good way back
Anne 35:09
You don’t like you don’t know the theme wasn’t like GI Joe or something
Chris 35:14
I don’t think was
Anne 35:14
Ninja turtles
Chris 35:15
I was dude I was I was I’m like, you know a little bit older than us so I think it was just like, baseline garden trap just like the more they licenced it
Anne 35:23
Yeah,
Chris 35:23
Yeah, yeah.
Anne 35:24
Oh
Chris 35:24
They were licencing it Yeah.
Anne 35:25
Lisa Frank. Lisa Frank, the Trapper Keeper. It was like, I still remember the day I like convinced my mom it was like $25 they were not.
Chris 35:34
I don’t know who Lisa Frank is.
Anne 35:35
Lisa Frank she’s like a designer. It was like mystical like she did the stickers like the sticker machines. Actually. Do you remember the sticker machines too where you would like put quarters in it like a game or like
Chris 35:46
Yeah, at the grocery store. Yeah
Anne 35:47
Stick and like Lisa Frank designed a lot of those stickers. They were like fanciful, cool, like neon drawing
Chris 35:55
For all those Omni talk fans out there. If you actually know what Anne’s talking about, I want to hear about it. Because if I don’t get any chatter on this on social media, then I’m going to assume Anne is crazy. And she was like that,
Anne 36:06
That’s obvious we know that.
Chris 36:08
At that age that no one else was into. Alright, this last question Anne is probably one of my favourite all time lightning round questions. The Wall Street Journal. Yes Anne the Wall Street Journal reported last week that there’s a growing generational divide over the use of the flat top sheet on one’s bed. Team top sheet argues that it’s more hygienic more proper, just more correct to use one while Team none responds that it’s more efficient to skip it. And if you change your duvet cover regularly, it’s just as clean. Where do you come down on this argument and why?
Anne 36:40
Wow, Wall Street Journal August is upon us. Is it not? News month,
Chris 36:45
I was hitting the wall street journal.
Anne 36:46
I don’t know. Okay, so I have to say we spent a lot of time in Europe this summer and I might have converted because they all do do vase there and I kind of love it. The only thing that I will say you have to change your duvet not just your cover. I think if you’re going to just go full duvet only and no top sheet I think you got to replace your duvet a lot more often than then you probably are every seven years for some people. You need to get a new duvet like every couple of years I think if you’re just going to do the top
Chris 37:21
Fascinating You think the thin layer of a top sheet is enough to protect you from having to do that same thing with
Anne 37:27
Yeah, that’s, for sure.
Chris 37:28
You went a totally different direction than that on me on this I thought because I know your I know your nighttime routine and when we travel you’re like in like a like a flood sweatsuit to protect yourself. So I’m surprised you went this
Anne 37:41
I think that was before I turned 40 Also, I think now especially when you’re thinking about like, Okay, if you are like a night sweat sleeper, you’ve got the top sheet layer like over you. Then the duvet doesn’t get harmed. But I mean, this is this could be its own podcast evaluating this. So maybe the Wall Street Journal was onto something when they were like, okay, yes, this is a topic of discussion that’s worth
Chris 38:05
Hey we’retalking about it we’re talking about it so it’s probably 10,000 Other people are too. All right. Well, that wraps us up Happy Birthday today to Blake,
Anne 38:12
Serena.
Chris 38:14
Right Rachel Bilson, and always smouldering Alexander Skarsgard. And remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business make it Omnitalk. 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. And please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to our podcasts or on YouTube. Please remember also to use our promo code RBOT1950 To register for groceryshop. That’s RBOT1950 and on behalf of omni talk retail as always be careful out there.
Anne 38:59
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 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 that 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. 