Anne 0:02
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 silk. The Omni talk fast five podcast is a podcast that we hope makes you feel a little smarter, but most importantly, a little happier each week too. Today is September 29 2022. I’m your host Anne Mezzenga.
Chris 0:23
And I’m Chris Walton.
Anne 0:24
We are here once again to discuss all the top headlines making waves in the world of omni channel retailing. Chris
Chris 0:31
Yeah Anne
Anne 0:31
How are you today? beautiful fall day
Chris 0:34
I was just thinking that actually as we’re as we’re getting on the podcast here like I was we’re if you’re watching on video, which as many people oppose the grocery shop actually like watching us on video because they get ads to our to our chemistry banter. Yeah, I know, that was kind of funny. But um, we’re looking really fall in our colour scheme today. Like we’re very like muted. Like it’s a very muted colour palette we’ve got going on, you’ve got the orange to digital fog colour. It’s like orangish right? It’s yeah, it’s like autumn Brown.
Anne 1:01
It’s like a pumpkin maybe
Chris 1:02
Yeah maybe a pumpkin. Yeah. Is it spicy, too?
Anne 1:05
It’s a it’s a PSL sweater.
Chris 1:08
It’s a turtleneck too, because it’s frickin cold here already Anne.
Anne 1:11
I know, it was a drastic change coming from Vegas back to Minneapolis.
Chris 1:14
Do we actually have fall? Or do we go round
Anne 1:16
Oh God no.
Chris 1:17
I think we went right to winter.
Anne 1:18
You’ve lived in Minnesota for 15 years. And you still don’t understand the simple fact that we do not have fall. It is like
Chris 1:24
I know we don’t have a spring but I thought we had a fall. Yeah, no, it’s it’s terrible. It’s terrible. Anyway, I think we should just get to the headlines today. What do you think
Anne 1:33
I would tend to agree I think that’s the best
Chris 1:35
Because we hit bottom when we start talking about weather, right? That’s like that’s always
Anne 1:39
So true
Chris 1:40
the nature of any bad conversation. We’re talking about the weather. All right. Well, today’s Fast Five headlines are brought to you with the help and support of manifest. Where can you get unprecedented access to the people and technology is changing the way the world moves onlt at manifest Anne. But that’s not all. You can also expect thought leadership, networking, and of course a little fun.
Anne 1:57
A lot of fun.
Chris 1:58
A lot of fun. Yes, that’s right Anne a lot of fun as tonne of fun Anne to be exact registered now to join anime at the show. It’s January 31 of February 2. A special discounted link will be available in our show notes. And you can also learn more at manifest. That’s manife.st that is the web address.
Anne 2:17
Yes. And you will want to be where we think it’s bad now, Chris by January 31. You’re going to want to be hot and in Vegas.
Chris 2:24
Yeah, you are. Yeah. Especially especially if you live in Minneapolis. All right. In today’s Fast Five. We’ve got news on Sephora launching a same day $49 subscription membership, Kroger testing an E card for self service pickup. Trigo launching inventory management technology. IKEA announcing connect near you pickup points in collaboration with Tesco. But first we take off with even more big news on the pickup front this week, this time from Walmart. Anne
Anne 2:49
Yes, if there was a theme for this week.
Chris 2:51
I know right, I will say the same things.
Anne 2:53
I mean, there are just so many headlines this week that have to deal with making the pickup experience better. So let’s get to it. headline number one. According to our friends at Retail TouchPoints Walmart will launch three new returns options as part of its no concerns campaign to accommodate early holidays.
Chris 3:11
I didn’t even catch that. That’s what they’re calling it no concerns campaign,
Anne 3:15
I guess so. Beginning in October, actually October 1 This weekend, 2022. Walmart will introduce first, an extended holiday guarantee returns period allowing customers to return eligible purchases made on or after October 1 2022 through January 31 2023. Cool the second curbside returns which allows all customers to remain in their vehicles when returning items and three return pickup at home for Walmart plus members who will be able to schedule the pickup of eligible returns items in their app and then hand off returns without a box or labelled to delivery drivers for the retailer to process. It should also be noted that Walmart curbside returns and return pickup from home will launch in select stores during the first week of October. And then we’ll continue to expand to additional stores throughout the season. Chris?
Chris 4:06
Yes.
Anne 4:07
Are you going to sign up for Walmart plus and have just leave stuff on your doorstep?
Chris 4:13
Oh, wow. That’s a good question. Um, well, I think first of all of all the things you said the return the return window totally makes sense. I love the Walmart plus edition.
Anne 4:22
Yeah.
Chris 4:23
I mean, I think it’s a real benefit of signing up for the programme that I’m guessing you probably really love, as you just mentioned, but I imagine that there’s a lot that you love about it, and it works within the flywheel. I love it. And John Ferner talked about the Walmart flywheel for the first time on stage. I’ve talked about that last week. So I think this this toy makes sense. The other part of that, that headline you just read though, the part about curbside returns in all stores.
Anne 4:44
Yeah
Chris 4:45
I’m a little hesitant to go all in on that one. So in principle, I love the idea and we’ve long talked about wanting a repo to do this. But I’ve said this before, it’s a really, really complicated thing to do. Right?
Anne 4:56
Absolutely.
Chris 4:57
And at a good cost. And honestly, I think it feels a little aggressive at this point. And it is and when I say that because this isn’t something that I would be be debuting across all stores during the holidays, if you’re going to do it, you should have it running in all stores from January to October.
Anne 5:12
Yeah.
Chris 5:12
Which is probably why, if you listen to how you read that headline is probably why Walmart’s hedging a little bit and saying it’s gonna roll out in some stores in October and then roll out to more stores throughout the year. That’s their hedge to say, if all hell breaks loose with this, we’re gonna pull back because I have so many questions and like, how will you know how many returns are coming to your stores? Where will people park? How can what are people going to bring back? Like, are they gonna bring back mattresses from the marketplace, like, and you’re gonna have people going through the crazy busyness of a Walmart parking lot, it just seems like that’s a lot of hell, and customer frustration that Walmart’s in for here without really knowing this.
So I applaud the idea. But I feel like it’s an overreach at the end of the day. And people aren’t doing that in general and curbside pickup, which I thought was important point, you know, to to about the theme of the show. Yes, it’s here. Yes, it’s important coming out of the pandemic, but let’s not rush into it, and then have all this bad stuff happen. We start pulling back from innovation.
Anne 6:01
Yeah
Chris 6:01
Which tends to happen.
Anne 6:03
Yeah, I mean, it’s not clear, I wasn’t able to see exactly how this happens. My guess is since the Walmart plus returns are happening and being scheduled through the app that, you know, at some point in time, like similarly to, you know, how you’re doing this on the target app, the Walmart app where you say I you have a list of the items you purchase, I want to return this is all happening in the app, but it’s hopefully triggering the same way, which I think could is doable. Now. The question again, which you said multiple times is like what happens when that return item is like a mattress or something giant? And like, are you prepared to take these from the car, even though it’s a huge benefit to the customer? Like, I love this, I do still think there’s a lot to pull off. Like you’re saying, I think that’s a great point. Especially because, you know, like Target announced that they were going to be doing this months ago, we still don’t know the pilots that are happening. They’re great point. But if Walmart can pull this off, this is a huge, huge value add for customers, it’s worthy of definitely worthy, in my opinion, have a Walmart Plus subscription. But we’ll have to see how it’s executed come.
Chris 7:04
The part of the pickups where the Walmart plus subscription
Anne 7:06
Yes
Chris 7:07
Yeah. Right. Because that generally that from reading this, they’re saying that the Walmart curbside returns available at every store
Anne 7:12
Exactly
Chris 7:13
Which Yeah, I don’t know, my last point on this would be like, if you think about returns and how they work during the holidays, we’ve all seen the lines at the stores, they are like 30-40 people deep.
Anne 7:24
Yep.
Chris 7:24
So where are you going to do that in the parking lot? And how are we going to coordinate that with people on your staff going to each of those cars and bringing those products back? That’s a much, much more time consuming, and you have a staffing shortage, too much more time consuming, consuming process across all of your stores. And it’s gonna lead I think I just I just think it’s too aggressive.
Anne 7:43
The staffing thing brings up a good point, too. I mean, you have to have staff to execute this correct, right you and now you’re in addition to all of the chaos of holiday training, like be prepared for Black Friday, be prepared for auto stocks, prepared for all the other things like now we’re going to add in this new part of the equation, which I imagine a significant portion of your your sales force or work force is going to be dedicated to this in order for it to be operationalized correctly, but I do think it could be done.
Chris 8:10
The other part about this too, it’s not the greatest experience for the employee to and like I’m thinking about this too, like, when I do a pickup order, the person is generally glad to be there. I’m bringing them in order. When I go out to somebody’s car for return. I don’t have the safety of the in store experience and everyone around that environment. That’s when people are typically angry. And so having that happen in a parking lot is something that I don’t think we as an industry totally understand yet, either.
Anne 8:33
Yes, I agree. I do think though, if they can do this in the app, the way that we’re doing this with Amazon right now, and it’s as simple as here’s my package, here’s the return code, like you’re doing this at UPS for Amazon or Whole Foods for Amazon like this can be done if it’s executed correctly. So
Chris 8:50
But there’s a lot of ifs in that and then you got to shape the demand and the demand. So you don’t know when the demand is coming relative to pick up. So there’s just so many questions I have about this, but let’s keep moving on. But all great points. I think like I love that discussion, I thought was great.
Anne 9:03
Yeah
Chris 9:04
All right Sephora. headline number two Anne, Sephora has rolled out an unlimited same day delivery men membership according to retail dive. The membership dubbed Sephora, same day unlimited. Through it shoppers can pay $49 per year for delivery on all purchases in as little as two hours. Customers can also try the programme for free for 40 days.
Anne 9:26
30 days,
Chris 9:27
30 days, didn I say 30 days
Anne 9:28
Not 40 days you don’t get to. This isn’t lent here,
Chris 9:31
It’s not Josh Hart and movie 40 days 40 nights. And same day delivery is also available as a one off on a one off basis starting at 695, which is important to point out and my question for you is this. This was your quote unquote, we are definitely doing this headline this week. end quote headline.
Anne 9:47
Yes.
Chris 9:48
Why was that?
Anne 9:49
So I I’m a Sephora customer as you know,
Chris 9:53
I from every trip I’ve ever taken with you
Anne 9:55
Exactly
Chris 9:55
Actually Odysseys knows every trip I’ve ever taken with you
Anne 9:58
Yeah
Chris 9:58
We always go to a Sephora store
Anne 9:59
Yes
Chris 9:59
No matter Germany, France, doesn’t matter. We’re always at the Saphora store.
Anne 10:04
There’s always something that you need. And so I definitely see the value in Yes, I need sunscreen, I could not bring my sunscreen, it got taken away and TSA, I need another thing of sunscreen, I would love to have the service to be able to deliver that to my hotel room, or wherever I am at home. Like I know people are gonna be like as the really a beauty emergency like yes, yes, there is for sure there is you can attest to this, like Chris knows
Chris 10:31
I’ve been side by side your beauty emergencies.
Anne 10:33
Yes. Okay. So I do think that this, there’s yes, you could try a subscription. Why not? This makes sense. My only question is like, as a Sephora customer, when I also have same day delivery options from shipped from Instacart. All these other things that are part of the options that Sephora is offering me, am I going to pay half of that membership to shipped, you know, $49 a year just to get to our delivery from Sephora? Or does it make sense to have a larger, like membership to a shipper and Instacart where I can get delivery covered for $100 A year from all of these these providers? I think that’s that’s a key thing to identify here. Then I’m also curious about Chris, like, what happens if brands start doing this direct? Like is what happens to the Instacart and the ship like if they have, okay, well now we’re doing our own subscription. We’re gonna hire our own drivers.
We’re gonna do our own sourcing now. Like, what happens then is because that now you’re losing the allure of the like, ecosystem of brands that I can get delivery from through shipped or Instacart. So I’m curious what happens here. I do think like, third in line that there’s a there’s kind of a Kohl’s component to this in some regard. Another like, how have that kind of plays into the whole do I need same day delivery when now Sephora is in 1100 Kohl’s around the same place like so I just I have a lot of questions about this. I understand why Sephora is doing this. But I think that it’s going to lead to a lot of things changing in the same day delivery space down the line. But what are your thoughts?
Chris 12:05
Yeah, I think those are all really I think those are all really good points. You know, I think what the I think the the the piece I would add on top of it is I think I agree, I think it’s a smart move. I think for a number of reasons. Like I say, we’ve talked about this a lot. We’ve talked about subscription programmes a lot on the show like I generally I liked them because it cost virtually nothing to try that right. And if you hook people then kudos, you and they’re paying for you to do something that you probably already were doing for them to some degree already, like 695 per delivery, now you’re getting them hooked. And, you know, they probably figured out the math on how to make that work. So so that’s one angle I love Anne.
The second is, I think your point about Instacart is really interesting, because the value of Instacart is there if you’re a frequent Sephora shopper, and so there’s the value in this subscription too. Because, say relative to those who are only using Instacart, solely for Sephora, right? Like, for those people, they’re gonna get a value on this if $49 I’m gonna be like, I don’t need my Instacart should be more it’s more expensive. But for for Sephora, then there’s still those people that are using Instacart to access other retailers,
Anne 13:05
Right
Chris 13:06
Who are going to see the premium in that. But then they’re also going to see the availability of Sephora on the app. And they’re gonna say, oh, you know what, I’ll still take Sephora this way from Instacart.
Anne 13:14
Yeah,
Chris 13:15
So it expands your audience as well. But net, I think that to your point leads to less Instacart engagement from people over time. And I think you’ll see more people go in this direction. For the brands like you, you’re in great example, where you have a lot of loyalty to them. And you’d rather just interact with them through their portal, because it’s easier. And so net net, I don’t see any downside for Sephora, and I potentially see a lot of downside to Instacart. In the long run, long run as more retailers follow suit on this.
Anne 13:44
What do you think, Chris? I mean, we know Sephora has worked with partners like delivery solutions to coordinate these because I don’t think any brand can just up and start offering delivery, like we’ve seen this in the grocery space. Like it’s very hard to do to coordinate the drivers to fulfil this kind of promise. But I mean, can other brands do this? Do you think they’re in that ecosystem? Like they, you know, they would have to coordinate with somebody right? Like the go local Walmart people are like, delivery solutions or front door collective or something to like, take on the dose deliveries and manage that or, I mean, what goes what more goes into this?
Chris 14:20
I think it’s as easy as you’re describing. It is like that’s what we that’s why we’ve talked about delivery solutions a lot in the show. That’s why, you know, we were excited to advise for them too. It’s like, it just it shows it just makes the last mile delivery game, a white label service.
Anne 14:33
Right.
Chris 14:33
And that’s what’s so hard about this for Instacart and shipped in the long run like, yeah, yeah, and my hunch is that one of those, you know, two providers, maybe DoorDash, who is providing the delivery for Sephora for this membership programme. And they both said that on stage at Shop Talk. They’re both like we do white label delivery. We want everyone to know that. But that’s a very competitive kind of race to the bottom so anyone can do this.
Anne 14:55
Yeah
Chris 14:57
I mean, Walmart’s got a subscription programme Sephora has it you know, I’m not There’s countless others that I can’t even think about right now. Oh 7-Eleven has one, right? So anyone can do this. You just have to have the network in place and the foundation technologically to be able to do it and do it for you at a cost that works. And a subscription helps you defray that cost. So, like, again, there’s no reason not to try this and if it works, it takes you off the Instacart kind of heroin to analyse it takes that needle out of your arm and says, you know, we don’t need you anymore.
Anne 15:26
Right. Yeah, I think this is going to be that. I mean, Sephora is a major player. People are gonna be watching how this works out for them. And I’m excited to see kind of how the what the trickle down looks like this. But
Chris 15:37
Yeah, it’s a it’s a great call. Did you want it the headline because it is kind of the first like shot across the bow here to this discussion that we’re having.
Anne 15:45
Yeah
Chris 15:46
I can do this myself.
Anne 15:47
Yes, yes. Well, let’s go on to headline number three. Chris Kroger is piloting a temperature controlled cart that houses curbside pickup grocery orders for self service customer retrieval. According to Supermarket News, General Motors subsidiary bright drops said this week that Kohler will be the first customer to introduce the trace grocery cart into its e commerce operations. The electric powered cart enables store associates to put orders directly into the unit and station at curbside for customers to pick up their groceries. After providing digital verification customers can then open a designated drawer, take out their items and be on their way. Right drop said that the upcoming rollout follows a pilot programme with Kroger at stores in Kentucky in which the retailer saw a quote noticeable improvement and quote in the customer and associate experience as brake drop also reported that the cart decreased time to serve by up to 34%.
Chris 16:38
Wow
Anne 16:39
Chris, this also happens to be the a&m CRG put you on the spot question this week. So in addition to your thoughts on Kroger’s pilot with bright drop and the E cart, I would like to know,
Chris 16:54
Okay, bring it Anne and A&M CRG bring it.
Anne 17:00
Okay. If the operational specifics of the trace grocery Ecart work, this could be a highly effective way of reducing the marginal cost of curbside pickup. What’s the next area of grocery that you’d like to see or think we’ll see automated replenishment picking or something else, Chris?
Chris 17:18
Oh, wow, curveball question.
Anne 17:21
Yeah.
Chris 17:21
Wow, that’s got guys. You guys are so smart. Damn, that’s like a mic drop question. Actually, ah, God, let me think about that for a second Anne. I first of all, getting back to story. I love this idea. So much.
Anne 17:33
Okay
Chris 17:33
I just love it. Like this was my my topic. I think it was one of your top picks, too for the week. But it’s definitely my top pick. Because it takes the idea of a pickup locker and it makes it mobile. So it can be placed anywhere, it might need to be placed in a parking lot. I think that just so intuitively makes sense. And most importantly, it removes the labour required requirement of a Kroger employee having to take an order out to a customer as soon as that customer pulls into the parking lot.
Anne 17:56
Yep.
Chris 17:57
And for that reason, I believe the statistics by drop is sharing at least directionally because it also means probably less time for the shopper to then complete the pickup process because he can just walk up to the cart, scanner, mobile phone and take your groceries out. So net net, nothing not to love to me in this situation with this idea. Now to the question, Where will automation come next? Picking for sure.
Anne 18:20
Yeah
Chris 18:20
100% Because you mentioned picking your replenishment picking for sure. We’ve covered micro warehousing exhaustively on the show, everyone knows our feelings on that in store replenishment, no way in hell, like I don’t see that coming in any way, shape, or form in the next years, not even the next decades, because there’s so many complexities that and you can you can get all geeked up about the arm picking robots with the suction cups. But I’m telling you, that’s not going to happen. There’s no we’re nowhere near that. There are three places I do think it’s going to come. And we’ve talked a lot about these. We’ve talked about them at grocery shop to on stage, but we haven’t talked about this audience. And I think you’ll see them either through robotics implementations or computer vision.
And those are as follows. Shelf counting. Yep, you don’t need people to do that job anymore. You can use technology to do that. It’s a mundane job, price maintenance, as well on a doubt, without a doubt, especially if you incorporate I should also add electronic shelf labels into that mix. And then lastly, the other part I’d say is checkout, you’re still going to see more efficiencies in checkout, meaning less people needing to do that job over time that is still going to come those are the three areas I would point to that grocery should immediately focus on
Anne 19:25
I you know what I was going to say
Chris 19:26
What
Anne 19:27
Just because we your panel at grocery shop was hilarious with Dave’s deck of snacks. The deli I want to see the deli automated.
Chris 19:34
Oh yeah,
Anne 19:35
Because Dave stack was talking about how they have this like the deli shaped slicing the meat slicer and how they’re like have to have a red handle and a green handle right because it’s so dangerous.
Chris 19:46
Yeah.
Anne 19:46
And I was like, You know what, where else would I like to see automation or like, who doesn’t want their meat chub being cut with AI precision for the perfect thin slice? Why does that need to still be done by people and put I’m in danger,
Chris 20:01
Right like yeah, there’s a way to do that I agree with you like why should
Anne 20:04
You’re definitely not gonna see the return that you will
Chris 20:06
I don’t know how the robot would actually do that but yeah, maybe Anne I think it’s a great idea.
Anne 20:11
Okay, but I just have to say i i have some reservation on this I do like the idea that you can put this cart in like oh on the cart itself and that cart.
Chris 20:21
Yeah
Anne 20:21
I’m gonna go back. Yeah, okay, I do have some reservation about it. Because I wonder how I want to see this actually in operation there was nothing showing like what this looks like when you have three people going up to it at a time. It’s winter time in the parking lot is being ploughed like that. These those kinds of things like I have questions around. But what I do like about it is that is the point you made earlier, that we look at like your bio online pick up in store, we have these giant archways and like all these things, that infrastructurally that are being built onto buildings to designate this byline pickup area.
But this cart could be a really simple way for even like a mom and pop grocer to make curbside pickup happen with like a flag and this robot like and it could be if you needed to have extended places, especially during like premium rush times, like the holidays, where you can now like turn a part of your parking lot into a bonus area without like any effort at all. I like I love that part of this and the flexibility. I just I wonder, I wonder what it’s going to be like if how well it’s going to work.
Chris 21:25
You wonder how to work your practice.
Anne 21:27
Yeah
Chris 21:28
Yeah. But I think you bring up good points in terms of like,
Anne 21:30
I don’t like getting out of my car.
Chris 21:30
You don’t like getting out of your car
Anne 21:33
I don’t like getting out of my car, especially with my kids in there. And so like, the idea of waiting to me is kind of like and I really like feeling like, I’m like a baller, you know, like, here’s my code, just put it in my trunk.
Chris 21:48
That’s interesting. That’s an interesting angle to the customer friction side. Getting out of your car. That’s an interesting
Anne 21:48
I wanna see what customers say about this.
Chris 21:48
Yeah. That’s a great, great thing to think about. Well, I gotta think about that more. Yeah. All right. Well, let’s keep rolling here. So headline number four. God I’m loving this show. This is I think there’s I feel like we’re dropping a lot of knowledge. Dropping knowledge, dropping like it’s hot ballers. Yeah. Six foot collar. What is it? called? I don’t remember the six. That’s all right. Check it out. Number four is that checkout free retail provider trigo has launched a new inventory management technology off their very same platform. According to the grocer.
The Checkout free from Trigo is crunching data drawn from its installed cameras to track inventory in real time and alert retailers to empty shelves Israeli based computer vision company has revealed it is developing a system called Easy stock, which according to Trigo, reduces quote, laborious and often manual inventory management processes shrinkage, stock taking and replenishment and quote Trigo is currently testing the solution with existing retail partners where it has many of these experiences already working as checkout free experiences like Reva and Neto in Germany, Aldi Nord in the Netherlands and soon to open Wakefern food in the United States. Anne what do you think on this one?
Anne 23:02
I I really liked this. I think that, for me, this is that one of the biggest concerns, I think we hear from people about implementing checkout, free retail solutions is cost. Like right away. They’re like, this is something that we’re going to have to invest heavily. And we know what’s coming, but like when is the right time to make this move. And I think Trigo smartly here is saying, look, here’s a way that you can, you can like crawl, walk, run into checkout.
Chris 23:31
Ready Now
Anne 23:32
First of all, let’s get let’s get this in there, let’s start getting some incremental revenue. Because we’re helping you track like, let’s put the, the, the cameras in, let’s start tracking just like where your products are. Let’s help with inventory visibility, let’s make the store more operationally efficient. Then when you’re ready, you can also click and turn on checkout free retail whenever and however you feel like your customers will best benefit from this. So I love this. I think it’s a really smart play by Trigo. And I’m excited to see especially once Wakefern opens here in the States. How you know that starting to affect the overall store operations and and people’s I think interest in jumping in right to this technology,
Chris 24:18
Right, particularly the US market. Yeah, I mean, I would say there’s another element to I think that prevents people from jumping feet first into this, just dipping their toe in the water is the customer acclamation aspect.
Anne 24:28
Yep.
Chris 24:28
Which we’ve talked about on recent shows as well,
Anne 24:31
Right.
Chris 24:31
You’re asking your customers to shop your store differently. And that’s sometimes a bridge too far for people. But for that reason, I’m the same as you I love this idea. It’s a great way for retailers to dip their toe into a checkout free retail future. But most importantly, I think the operational value of this concept of EZ stock is going to be way more than people are even extrapolating at this
Anne 24:52
Yeah
Chris 24:52
You get better pricing accuracy, better inventory accuracy, more confidence in your ecommerce orders that you’re serving up both for delivery and pickup And also, here’s another thing, you get a better understanding of your customer browse paths to then serve up and correlate that data against your retail media networks that are also coming to the fore. So there’s tonnes of value streams that come off this. So I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, that just walk out technology is really the is really the most probably the least important part of a computer vision based retail experience. And for me, the best part and going back to it is you can do this in a way that’s imperceptible to your customers, Chico could come in and saw today, whereas checkout free retail requires customer acclamation.
Anne 25:34
Yep.
Chris 25:34
So if as a retailer given Trigo back around with Tesco reva, already multiple stores with them at this point, I be calling them and be like, Okay, I want to I want to pilot this, I don’t understand what this system can do. Get into my store, at least one implementation, and let’s see what happens, right? Like the value of that experiment is probably more valuable than any experiment you could run in your organisation in my opinion,
Anne 25:56
Yeah, even part of the store. I mean, even like ranges the you know, I think the the port like grab and go food section like I don’t know what would happen if you just test out that part and see like, what like you said, what customer patterns are, you know, seeing a slight investment first, like there’s ways to do this, I guess without just like you said, jumping, jumping in all the way and making the full investment so all right.
Chris 26:22
Let’s all dive into the shallow end. Let’s actually dive into the deep end of the pool
Anne 26:26
Why would we dive in the shallow end.
Chris 26:28
No, I don’t know why. That’s why I was like, That’s stupid. Let’s dive into the deep end of the pool, right?
Anne 26:32
Oh, speaking of pools, we’re going to talk about ponds. We’re going to project pond or headline number five to close out this week, IKEA Chris announced that it will be collaborating with Tesco who mentioned the last story again to expand on its existing collect near you offering which provides customers with more convenient, accessible and affordable collection services across the UK. This is a first for the UK the Collect near us service that will launch in Blackburn on the 10th of October and is designed to offer customers the option of collecting an Ikea order from a designated area within their local Tesco carpark,
Chris 27:08
Which is parking lot for those here in the United States.
Anne 27:11
Let’s keep it carpark. It sounds much better. When placing an order online customers simply go through the usual checkout option and select the Collect near you service for their local Tesco. Then follow up follow IKEA click and collect signage with designated Tesco car parks on their chosen date and time for pickup and meet with a delivery driver and a vehicle who will hand their order over to them. The concept is currently live in Denmark and Portugal. And IKEA and Tesco will run the pilot for initial period of six months in the UK with orders over $200 Free
Chris 27:41
200 pounds Anne
Anne 27:42
Sorry 200 pounds are which will be free to collect and 10 pounds My goodness car parks pounds
Chris 27:49
So used to saying it is stopped.
Anne 27:52
So 10 pounds for all other orders $200 and above free, 200 pounds and above free 200 pounds and above 310 pounds. For all other orders. Yes, you
Chris 28:03
Got it. Totally, which is one bob
Anne 28:05
And additional. And six additional UK Tesco collection points are set to come online soon after this first Blackburn launch. Chris, get me out of here.
Chris 28:16
Oh, man, I Well, I’ll help you out. So I think it’s great idea.
Anne 28:20
Yeah
Chris 28:20
I mean, IKEAs are typically very difficult to get to. It’s expensive to have products shipped to your house. So why not give your customers a way to meet you in the middle, say at the parking lot of your local grocery store, for example. It’s an idea that I think is equally applicable to groceries over here in the States.
Anne 28:36
Yep
Chris 28:37
Across many product categories outside of home furnishings. Which sadly to me means if we’re seeing it overseas in the UK, it’ll be another 10 or 15 years before the idea hits United States. Sad. But true. I hate to say it but yeah, that’s my take on it. It’s probably really smart. They’ll take 10 to 20 years before we see in the United States. What do you think?
Anne 28:54
I hope not. But yeah, you’re probably right. I IKEA has a really great bonus experience, like if you’ve done it already. So I think that this is just the most brilliant next step, the friction of getting to an Ikea, which I think is the biggest hurdle for most people is now removed. And I think Chris, if this does come to the States, I think this could be a very big threat to the Target and Walmart of Walmarts of the world for home furnishings.
Because if IKEA were more convenient for people, I think that we’d see a lot more shopping for things like you know, textiles and towels and home other home furnishings, frames like all these things at Target and Walmart have really like built a business on I think that totally changes if I can now pick this up in the parking lot or meet a delivery driver in the parking lot of my local grocery store that I’m coming to, you know, every day. I think this really changes the idea of the One Stop Shop and what that means and it doesn’t have to be all in one building.
Chris 29:58
I agree with you 100% On that point. Wait like having run home furnishings for target.com. And actually parts of omni channel target merchandising as well, like that was always my thing is like our, our linchpin to our strategy, in my opinion was to be the most accessible home furnishings retailer out there because of the number of stores that you have.
Anne 30:14
Right
Chris 30:15
And yeah, if if IKEA could do this with a brochure, IKEA is on every everywhere. And this gives people access and says hey, why don’t I try this and see what I can get from them. And yeah, that would make a dent and it’d be a very effective strategy for IKEA to try to deploy it if they can work out the kinks. I love that point. Yeah, it’s great
Anne 30:31
And and if you think about to them, I guess IKEA going into these smaller formats tours, like if they couldn’t have the drivers been able to pick up not from the giant IKEA but they can also use these smaller format. IKEA’s is like satellite pickup locations and delivery locations, which we know they’re already doing for customers like, I don’t know. I think this could be big.
Chris 30:50
Yeah, the US market is interesting because of the population density relative overseas. So yeah, there’s lots of ways you could skin that cat to your point but yeah, anyway, fun to think about those. It’s a great show. There’s like a lot of exciting topics on curbside pickup, which is the topic du jour these days.
Anne 31:04
Absolutely.
Chris 31:05
All right,
Anne 31:05
let’s go to the lightning round Chris. Okay, according to the Wall Street Journal, Trader Joe’s is dealing with a rash of orders for seasonal products like pumpkin ice cream or Carolina gold potato chips. Chris if I caught you on your cart with all of one Trader Joe’s product what would it be?
Chris 31:21
Oh man. Sorry to disappoint everyone but Trader Joe’s not my favourite retail experience. Yeah, I don’t I don’t like it at all.
Anne 31:27
Yeah, retail experience fine,
Chris 31:28
Yeah I just don’t like it I just
Anne 31:30
You don’t have a favourite Trader Joe’s product
Chris 31:32
oh I don’t I don’t at all no, I don’t. I just the whole private label thing just drives me nuts and it’s like it’s anyway but I mean for me it’d be the the mini pancakes My kids love their mini pancakes. My wife made me go there yesterday actually hopefully she’s listening but yeah, it’s not my favourite place to go oh my god what a probably get a lot of nasty fan mail for it but and then there’s no reason for I just don’t I just really enjoy
Anne 31:52
Oh my god the bomba they have bomba like ever since we went to Israel.
Chris 31:56
Oh, they have Bomba
Anne 31:56
Bomba. Yeah. And sometimes they don’t have it and it’s maddening. So
Chris 32:01
Really,
Anne 32:01
yeah. chocolate covered bomba.
Chris 32:04
Oh, really?
Anne 32:05
Yeah.
Chris 32:05
Oh, wow.
Anne 32:06
It’s, it’s life changing.
Chris 32:07
All right, I’ll give it another shot. I’ll give it a shot. All right, and Hugh Jackman is reportedly reprising his wall role, his wall, his role as Woolerine, in the upcoming Deadpool three. Who do you like better in spandex? Hugh Jackman or Ryan Reynolds?
Anne 32:22
Probably Ryan Reynolds.
Chris 32:23
Really?
Anne 32:24
Yeah, there is a movie he was in.
Chris 32:25
Is this an age thing or is it just like a
Anne 32:27
No, I just always had a thing. I don’t want to actually like, hang out with him or listen to him talk but as a person in spandex, like it’d be Ryan Reynolds.
Chris 32:35
Yeah. All right.
Anne 32:37
Okay, Chris EDM music star marshmallow has teamed up with Crux on a limited edition of air fryers sold exclusively at Best Buy. I know I know better than to ask you if you know any marshmallow songs
Chris 32:49
You’r right.
Anne 32:50
So I want to know what is your go to air fryer dish? I know you guys are big fans of the air fryer.
Chris 32:57
We got an air fryer a long time ago actually. So staples, buffalo wings and french fries.
Anne 33:03
Okay
Chris 33:04
But the one that actually is sneaky Anne bacon. Your bacon tastes better in an air fryer than in any other way of cooking it.
Anne 33:11
I feel like that’s a 1950s Bacon commercial. Bacon tastes better in an air fryer, Crocs and now marshmallows is gonna be like.
Chris 33:21
That’s Fozzie Bear. All right. James Earl Jones is officially retired from providing the voice of Darth Vader. But he’s approved the high tech recreations of his voice for future Star Wars projects through AI. Anne where does “I am your father” rank in terms of all time movie quotes, Top 10 Top 50 Not even on the scoreboard indulge us, please.
Anne 33:40
I’ve, It’s got to be top 10 Right.
Chris 33:41
Is it top 10? I think it might be number one.
Anne 33:45
Yeah maybe.
Chris 33:46
The most recognisable movie quote in history.
Anne 33:48
Yeah, probably. I don’t know. That’s totally your capital cost. I would say I would say for sure. Top 10.
Chris 33:55
That’s good to see you. Good to see you coming around on that.
Anne 33:57
I’m not coming around on Star Wars at all, but top 10 Like I can acknowledge that
Chris 34:03
You acknowledge it’s pop culture impact on society. All right. Good to know. I’ll take that. All right. That wraps us up today. Happy birthday to Erica Lenia. Ian McShane and the woman who in the span of two years played lacy under law in Caddyshack and you’re in Tron? Cindy?
Anne 34:19
I know not one of these name. I could not tell.
Chris 34:22
You know, Erica Lenia gets to know and okay, I know. You know who Ian McShane is. Because did you ever watch Jesus of Nazareth in totino Grace? Remember that old movie.
Anne 34:29
Yeah
Chris 34:30
He played Judas Iscariot.
Anne 34:32
I gotta look that up.
Chris 34:33
You know, but you know, I know you’ve seen him because you’ve seen that movie probably like 100 times. Alright, and remember if you can read or only read or listen to one retail blog in the business make an army talk. Our past five podcasts 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 a feature special content exclusive to us. And it’s all just for you. And we try really hard to make it all fit within the preview pane of your inbox almost obsessively, so at times Anne. Sign up to Today at http://www.omnitalk.blog. Thanks as always for listening and please remember like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcasts or on YouTube. And from all of us here at Omni talk retail as always Be careful out there.
Anne 35:13
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 for 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 this transforming grocery by empowering grocers to thrive online. The key is micro fulfilment small robotics assessment 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 repayments over six months. To learn more visit sezzle.com. And finally, so the silk cloud DV virtualization platform is a virtualization layer between your workloads and the cloud. It helps you scale your cloud without scaling your cost. Visit silk.us to learn more.
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. 