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 silk. 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 October 6, 2022. I’m your host Anne Mezzenga.
Chris 0:30
And I’m Chris Walton.
Anne 0:31
And we are here once again to discuss all the top headlines making waves in the world of omni channel retailing. Chris, how are you doing today?
Chris 0:38
I’m doing all right. How are you?
Anne 0:39
I’m doing good. I’m doing good.
Chris 0:41
I got to tell you and I’m watching the video. I’m thinking the hairline is getting a little I think I need to go full shaved Anne. I think I need to take a drastic measure.
Anne 0:49
You mean on your head?
Chris 0:50
On my head. Yes, yes.
Anne 0:51
Yeah. Important pont.
Chris 0:52
Fortunately no body Anne but full head. You know, I was talking to my stylist last week and she said you know, believe it or not a lot of guys do the hair transplants and you just don’t know it. And so she’s got
Anne 1:03
Do you not know it?
Chris 1:04
No, I don’t think you do like honestly I don’t think you do they get they’re getting so good at it. Like everyone in Hollywood has it?
Anne 1:09
Yeah, I know you she said that multiple times.
Chris 1:11
I asked her too. I was like the key is the flatline across the head. Like if the hairline is flat. That’s your dead giveaway that they’ve had transplant.
Anne 1:17
Why are they still doing hair transplants with the flat front? Like why wouldn’t you try to mimic the natural hairline?
Chris 1:23
I don’t know my guess is because it’s probably hard to do but I don’t know and plus people get duped all the time. I’m like, you know we’ve talked about it with like, you’re like oh that guy’s great head of hair and like bullshit. He’s you know, he’s got a he’s got a transplant going but anyway Anne, I’m either good one or the other here because for those watching on video, man it’s getting desperate up there. This is desperate up top.
Anne 1:41
This is now a hair transplant podcast. It’s not a retail podcast anymore. We are now talking about all things ageing, ageing or hair transplants are one of one of all the above
Chris 1:50
right we should just go back to the weather with shout out to Evan from plateau analytics for his comments on that last week to me on social that was great, but uh yeah Anne I think we should just let’s get to the headlines
Anne 2:01
All right let’s do it.
Chris 2:01
Let’s not beat around the bush you know get it hair the bush I have no hair anyway. Bad joke. Alright, there’s no bush on top anymore. There’s nothing left. All right 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 on the manifest but that’s not all. You can also expect thought leadership networking and of course a little fun and you might just run into an enemy at the show as well. The show takes place from January 31 to February 2 a special discount link will be available in our show notes and you can also learn more at manife.st that’s manife.st
Anne 2:40
Chris Did you see that? They’ve announced the musical guy.
Chris 2:43
No, they did? Who is it?
Anne 2:45
Nelly
Chris 2:45
No Shut the front door Nelly
Anne 2:47
So if you have no other reason to get to Vegas or manifest Nelly is the reason that you should do it once again continuing the tradition of bringing back every like basement party from college to the retail conference circuit right we have ludicrous there last year we got Nelly this year what are you going to get this opportunity to see Nelly and like this both intimate of a setting
Chris 3:10
I don’t know but it’s getting hot in here. Oh yeah.
Anne 3:13
I hope you don’t dance like that.
Chris 3:15
Yeah, I’ll be in my
Anne 3:16
We’ll be on like opposite ends.
Chris 3:17
Shake here.
Anne 3:18
Oh my god.
Chris 3:19
This is great. All right, in today’s Fast Five, we’ve got news on Walmart selling its tech to Asda. Schnucks new flexforce employment option. I love that. Walgreens turning to robots to help with fulfilment. Deliveroo launching its first store in the UK with Morrison’s. We’ll see how many times we screw up Deliveroo in this in this conversation, but first we take off of the move long theorised and now it’s here Anne
Anne 3:42
Yeah, I’m pretty excited about this.
Chris 3:43
I know you are.
Anne 3:44
Because I’ve been talking about it for a while and it’s finally finally happening. Chris that is right peloton is going to sell its bikes and treads at Dick’s Sporting Goods. According to CNBC, the partnership makes Dick’s the first brick and mortar retailer to carry peloton equipment outside of peloton namesake stores. A launch has yet to be announced but the two companies are teasing that they will have peloton products in more than 100 of Dick’s almost 700 stores nationwide in time for the holiday shopping season.
They do you have a list of those stores on the website if you’re interested in which stores those are going to be oh you’ve done your research oh I have the products will be in specific peloton displays and Dick’s employees will be trained to assist customers with them. And important to note that the prices will not vary between peloton and Dick’s. Chris
Chris 4:30
Yeah
Anne 4:30
Why don’t you give give the listeners an opportunity to hear what your thoughts are on this?
Chris 4:34
Yeah, I mean, I don’t I don’t really have that much to say on this one. Really I mean, I kind of like fine. You know, we talked about this a while ago and it’s here like yeah, kind of it’s like we have to it’s kind of how I feel like with this whole thing with the peloton story and the new leadership. But my question is really, where do you go from here, you know, and the last point you mentioned about pricing I find really fascinating too, because at some point that’s going to go away. Like everyone always tries to do that.
But you can’t keep Because Dick’s will get backed up on inventory so we’ll peloton at some point and the pressure will come to move units and then you’re just another exercise bike on the floor at Dick’s at a discount and so for the life of me I can’t understand why peloton of all brands needs to go wholesale this overtly this quickly it feels like the brand through the addition of exercise equipment and apparel. It should be able to stand on its own and so honestly if anything, I’m just kind of I’m kind of sad this morning because I think of what could have been with peloton and where it’s going and that crushes my heart and because I actually like peloton a lot
Anne 5:35
Well I don’t know I have to say I love this movie
Chris 5:38
You love it right?
Anne 5:39
I know that you are against you know going wholesale but let’s be real here if you want to create a product that’s going to get like you need subscribers they sell the bike once that’s one time they’re getting the money from the apparel from the subscribers and if you’re going to do that you need to go mass and Dick’s is the best place I think to do this.
Chris 5:58
The only place too
Anne 5:59
I well I you know I’ve said I think target would be another appropriate spot for this to potentially. But I do think that Dick’s the Dick’s Sporting Goods store is where I would have gone first before Amazon and anyone else for sure. We just shot a video that is going to be coming out soon from the Dick’s new house of sport concept. And I think if you think about peloton in that context of like, you know, Dick’s really nicely executed these houses like shopping shops within their existing store footprint in this house of sport and I think that gives like kind of a different appeal to the peloton experience you still get to have a peloton like shop and shop inside of this Dick’s Sporting Goods.
But I also think, you know, this is much more fitting for peloton than a standalone mall store. Like those mall stores are only in the A malls like elite locations, this is now bringing it to the masses. You have like when I was in that Dick’s Sporting Goods store, there were tonnes of moms in there shopping for their kids, you know, which is something that they’re doing for back to school, each seasonal sports time period. And now you have something for them to see and try out. Like you have to get the screens you have to get the classes like you’ve said multiple times, like you have to get people on those bikes in order to get them as interested in these classes. And I think this is a great way to do it. Second point you mentioned too.
Chris 7:20
Yeah
Anne 7:20
And this is a better opportunity. When you look at what Dick’s is doing with their apparel shop and shops for their own brands. This is a fantastic opportunity to really bring peloton apparel to the level of a Nike and Under Armour, or any of the other brands if they really are trying to make that apparel play.
Chris 7:36
Yeah, I mean, I don’t disagree with anything you said. I mean, at the end of the day, let’s recap where we are. They’re on Amazon now. They’re indexed. They’re full on mass, right?
Anne 7:44
Yeah.
Chris 7:44
And so it is what it is now at this point and so yeah, it’s to me like I said before it’s the right next move. My question is where does it stop to like if you’re in Walmart with this like that becomes an issue to me potentially target I’d said I’d honestly agree that’s the right move for a whole host of reasons on both sides. But yeah, I mean, I’m with you. I think it it feels like the right thing to do now.
Anne 8:06
Yeah, I mean what let’s look at some of the other competitors like Nordic track or like some of the other ones like you’re not seeing that and target Walmart whatever like you’re seeing that no, you’re not you’re seeing like for that concept too or like any of these other
Chris 8:18
Maybe Best Buy you could go to too. But I don’t I don’t know. It seems like the natural outgrowth here, but All right, let’s keep rolling. headline number two. I’m glad you love it. Oh, and and you’re in the market for a peloton, too, right?
Anne 8:28
Oh, yeah,
Chris 8:29
For the Audience, Just to let them in on a little inside baseball.
Anne 8:31
Yes, I’m in the market for a peloton, but I think I’m gonna buy a used one off of marketplace instead.
Chris 8:37
That’s I think that’s a better way to go. Plus, they’re pretty expensive now too. Alright, headline number two. Asda has chosen Walmart commerce technologies, as its trusted partner to help deliver flexible shopping and pickup experiences for Asda’s customers do store assists platform through its stores this platform according to a Walmart press release store Assist is an out of the box mobile first fulfilment application that provides a seamless integrated approach to picking staging and handoff capabilities for in store and curbside picking as well as for delivery. Is there any tech Anne where they don’t say a seamless integrated approach any tech like
Anne 9:10
Frictionless and seamless have to be in I have to be in the press release
Chris 9:14
Please just stop. Alright,
Anne 9:15
We got it out.
Chris 9:15
The system was designed from Walmart’s in house buy online pick up in store technology that has been leveraged across Walmart for more than 10 years in over 5000 stores and the plan is to roll the tech out to more than 330 as the superstore is across the UK to help as the improve employee picking speed and accuracy. Anne you had a unique angle for why you want to include this story this week this headline do tell the audience about that angle please
Anne 9:40
Can I challenge the question. Have they really been doing this for 10 years and 5000 stores
Chris 9:44
I That’s why I stopped when I read that I was like really that 10 I mean maybe uh maybe you’ve been doing curbside 10 years is what 2012
Anne 9:53
Yeah
Chris 9:53
Yeah I don’t remember they weren’t doing it that much.
Anne 9:55
Okay, I’ve
Chris 9:56
Although they probably they might have been doing in the UK actually
Anne 9:59
That Yeah. Okay, that makes sence.
Chris 10:00
You still own Asda too right?
Anne 10:02
Yes, yes. Okay. Well, the reason that I thought this was important to include because the first thing I thought of when I read this article was actually like, Oh, no Instacart
Chris 10:12
Right. I think it’s brilliant
Anne 10:13
Instacart has been like blowing out since the last two weeks of grocery shop when they made the announcement about their connected stores platform and all the things that they’re able to offer retailers. But now you have Walmart coming in here an expert with, you know,
Chris 10:29
Somebody that knows how to run a grocery store.
Anne 10:31
Yes, exactly 4000 locations where apparently they’ve been doing this for 10 years, they can do fulfilment for now other retailers like Asda, they have go local, where they can do delivery. And today, they announced the acquisition of alert innovation to operate with filmin centre. So it’s like
Chris 10:47
20 minutes ago, right,
Anne 10:47
Right like just before the show Breaking news. But I think that like to quote you, they Walmart has been eating what they cook for a long time. And now they’re able to roll that entire platform out to retailers across the country and across the world. So it makes me question like, Now where does Instacart sit with this? And the only thing that I can think of that may make some other retailers hesitant is the same kind of thing we’ve seen with retailers who you know, Amazon’s offering the same thing. Will there be reluctance from retailers to let Walmart into their their walled gardens?
Chris 11:23
Right, absolutely. I think that I think all those points are brilliant. The point about Instacart especially like the hit on the jaded part, like Right, yeah, there. There is a little bit of the element of like as the has a pre existing relationship with Walmart. So this isn’t that where yet but kudos to birdwatch Who’s heading this big friend of omni talk interviewed a couple times at shop talk now over the years, and she’s awesome. So I’m glad to see her getting this win under her belt.
But I think the bigger point is what you’re saying here. It’s like, they it’s just a brilliant point about Instacart. And we alluded to it a couple of weeks ago, because like what right does Instacart have to say to the marketplace that they know how to run a grocery store. When has Instacart ever done that.
Anne 11:58
Right
Chris 11:59
Walmart has Kroger has and similar to American Eagles frenemy network, this is a concept that’s only going to gain more traction over time. And you remember Anne because you were there with me. Coincidentally, I pitched this idea to our boss back at Target in 2016. I called it something like Target retail services. But alas, it didn’t take there. And I don’t know if it has to this day, but kudos for Walmart for doing it and making it happen.
You got to get a win under your belt shirts as a fine. But you know what happens next? And I think they said they had something like, what was it 5000? Or I don’t know if it’s 5000 or 5 million, either sites or deliveries through the go local network already, which is standing that up too. So yeah, there. You know, it shows you that there’s a lot of ways to approach this problem. And it just shows me that Instacart is foolishly approaching it as well. Not to bring it back to them.
Anne 12:45
I mean what would you do Chris? Like if you if you think about this, like you’re a regional grocer, like what are you doing? You maybe if you’re already selling through Instacart but you’re like toying with go local, like deliveries with Walmart. Like, it feels like Walmart could be able to offer you, especially a US retailer, I think many more options for doing this right.
Chris 13:09
Yeah, I mean, I like the position that the local grocers are in because it gives them a lot of options from which to soar. Right, you know, they just have to get good leadership in to help them make those decisions. But ultimately, there’s a lot of players in this space that can offer you ways to improve your business. And it’s going to be your choice of what you want to go with.
Anne 13:23
Right. All right, Chris. Let’s go on to headline number three. Midwest grocer speaking of our favourite regional grocers. Schnucks markets has introduced Schnucks flex force employment option at select St. Louis area stores. According to progressive brochure the flex assignment perk allows associates to optimise their work schedules by selecting shifts and store locations that best fit their personal schedules, while creating opportunities for growth and learning at a pace determined by them.
Schnucks teammates can simply log into a Schnucks scheduling app to view and claim open shifts and if they choose can also opt in to receive notifications of open shifts. Now Chris
Chris 14:01
Yes Anne I know what’s coming.
Anne 14:02
This also happens to be
Chris 14:03
You always do that now
Anne 14:04
I do pause like now Chris. This is also a&m consumer and retail groups Question of the week. So Chris CRG wants to know Schnucks flex force introduction here is an indicator that introducing the gig workforce in traditional retail jobs may be on the way something that some a&m CRG years have previously said makes a lot of sense as this new labour market place is unveiled. What do you see as the early wins and potential pitfalls for workers retailers and customers which is a great question for you because you ran stores and this I’m really excited to hear what your thoughts
Chris 14:47
Yeah, I no, this is a banger question again. I, These guys are just absolutely killing it with the questions they’re like making me like making us both go like levels deeper on the analysis here which is so awesome. I love it. So keep it coming guys, but Hey, guys and gals but um, all right. So first of all let me let me hit the headline and then I’ll get back to a&m question. So first, I just wanted to give a shout out to my boy Dave stack, who I interviewed at grocery shop. You coy old codger, you I interviewed you on the stage at grocery shop. And this didn’t even come up. We listed like 15 technologies that we were excited about that we got their thoughts on, this one didn’t even come up.
So well played my friend well played because I know he’s listening. And my take is I love it. I love it too, just like a&m CRG said, like, we’re talking to you or to actually talking a grocery shop to me about how the topic of tech to make the average workers life better, right, not more efficient in store.
Anne 15:37
Right
Chris 15:37
But better was distinctly absent from the grocery shop conversation.
Anne 15:41
Right
Chris 15:42
And this is this is that and so easy shift swapping, hard to say good alliteration, and picking up extra shifts as an hourly retail employee. I think that’s the starting point of this is like 12.95. Yeah, that makes it 12.95 an hour, that makes a huge difference for people. So snugs, in my opinion, once again, setting the pace for grocery innovation, local grocer that’s doing it the right way. And so kudos to them. Now to your question at hand Anne
Anne 16:07
Yes.
Chris 16:08
A&M CRG wins pitfalls for customers, employees or retailers. So for me, the way I think about that, the customer impact is going to come down to how the employees and the retailers react to this. Yeah, right, fundamentally. So on the employee side, I don’t see much downside, honestly, I think for the most part, they’re gonna like it, there may be a few issues on the edges that I could consider, like, you know, hey, that person’s getting, you know, this shift, and they understand the technology better than I do.
And so like, that’s going to kind of anger people as people off especially those that are older workers in store, potentially. But on the management side of things, I have some concerns like so, one, can I get my store to a good routine with people swapping shifts?
Anne 16:46
Yep.
Chris 16:46
Generally, I like to see people working the same types of things as much as I can get it. Sometimes I staff people to work with each other intentionally. Does that detract from this? Like, does it you know, creating?
Anne 16:56
Yeah, can you programme it to, like, be able to still do that, if possible. Yeah, that was your thinking there.
Chris 17:00
Right, well, yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know what the limitations are. But I think like having certain people work with each other at certain times, and being able to rely on that as a store manager is an important thing. Like say, I want to get close, or I want to get open and suddenly, like two of my best people are swapping shifts and working on a different time. And then like I said, before, you know, do this good shifts only go to the people that are activated the attack? And does that create dissension, but
Anne 17:21
Yeah
Chris 17:21
Net net, I think of it potentially makes the workforce happier leads to higher retention, less turnover. Those are wins that are worth the trial.
Anne 17:29
Yes.
Chris 17:30
100%.
Anne 17:31
Yeah, I mean, my only, like, question back to you would be like, yes, you want certain people to work together, or you want a good open or close, but you also want somebody to be there to work the shift? Like that’s, I think that’s the biggest question that I have, especially as we’re seeing, you know, the mass hires coming on for holiday, people like the flexibility to be able to pick up a holiday shifts like for, especially for when we think about the larger gig economy, like I drive Uber on the weekends, and then to be able, during the week to like, pick up three or four hours in the afternoon on the days that work for me that I can look at that week, I think that to me is like, it’s so beneficial to the retailers, it makes so much sense, you know, from an economic point of view, but then also, the other component of what she looks is doing with this, they’re also paying workers after each shift, they have the ability to pay workers after each shift, which I think is another important component to this, like, that’s what’s happening with the DoorDash is the Ubers of the world, like you’re getting paid immediately, once you you know, clock out.
And I think that that’s another important component to this not having to wait, especially around the holiday time periods for you know, two weeks to get paid for the shifts you’ve worked before.
Chris 18:41
Yeah I didn’t know that was a component of this. So if that’s true, that’s that’s an awesome angle, too. It’s hard for me to find the downside, really, to your point around that. You know, the only other thing I could possibly consider would be like, you know, the workers are like, well, I put my shift out there. Nobody picked it up that’s on you, Manager, not me.
Anne 18:58
Yeah
Chris 18:58
I don’t see that as a big risk either.
Anne 19:00
I mean, I think coming from the gym management side of things where we’ve used a platform like this to hire and to or not to hire necessarily, but to manage workforce. And that certainly does happen where it comes it can come down. Like if I’m looking at the pitfalls, I think that does fall now on the retailer’s to be like, Okay, how do we cover this shift? But I’m hopeful that when you open this up, you’ll have a larger workforce to be selecting from so hopefully, there’s more options there to choose from. It’s just going to be I think, a question of what happens when you have people that aren’t as committed to the the job.
Chris 19:34
Yeah. And ultimately, that conversation comes down to a coaching conversation as we used to call it a target and all right, headline number four. I’m pretty excited about this one because I tried it. I did some research on my own on this one last night and which I haven’t told you about yet, but Walgreens plans to use robots to lessen its pharmacist workload. According the Wall Street Journal, the nation’s second largest pharmacy chain is setting up a network of automated centralised drug filling centres that could fill a city block.
The company says The setup cuts pharmacists workloads by at least 25%. And will save Walgreens more than $1 billion a year, the main idea being to give pharmacist more time to provide medical services such as vaccinations, patient outreach and prescribing other certain medication and your thoughts.
Anne 20:15
This makes complete sense to me. I mean, you have one $1 billion in lowered labour costs, like that’s insane. To me, that’s just labour and operations, but you have an immediate return on the reduction in expensive labour, you still can have people staffed in the pharmacies, but you don’t need to have four people staffed there. And I think that there’s still the opportunities as Walgreens mentioned in this for those pharmacists who are there to really be providing the one on one connections with the communities or to be able to, you know, provide remote, you know, if they’re doing that via, like a client service or something where they’re able to, you know, be one pharmacist for a region, especially in rural communities.
But I think that eventually this can also minimise regular regulatory concerns. So like when we’re talking about controlled substances, which these robots aren’t handling yet, that’s not in the concern. Yes, it helps to remove humans, I think from this equation, both from the reliability of the Walgreens retail location and forum, you know, just from Walgreens is a larger entity. I think the third component to me that is really appealing to this is what we talked to one of our Omni star Stephanie crews about from Walgreens, just the ability now that this is all automated, to more simply simply tie this into some of like the curbside and to go orders like if you’re if you’re if everything’s being tracked within a certain app, or it’s, you know, being tracked on Walgreens side to be able to like more seamlessly facilitate those curbside to go orders, scan and go perhaps in the store.
Like I think that investing in the back end operations of this will provide benefit to Walgreens as they operate the store and to their consumers as a result.
Chris 21:58
Yeah, that’s a good point. Actually, that’s that’s a really good point. I mean, the the one thing I would add to highlight what you said too, is like you’re scaling your pharmacist, your pharmacists are hard to hire. Yep, they’re expensive to hire. And now you’re able to put one probably at these locations, or two or three, however many are required, and get more prescriptions filled for each of the ones that you’re deploying at that location, which just makes a tonne of sense.
So to your point, it’s about you know, to me, it’s like about freaking time. Yes, please, you know, like to quote Austin Powers, or whatever it was, but mildly asked, though, hits on what you said at the end there. And I tried this yesterday, is for it to work well, you’re gonna have to make your delivery experience easily understood within the app.
Anne 22:35
Yep.
Chris 22:35
And, and that’s the opportunity I see for Walgreens. And so Stephanie Cruz’s listening, I hope she hears this. But, you know, last time I checked, which was, believe it or not yesterday, it said, you know, you order on your app, and it says five to 10 business days from a centralised facility, and one to two business days from my local store. And both are free, which I don’t quite understand the difference here, because I’m always gonna choose one to two then. But my question though, is, when can I actually expect the order?
So this gets back to one of the fundamental principles of omni channel retailing, which is the Available to Promise logic upfront in the funnel? Because if you’re ordering your prescriptions, like it’s a Thursday, I’m ordering that. I don’t know when that means I’m gonna get it. Am I gonna get it on Friday? Am I gonna have to wait till Monday, you know, five to 10 days, you could put me three weeks out on that potentially on where I am in my cycle, or like, you know, I could order on a Wednesday and not have it to like, three, Monday’s from now, right. That’s a problem. So net net. I love the idea. But your conversion is going to go up on this idea, Walgreens, if you can solve that issue, which I think is inherently worth talking about, because then it extended extends into other operational dynamics to as you look at your available prompts for curbside pickup, like you said, and just the overall mobile app usage too.
Anne 23:43
Well, I think that it’s you know, the Walgreens to clarify the Walgreens stores will still be able to fill those rush prescriptions. Like if you do need something in the one to two days, you still can get that I think where this is providing the benefit is for those ongoing scripts, like you know, we look at these other companies like Express Scripts and the larger fulfilment centre operators out there.
Those timelines are much longer like those lead times are much longer so I think if if Walgreens is able to like you said if if it’s clear to the consumer, what they’re getting, this could make things much simpler for the customer and for the operations of a Walgreens store.
Chris 24:22
Yeah, and there’s no reason over long run they need to be five to 10 days out on a prescription filter using this either that’s the other point and so
Anne 24:28
Right, that’s why the centralised facilities are so important. Like you know, if you have micro fulfilment centres that are able to do these filament fulfillments within, you know, five miles of my house, instead of 20 miles or you know, 200 miles,
Chris 24:42
Yeah, if you place them in the right place, you gotta at least be close enough to do two days and get developed the promise in there. This is a slam dunk
Anne 24:48
Right
Chris 24:48
You now and it takes the workload off your store level like you know, as well So, alright, let’s keep going.
Anne 24:53
headline number five Deliveroo has launched its first bricks and mortar store and it has done so in partnership with Morrisons. According to charge retail the new store called Deliveroo hop, that’s so cute.
Chris 25:05
Oh, cute, like Peter Rabbit.
Anne 25:07
Yeah, like Easter
Chris 25:08
English bunny
Anne 25:09
Yeah, adorable. Alright. Deliveroo hop will allow customers to shop for groceries by ordering on digital kiosks. Via the Deliveroo app for in store collection or delivery to local residents and offices. The store will offer over 1700 grocery items from Morrison’s ready to eat. And it’s the best ranges with deliveries site team picking and packing the orders should also be noted that according to research commissioned by delivery 24% of Londoners now use rapid grocery services once a week to get their groceries and a further 40% of shoppers also reported buying groceries once every two to three days bucking the age old weekly shop trend, Chris.
Chris 25:52
Yes Anne
Anne 25:53
Shed a little light on this for us if you would please.
Chris 25:55
Yeah I will. I will. I’m still I’m still kind of like just thinking about the bliss of like reading Peter Rabbit, you know, but anyway, I have a couple of thoughts on this Anne. One it sounds like a lot like what we were hoping go puff would do with its Gary store insecurity Street store in San Francisco, but ended up doing nothing in any way, shape or form like this.
Anne 26:14
Yeah
Chris 26:14
By that I mean, at the distribution centre that also acts like a vending machine. I mean, it sounds exactly like that.
Anne 26:18
Yep.
Chris 26:19
But two and more importantly, it calls to mind with Jeremy narron, the founder of grocer key once told us on a pot, I don’t know if it’s a podcast or a conversation I was having with him when he started his delivery business up in Madison, Wisconsin.
Anne 26:31
Yeah.
Chris 26:32
And he told us that the only way he could even make the economics work, and even that listening to him was like, still a hard feat was that if he warehouse out of woodlands, and then delivered made his deliveries in partnership with them,
Anne 26:44
Right
Chris 26:44
Like, you know, because they were storing his inventory for him. So I’ve never forgotten it when he said this, which is always why I’ve been kind of thought thinking or sceptical a 15 minute delivery from the economic side of it, because it’s going to be tough to make it work.
Anne 26:56
Yep.
Chris 26:56
And so it tells me that there has to be innovation like this around the edges for that to happen,
Anne 27:02
Right
Chris 27:02
Because as the statistics showed, the customer clearly wants it and having done it with you in New York, I would say yes, I wanted to are in Chicago, and I was trying to get a COVID test rapidly. Like it was exactly where I went. Because like you need it was a great service. But yeah, for the economics work. I think ideas like this are going to have to come to the fore.
Anne 27:21
Yeah, I agree. I love this. I want to go see this. I love this execution.
Chris 27:26
Yeah.
Anne 27:26
But the challenge for me is why are we still ordering from kiosks I guess you have to have that for people that walk in, but like the whole kiosk part of it. It’s like that’s a good this is not making my shopping trip faster. Like
Chris 27:38
It’s not. It’s gonna make it really slow.
Anne 27:40
I think you should just do away with a kiosks and only do app order had like, why do you need to be there, it’s not like you’re looking at the range of options in front of you. And you’re picking things. It’s like, let’s just order from my app ahead of time, and I pick up in the store, like that’s what we really need to do. But I think if you’re doing that method of ordering here, I think this is I’m a huge fan of execution, better availability of the customer, you know, to be able to pick up things on their terms. The quality is likely better you have access to Morrison’s here so you’ve got better produce you like better options, I think then what you would traditionally find and what we you know what go pop was talking about from a convenience store. assortment. And my favourite part of this, delivery was part of this is also expanding its partnership with too good to go for this new store.
So all right, Chris, for 15. They’re giving customers the option to get 15 pounds worth of food for five pounds. And it’s a surprise, but it’s all fresh produce that’s about to buy your expiration date, not just produce but like meat, seafood, whatever.
Chris 28:43
Yeah
Anne 28:44
Like, I would totally do that.
Chris 28:46
You just got to eat. You got to eat real quick. But yeah I know
Anne 28:49
Or freeze like,
Chris 28:50
Yeah, you could freeze it too.
Anne 28:50
That’s’s amazing, for like $5, especially with inflation. Like I don’t know, I just went to Costco yesterday. And I was like, holy bucket
Chris 28:57
Ya I know, no kidding.
Anne 28:58
This is insane. I just spent so much money on food. Like, I’ll take this deal all day.
Chris 29:02
No kidding. I want to get back to your point about the kiosk though, because while I agree with you, in principle, I still think there’s an opportunity to reimagine the interface of the in store kiosk.
Anne 29:12
Yeah.
Chris 29:12
Which if you come out at blank slate and say, Okay, I’m here in this moment. And these are the types of things I want. What is the best way to facilitate that visually, on that type of screen, I think is still an untapped market for people. But no one ever has the guts to do it.
Anne 29:27
Yeah.
Chris 29:28
And try it because everyone is so programmed to think it should look like an E commerce experience. And we should type and click and all that kind of stuff. But I think there are a lot of creative companies that if you gave them that task of like reimagine how an E commerce experience can work in a physical store on a screen. There is interesting things that we could find there. Just no one has had the guts to do it yet. I’ve never seen a screen take that approach today. But I think it’s there.
Anne 29:53
All right, Chris.
Chris 29:54
Yeah,
Anne 29:54
We get to the lightning round.
Chris 29:55
Let’s go to the lightning round.
Anne 29:56
All right, Chris. Cheetos has constructed a monument in Alberta. Canada in honour of the dusty orange residue, its a corn puffs leave behind on snackers fingers, which it has now dubbed Cheadle like Dawn, apparently, Chris, I have to know when you are eating your cheese products. Are you a puff guy, a regular Cheeto guy, a bald guy like what? What suits you?
Chris 30:19
I’m a regular guy all the way
Anne 30:21
RegularCheeto?
Chris 30:21
Oh yeah and Mrs. Omni talk is a puff poser. I’m going to call her out right now and to this day this is one of the biggest riftss in our marriage because I can’t stand the puffs. I think they’re disgusting. The taste is so different.
Anne 30:31
Yeah, I agree. I’m full Cheeto all the way.
Chris 30:33
Full Cheeto.
Anne 30:34
Yeah, especially like when the really small ones that get like super crunchy. I love those.
Chris 30:38
I feel like you get more stuff on your fingers with the Cheetos.
Anne 30:40
I don’t like the the Cheeto. I’m not a fan of the Cheeto, but I do love a Cheeto every now and
Chris 30:45
What’s a Cheeto
Anne 30:46
Cheeto. That’s the stuff that that’s what the residue is called.
Chris 30:51
oh I didn’t realise that. Okay,
Anne 30:55
Didn’t really get the lightning round questions. you just.
Chris 30:59
No the picture of this is while I was you know, I’m trying to you know, think of my answers you’re talking about like the the picture of this is pretty amazing, too. You got to look it up. All right, Jack in the Box put out the call for its first ever gamer Jack a full time content creator position responsible for bolstering the quick service restaurants Twitch presence. Anne if you’re a twitch megastar. Tell me a game with which you would take on all comers.
Anne 31:22
How much how many applications do you think they’re getting for? You’re just gonna play video games and make videos.
Chris 31:29
Like Hundreds of them.
Anne 31:30
Oh my god, I would hate to be the HR team handling those.
Chris 31:32
Yeah.
Anne 31:33
Okay, if I was going to be a twitch megastar I would do. I would play the original Nintendo paperboy game.
Chris 31:39
Ooh, Paperboy. That was a great game.
Anne 31:42
I love that game. That was my favourite.
Chris 31:43
You’re pretty good?
Anne 31:43
Yeah.
Chris 31:44
You could sling those papers.
Anne 31:46
Oh, yeah. I loved that game. I would play that game until like two in the morning.
Chris 31:49
It’s like same level over and over.
Anne 31:50
I know. That’s why I liked it. There was no no challenge.
Chris 31:53
Yeah.
Anne 31:54
Okay, Chris. Liquid death, the Canned Water Company is now worth an estimated $700 million. Chris, I imagine much of your purchasing has influenced this valuation. So I want to know what inspired you to purchase your first can of liquid death? Was it your desire to have your thirst murdered? Or did you like that it was a 16 ounce beer can vessel?
Chris 32:18
Yeah, I gotta tell you I was a slave to the marketing on this one. It had to have been the packaging
Anne 32:22
The pack So we’re both like you wanted your thirst murdered. That’s like what they put on the can or just the?
Chris 32:28
Just the packaging. Yeah, yeah, but which coincidentally, is one of the biggest reasons I’ve stopped drinking it too. One of two reasons actually.
Anne 32:34
Okay
Chris 32:34
One is I’d be on calls with clients or even doing podcasts with them. And I take a sip and people are like, Are you drinking a beer? And so I was like, Alright, I don’t want to answer that question every time and somebody might not ask me that question. Just might make that assumption too, which is not what I want.
Anne 32:47
Sure.
Chris 32:47
And the other reason Anne is, which it made me that that stuff makes me way too gassy, which was no good for you my friend. Let me just tell you so that is not going into my belly anymore. All right, the internet is currently roasting NFL quarterback Russell Wilson for his promotion of the danger witch sandwich which begs the question, when did you last order and also and eat at Subway?
Anne 33:10
One I don’t know who Russell Wilson or the danger witch is.
Chris 33:13
You don’t know Russell Wilson as well?
Anne 33:14
No, who is it?
Chris 33:15
He’s married to what’s her name? I can’t remember name. He’s a quarterback for the Broncos used to play for the Seahawks.
Anne 33:19
Okay, no idea. Well, I found some gift cards and I was cleaning out a car that are at least five years old. And I took my kids there last summer and I did have a bite of my kids sandwich and immediately was like, and we are moving on right I will be getting a salad.
Chris 33:36
So what was the last time you went there before that?
Anne 33:39
I can’t remember.
Chris 33:40
I know honestly, I haven’t been there since like 2011
Anne 33:42
Yeah, it’s been
Chris 33:43
That long.
Anne 33:44
It’s been a really long time. Maybe like post bar or something one night if that was the only option but still like I don’t know when that was one of my outpost bar. It’s been a long time.
Chris 33:53
Yeah, where a subway’s still open too.
Anne 33:55
Yeah.
Chris 33:55
All right. That wraps us up Happy Birthday today to Brett Gelman of Stranger Things. Fine girl Britt Ekland and everyone’s seven year old 1984 Karate crush Elisabeth Shue
Anne 34:05
Or adventures in babysitting crush.
Chris 34:08
Yeah, I know. I feel like we’ve had her on this before because I feel like you’ve said that before too. Yeah, I love them that that shows you how about we’ve been doing this folks whenthe birthdays Reham back re anniversary themselves. And remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business make it OMNI talk. Our Fast Five podcast is the quickest fastest rundown of all the week’s top news. And our twice weekly newsletter tells you the top five things you need to know each day and also features special content exclusive to us. And we make it all just for you and we try really hard to make it fit within the preview pane of your inbox. You can sign up today at http://www.omnitalkblog.
Thanks as always for listening and please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcasts or on YouTube. And from all of us at Omni talk retail as always Be careful out there.
Anne 34:50
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. 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 robust software suite so grocers can seamlessly integrate the robotic solution into their existing businesses. To learn more visit takeoff.com And sezzle. Sezzle is an innovative Buy now pay later solution that allows shoppers to split purchases into four interest free payments over six weeks. To learn more, visit sezzle.com. And finally, silk. The silk cloud DB virtualization platform is a virtualization layer between your workloads and the Cloud helps you scale your cloud without scaling your costs. 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. 