Anne 0:09
Hello, you’re listening to the Omni talk 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 13 2022. I’m your host Anne Mezzenga.
Chris 0:31
And I’m Chris Walton.
Anne 0:32
And we are here once again to discuss all the top headlines making waves in the world of omni channel retailing. Chris
Chris 0:39
Yes. Anne
Anne 0:40
Are you feeling that post Prime Day glow?
Chris 0:43
No. Like Prime Day came in when like, like, I didn’t even I didn’t even know it was here.
Anne 0:48
Yeah, I didn’t either.
Chris 0:49
It was like the tree that falls in the woods. It didn’t make a noise at all Anne, you know,
Anne 0:53
Yeah, I didn’t
Chris 0:54
Did you get anything?
Anne 0:55
I did. I ended up getting some things
Chris 0:57
Peloton stuff?
Anne 0:57
No,
Chris 0:58
Oh no?
Anne 0:59
No, I stupidly. I ordered a whole bunch of things on Sunday. And then they all went on Prime Day. Like I did I got my peloton for those listening, bought it off of marketplace, got at home and then had to realise how many more accessories I was going to need in addition to all the things that I had, so I had to get shoes, and then the cleats for the shoes
Chris 1:24
And you bought that all before Prime Day?
Anne 1:25
Yeah, I didn’t realise I foolishly thought that it that peloton would not be on prime day.
Chris 1:31
Right. Yeah, I would have thought that too. I didn’t think it was gonna happen that quickly. They weren’t aggressive, though.
Anne 1:36
I know.
Chris 1:37
Yeah. Like 1200 bucks, right for a bike.
Anne 1:39
1200 bucks for a bike
Chris 1:40
Crazy.
Anne 1:40
All the accessories were like, some of them were like 40% off.
Chris 1:43
They must have a tonne of inventory clear through
Anne 1:45
Oh my God
Chris 1:45
Like that must be what that is about. You know, I gotta give kudos to Amazon though. So I did get suckered into prime day even though I was kind of joking that I didn’t even know but I forgot that it was coming. I was like oh yeah, Prime Day. I bought a couple iPads for my kids because they were like, a couple 100 bucks. It was great deal.
Anne 2:00
Yeah.
Chris 2:00
And they got them to me in like three hours.
Anne 2:02
What?
Chris 2:03
That was insane. They’re like, Oh, you’ll have the and I don’t even elect that. They’re just like, there’ll be there’ll be shipped and arrived to your house in three hours. I was like, Okay, that sounds amazing.
Anne 2:12
Wow. Well, you know, that’s funny that you got the iPads because that was something that I was thinking of as I was like all in a huff about all this peloton stuff being on Prime Day discount. I was like, I guess Apple does this too. Like it’s the it’s a one time of year, you know, that you see those kinds of discounts happening on the products that never go on sale? So I guess, I don’t know.
Chris 2:32
Yeah, I mean, and they, it wasn’t even prime day, like they called it the Early Access sale deliberately to like preempt Black Friday, which I think is so hilarious. Like, that’s why they’re you to your point, and that’s why they’re doing it. They’re getting everyone like me to go out and buy it from them and not go anywhere else later. It makes a tonne of sense. The other point I want to make Anne for those watching on video who commented a lot in a grocery shop about my attire. It’s October it’s orange hoodie season Anne
Anne 2:53
Oh we, we are so pump we are pumpkin spicing the crap out of it
Chris 2:58
Yes, So we’re gonna we’re gonna bring home the orange
Anne 3:01
So much pumpkin
Chris 3:02
for October.
Anne 3:03
We did this like two weeks ago.
Chris 3:05
Yeah, we were muted a couple weeks ago though. It was like more muted colours or like greys and maybe like a purple or something. But anyway, all right, let’s go let’s go
Anne 3:14
We’re bringing the font Cornucopia for your
Chris 3:16
Oh cornucopia. Good word.
Anne 3:18
Yeah. With this holiday,
Chris 3:20
This podcast is just gonna be out of its court. Isn’t it at 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? At manifest of course you can expect thought leadership networking and also it should get a little hot in here because Nelly is the featured entertainment at the end of the show.
Anne 3:43
Hell yeah,
Chris 3:44
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can register now. That was you can register now to join me at the show January 31 to February 2. A special discount link will be available in our show notes and you can also learn more at manifest manife.st that is the web address manife.st. Alright Anne let’s do this in today’s Fast Five. We’ve got news on tiktok planning to open its own e commerce fulfilment centres. Goodwill launching its own online marketplace. Hollister allowing shoppers to send their online carts directly to their parents for payment. Can’t wait to talk about that one. The city of Chicago going all in on autonomous robotic one to one delivery, while Amazon is reportedly pulling the plug on that very same idea. But first, we take off with even more robotics news out of Walmart this week. Anne
Anne 4:35
Oh yes Chris, headline number one. Walmart made a slew of announcements related to robotics within the past week, some good and some not so good. So first, according to grocery dive, Walmart has entered a definitive agreement to purchase microfilament centred developer alert innovation. The company Walmart began working with in 2016 and later launched a test of its autonomous cart based system in a 20,000 square foot warehouse connected to a Supercenter in Salem, New Hampshire back in 2019. Second to be done, Walmart also announced the conversion of one of its Atlanta warehouses into one of its new next gen robotic fulfilment centres. The very same warehouse were late last week, Walmart said it would also lay off nearly 1500 workers according to change the rage, Chris, lots, o innovation, lots of robotics happening over at our friends at Walmart.
Chris 5:28
Oh my god. Yeah.
Anne 5:29
What do you what do you have to say about that?
Chris 5:30
Well, first off, the news on on alert innovation to the acquisition is really interesting, because, you know, I don’t really know much about where alert innovation has stood. Since they announced that test back in 2019. I think I was one of the first people to write about it in Forbes. So I guess now we know like Walmart thinks it’s valuable. They’ve been quiet. It’s interesting that they’ve been quiet about what they think is valuable. Like everyone listening. Keep that in mind when you hear Walmart talking about something. If before it’s like a thing, it’s probably not that good. But this is, this is the proof point of that, because it’s now found its micro fulfilment partner, or at least someone that they think can help them do what they need to do in this space. And to the point that you raised last week, could also fit into their technology services platform as well, like they could they can easily do warehouses of as a service now, just about as well as anybody.
Anne 6:23
Yeah.
Chris 6:23
Because alert innovation is one of those companies along with AutoStore. And takeoff our sponsors as well, that are in this game, dramatics and other ones so. So lots of players in the space that know how to do this, and Walmart’s come to the fore. So net net, I like to move
Anne 6:35
Yes.
Chris 6:36
Again for the second week in a row, which check my temperature and because like, I don’t know what the hell’s going on, like, I’m all in on Walmart.
Anne 6:42
I bet you’ve checked your temperature. I don’t think I need to I have a feeling you’ve checked your temperature today already. So I’m going to trust you
Chris 6:48
Knowing the hypochondriac, I probably have. I did check My kids. I did not check them out. But second, secondary isn’t important. The next gen warehouse thing?
Anne 6:58
Yeah
Chris 6:58
This just sticks. This is the only way I can put it
Anne 7:01
Okay explain
Chris 7:02
Okay, here’s why. You have the biggest retailer in the country saying publicly that it’s going after robotics.
Anne 7:08
Yes.
Chris 7:08
Okay. They’re saying that basically, like we are laying off people in this warehouse to put robots in
Anne 7:13
Yes
Chris 7:13
It’s clear as day.
Anne 7:14
Yes.
Chris 7:15
Which means absolutely, it’s going to mean less warehouse workers in the long run, because they deploy or employ, I should say, a large majority of the US workforce, you know, more so than anyone else. And if self checkout systems continue to get off the ground, it’s also going to mean, we’re gonna have less cashiers in store.
Anne 7:31
Yeah.
Chris 7:32
Which ultimately means a hell of a lot of displace workers in the long run. And so my point is, we just need to start thinking about that, what that means as a society because it’s going to come and it’s going to be incredibly disruptive. But what do you think?
Anne 7:45
Yeah, I mean,
Chris 7:46
You need to talk me off the ledge.
Anne 7:47
I think a little bit like I, first of all, I agree with you the alert innovation move from Walmart like this completely makes sense. We talked about it last week. But your your latter point, I think these are not the kind of headlines that you want to hear one right after another, like the Walmart, bang bang, bang, like, let’s see how we more subtly approach this next time. So I think that it makes sense if Walmart is using like their claim in the in the reports that they put out, they’re using this to bolster their Walmart fulfilment services business, which again, makes sense from an economic standpoint, from the retailer, I guess, part of part of my concern here is that, you know, we do have a lot of displaced workers that robotic robotics are going to replace the manual labour of these workers. But where does that Labour go? I don’t think it completely disappears.
I think that it goes into other types of jobs. And I think like, do you remember when we had Tim Roland from badger on your show? And he was talking about, like, the place where robotics makes sense? Are the dirty, dangerous duplicative tasks that people are doing that they don’t need to do necessarily for sure. And so I wonder if you know, if Walmart fulfilment services is really the push here? Where do could those jobs be replaced on the other side of things like they’re going to part of the focus is on contact and call centre, part of the focus is on gig labour, Walmart, go local, like there could be other opportunities now whether or not the the the, like the the staff that’s working in a warehouse is ready to go work in a contact centre, or they’re interested in that kind of job is obviously questionable.
Chris 9:27
Yep.
Anne 9:27
But I guess I just, you know, to lighten lighten the load a little bit like there still will be jobs in store, there still will be jobs, you know, in the warehouses. But hopefully, and you know, this is why we’re seeing all the pressure from the unions like people are getting hurt and warehouses warehouse conditions are not safe. Like, if you’re replacing those jobs with robotics, are there better safer jobs for people to be doing?
Chris 9:52
Yeah,
Anne 9:53
I’m playing devil
Chris 9:54
Yeah I know, I don’t. I just think when you start talking cashier jobs and you talk warehouse jobs, those are the you know, some of the most blue collar blue collar jobs. And if those go away, there’s not necessarily that many more places you can put them.
Anne 10:07
But, what about I guess so like one of the things you said robots can’t do and past shows is like shelf stocking and restocking. Like there are other jobs, I think in the store,
Chris 10:17
Yeah but you don’t need more of that than you have now. That workforce is already,
Anne 10:20
I might argue that point like how many like look at out of stocks right now? I mean, what the average store
Chris 10:27
But you don’t need more people to do that job in the store you have out of stocks, because of the of the inventory, not necessarily
Anne 10:32
In some cases
Chris 10:33
Not being able to work it
Anne 10:34
Well. I don’t know. I think you could have more stuff on your shelves, potentially, if you have more people focused on that. I mean, that’s the point that all of these retailers are saying they want self checkout for they want people to be in the stores, making sure its shelves are stocked stores looking good. It’s easy to it’s easier to shop helping people within the store like that, to me seems like you could see what happens when you deploy more resources towards that.
Chris 10:59
I think that’s a stretch but there but hey, you’re playing devil’s advocate. I think that’s a stretch argument. But hey, you the listener can decide which side of the equation you want to come down on, but it’s something people have got to take keep an eye on for sure. I think regardless, I think we both agree on that. All right, headline number two, Tiktok is planning to open up ecommerce facilities to compete with Amazon. As reported in The Washington Examiner. The Chinese affiliated social media platform has begun taking steps to construct fulfilment centres to deliver products ordered on its platforms.
According to job listings found by Axios Tiktok is looking to build in, quote, international ecommerce fulfilment system and quote, international law. I didn’t catch that when I first put this together, according to the listings, including international warehousing customs, clearing and supply chain systems supporting domestic e commerce in the United States. Anne do you think this is a good move by Tiktok? I have no idea which way you’re gonna go on this.
Anne 11:52
Okay. One, it’s hard to say I don’t like this much speculation happening just based on job descriptions, like that’s the core of this like,
Chris 12:01
Yeah
Anne 12:01
That could go a lot of ways that I think we’re making. But if we’re gonna theorize on this and think about this, I think there’s a few things that make make us pay attention to this move, like the audience should be paying attention to this. According to Google data. Yeah, almost half of Gen Z is starting searches on Instagram or Tiktok. Okay, so no, Google, no, nothing like I’m going here. I want to buy something I want to go somewhere I want to do something I’m going on Instagram or Tiktok. To do that. Gen Z spends 5% of their awake time 24 to 48 hours every month just on Tiktok no other platforms that’s not full social media. That’s just 5% of the time they’re awake 5% of their wait time is spent on it and I think if we look back on like what Carter Jensen has talked about, in you know, years at
Chris 12:51
Grocery shop Yeah,
Anne 12:52
The horizontal line of ecommerce.
Chris 12:53
Yeah
Anne 12:54
Where do we spend our time and for that next generation shopper? It’s on Tiktok I think there are opportunities being created right now on that platform that will expand what we what we conceive of what commerce looks like. And especially I think people are comparing this to Amazon or like Oh tiktok’s going after Amazon I don’t know that I agree with that. I don’t know that it needs to be the level of Amazon right away. There’s still money to be made here from Tiktok if they’re bringing, you know, manufacturing production distribution all inside their walls, and they’re able to like get a preview of what’s happening what demand there’s going to be for certain products and if they can source those or manufacture them and get them out to people more quickly than say a retailer would have
Chris 13:40
So you’re saying they should go vertical and become a retailer too.
Anne 13:43
I don’t know that I’m saying that specifically but like Hear me out on this one so like remember we were talking about a while back when like the feta cheese phenomenon or like any of these random things these random products that come up Tiktok knows about that before anybody else does so before even before like you know Presidente feta cheese knows that it’s going to be an issue where they’re going to be running out of stock. So is there an opportunity if they have logistics in place if they have access to creators content calendars are they know what their creators are gonna be doing? Like is their does Tiktok have that information? And is there something they can do to get that product to you faster? Or to kind of reroute like how those products are going to be going out to the end consumer who’s watching the content on Tiktok? I just I think that this is something that we have to be very closely paying attention to tiktok’s only only like issue is itself especially after this morning and the news of them taking 70% of funds from Did you hear that story?
Chris 14:43
No, I didn’t What was it?
Anne 14:45
They just got busted by the BBC. They did like live stream donations to families in Syria, I believe. And Tiktok just got busted taking 70% of the money.
Chris 14:55
Oh, wow. Okay, but anyway, alright.
Anne 14:58
Anyway
Chris 14:59
Okay. So there was a lot you said there
Anne 15:01
There is a lot going on a lot of opportunities. We got to pay attention, to it.
Chris 15:05
I think. Okay, so here’s what I here’s what I take from what you just said. I think your points about where people are searching and where they’re engaging are very, very important.
Anne 15:12
Yes.
Chris 15:13
Now, does that to me mean that Tiktok needs to get into warehousing? I don’t know. Because I don’t think in Yes, they have the data ahead of time. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be in the warehouse in game to get product to people to capitalize on that trend. There are plenty of other ways to do that, especially as you’re working with influencers to get people inspired, the brands get people inspired. And you have to remember to like, this is this is something that a lot of people are getting into right now. American Eagle is trying to stand up their own frenemy network gap, now, potentially Walmart we just talked about. So my question is like, what right does Tiktok actually have to win in the warehousing space. And let’s not forget to that Amazon is really good at this for the brands as well as I just talked about getting my Apple iPad to me in three hours, which that ad can be served up in Tiktok and still fulfilled through Amazon very easily.
So So why the brands that are selling their products need to think about Tiktok for this service, when there’s going to be so much scale available to them. And people that have a history of doing it better is interesting to me. And I think our minds are Hold on one sec, I think our minds are that we think it’s a good idea. Because that’s what we know about Amazon and what it does. But Amazon’s history is different. Amazon built out its logistics network as a retailer. First and foremost.
Anne 16:28
Yep.
Chris 16:29
Tiktok’s, a social media company. And for that reason, I think it will be a tough road to hoe for Tiktok to go down this path. So I actually don’t like the move. But you final word again.
Anne 16:39
I don’t I don’t know. I think that it, I don’t think that you can compare this to Amazon. And I don’t think that we’ve seen
Chris 16:45
I don’t think you can either, that’s my point
Anne 16:46
Adoption from Amazon or from any other platform, the way that we’ve seen the adoption on Tiktok like this next generation and the power that social media has over influencing purchasing decisions, and where they’re buying and who they’re buying from, I think is going to be different than the age of Amazon where we started going on Amazon for search.
Chris 17:07
I don’t disagree with that. I just think that’s a mutually exclusive factor from where do where does the product get fulfilled from?
Anne 17:14
Yeah, if you’re if you’re assuming though, that again, we’re going off of a job description. So just because they’re building multi, you know, just because the description for this particular job right now is looking for an E commerce fulfilment warehouse like that doesn’t mean that that’s the end goal. Is it just ecommerce fulfilment? I don’t think we know that yet.
Chris 17:33
Yeah. So okay. You’re saying they want to be a retailer?
Anne 17:37
I don’t think we know I say I’m
Chris 17:39
What would you advise?
Anne 17:40
I’m advising that
Chris 17:41
So you like this move or not?
Anne 17:43
I think I’m not saying I don’t know that I like it or dislike it. I think that it’s worthy of people’s attention to be paid to what tiktoks motivations are in this space, whether it’s retailing, whether it’s fulfilment, I don’t think we know enough about what their strategy is based off of job descriptions at this point in time. So I don’t think that we can, I’m thinking like, you should be theorising what the potential is for Tiktok to do in this space.
Chris 18:09
But so that’s, what do you think that is? What are you theorising is there for them when you say that? So I don’t I don’t, not following you.
Anne 18:16
I think that there’s a potential for there is the potential for them to become a manufacturer, there is the potential for them to become a retailer, there is the potential for them to help support warehousing or because again, that they know in advance what products are going to be popular because of what content is coming out that they would be a more efficient or more valuable distribution point for reach.
Chris 18:40
Do you think all that’s at play here, potentially, when you read this headline
Anne 18:43
Potentially, figuring out figuring if we’re if we’re comparing it if you want to make the Amazon comparison, and you’re looking at logistics as the baseline? Like how do we figure out how to get these products to people first before we start going vertical and building like, okay, what can we produce here? Where How far does have to travel? Like, this is the baseline for those things.
Chris 19:02
Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Yeah. No, I think you got me on that point. I think that deserves merit for sure.
Anne 19:08
All right, let’s go to headline number three. So Chris Goodwill has launched its own online thrift store, goodwillfinds.com, as reported by the retail leader, and according to Goodwill, shoppers can go to goodwillfinds.com to find a selection of women’s men’s and children’s clothing, along with books, specialty and collector’s items and home decor. According to the retailer, there were already hundreds of 1000s of items available for purchase when the site launched last week, Chris,
Chris 19:34
Yes.
Anne 19:35
This is we don’t talk about goodwill that often. I don’t htink we’veever talked about goodwill in this capacity, but what do you what do you think about this one?
Chris 19:44
Oh, man, I don’t even know where to start on this one. I mean, the first thing it tells me is that the resale trend is real, you know, and that the market you know if you read the article too, it says the second hand market is expected to grow. I mean, you see these numbers all the time.
Anne 19:55
Yeah
Chris 19:55
The one in the articles 127% by 2026 So clearly to me, either Goodwill has been impacted by the rise of the secondhand marketplace, or they want a bigger growing cut of that growing pie. So the other point to me though, is holy cow, you go through the website, this thing is a massive undertaking, but I know you have tonnes of thoughts on that. So you know, why don’t you share your thoughts?
Anne 20:17
I love a good thrift day
Chris 20:19
You do
Anne 20:19
I will spend hours in a goodwill. I love it. So this kind of bums me out a little bit because there’s no like thrill of the hunt. This is now like, a full on E commerce site. And something about like finding that that gem it for $2.99. It’s really worth you know, five times.
Chris 20:36
Yeah
Anne 20:37
For what it’s being sold at for a goodwill.
Chris 20:38
Yeah.
Anne 20:39
But I understand that there’s there’s a lot of people who are not like me who hate the thought of going into a goodwill.
Chris 20:45
Yeah.
Anne 20:45
And this concept is a great way for we know there’s a demand for this kind of stuff like you look at the site, I encourage all the listeners go check this out, because it is very well executed. I have to say my expectations were low for this experience. And
Chris 20:59
Yeah, it was it really was.
Anne 21:01
Really well one You and I were looking on it yesterday.
Chris 21:03
Few things can be improved. But yeah, for the most part is pretty impressive.
Anne 21:05
Yeah. I have questions, though, about how this will, like how how the margins here, are still available to Goodwill. Yes, they’re getting the product for nothing, people are turning their products into the goodwill. But you know, they have product photography in here. They have sourcing, they likely have a DC that’s holding all of this inventory, because it’s not being pulled from the, you know, piles of racks of 1988, Christmas decor and, you know, toilet seats that are turned into goodwill every day, they have pickers that are now going through all these items at each of these locations. Like there’s a lot going into the production of this.
So I guess for me, I’m questioning like, How sustainable is this? Are they still going to get these products when resale starts to increase? You know, when brands start to take control of their own resale? Are we still going to see the the products like a Lululemon sports bra being donated to Goodwill? Maybe they’re still you know, there might be that but but do we start to see, you know, less coming in into the goodwill and this model not not being able to support itself quite as much anymore, but for the time being. I love it. brands get your resale resale stuff together because
Chris 22:18
Yeah, which is the $64,000 ecommerce in general and resale. So I think net net, you got to make the margin work in total, right. And so yeah, it’s probably depends on the mix of products that they’ll eventually figure out that they’re selling through this platform or not right and needing to leverage some higher priced pointed items and they typically do in their stores right to make that work right defray the cost of shipping. Yeah, it’s a great point.
Anne 22:39
Right.
Chris 22:39
All right, headline number four, Hollister has developed a new system that according to the Wall Street Journal, quote, lets shoppers pass their carts to someone else for payment end quote, according to hawser, the system called Share to pay aims to smooth over a common point of friction for online Hollister shoppers, the majority of whom are still in high school. The system lets shoppers send their shopping carts to the ultimate buyer via text message in lieu of a traditional checkout mechanism.
According to halters parent company Abercrombie and Fitch’s chief digital and technology officer Samir Desai, early test of the systems found customers in the pilot group were two times more likely to place an order than those who were not mainly as he implied Because teenagers don’t necessarily have credit cards, which is quite honestly very damn astute. Anne my question for you is this and this is my favourite question of all time, I think. Will teenage dirtbag and have been all over this?
Anne 23:32
I love that song. I know we this man.
Chris 23:34
It’s all over Instagram, too.
Anne 23:37
Oh, it is?
Chris 23:37
Yeah, for sure.
Anne 23:38
I guess. Yeah.
Chris 23:39
Eve Amanda’s put out her I saw it. I don’t know why
Anne 23:44
I do I have an idea why Eve Amanda’s showing up on your instgram.
Chris 23:47
Yeah I saw her High School photos, she’s great.
Anne 23:49
Um, okay. Do you know what Mike and Linda would have done if I sent them a freaking link to Hollister a Hollister cart? They would have told me to go out and rake some leaves. Yeah, they,
Chris 24:02
That’s what they would have told you, yeah.
Anne 24:03
No way. But we live in a different world now.
Chris 24:07
Oh, there are plenty people at our age too that their parents would have still said fine.
Anne 24:10
Yes. Do I think this is a smart move for Hollister? Sure. Yeah, of course. Why not? But you know, what I liked the most about this is not necessarily like the whole send this to your parents. I like the Agile cart. Like I think that this is cool, because it doesn’t necessarily yesterday, it’s been beta tested and they’re going to make a bunch of money with kids sending their parents you know, links and their purchase, hitting click to buy terrible for our next generation and what this is teaching them about money and that they can just click to buy, but but I do like
Chris 24:42
The societal impacts.
Anne 24:43
Oh my God, I know. But what I do like is that, you know, it could be like, you know, sharing a cart between partners. You know, like if you know, I want to send my husband a cart for Costco or whatever, like this is cool that you can start to like deploy this and it’s as simple. I mean, I know there’s other mechanisms to probably do this similarly, but for what Hollister is doing I like this idea of just the Agile cart.
Chris 25:06
collective buying, ya know, that whole idea what you’re talking about show before.
Anne 25:10
Exactly. So I think that’s that’s what I take away from this. That’s what I really like about it. But what do you think? Are you clicking to buy for your boys?
Chris 25:19
I love this. I think this idea is brilliant. I’m not I’m not doing it for my kids. I’m gonna be like, you’d be like, nope. But good try dudes. No, but I
Anne 25:28
You can go to Goodwill find
Chris 25:29
Yeah, right.
Anne 25:29
I’m gonna send them a link too
Chris 25:30
Yeah, I’m dropping you off. Go go go bargain shop. No, I wanted this functionality back when I was running target back to college for like, I was talking about it back then. That was 10 years ago.
Anne 25:40
Yeah,
Chris 25:41
Jesus, it was 10 years ago. But anyway, but I mean, my favourite part of it that my favourite part of this whole story though, and I wish I could take credit for this observation or insight, but credit goes to Fredo on Tik Tok. Who asked on Tik Tok. Why is add a message an optional feature of the platform implying shouldn’t be Shouldn’t there be a standard way for kids who at least say thank you for their to their parents? Like I love that. Like it’s just like assumed like you happent to send this to Mom and Dad. Buy this for me. There’s no like, form of gratitude or anything. So I love that I salute you Fredo for calling that out. That’s just absolutely awesome.
Anne 26:13
How many? How many thank you messages have actually gone out? I bet it’s like in the single digits.
Chris 26:18
Oh, it’s probably nothing. Yeah. Yeah, everyone’s too busy. They gotta get back to their Tiktok.
Anne 26:25
All right, let’s close this show up. headline number five. Chicago appears to be going all in on one to one autonomous robot robotic delivery. Well, Amazon, on the other hand, says they’re going to get the hell out of the idea. According to Smart Cities dive. Yes, Chris, there’s dive for that to Chicago City Council recently approved the use of food delivery robots following a successful test at the University of Illinois Chicago campus. delivery device tech companies will partner with restaurants and grocery stores to deliver the orders which customers will request through an app.
The robots will operate on sidewalks and within crosswalks within a small radius of participating food businesses. Coincidentally, in the very same week, Amazon announced that scuttling. I like that word
Chris 27:10
Scuttling yeah
Anne 27:11
Scuttling
Chris 27:11
You don’t hear that very often.
Anne 27:12
No, it’s Scout delivery robot programme, which looks almost identical in size and shape to the promotional photos. Other robots we just mentioned in Chicago’s latest venture Chris. This no press.
Chris 27:26
They do look identical, by the way. Like, I literally can’t tell them apart. I like I was like, well, those aren’t the same things.
Anne 27:31
This is a&m CRJs put you on the spot question.
Chris 27:35
Alright, so the best for last.
Anne 27:36
Yeah.
Chris 27:36
All right.
Anne 27:37
Chris a&m CRG would like to know do you think Chicago’s robotic food delivery programme is an example of trying to show that something can be done versus whether it should be done at a time when even Amazon is backing off of one to one autonomous delivery?
Chris 27:53
It’s a great question. We are getting into so many like society questions what government should and shouldn’t do this podcast which generally we try to shy away from wholeheartedly but Anne first of all too bad, we don’t have a&m CRG’s Chad Lusk on the programme this week because he lives in Chicago. So like it’d be cool to hear his talk thoughts on this. But uh, you know, my first my first thought is like, Chicago, what the hell are you doing?
Anne 28:14
Oh, my God I know.
Chris 28:14
So no, I don’t I don’t see that at all. From this, I’d love to give them credit for thinking like that way. But I think it’s Miss it’s misguided. To think about, like proving something out or showing what can be possible. I questioned whether that’s even the right frame for a CD to get into to begin with. So we’ve covered on the show why one to one delivery, we don’t think doesn’t work,
Anne 28:34
Right.
Chris 28:34
And even companies like tortoise, who was one of the first ones on the scene with this idea, they’ve started going in a different direction and pivoted away from that to more of like a mobile vending machine concept. And my favourite capsule into the argument and is did you show this to me actually, did you see the photo of the robot that drive through the police caution tope at the scene of an accident?
Anne 28:53
Yeah
Chris 28:53
Like that is that was absolutely hilarious. So like they don’t have this stuff figured out on college campuses are one thing. But having this ready for Chicago primetime on city streets is another thing entirely. So So my last question is this, Anne this is how I think about it. Like, why would taxpayers want their money to go to robotics companies over delivery drivers? It makes no sense to me and why do Chicago City officials, the why did the officials that approved this idea think they know more about this than Amazon does at the end of the day? I mean, it’s just downright laughable? Inexcusable, actually,
Anne 29:24
Especially when it like in that same article, they’re talking about how, you know, the biggest concern here is vandalism and theft of the robots. And you’re like, your point is so brilliant when you’re like, as a Chicago taxpayer, like with all of the issues going on in Chicago right now, like the fact that this much amount of money is being dedicated to these robots. It’s like, I, It makes me want to take one of those robots and Chuck, it at the wall.
Chris 29:51
It probably will happen. Great point.
Anne 29:54
But, you know, I do think that I do think that these these robots like the tortoise example You gave like, there is a use case for them like, but in inside of a building like you know what I was thinking of the other day when I picked up my peloton in an apartment building. And you saw remember the grocery carts. Have you ever lived in an apartment building? Or like, you’re hauling out your stuff, right? And you got to like old school grocery cart that somebody stole from like the local grocery store. But like, if I could pay a premium in my apartment to like, take these robots like Beep, beep, beep punch in my apartment number and then like it delivers, like,
Chris 30:29
Like in that hotel in San Francisco.
Anne 30:31
Exactly like that’s where these things make sense. They’re like in a controlled environment or even in the Mall of America where it’s like, you’re inside but like going through police caution tape going down the sidewalk. I mean, no.
Chris 30:43
And it’s so why is the city paid for it?
Anne 30:46
I don’t know.
Chris 30:46
Like, this is like for the Bougie people, like I thought like, okay, just to go on a rant here. I thought maybe like there’s congestion alleviation from like cars and the delivery drivers, but then I was like, why don’t you just subsidise bicycle messengers or something like that? Just makes no freaking sense.
Anne 31:01
I don’t know. I don’t know
Chris 31:02
At all. All right, let’s, let’s end this show.
Anne 31:05
Let’s end it, Chris, we’re going to lightning round. Question number one for you. PacSun and the Met have released a collaboration collection of apparel that features famous works of art featured in the gallery. What piece of art would you proudly purchase to wear?
Chris 31:20
Oh my god, I have a great story on this one. Anne, this is true story.
Anne 31:24
Oh my God. Is this like you? You I have to say Chris and I were in Madrid and we went to the Prado.
Chris 31:31
Yeah.
Anne 31:31
And your art interests were very interesting to me. So I really want to hear what you say yes to me. So tell me the story.
Chris 31:40
No, so my true story is in high school, I was part of masking gavel, which was the Speech and Debate Club. So it was called, and we made T shirts and I my memory is a little hazy, like exactly what went on the t shirt. But I think if my memory serves, we took Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, the one was like spread out like this. Oh, you know, what I am talking about
Anne 31:58
Yeah.
Chris 31:58
And we took the photo of him just from the waist down, and we put it on our shirts. And it wasn’t my idea either, like our club shirts for the year. That was like our photo of our shirt. And I think of credit goes to my friend BJ Martin, it was her idea if I’m not mistaken. And it was it was a stroke of genius. So yes, that would be my answer. And it actually I’ve actually worn that shirt.
Anne 32:18
I don’t understand at all.
Chris 32:20
The point is you’re not supposed to understand. It’s like, oh, everyone knows the top and nobody knows the bottom. Like it’s so funny.
Anne 32:26
And what was this group called
Chris 32:27
Mask and gavel
Anne 32:30
Oh my God. All right,
Chris 32:31
Drama and debate club. And Alright, let’s keep going. Amazon handed out free GrubHub memberships for a year during its early access prime days, by way of promo code prime22 existing prime numbers. Anne did you did this deal incite you to get your Grub Hub?
Anne 32:45
Ah, no, I didn’t even know until it was over
Chris 32:49
I know Yeah, big fail on that one.
Anne 32:52
I know
Chris 32:52
Mark knew I made they didn’t want that many people to get
Anne 32:54
Probably, good call. Okay, Chris DoorDash. And Marvel Entertainment partnered to create a custom comic book that celebrates the delivery services employees or Dashers. If someone were to create a custom comic book about you, what would they call it? And what would your superhero name be?
Chris 33:09
Oh, I love this. I love this. This so easy. First of all, superhero name. Super easy. White Lightning
Anne 33:14
My God. Was that your AIM password?
Chris 33:16
No, it never was. No, never. I’ve never actually used it but white lightning, but my superhero strength Anne would be delivering debilitating verbal quips so fast that you can’t even hear them. In fact, I just did one right there. Did you hear it?
Anne 33:29
This is not real. Did you know that this is not real? No,
Chris 33:32
You didn’t hear it. But you don’t hear it now. But you soon will..
Anne 33:35
Oh my god.
Chris 33:35
Lightning round question number four report Just at Tom and Giselle maybe getting a divorce. So my question to you is and is Do you think I finally have a chance
Anne 33:46
with Tom or Giselle?
Chris 33:47
Oh, come on. Of course, Tom.
Anne 33:49
Oh, I don’t know. Do you eat tomatoes?
Chris 33:51
I do eat them. But I don’t like them. I could forego tomatoes.
Anne 33:56
Isn’t that his thing. You told me so?
Chris 33:57
Yeah.
Anne 33:59
What about burgers? Can you
Chris 34:01
I’m assuming you can eat burger.
Anne 34:03
Why are they getting divorced?
Chris 34:04
I don’t know, no one knows that answer. The whole rumour is she, she didn’t want to she wanted to retire. He didn’t want to.
Anne 34:10
So it’s like you’re not because she’s like, man, your Instagram posts are.
Chris 34:17
That probably doesn’t help.
Anne 34:17
Yeah
Chris 34:18
Yeah. Right. And they’ve been married a long time. So who knows? All right, that wraps us up. The gods show’s over. Happy birthday today. Thanks for sticking with us. And you’re still here to Sacha Baron Baron Cohen, Kate Walsh and the man I only want to call out Mr. Paul Simon. Did you see what I did there? And if you remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business, make it Omni talk. Our fast 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 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.
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Anne 35:07
The omni talk fastfive 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 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 into three payments over six weeks. To learn more visit sezzle.com. And 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. 