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 November 3 2022. I’m your host, Anne Mezzenga.
Chris 0:32
And I’m Chris Walton.
Anne 0:33
And we are here once again to discuss all the headlines making waves in the world of omni channel retailing. Chris
Chris 0:40
Yeah, we’ve been off a couple of weeks Anne
Anne 0:42
We’ve been off for a couple of weeks but we are back and if you’ll notice
Chris 0:45
New duds
Anne 0:46
We’ve got some if you’re watching
Chris 0:48
Yes if you’re watching yes, if you’re listening you have no idea what we’re talking about.
Anne 0:51
We’re back to black
Chris 0:52
Back in black. Yeah
Anne 0:53
Back in black. How so many things black hoodie is the new orange hoodie
Chris 0:58
is it for me. Although it’s not really a hoodie it’s more of a half zip I think is what I’ve got. But yeah, who’s it from Anne?
Anne 1:03
So we are wearing these actually they’re very soft,
Chris 1:06
They’re very soft.
Anne 1:07
It’s like a great it’s it is 100% Bamboo we are wearing. These beautiful shirts that were given to us by cosy earth so if you’re looking for a gift for your loved you just want to surprise Mrs. Omni talk and be like, hey, I appreciate
Chris 1:23
Oh precedent has been set at Anne. Precedent has been set. Careful. Careful Danger. Danger Will Robinson danger. You have a cosy Earth man. Yeah, thanks for this. These are sweet.
Anne 1:32
I know I will
Chris 1:33
It feels nice.
Anne 1:34
I know I just feel like I’m wrapped
Chris 1:36
I feel like a baby again.
Anne 1:37
Sweet softness.
Chris 1:37
Like I’m swaddled Anne.
Anne 1:38
Oh my God.
Chris 1:41
But Anne you know what I’m excited for?
Anne 1:43
What?
Chris 1:43
I’m I was reading LinkedIn this morning. And I came across Ben Miller’s posts where he had just toured Tescos new store with Trigo.
Anne 1:51
Yeah
Chris 1:52
And that thing looks pretty sweet. And it got me all excited for Shop Talk Europe again, like going on the road in Europe. I can’t wait for that.
Anne 1:58
I know it’s coming up sooner. It’s earlier this year in May. So we are going to have to plan
Chris 2:03
Yes
Anne 2:03
All of our tours that we’re going to be eating while we are in Europe
Chris 2:07
Yeah. It’s not in London, either. It’s in Barcelona as well, which you know, is pretty awesome. So yeah, we got to figure out how to get to London See, see Trigos new installation with Tesco. They’re gonna open to more too
Anne 2:18
Yes
Chris 2:18
That was the big news this week. I know. We talked about it a couple weeks ago on the show. So you know, just want to hit it again. But kudos to those guys. We’re doing that. That’s awesome.
Anne 2:25
Yeah, Ben’s you should check out Ben’s posts too. Because what is most interesting about that one, you just walk right in. And then the scan part is happening at the end hybrid store new a new way of doing things for what really from what we’ve seen most places
Chris 2:41
Yeah, we’ve seen trigo do a few other hybrid stores but first one with Tesco right? So yeah, so it’s cool. Alright Anne, shall we get to the headlines?
Anne 2:47
Let’s do it.
Chris 2:48
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 technologies changing the way the world moves? At manifest ofcourse, you can expect thought leadership networking and also Nelly Yes, that is right on the last night of the show Nelly will be there. The conference runs from January 31 to February 2. Prices went up for everyone last week. But not for loyal Omni talk fans because you can still save $200 on your registration by heading to manife.st/omnitalk that’s manife.st/omnitalk. Alright Anne
Anne 3:27
Do it
Chris 3:27
In today’s Fast Five we’ve got news on Walmart opening up small business pop up shops, Amazon Music expanding its prime benefits. Abercrombie and Fitch adding a whole host of new pickup locations for frat guys everywhere
Anne 3:39
Hey
Chris 3:40
I just love it.
Anne 3:41
It’s awesome ever.
Chris 3:43
Frat girls as well. Workers at the New York City Starbucks and Amazon Go combo store filing a petition to Unionise but first we take off today with big news out of Aldi Anne
Anne 3:53
All right that’s right Chris Aldi plans to roll out a new online grocery platform very soon that will offer pickup and delivery service in as little as an hour across the US. So according to grocery dive the platform as a result of a joint partnership between Aldi and spryker spryker I feel like we’re no we’re both flat today. This rocket
Chris 4:16
Probably just offended like 500,000 people
Anne 4:18
I know. I know. I know. But so Aldi and spryker A German eCommerce technology company so all these own employees will fulfil, click and collect orders that come through the new service will Instacart workers will still for the time being be handling delivery orders that are placed on the platform. So spryker CEO Boris Lokschin said in an email response to questions sent by grocery dive. It should also be noted that Aldi has for years outsource all of its online grocery services to Instacart from inbound order handling to fulfilment regardless of the fulfilment channel shoppers choose. So Chris, I want to know what is headlines signal to you about Aldi making their own way. Going their own way
Chris 5:03
Going their own, I can go my own way. Alright, well, it seems to be a hell of a lot of singles to me number one that Aldi gets the punchline to the joke. That’s first. And you know, the biggest point here is that and it’s smart for Aldi to try to wean itself off of Instacart. It gives Aldi a number of things, it gives Aldi control over its first party data. It allows them to probably handle in store pickup more profitably in the long run, and instead of relying on Instacart, to do that,
Anne 5:32
Totally
Chris 5:33
And my favourite part, it ends up relegating Instacart to the status of a white label service provider for insert picking and delivery. Yeah, which, for Instacart is still a very tenuous proposition because there’s a lot of people can that can do that. There’s nothing that differentiates one service from the other in that regard. So my only question now, the last one I would have is, does Instacart valuation go down again, after this announcement after we just heard it did last week it has to right?
Anne 5:56
I mean, if people are paying close enough attention, Chris, it absolutely has to, will it? I don’t know, I don’t know that this is like a big enough warning sign for for people who are not like intimately paying attention to what’s going on here. I think that what sends off sets out the warning bells for me, Chris, about this is that Aldi made this claim that they’re made, they’re moving in this direction to save their customers more money. So like you said, it’s not financially feasible to have Instacart in there doing all of your picking to be doing all the process, it does bring it down to just delivery, and then you’re just bidding it out at that point in time. And so race to the bottom like Instacart what what is it that you’re providing?
I think we’re gonna see a lot of other retailers following Aldi’s footsteps. And I think the other point here too, is when you consider store labour. So Aldi store labour is picking and packing the groceries. Now, we also have seen Aldi, do tests with the checkout free stores, also in London, like we talked about with Tesco and Trigo. And if that moves in that continues to move in that direction, which I assume that it will,
Chris 6:59
Yeah, for sure. 10 years put yeah,
Anne 7:00
Now you have these resources that are available, moving from cashier checkout to you know, being able to pick pack, maybe even deliver, like you don’t know
Chris 7:09
Yeah you don’t know,
Anne 7:10
There’s so much more opportunity. So I think it’s really important for everyone to be paying attention to all Aldi in this direction. And then who else follows after this?
Chris 7:18
Yeah, that’s that’s a great point. You know, if you started looking 10 to 15 years out, that will likely happen and it’s a shift in the labour force to do that’s a great point. The other last thing I would say is it just brings up brings to mind again, that Instacart is probably gonna get acquired here at some point, you know, I’ve always thought Walmart would be the perfect suitor for it, but it’s gonna be on the cheap too, I think ultimately, but we’ll see what happens. All right, let’s keep rolling. headline number two according to chain storeage, Walmart is partnering with popable a pop up SHOP Marketplace platform that connects brands and physical spaces for short term retail leasing I guess that’s the latest company train the two that in this game we’ve talked about this for a long time. Under the terms of the deal small businesses will be able to rent retail space in designated Walmart stores across the country for short term leasing without being committed to a long term lease. Brands and spaces can both list on popable ‘s online website. Small businesses can then be paired with their local participating Walmart to connect and enter into an agreeable temporary leasing agreement ranging one month up to a year.
The article also did not share how many Walmart stores plan to provide these experiences referencing the always popular with Omni talk descriptor of quote some Anne. Anne you fought hard for this headline yesterday in our production meeting so the fun fact on this one is that it also happens to be our put you on the spot question this week, and I may or may not have had something to do with that. So here it is. This is fascinating and somewhat ironic moved by Walmart the anmc rg team had to say given their historical negative impact on small business
Anne 8:46
Yep.
Chris 8:46
Is there a catch for small business retailers to utilise Walmart short term leasing option? And separately what pop up are you hoping shows up at your local Walmart for your holiday season visits?
Anne 8:57
Oh, man. Yeah,
Chris 8:58
Yeah Good question.
Anne 8:58
This is a great question. I think it’s important for them to call out to that historically, Walmart has not been a favourable retailer to come into small towns and what they have been able to do to small businesses. But
Chris 9:11
Have a trend to change that for sure.
Anne 9:12
Exactly. I liked this story, Chris. I was intrigued by the story. Because for me it signals that it’s like foreshadowing like will Walmart become the new mall for small towns and are they able to do this with this idea because it’s not like pop up it’s not like Walmart is doing is like bringing these brands in you can buy the stuff on Walmart This is strictly a leasing deal. This is like taking the empty optical shop that used to be at the front of the store. I looked on popable and looked at all the stores that they have available. I mean it’s like it’s basically just taking whatever moved out and whatever has been blocked off and it’s just opening that up to a local business
Chris 9:51
So it’s for like bigger business This isn’t like small maker shops on the store floor pad then.
Anne 9:56
it’s definitely not definitely not no this is like
Chris 9:58
That’s important to know,
Anne 9:59
It is important to know. So this is like actually the, you know, where the where the optical shop used to be where the Minute Clinic used to be like, those are the spaces that are available. Now, I think that this, this could be great if you have a small business or a retailer who knows how to merchandise that space, who knows how to like, go in and get like, you know, get this set up so that it looks good. Otherwise, it could look not great.
Chris 10:27
Yeah.
Anne 10:28
One of the things one of the things that they are advertising on the popabl’se site is that they’re able to not only guarantee businesses consistent foot traffic, which is true, like you have a lot of exposure. Yeah. But they also talk about the fact that they’re able to provide free advertising and brand visibility. So I don’t know what that that’s another thing that isn’t outlined in the details of these leasing terms. But I think all in all, it’s I like the idea that Walmart’s bringing somebody in here that they’re leasing space that’s not being used in the Walmart, I just think it’s going to have to be very carefully done and tested.
So that it doesn’t look like what my favourite one of my favourite lines recently this week, I met with Matt Steen’s Lind of the Barnard group he calls it the retail mullet. Where you have these stores or these retailers are doing these stores and they’ve got like all party in the front. And then it’s just business as usual in the back the reverse retail Mall.
Chris 11:28
Yeah, right.
Anne 11:29
But like, there’s these these just jointed experiences, where it’s like, boom, we have this pop up, and then in the back is just like, these are some towels and solo
Chris 11:38
So net net you like this.
Anne 11:40
I do think.
Chris 11:41
You don’t think there’s any risk for the small businesses as they’re going.
Anne 11:43
No, I do think that there’s risk. I said at the beginning, like, I think that there’s risk if you’re a small business that’s not prepared for the traffic, you’re not prepared with advertising that to maximZse the efforts of this concept. And then if you’re not prepared to be able to merchandise, a store that’s going to look and feel like it belongs in this space inside Walmart.
Chris 12:04
Okay. I mean, my take real quick is, and the point that you brought up about it not being maker shops, like on the floor pad, I think’s really important, because I hate that idea. Like, I hate that deal with a passion.
Anne 12:13
Yeah.
Chris 12:13
Because that’s so hard for small businesses, then they have to staff it. And then the question is come like, who handles the returns? When they come back to the store? They’re, you know, those are gonna end up at Walmart’s return desk ultimately. And you know, so that’s a big question two, but it sounds like here, you get away from the, you know, the point of sale issues, the return issues, because these are like standalone shops, most likely in Walmart. But I think the important thing to me is it signals. Walmart may be kind of desperate to rent these spaces out. This is the Model they’re going with
Anne 12:37
Yeah,
Chris 12:38
Because at the end of the day, like you’re ready for Walmart, when you’re ready for Walmart, you know that there’s a reason small businesses aren’t in Walmart targets, whatever other entities you want. I mean, even the local malls, there aren’t that many even in the local malls.
Anne 12:51
Right
Chris 12:51
So the local Malls private looking at this, too, so. So I don’t know, I just I think the psalm is the big tale here to where it’s very difficult to understand how many stores are actually going even have this
Anne 13:05
There was quite a few I have to say. I mean, definitely regional, like lots of stores in Texas. Lots of stores in like, the Illinois Indiana area. I mean, so it’s it’s definitely pockets. It’s not every single store.
Chris 13:19
Yeah. And then a lot of I mean, I Yeah, but anyway, like you as you start thinking about all the Walmarts across the country, like I think this is a hard play to make work, it’s probably gonna be more effort than it’s worth at the end of the day. But who knows? It’s cool to see them trying it. I’ll give them kudos for the experimentation with it seems like pretty low risk to experiment with All right, let’s keep rolling.
Anne 13:36
Alright, headline number three. According to an Amazon press release, Amazon Music has expanded its offering for Prime members, bringing them a full catalogue of 100 million songs and the most top podcasts available ad free at no additional cost to their prime membership. Let’s see Chris, what what do you have to say about this is a pretty big announcement.
Chris 13:57
That’s baller Anne, it’s total baller. I mean, first off, it’s huge value against Spotify. I asked you yesterday like what’s that? What is this equivalent in Spotify?
Anne 14:05
Yeah, I mean, you’re paying 17 to $20 a month?
Chris 14:08
That’ s nuts
Anne 14:08
Yeah,
Chris 14:09
That’ s nuts and I just get that because I’m an Amazon Prime member.
Anne 14:11
Right
Chris 14:12
So the other point it brings out to me is actually that it shows you the different approach Amazon generally takes with its Amazon Prime membership, which is which is which for it for Amazon, it’s about pressing the value over price equation, you know, the old numerator over the denominator equation of value over price. And that also that net benefit of that is it also allows you to take the price of your Prime membership up over time too very easily with your customers. Because if you think about it, Prime isn’t I looked this up yesterday. Prime is now $139 It wasn’t that long ago, it was $99.
Anne 14:40
Yeah,
Chris 14:40
And none of us sneezed at it. But then you look at that in comparison to Walmart’s announcement this week of doing crazy Larry half price Walmart plus discounts for two days for like 50 bucks.
Anne 14:51
Right
Chris 14:51
That’s a whole different territory here. And that’s what Walmart is now set the precedent to do which I think is so dumb.
Anne 14:57
Yeah.
Chris 14:58
That it just shows you that no Amazon’s playing the master is the master chess player in this whole thing.
Anne 15:03
Right. Yeah. I mean, I think I would second all of the points that you made Chris. I think the biggest thing here is the the ability for Amazon to continually increase the price of this as they’re bringing more and more value under that umbrella of of the membership. And so I think we’ll start to see, I wouldn’t be surprised if we start if we see you know, in 2023, you jump another, you know, $25 a month or $30 a month because they’re, they just continuously make the membership more valuable and worth the money. Like, I’m not gonna blink if now I can go and get me there. Taylor Swift’s new albums on here, like, everything that you’re like, there’s gotta be a catch here.
Like I’m not gonna have like, Taylor Swift. I’m not gonna have like my favorite bands on these things. But I looked through yesterday and it’s like, yeah, I basically don’t need Spotify anymore.
Chris 15:53
Yeah, ad free podcast, which Listen to Omni talk on Amazon music. Shameless plug.
Anne 15:58
Yeah.
Chris 15:58
All right, headline number four. According to chain storage, Abercrombie and Fitch has added a bevvy of new pickup locations to its arsenal now, frat guys, and frat girls,
Anne 16:09
Or anybody that knew Abercrombie . They just rebranded
Chris 16:13
Named everything from bow to Brock, those are my favourite frat guy names. You can order goods from Abercrombie online and pick them up and over 12,000; 12,000 additional locations nationwide, through an A&F’s new partnership with Office Depot, FedEx, and Walgreens. And as proud as I am of the Botha Brock line, do you think this is a smart move, by A&F
Anne 16:34
You really love that they just rebranded and now it’s about
Chris 16:39
Timeout, you’re the one that made me watch the Abercrombie video. And it was all about that it was all about frat guys overtly
Anne 16:46
But this is part of the new strategy.
Chris 16:48
Fine, whatever.
Anne 16:50
Yeah, I love this. I think it’s really smart. I think that they need to take this a step further. Because if anybody’s ever utilised an Office Depot pickup, a FedEx pickup or a Walgreens pickup for Package pickup, which has existed for a while
Chris 17:04
Right
Anne 17:05
They still there still are some operational challenges and your
Chris 17:08
Something to be desired.
Anne 17:09
Yeah, you still are putting a lot of pressure on an already pressured store staff to now you know, be at this counter more often than they were. So this is where I think like people need to start looking at some of the locker solutions. If they’re really going to go into this, which I think we should I think we should see more retailers that are offering more pickup points for their product like it just makes sense. But the logistics on the like pickup side really need to be considered. So whether it’s you know, doing Luxor one lockers, or like the clever on super fast pickup locker that they had at Zara like this is a means for those kinds of things to start to be tested so that you’re not burdening those teams at the Office Depot, FedEx and Walgreens. But I love it. I think there’s a lot of scale here. And I think we’ll see more retailers doing it.
Chris 17:53
Yeah, I never thought about but that type of automation definitely makes sense. I don’t like a high volume.
Anne 17:56
Oh gosh
Chris 17:57
for FedEx or something like that. But yeah, that’s a great point. Um, yeah, I mean, I think I’m the same way I like it. I mean, I think it’s hard to argue against any moves in today’s day and age of retail, that make your brand more convenient for your customers. I mean, that seems like just a universal truth of something you should be going after.
Anne 18:12
Yeah.
Chris 18:12
So that, that’s great. But plus, I think the other important point here is it comes on the heels of many other announcements from A&F, that’ve come on, you know, I slag them off for being you know, the frat boy retailer, but they’ve made some good moves here recently. Like, for example, they have delivery solutions working for same day to pit everyone out against, you know, white label for same day delivery, like you just talked about in the opening story. And then also, don’t forget to add that new Share to pay feature that enables Yeah, yeah. enables people to share their cart to parents or whomever grandparents to pay for it. So I think you know that that makes sense.
And so in this case, you’ve got, you know, you think about young kids in dorms, apartments, being able to like to have things packed and picked up at their nearest Walgreens, I mean, or at a location that’s convenient to them when they’re probably not. It’s probably not that easy for them to get packages in their door.
Anne 18:58
Yeah I mean Walgreens is on the corner of happy and healthy as Aiden from Second City says all the time if you have a Spotify membership that does not include ad free, so
Chris 19:07
Wow a movie reference I didn’t know Ane that’s very good.
Anne 19:09
Oh It’s a show. It’s a series.
Chris 19:10
A show, right Yeah, a pop culture reference I didn’t know. But yeah, I think it just makes a tonne of sense.
Anne 19:14
Okay, well, let us continue. Chris. We have so much more to talk about
Chris 19:19
Good pace today to the show Anne.
Anne 19:21
I know. All right. So headline number five Chris. According to CNBC, workers at the Starbucks and Amazon Go store so just that Amazon Go Starbucks combo store in midtown Manhattan filed a petition for a Union Election on Friday. The store which is located next to Port Authority, and on the ground ground floor of the New York Times building generates high volume, but also has very high employee turnover according to Starbucks workers united. In addition to traditional barista tasks, the Starbucks employees also have to help customers navigate the Amazon Go technology without any additional pay, the union said and some workers told the union that they were involuntarily transferred to this or as the company scrambled for baristas to staff the location.
So, Chris, we’ve been to one of these Amazon Go Starbucks hybrid stores in New York. What are your thoughts about this move?
Chris 20:12
Yeah, I think this is a really fascinating story. There’s a couple angles to this, too. Yeah. I love this. I love that we’re closing the show with this two. I think one, of course, is the story about the unions. You know, I didn’t realise this to him. But did you know that over 250, Starbucks stores at this point have voted in favour of unions monetization, according to the CBC NIC article, where you just read this headline? Yeah. That’s insane to me.
Anne 20:33
Yeah.
Chris 20:34
Like, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that many. And that’s happened fast. So that means a lot of them are happening under the radar screen now.
Anne 20:39
Yeah, I mean, even we feel like in the news, it’s been a couple per week or something you hear about, but yeah,
Chris 20:45
That I hope everyone’s listening. That’s a big number, like much bigger than I thought. And we follow this pretty closely. But the other important point to me which getting away from the labour unions on this, which I think it’s interesting is, we saw this store in New York, last last NRF, we went to check it out. And, you know, our takeaway was at the store could have been so much cooler, that generally speaking a lot lacked imagination. It looked like the two concepts were just pushed together the Starbucks pick up on the concept within Amazon Go store.
Anne 21:11
Yeah.
Chris 21:12
And it’s and I think it’s important because it speaks to the continuing difficulties that I think Amazon particularly is going to have in creating exciting retail, in which humans are asked to do more than just pull boxes off shelf or deliver packages to doorsteps. And the other point I’d make is, if this vote goes through the thing that makes me really sad about it,
Anne 21:32
Yeah
Chris 21:32
Is that this concept had so much promise, ultimately. And if it goes through, I think this concept is probably dead.
Anne 21:39
Yeah.
Chris 21:39
Going forward. And so that’s just it speaks to me that Amazon, I hope, if you’re listening, you’ve got to focus on the human design elements of your staff.
Anne 21:48
Yeah.
Chris 21:48
And how they serve as customers in a way. That’s much more much different probably than you’ve ever had to before.
Anne 21:54
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I agree, I can’t say I’m surprised to hear that. To see this happening. This was a big miss on Starbucks and Amazon’s behalf, like, sometimes you you don’t, you don’t understand the impact this is going to have until you test these things. But Amazon has so many just walk out technology stores, like you know, that whether it’s Amazon, whether it’s Treeger mangoes, zippin, we saw in the in Dallas Fort Worth last week, but there’s still some friction on the entrance to the stores, like you still have to staff and explain to people and you will probably for quite a while now until people are comfortable doing this. So the fact that they didn’t like put that into the training or assessment of you know, where they’re going to apply resources, in terms of staffing really surprises me.
I think that what we’re going to also see as a result of this, which I’m not terribly upset about is the continued automation on the Starbucks side of things if they do like if, if Amazon and Starbucks can figure out how to make this keep going. It’s like, again, how do you figure out how to continue automation on coffee prep and making and then apply resources to the handoff experience that we’ve seen. So well executed in the pickup only stores for Starbucks, and then that that journey making or like creating for the people that are coming inside the Amazon Go store because the concept is smart. It’s just how it’s being executed.
Chris 23:20
Yeah, right. And yeah, I mean, your great point too, like all roads lead down the same path, which is probably less employees in the store over the long run and more automated tasks. Regardless of whether these these experiences are combined or not.
Anne 23:32
Yeah
Chris 23:33
You look at Starbucks, we look at Amazon or you look at some new iteration of a coffee shop and just walk out experience over time. That’s going to happen.
Anne 23:39
Right, right. All right, Chris. Let’s get to the lightning.
Chris 23:42
Let’s do it.
Anne 23:44
Taylor Swift’s Midnight’s has already sold 1 million albums in the US and it’s in just for six days and it’s been more than that so it’s probably more than that. But Midnight’s also has the third most streams in a single week by an album ever falling behind Drake’s Scorpion album, which was number one. Are you Team Taylor Chris or team Drake?
Chris 24:05
You know, I don’t think this will come as a surprise to you Anne especially probably anyone that’s followed our show closely. I couldn’t name a Drake song if my life depended on it
Anne 24:13
No way,
Chris 24:13
100 I can’t ,
Anne 24:14
You use it call me on my cell phone. I can feel that hotline bling, you know that song
Chris 24:18
No, I don’t actually i That song is not what you’re what you just sang of that song is not enough to give me recall. I don’t know why. Drakedoesn’t end up on my like, playlists. Like no hits on like, satellite radio doesn’t come on. I don’t know why. But yeah, but anyway, all right. I stumbled across a new this is great AnneI stumbled across a new website called yacht or nyatch, which is a collection of songs rated on yacthski scale.
Anne 24:43
I think it’s pronounced yacht or not.
Chris 24:45
No, it’s nyatch like because you know, it’s NYACTH.
Anne 24:48
I see what they’re trying to do there.
Chris 24:50
But it’s a collection of songs rated on the yacthski scale, hard to say, which is a scientific measurement of musical yacthness created by the originators of the term yacht Rock aka four dudes named JD Hunter Steve and Dave.
Anne 25:03
Of course
Chris 25:04
Anne what is your favourite yacht rock song of all time?
Anne 25:07
It was hard to pick because this is one of my favourite genres.
Chris 25:10
Is it really? I did not know that.
Anne 25:12
Oh yeah holla notes is one of my favourite bands I’m actually going to see the cover band private oats which is it playing in Minneapolis next week. So I’m going to have to say hollow notes
Chris 25:25
Holla notes, okay
Anne 25:26
Rich girl probably is my like one of my favourites closely followed by private eyes man eater or
Chris 25:35
She got like seven
Anne 25:36
And then brandy which is not the not hollow notes song but you know, they say brandy You’re a fine
Chris 25:42
So Christopher Cross doesn’t even make your list
Anne 25:45
No.
Chris 25:45
Oh my god. Really?
Anne 25:46
Sorry. That was Christopher cross. What song are my thinking
Chris 25:49
Sailing?
Anne 25:51
Oh, that makes me think about getting a root canal
Chris 25:54
Oh really?
Anne 25:55
Yeah, it definitely does
Chris 25:57
Like the wind or whatever that’s all it is. You know ride like the wind. You know? That’s Christopher cross is huge in the 80s
Anne 26:01
Yeah, I know. I get that now, but I’m just like, Oh, no hollow notes. Like they light up that thing. I bet there Yes. Look at
Chris 26:09
Dude, the best hollow notes song for those watching and care about this as immensely as we do. The best hollow notes song has a rating of 62 out of a possible 100. So the makers of yacht rock, aka JT Hunter, Steven, Dave, 100%. disagree with you. All right.
Anne 26:23
Oh, my God, Chris. All right. Walmart brought back the cast members of the office for their latest ad promoting their movement of Black Friday deals to every Monday in November. What is the most office space related job you’ve ever had?
Chris 26:37
Oh, great. This is so easy. And that movie came out when I was working at the gap. And I kid you not we actually had TPS reports.
Anne 26:44
What did the TPS stand for?
Chris 26:45
It was like, I think it was like, total position stock or something like that. Something related to inventory stock. I don’t remember. But we had TPS reports. And so every day the running joke was like, Hey, can you give me your TPS report? No, like, put our best lung burger.
Anne 27:02
Did you have Red staplers.
Chris 27:04
Those were made just for that movie. Did you know
Anne 27:06
Oh, yeah. I love it.
Chris 27:07
All right. Walmart and Netflix have teamed up on exclusive products to be sold at over 2400 stores. Anne what is one Netflix programme you loved But maybe a little embarrassed to admit
Anne 27:19
There are many but
Chris 27:20
Oh, I couldn’t answer this one. Actually,
Anne 27:22
I think the most embarrassing one that I liked watching was Love is blind. I think it was called or something. Were like they date in the two pods. This was during the pandemic. So anything went at that point, but like you date somebody, but you can’t see them until the very end. And then you get together and people are like, Oh my god, this is so crazy. Yeah, I was really embarrassed that I watched that series. Like in a weekend it was nonstop. Love is blind. It was very bad.
Chris 27:50
Yeah, I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed for you to actually yeah, it is. Yeah, but I can understand it but it is kind of it is kind of an embarrassing admission. You know, it seems like it’s kind of like the was the dating game new age dating game kind of the way you’re describing that that Tom Selleck was on
Anne 28:05
Oh, yeah,
Chris 28:06
We can’t see the person and you
Anne 28:08
Yeah, but this is like this goes this month this is like the bachelor without being able to see them Yeah, love connection be back in two and two, remember Chuck Woolery
Chris 28:18
Chuck Woolery
was the bomb. You know that guy head game, total game
Anne 28:21
Yeah, he picked up the slack like whatever the other two contestants were. He’s like, come on. Come on. come back to old Chuckies place after this.
Chris 28:28
shocky split. Alright, and next week we got big announcement next week’s podcast at least as of right now is coming. coming live from the Lululemon store at Mall of America city for any last minute changes but it’s on the docket. It’s planned. They know we’re coming. So if you happen to be at the Mall of America or just want to stop in check us out broadcasting live. Please do so.
Anne 28:46
Yeah, we’ll be putting that out on LinkedIn. It’d be pretty exciting.
Chris 28:49
Yeah.
Anne 28:50
Who knows what we’ll be wearing for that one.
Chris 28:52
Yes.
Anne 28:53
Chris are you gonna put some I want to see you like in a full aligned body suit.
Chris 28:57
Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. Does that sound good for anyone Anne. Alright Happy Birthday today to Anna Wintour. Kendall Jenner and Ivan, I must break you Drago. Mr. Dolph Lundgren. 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 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.omnitalk.blog. 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 that
Anne 29:33
And that review by the way, it could just be sub
Chris 29:37
Sub, that’d be great. Actually sub we’ll probably get like 10 Subs
Anne 29:42
But yes, but it is important for you to leave that review so please do it.
Chris 29:46
Please do it on behalf of all of us at army talk retail. As always be careful out there.
Anne 29:52
The omni talk Fast Five is a Microsoft sponsored podcast. Microsoft club for retail connects your customers, your people and your data across the shopper journey to livering 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 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 and 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 silk, the silk cloud DB virtualization platform. It’s 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. 