Anne 0:10
Hello, you’re listening to the Omnitalk Fast Five brought to you in partnership with Microsoft, the a&m consumer and retail group, takeoff, sezzle and silk. Ranked in the top 10% of all podcasts globally, the Omnitalk 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 December 15 2022. Our second to last show of the year. I’m your host Anne Mezzenga.
Chris 0:38
And I’m Chris Walton,
Anne 0:39
And we are here once again to discuss all those headlines making waves in the world of omni channel retailing. Chris, can you believe it’s almost the end of the year?
Chris 0:46
I can’t, I can’t, but I will say nice job with that read this morning. I changed it up on you a little bit without telling you. I forgot to tell you. You’re handling it with a Anne
Anne 0:55
We roll with that.
Chris 0:56
I know I can’t believe
Anne 0:57
Like Steve Winwood right, it’s he’s the one Roll with it baby.
Chris 1:01
That’s a good question. I don’t know.
Anne 1:02
I think it is.
Chris 1:03
And I generally know Steve Winwood songs. Well not really.
Anne 1:05
You seem like a guy that would know.
Chris 1:07
Yeah, he’s a good yacht rocker.
Anne 1:09
Oh, yeah,
Chris 1:10
For sure. Like, he’s better than what Holland notes?
Anne 1:13
No, absolutely not.
Chris 1:15
Dude, we looked at this. It was object objective data in the yacht yacht or not? Like in 69th place or something.
Anne 1:23
You know what I say? It has to stand the test of time if it’s good yacht rock and my 12 year old knows Holland Notes more Holland Notes songs than he does any of the other randomness that was on that yacht route.
Chris 1:34
It’s still Christopher cross till the day I die. All right, but before the show gets off the rails. Let’s get him back. Let’s get it back on. It’s snowing outside. We’ve got like seven inches of snow due, due today? Antics it’s beautiful.
Anne 1:48
I do. I mean, you got to appreciate it. We like it’s i Last we went for like our holiday dinner downtown last night, my family and like I think I’m embracing the holidays now and then you wake up to this beautiful snow and
Chris 1:59
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But on that segue,
Anne 2:04
Yeah,
Chris 2:04
We have a great review to read this week. Because it is quite honestly, it’s beautiful. I love it. It’s one of my favourites. This week’s review comes to us by way of a comment left on LinkedIn and it honestly and it warms my heart to play on the holiday schedule.
Anne 2:16
You’re getting there
Chris 2:17
It came from Joe Nielsen, who had this to say quote, whoa, channelling my channel Joy Lawrence, right? He’s whoa, next level stuff here. I just listened to this podcast for the first time. I’m almost embarrassed to admit new fan and consistent listener right here for sure end quote, which to me is exactly why we do what we do. We try to leverage our background as former retail operators to go to that next level. That was my favourite part. The next level. We try to tell you the headlines what’s important, but also what differentiates us in my opinion is discussing the implications of what those headlines are for the future.
Anne 2:17
Yeah,
Chris 2:30
Thank you, Joe for recognising that it means a tonne to us.
Anne 2:54
Yes. Joe we do work hard on this podcast, even though sometimes we start talking about Yacht rock and what the weather’s like outside. But it is important to us to bring you all of that important retail insights.
Chris 3:06
That’s right. We always have a plan going in for sure. All right, today’s Fast Five headlines are brought to you with the help and support of manifest manifest the who’s whose conference and supply chain is again, of course, for those that have listened regularly, January 31 to February 2 in Las Vegas. If you haven’t yet, you can still register and save $200 on your registration by heading to manife.st/omnitalk. That’s manife.st/omnitalk. Today’s Fast Five news. We got new news.
Anne 3:35
Breaking news
Chris 3:37
Imagine that great repetition. Well, in today’s Fast Five, we’ve got news on Amazon launching its latest social commerce play INSPIRE, which is an ironic name when you think about it. Nordstrom Rack pulling back on its store based fulfilment efforts Walmart providing holiday shopping assistance to image recognition. Amazon’s plans to do away with barcodes, begone barcodes. But first we take off with big news out of Shein, Anne
Anne 4:03
Yes, Chris. That’s right headline number one. According to The Wall Street Journal, shein is exploring moving beyond its conventional business of selling its own brand apparel into a marketplace platform that will enable other merchants to sell directly to customers. According to a memo to investors obtained by the journal. The memo also went on to say quote, the marketplace platform makes available a range of additional merchandise and shipping options and we expect it to result in increased customer engagement and satisfaction end quote, Chris, I know that you love a good shoe and haul here and there. What do you think about this move from Shein?
Chris 4:40
Oh, I got I got I got a lot of things to say about this one. But first of all, what is a memo in this day and age like you know, everyone always says that he’s headlines. According to an internal memo. What is it?
Anne 4:49
What the hell? Right? It’s like it’s not just an email, but
Chris 4:53
Is it something that’s routed like what are those brown folders where you write your name on like what is that I don’t
Anne 4:57
You sign your name. I interrupt first memo,
Chris 5:00
Yeah like is that it and people I don’t know,
Anne 5:02
Oh my God, I hope so
Chris 5:03
I hope so too. But anyway, all right, we digress. I think this move is smart as hell,
Anne 5:08
okay.
Chris 5:08
Because Shein has what so many companies desire that are thinking about marketplaces is and which is why people need to think about them before just committing them wholeheartedly. And that specifically is eyeballs.
Anne 5:19
Yes.
Chris 5:19
Or said another way traffic. We talked about it back on the show in May about how the Shein app was the most downloaded app in the United States
Anne 5:27
Shopping app
Chris 5:28
Shopping app. Yeah, shopping app. Sorry. Yes. Thanks for that clarification.
Anne 5:31
Yep.
Chris 5:31
So similar to Amazon that started down this exact same path, which began as a retailer then grew into a third party marketplace, this move is really shoot for that reason. And all the same companies that sell on Amazon will likely gladly go to Shein as an option. Another option for revenue generation, especially in fashion.
Anne 5:49
Yeah,
Chris 5:49
Where Amazon continues to struggle too. So, um, so net net. I don’t like marketplaces for everyone, but I love it for she and because the traffic is already there.
Anne 6:00
Yeah, I think it’s important to note, like, I think fashion makes sense. And I think they already shein already does some home and some other categories. But I think that they’re gonna have to be careful about what they start to expand the marketplace to first like, I don’t think that you have the product breadth like that you get on Amazon,
Chris 6:17
You don’t wanna be The Everything Store.
Anne 6:18
Exactly.
Chris 6:19
Yeah,
Anne 6:19
I don’t think it’s just traffic, either. We have to talk about I think it’s engagement, because you look at what shein does to get the traffic there. They’re gamifying, the shopping experience to get people interested in the product. You’re voting on product. They’re getting people outside to create content around the product, which we’ll talk about a little bit later with Amazon, too. And you mentioned, you know, people already have this app downloaded on their phone. It’s, it’s more downloaded than Walmart and Target than all these other places that are trying to do marketplaces.
Chris 6:47
Right.
Anne 6:48
I think there’s two other things that I want to watch out for if she does go forward with this move. And that’s one that’s resale, I think you also can start to think about, not only are they bringing other marketplaces, but leveraging the technology that they’ve built to allow resale on the Sheehan platform now, and then being able to offer that to other vendors on the marketplace. And, you know, being able to operate that for them, which I think is really important. And then also, they built proprietary software, so that they’re only making based on what ordering that they’re getting in. And so I think that could be another area particularly in fashion, where if they’re able to sell that like as a software platform to some of the marketplace vendors that could be really interesting to if the marketplace vendors are able to kind of accommodate that make to order kind of setup.
Chris 7:34
That’s really interesting. Yeah, those are all all three of those points are amazing. Like, it just comes back to me like who has the right to win a fashion marketplace?
Anne 7:42
Yeah,
Chris 7:42
They do because of the traffic and the eyeballs and the engagement, like you said, All right. Well, let’s keep growing. headline number two, Amazon is bringing a tick tock inspired shopping experience to its app. According to TechCrunch. The company late last week announced the launch of wait for it Anne Tik Tok inspired where they call it inspire, which quote is a new short form video and photo feed that allows consumers to explore products and ideas and shop from content created by influencers, brands and other customers. And it’s meant to draw consumers attention away from apps like Tiktok end quote, the new feature also has its own light bulb navigation button at the bottom of the Amazon mobile app, and will roll out to select US customers in early December and will become broadly available to US customers in the always fun quote, months that follow. I always love when they drop that. Anne
Anne 8:31
Months come after months. Is that what happens? weeks and months. That’s a That’s how our calendar works.
Chris 8:37
Right Yeah, right. It’s just so funny like this, this totally ambiguous timeframe that gets put in these headlines. All right, Anne I screen shared with my friend John Casey shout out to him who happens to be one of the early testers we are on Zoom and he’s like showing me how this works. Screen shared his phone it was pretty sweet actually. So I got a sneak peek of it. But I’m curious before I tell you my thoughts what do you think of this idea?
Anne 8:58
So okay, Amazon went hard on this app for Prime Day in July they saw success with it. But that’s not that different. Like when you have live video engagements why a lot of brands are going out and hard after live video went hard after live video in this influencer inspired shopping experience other than the full screen video and like the product popups at the bottom of the screen which do simulate tick tock and I think is important if you’re going to like try to capture that audience. I’m not seeing a lot of difference between this and the existing Amazon live portal that they already have available.
And I think that the number one thing for me here is that you still have people going to Amazon with what you say like seek and destroy mission of I want to get something there’s a stat that I got from the best one yet which is one of my favourite podcasts that 25% of Amazon purchases are made in three minutes or less. So you think about the mindset it’s still of the consumer is still going to Amazon for that seek and destroy mission you need Eat it people who are you know, if you really want this to make something of itself, you really need people who are coming for the influencers and to be entertained. And based on some research that I was doing on this, there’s still an issue for those influencers, about the cuts that they’re getting from their engagement on the Amazon platform.
So they’re not getting they’re getting, you know, a very miniscule 3% of the sale or whatever. So there’s no motivation for those big influencers, to move off the platform, or to even dedicate a segment of their time to the Amazon platform, which I think makes the issue here of, of Inspire really becoming this social first destination for consumers.
Chris 10:36
So net net, you’re not that big on this.
Anne 10:39
No, I just don’t think that the consumers mindset is there. And it’s going to take a lot more from Amazon, which Amazon’s never going to give them a bigger cut of sales, nor are they going to give brands a bigger cut of sales to like get people on the platform. It’s just not going to happen.
Chris 10:52
Yeah. And I actually think there’s bigger issues in that the one thing I would say is, I think visually, it does look different than Amazon live when you see it, but you haven’t seen it yet. Because you’re not you’re not available. It’s not not able to see it yet to find a tester that has it, but, but I would go a step further. I actually think this idea is already DOA. I think it’s dead on arrival, because it flies in the face, fundamentally of what social media is all about, which is authentic conversations about everything. Yeah, that’s what gets you on the platform. You’re not going there just to shop. You’re going there to get inspired on everything in life.
Anne 11:23
Yep
Chris 11:24
This is a blatant feed designed to sell you stuff.
Anne 11:27
Yes, exactly.
Chris 11:28
And that is its job alone. So I think it’s going to be limited in terms of traffic in that regard. And then the other part about it say I say I say say you get over that and say there are there is a sub segment of the population that still wants to use it as a way to get inspired by product. The other problem I have with it is it’s always going to be limited in comparison to the other social media apps because I’ll only be showing what is available on Amazon
Anne 11:52
Right
Chris 11:52
And then you get into questions with my seen first party sellers my seen third party sellers How does that work? That’s a channel nightmare too.
Anne 11:59
Right.
Chris 11:59
So I don’t think fundamentally this can get off the ground to any great degree so I wouldn’t be surprised if a few months honestly turns into never
Anne 12:06
Yeah, I mean yeah, I agree. I think we’ll see we may see the the like how they’re doing this unfold in the Amazon live category like maybe they’ll move it to full screen video or something to like try to salvage some of this investment but who knows I think the best is yet to come here for Amazon I’m sorry. All right, let’s move on to headline number three according to retail dive Nordstrom Rack is slowing the use of in store fulfilment to simplify operations and reduce the number of order cancellations so this is a quote from Nordstrom they said quote we had higher cancellation rates there because it’s a little more difficult finding the product in a treasure hunt environment in the stores and quote beyond visibility issues retail dive also noted that Nordstrom said that its buy online pick up in store model didn’t generate the expected profit growth at the discount heavy rack brand. Chris, you were you were a big proponent of this headline this week. Tell tell the listeners why.
Chris 13:03
Yeah, I think I thanks for calling that out. actually appreciate that. I you know, I think this headline is particularly important juxtapose against last week’s article about theft.
Anne 13:14
Okay
Chris 13:14
And the amorphous definitions around it
Anne 13:16
Sure
Chris 13:16
And how it’s being driven at places like Walmart and Target. And last week’s headline engendered a tonne of chatter on social media probably the most we’ve seen in a Fast Five headline in a long time.
Anne 13:27
Right
Chris 13:27
And this headline about Nordstroms opens my eyes to a big aha this week and that haha, is that everything comes with a cost
Anne 13:34
Yeah
Chris 13:34
Everything. We talked about it all the time you and I even in our own business. And much of the costs of store based fulfilment have probably been hidden during the pandemic, when retailers could basically sell whatever they wanted, at whatever came in the door at whatever prices in whatever margins.
Anne 13:50
Yeah
Chris 13:51
And those times are now gone. And so I think what all these headlines are indicative of is that the hidden costs of bopus of self checkout are starting to emerge. And they all stem first and foremost, like we talked about last week from inventory accuracy in store, which is why Walmart’s move toward RFID is now in my opinion, spoiler alert for those tuning into next week’s annual award show is now definitively my headline of the year.
Anne 14:15
Wow.
Chris 14:15
Because I think it’s that important retailers have to get a handle on what is in their stores, or these costs will continue to add up. Yeah, and cripple these organisations. So I’m not surprised at all given how disarrayed the average Nordstrom Rack is that they’re going this direction, because honestly, I would have thought from the get go. This is really hard to do.
Anne 14:33
Yeah
Chris 14:33
How that business model works. Yeah,
Anne 14:34
I’m actually I was really surprised that they’re doing this in the rack stores like sure this makes sense to do to fulfil, like from an records from Warehouse but the Nordstrom Rack stores I was just like, Give me a break. Of course you got to cancel this like immediately, I think until retailers pull a Walmart like you’re talking about which is requiring manufacturers to start adding RFID tags to products. You know, this is this process that no What’s racked been doing that other retailers are doing is a last effort, I think, especially at the rack. Like you look at the effort right now, like it’s hard enough to staff these stores number one.
Chris 15:10
Yep.
Anne 15:11
And then when you think about just the psychology of like, I’m going to take somebody off of a register, where you have long lines. I don’t know the last time you were in a Nordstrom Rack, but it’s like you’re weaving. It’s like, you got to allow at least like 2030 minutes for a line there.
Chris 15:26
Yep.
Anne 15:27
So you’re gonna pull somebody off a register with people who have like product in hands that they want to take out of your store right there to like, keep them from either stocking shelves or to go on a treasure hunt to find like a bogus order for a $49 maidwell. Sweater like no, that seems like a ridiculous use of time. And I just I don’t know, like you’re saying how the economics of this make that work for Nordstrom, or how they’ve been doing it for as long as they
Chris 15:49
Yeah, and you’re part of what RFID is important to because there are some qualifications there. Because just standard putting RFID tags on won’t solve this problem, either.
Anne 15:58
Right
Chris 15:58
Because traditional use case of RFID is you put the tag on the product, and you have a gun and you scan it, that’s great for understanding what’s in your store not great for understanding the location of your products in your store, which in an disarrayed store, like Nordstrom Rack is essential to help your employees do that efficiently.
Anne 16:14
Exactly.
Chris 16:14
The only way you can do that, from my knowledge is having the overhead arrays right in the store telling you where everything is. That’s very expensive, very complicated. You’ll see that very often. Maybe we’ll start to see more of it. It’s something that you probably want to look at given the cost involved here. But yeah, it’s no easy solution. So yeah,
Anne 16:31
Even just knowing though that it’s in your store with RFID tagging would be a good place for
Chris 16:35
Before you promises it to your customer and have it cancelled order,
Anne 16:38
It is somewhere in this physical building, we think
Chris 16:42
Next level analysis, right there. All right. headline number four, Walmart is providing holiday assistance by way of image recognition. And here’s how it works. A coordinate chain store agent, Walmart’s new trend getter tool enables product roles, and enables product discovery through digital photos and images to leverage the solution customers can visit the trend getter.com site, take a picture of an item or upload one from their device, and then wait for trend getter to search and find similar items on walmart.com. Customers can then select and purchase an item in what is designed to be a fast and easy online shopping experience makes total sense, right Anne
Anne 17:20
Sure.
Chris 17:24
You wanted the story. What’s your thoughts on it? This was your headline this week.
Anne 17:27
Because unlike the last story, this falls in the nice try Walmart category, I cannot believe this is how they’re going about it. They have the right ideas for some of these things. The same was true for like the my size model Tech Tech. I use that in quotes that they rolled out. But I just don’t understand why they’re doing it this way. Like you look at this visual search. It’s a brilliant technology. I love it. I think it’s great that Walmart’s getting into this. But why why executing it this way, especially when Amazon has had this technology for years.
Chris 18:03
Right
Anne 18:03
In the app, you can search you know, for anything you want using little camera on your app, and it’s in the Amazon platform, and they still can’t get people who are more tech savvy, I would say than the average WalMart customer. So if you’re going to execute this Walmart, you have to do it in the Walmart app or platform you cannot make who at Walmart is gonna go to trend get her.com and upload it like no way too many steps. I cannot believe that Walmart expects people to download another app or go through another hoop to do this. It is just ludicrous. For a very great idea. But maybe I’m like, totally off the wall here, Chris.
Chris 18:41
No, I think I think you’re 100% Right. Like this, this headline is actually almost laughable in terms of how they’re trying to execute because your point is right, like Amazon has had this it was the very first video we shot in a Starbucks showing how it works in 2017.
Anne 18:52
Right
Chris 18:53
And we still go around the country and ask people how many people have used it and it’s literally like crickets whenever asked that
Anne 18:59
In a retail audience
Chris 19:00
In a retail audience.
Anne 19:01
Yeah.
Chris 19:02
So like your number one problem is going to be customer adoption. And so you’re making this incredibly difficult but the other important thing if I go glass half full on this,
Anne 19:10
yeah
Chris 19:10
It is nice to see Walmart putting their weight behind visual search, which means hopefully others will follow that’s good for the industry. And you know, maybe we’ll get more customer adoption over time because it is a more effective way to find products But your point is 100% right at the end of the day this test the highest likelihood of a false negative on this test now has increased exponentially and that part is sad as hell
Anne 19:35
Yeah it is. It’s like I hate when that happens like why who who greenlit this? Yeah, right. All right. I’m going to cool off let’s go to headline number five. Amazon wants to move away from barcodes Chris for inventory management be gone. According to Chane storage Amazon is quote researching how to automate inventory identification using multimodal identification or MMID. A process which uses multiple modalities of information such as extracting the appearance and dimensions of an item from an image of that item to automate identification end quote, No, I feel like I just read like, the symptoms mean. Like, like, I can’t think of anything that’s appropriate to say right now. But like
Chris 20:19
I know right. But I honestly feel like way more intellectual just from having included that in the show.
Anne 20:23
Oh my god. All right, said Nonnatus Anta knockos, and applied science manager in Amazon’s computer vision group in Berlin, who led the MMID team when the concept was initially developed and deployed, quote, Our Northstar vision is to use this in robotic manipulation, solving this problem. So robots can pick up items and process them without needing to find and scan a barcode is fundamental. It will help us get packages to customers more quickly and accurately. And MMID is a cornerstone for achieving this end quote, Chris?
Chris 20:53
Woah, heavy stuff man heavy stuff,
Anne 20:56
You were pushing for this headline. And I was like, yeah. How do we actually, you know what else to bring back that chatbot thing that, uh,
Chris 21:05
yeah,
Anne 21:05
they have a function in that where you can take what I just read and have it be, like, put in, put it into a second graders understanding. And that’s what I feel like we need for this headline for the audience.
Chris 21:17
We should do that. All right. Well, here’s, here’s why I love this headline.
Anne 21:21
Okay,
Chris 21:21
I think there’s a number of things I love about it. First of all, Amazon has the power to force changes on its supplier network to adapt to what this technology requires. And if it means faster picks, that means more money for Amazon in the long run. So they’re gonna go after this. Then number two, when I think about this even longer term, say 10 to 15 years out. Is this this my question now? Is this the eventual precursor to a fully automated and re stackable store via robots and just walk out technology? It’s a potentially conceivable idea this date?
Anne 21:50
Yeah
Chris 21:50
I think so it’s really fun to think about. But in the short term, I think it’s still probably drives a tonne of efficiency and cost savings in warehouse operations alone. So it makes sense that Amazon is looking at it.
Anne 22:00
Yeah, I agree. For your dear first point, I think we’ve already seen Amazon forced CPGs like tide, for example, to change how their product is packaged and shipped. The sellers and CPGs. And brands cannot get off of Amazon. So they’re going to have to comply to your first point. And your second point, I want to bring back Nonnatus Antonopoulos. His comments are Northstar vision is to use this in robotic manipulation solving this problem. So robots can pick up items and process them without needing to find or scan a barcode is fundamental. It will help get us packages to customers more quickly and accurately. And MMID is a cornerstone for achieving this. That does not make me think that this stops at Barco
Chris 22:38
Oh, really? Why?
Anne 22:39
No, I think it just is like robotic manipulation. Like no, they are trying to be able to take these stores and figure out how they can have robots doing just about everything in that store, so that they can make them more efficient.
Chris 22:52
Yeah you’re right. That’s essentially what you’re talking about. It’s a great point because you’re saying like anything that result revolves involves excuse me, a human is trying to be eliminated.
Anne 23:00
Yes From the but I’m going this is not you thought we were gonna get through a hole Fast Five without getting to an a&m put you on the spot question.
Chris 23:08
Oh, God, I forgot about that.
Anne 23:09
I’m flipping it in here, too.
Chris 23:10
Oh, oh, she’s gonna make me go on this one.
Anne 23:13
Yes,
Chris 23:14
Oh God.
Anne 23:15
So a&m CRG wants to know, Amazon’s desire to move away from physical bar codes is enviable and perhaps inevitable, but what do you see as the merits of this MMID approach versus RFID? Is RFID. The clear front runner or will there be some sort of blu ray HD DVD format war in the world of inventory management sometime over the horizon? I forgot about blu ray.
Chris 23:39
Oh, I know Right. Blu ray? Yeah, it’s so crazy.
Anne 23:42
Good Throwback a&m.
Betamax, VHS. All right.
So what do you think, Chris?
Chris 23:46
Wow, first of all, unbelievable question. I’m not I’m not ashamed to admit it. I might get over my skis very quickly on this one. And I might need to phone some friends for help in answering this on social media next week when we put this out. So Jonathan Dakin, Ted McCaffrey, the RFID, Sherpas, Marshall and JP, if you’re listening, please chime in and tell me what I’m getting right and wrong. But here are my thoughts really quickly. Fundamentally, I see this as a very different approach versus RFID. So I think it’s a little bit of apples and oranges, one for for a few reasons. One, this approach that Amazon seeking could be ubiquitous across all product categories.
Anne 24:21
Yeah
Chris 24:22
Because it’s multimodal base, whereas RFID still has limits across some product categories. So I think that’s important factor. Two RFID, like we’ve talked about still requires a requires a potential scan in the process. Yes, similar to what Amazon is trying to avoid with this idea. Similar to like we talked about in the Nordstroms headline before, either from a handheld scanner or an overhead array, which as I said, also can be quite expensive to deploy. Anne here’s the other point. There’s also probably some latency in that when you’re talking about pick accuracy, versus just tracking and product location. Yeah, versus the human just being able to do it right at shelf, you know, done. So that’s important. and cost savings like we talked about. So lastly RFID also still requires a label to be added to the product. And the way Amazon is describing this, it could be potentially handled just through standard packaging requirements over time.
Anne 25:11
Yeah
Chris 25:12
So that’s why I think there are three selling points here relative to the use case of RFID for this situation RFID still has many other use cases that we’ve talked about on the show that are also important but I think this is a very different use case than general state RFID in my opinion Yeah, so guys prove me wrong
Anne 25:27
And you think that you know pro robotic automation here this is going to this is going to change things Amazon has the power to do this, which they do over any other I mean, no other retailer could do this maybe Walmart but
Chris 25:39
Well, I think so. I mean, the the big unlock is how do you get robots into restocking? The actual physical stores over time and so like, you know, this is long term though.
Anne 25:48
Yeah.
Chris 25:48
10-20 years out,
Anne 25:50
Hopefully.
Chris 25:50
But maybe this is a technology than the lochsa Yes, I’m gonna present
Anne 25:53
Oh man. All right, Chris. Let’s get to the lightning round. All right, bring it on home. Chris. According to Morgan Stanley record numbers of young adults are live who are living at home with their parents are helping drive the boom for luxury goods in the US and the UK. Because they aren’t burdened with a necessity expenses like rent and groceries, barf. What luxury products Chris would be enough for you to move back in with grandma omnitalk in order to afford
Chris 26:18
oh god that is so easy. My it’s just laundry. I just want I don’t even want to buy a product I just want to have I want to move home so my laundry can be done again like somebody else can do my laundry.
Anne 26:29
Oh my god
Chris 26:29
I do so much laundry every weekend. I got to the point where I’m on a daily Anne I’m on a daily like laundry. I’m doing a cycle of laundry every day. Every morning I wake up I take it out of the dryer and I fold it i that is the only way I can keep up
Anne 26:41
I feel like you need to just shift to the mindset about laundry like maybe that’s your zen moment for the day.
Chris 26:46
It kind of it actually has become that my peaceful like activity
Anne 26:50
Yeah
Chris 26:51
to sort out the world and put order into it amid the chaos. But yes, I would gladly give that up to anyone. All right. McCormick’s recently released its flavour of the year Vietnamese by Cajun style seasoning. A culture class a culture crush, excuse me of ingredients.
Anne 27:07
Yes.
Chris 27:08
Cayenne and paprika in classic Cajun tradition. And lemongrass, garlic and pepper corn. Customary in Vietnamese recipes.
Anne 27:18
Are you sexing up the
Chris 27:21
I doubt anyone listening who thought that sexy
Anne 27:24
No they did not
Chris 27:25
Is this deserving of your next chicken wings rub
Anne 27:28
Oh my god. Yes.
Chris 27:29
Really.
Anne 27:29
It sounds amazing. I grew read the definition of this and I was like I cannot wait to replace the two gene that I used for Misha Latos and put that on well put it on everything like basically I it’s taking over Frank’s Red Hot Sauce for me like put that on everything. This spice sounds incredible.
Chris 27:47
To Jean by the way, it’s my most dirty word that actually isn’t dirty. But look for that you’d I can talk about that later. Let’s just oh, it’s your turn.
Anne 27:55
It’s my turn. Chris lids just launched lids hat drop in Queens New York. Were in store shoppers will be the first to access and buy exclusive hat releases at 11am Eastern time each Friday an hour before the products drop online. According to lids. Chris I want to know what lid would you get to the lids hat drop store to snatch up before it goes on sale online.
Chris 28:20
Funny yiu would ask oh my god. No funny you would ask that question because I was watching the departed recently. Top five all time movie by the way
Anne 28:28
okay.
Chris 28:29
And in it Leo wears a black Boston Red Sox hat with a green bee
Anne 28:33
okay,
Chris 28:33
I was searching voraciously to find that on Black Friday at somewhere and I couldn’t find it. So if they reintroduce that as a drop give you in the stores.
Anne 28:41
Okay. All right.
Chris 28:42
Yeah, it’s pretty.
Anne 28:43
I feel like that is an appropriate drop. Like, for sure. Probably not in Queens, but
Chris 28:48
Probably Nine Queens. Yes, yes. Yeah, I’d probably get hurt very badly. Alright, last one. This a great one too Patrick Dempsey recently sent social media all aflutter when he posted a picture of his newly shorn locks. Having reviewed the picture in question. Are you pro shorn McDreamy or con
Anne 29:04
I’m not a fan, Chris.
Chris 29:05
Really?
Anne 29:06
I I think one of the most handsome things about a man could be a long lat long locks, flowing locks. And this man has been blessed with beautiful hair. Why in the hell is he cutting it? He’s like, older, he’s older and a lot of men don’t have the privilege of having as much beautiful hair as he does. And now he’s gonna chop it all off. Why?
Chris 29:28
Wow. I thought he looked pretty good. I gotta say, but that man has aged better than almost anyone. So follow up question. Who has aged better Paul Rudd or Patrick Dempsey in your mind?
Anne 29:38
I mean, I guess I have to go Paul Ryan.
Chris 29:40
Paul Rudd.
Anne 29:40
Yeah, I’m more of a Paul Rudd fan than then Patrick
Chris 29:44
Paul rudd’s technically a little younger too. We have to look that up on the show. All right.
Anne 29:47
We will fact check that
Chris 29:48
Well that wraps us up happy birthday today. Wow, that was a fun episode. Happy Birthday today to Super Girl Helen Slayer, Slater, Slater, Slater, wat, Appa Tao and to the man who made wearing suits with rolled up sleeves and nose stocks look much cooler in the 1980s than they ever should have been the great Don Johnson. And remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business make it Omnitalk. Our past five podcasts is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week’s top news. And our twice weekly newsletter tells you the top five things you need to know each day. And also feature special content exclusive does and it’s 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. Next week is also our last show of the year. A&M CRG’s David Ritter and David Brown will be joining us for our 2022 award show. So you’re gonna want to tune in for that. So until then, and in on behalf of all of us at omnitalk, as always Be careful out there.
Anne 30:46
The Omnitalk retail Fast Five is a Microsoft sponsored podcast. Microsoft club for retail connects your customers, your people and your data across the shopper journey delivering personalised experiences and operational excellence and is also brought to you in association with the a&m consumer and retail group. The a&m consumer and retail group is a management consulting firm that tackles the most complex challenges and advances its clients people and communities toward their maximum potential. CRG brings the experience tools and operator like pragmatism to help retailers and consumer products companies be on the right side of disruption. And takeoff, takeoff is transforming grocery by empowering grocers to thrive online. The key is micro fulfilment. Small robotic fulfilment centres that can be leveraged at a hyperlocal scale they got also offers a robust software suite so grocers can seamlessly integrate the robotic solution into their existing businesses. To learn more visit takeoff.com And sezzle, sezzle is an innovative Buy now pay later solution that allows shoppers to split purchases into four interest free payments over six weeks. To learn more, visit sezzle.com. Finally, silk 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