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Hello you are listening to the Omni talk Fast Five brought to you in partnership with the A & M Consumer and Retail group, Firework, SPS commerce and Sezzle. Globally the Omni talk fast five is the podcast that we hope makes you feel a little smarter but most importantly a little happier each week too.
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Today is April 6 2023 I’m your host Anne Mezzenga and I’m Chris Walden and we are here once again to discuss all the headlines Making Waves in the world of Omni channel Retailing.
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We are here once again to discuss the top five most important headlines from the past week that highlight how the physical digital and human elements of retail are evolving to shape the future now Chris, yes Anne we are in a hotel room we are in a hotel room we tried not to be in a hotel room uh in fact this is my hotel room for anyone interested but uh yeah we tried to be outside.
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I don’t know I don’t know we got a ceiling fan rotating in the backyard we tried to be outside in front of a sculpture of an autoran yeah we did because we’re at the Monterey Hotel Monterey Plaza Hotel and Spa yes right and Spa right you’ve nailed it for the Seattle classic Summit there was a sculpture of a sea otter right behind us and the Wi-Fi didn’t work no so we had the quick scene change we’re here quick scene change we’re here but this conference has been so amazing we’re in Monterey California.
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Yes one of the most beautiful places in the entire world I joke every time we come here but I swear this is like the movie sequence that happens when somebody dies do you like see water crashing against the rocks and like it’s so beautiful here like I hope this is this is your Nirvana this is your vision of Heaven this is like you know when they when you’re like where’s your calm place like man this is it you know what my vision of Heaven is what getting to talk to the a m consumer Retail Group which we are going to do?
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Today it’s my favorite monthly podcast every month the a m consumer Retail Group joins us couldn’t be more excited and it died tonight today I could I could talk in retail in the afterlife that’s my goal. Let’s do it uh well let’s give a warm Omni talk welcome Chris to Truitt horn and Jeff Dwyer of the a m consumer
Retail Group sure Jeff. I’d love for you both to introduce yourselves to the audience um true let’s start with you great good morning Anne and Chris good to see you again um.
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I’m Truitt horn I’m a partner in the Alvarez and Marcel consumer and Retail Group and a lot of my work revolves around large-scale change and driving growth particularly around marketing areas marketing Effectiveness Etc so looking forward to digging in on those topics with you today and sure this is your second time on the Omni talk fast five is that right the second time some veteran now so they let you back that you must have passed the test time you let me back so we let you back if I don’t get invited again I know today didn’t go great so sure we’ve got some stories for you for sure yes we do we’re gonna ask true to go back to his childhood and that’s right we’ll end that yes I was I was specifically talking about the retail related stories.
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Oh yeah yeah we might cover some details too yeah but also we’re going to make you flash back to Childhood I’m an open book great perfect that’s what we need for this podcast uh Jeff tell the audience a little bit about you this is your first time on The Fast Five yeah long time listener first time caller uh I uh I am Jeff the wire partner out of our Chicago office uh my background’s kind of heavy Finance Corporate Finance side of the world um I specialize in office of the CFO services with the uh uh with the Pan Am consumer Retail Group amazing wonderful we are so thrilled to have you both on the show today um.
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Chris why don’t you tell the listeners what we’ve got in store yeah all right let’s do this in today’s Fast Five we’ve got news on Lululemon reportedly putting mirror up for sale a looming Port strike ShopRite placing digital large screen TVs within its check Lanes a new recycling program from Petco but we begin today with news out of Walmart that I’m not gonna lie in it’s kind of a Victory lap for me oh God we love we love I love Victory anytime we can we can set Chris up for a Victory lap on the podcast is a good one uh well.
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Chris headline number one according to CNBC yes Walmart has sold bonobos to whp Global and expressed for 75 million dollars a Walmart purchased bonobos back in 2017 for those of you who need the reminder for a whopping 310 million
dollars while the company was under the stewardship of former e-commerce president and your best friend Mark Laurie yes uh terms of the dealer such that whp will acquire bonobos Brant the bonobos brand for 50 million dollars and express will get bonobolos’s operating assets and related liabilities for 25
million dollars uh Jeff that’s that’s one heck of a write down uh.
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We we’re so glad you are on the show Finance guy I know perfect what went wrong here and what lessons should we all be taken away yeah like anytime you’re writing down a quarter of a billion dollars it’s not a it’s not a win um that’s a quote of the show already coming in strong Jeff look I think it was an odd acquisition on the front end to be honest with you I think it it uh it’s it the the bonobos brand was pretty hot before the Walmart acquisition uh and unfortunately I think they cheapened it actually while they were trying to figure out how to make 100 plus chinos fit kind of within their overall portfolio um on the flip side of that I actually do think that this is a win for Express as you as you noted before you know getting these this brand these assets for uh for 75 million dollars almost feels like a steal given it’s a 200 million dollar uh plus business so.
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There’s there’s incredible synergies that I think the brand has coming into the express portfolio and more importantly their ability to grow their showroom presence and kind of store within a store opportunities will be will be another great compliment especially as you think about the express menswear compliment that they’re they’re trying to aggressively go after um it’s a clear winner for for one of the two and uh in a pretty clear but pretty clear loser for the other one yeah Jeff I completely agree with you like I I actually think this is a really big win for Express when you think about Express trying to become more relevant as a brand to the Next Generation audience.
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I think bonobos is a great way for them to be able to do that and like you said it you know 25 million dollars they’re getting all the assets for the expresses and I mean that seems really cheap actually I suggest point it seems like a really great value deal for them right it’s a great experiment for Express but um or true what do you think about this what are your thoughts do you have anything to add here
yeah I think Jeff did a great uh job explaining it I think it’s a really great asset for Express um and I do think there’s a theme perhaps in the show today with Acquisitions go going wrong um brings us back a little bit to what is the Strategic intent of an acquisition do we have the core competency to derive the value out of it or not um.
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and I think we’ll have another example here in a minute that the answer was no as well yes yeah I agree um no Chris before I get to you for your rants I mean I think we’re going to pick up an Iran you already know I’m in Iran so I’m gonna you’re warning everyone we’re gonna close it up with you I mean my question is like was this ever in what world was this acquisition going to work I mean they they still remained completely separate Brands which I think was the the issue here like there was like if you go to the bonobo site still today there’s no mention of like leveraging any of the Walmart assets like return to a Walmart in case you ordered this and you live in Arkansas not you know New York City and you don’t have a bonobos down the street like there’s no no value coming from their partnership that I could find in in the last few years but Chris I’m gonna hand it over to you oh yeah well you’re really setting me up here.
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What what yeah I’m gonna dial it up to 11 here right for me yeah I mean we’ve
talked about this before but this strategy was uh it wasn’t honestly it was an effing joke from the very beginning and um and to me and I’m gonna be very Point pointed when I say this it actually shows me how little Mark Laurie knows about e-commerce and I know that’s hard for people to hear and want to believe but it’s true I mean he talked about this acquisition from the point of view of building a stable of Brands to get more traffic to walmart.com but why do you need to spend 300 million dollars to do that you already have a Marketplace just plug them into your Marketplace at no cost you that’s how e-commerce works well especially coming from diapers.com like why why are we looking at the Practical additions to the marketplace versus is like something that is completely separated from the wall what the Walmart customer is is accustomed to 100.
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and it’s it’s the same fact it’s the same thing with Moosejaw which they divested a few weeks ago as well you’re you’re going to the high-end retailer space you know nothing about that space it adds no value to you could have easily plugged them into the marketplace in the same way so this thing was a hundred percent doomed from the start to answer your previous question and I’ve said that I’ve been on record saying that for a long time and so I think it’s just I hope people are listening because it highlights a lot of questions about what do people really know versus what do people sell that they know in the marketplace buyer beware yes buyer beware um all right let’s move on to headline number two Chris all right Ann Lululemon is reportedly looking to sell mirror the fitness startup it purchased in 2020 for Believe It or Not 500 million dollars yeah according to Bloomberg mirrors Hardware Sales have missed Lululemon’s projections and took in almost too crazy to believe 443 million dollar impairment charge on.
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The mirror business in the fourth quarter quote we don’t comment on rumors or speculation a representative for Lululemon said in a statement as previously announced we are shifting the focus of Lululemon Studio from a hardware-centric offering to one that is also focused on Digital app-based Services going forward the work is underway and our strategy will enable us to create long-term value and build a larger community of guests with a deeper connection to Lululemon end quote so true you kind of tease it up before but my question is pretty Frank on this too what the hell went wrong here and did Lululemon really just spend 500 million dollars on what sounds like the 2020 equivalent of the shake weight or the Ab
Roller plus I mean the Ab Roller at least did some work like you actually got some Abs from that there was Hardware you know all those are sitting on used though and somebody’s like garage or storage unit well.
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I think the only thing worse than losing a quarter of a billion dollars is losing half a billion dollars so we’re we’re kind of creatively growing here until we’re raising the bar um I think there are several issues with this I think one is very clearly uh purchased this at the peak of the market uh we call us on down 90 since about the similar time frame in terms of their market cap this idea that pandemic related behaviors and we’ve seen this in in almost every instance we’re going to hold true post pandemic have just been Unwound and ultimately those expectations of failed I think the second thing is you know why did Lululemon need this to add a lifestyle you know or service too.
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The Lifestyle brand which I really do think they are one of the few lifestyle Brands amazing brand very loyal following what they pivoted doing now is its classes and other features within their app which can be done I think fairly lightweight more programming don’t need the hardware don’t need all the IEP that you’re buying from something like mirror you could have done that you know they could have done that on their own despite of it and then you know the last thing I think it does go back to what we just described which is what is the intent why do you need.
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This asset to achieve uh your corporate goals and in this instance I think it was probably leaning in just too much in terms of what the trajectory of the business was at the time versus how does this really fit in with with our strategic objectives and so it is a failure from the start they’re paying the price for it and even you know their little limit will continue to be successful so 500 million dollars is a pretty breathtaking amount of money to lose in such a short amount of time for a company of their size yeah it’s kind of nuts and you brought up an interesting point too you were you were talking to me yesterday we were walking to get a burrito for those that are interested yeah um you were talking to me about some of the Dynamics of the actual physical substrate of the hardware they purchased in relation to say Peloton or tonal like what was your take there I thought that was a really interesting point you were bringing yeah.
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I mean I think Truett said it really well like I think it was a total like land grab like the pandemic was happening it was like people were shifting to in in like working out in their homes and so this was an acquisition that seemed right for the picking for Lululemon at that time but the difference between mirror and what essentially makes it obsolete right now is that there’s no hardware and there’s no reason that tonal or Hydro or any of the other it’s not a piece of equipment you mean right is that what you mean a piece of a hardware yeah like a piece of gym equipment right it’s right it’s a mirror yeah it’s just a mirror scene like tonal has other components to it that fold into the wall that allow you like you have the Peloton bike or tread like you have hydro the rowing machine all these things you actually have something that you you are you are able to do you can work out with it even if you’re not using the programming now you just have a screen that’s in your house.
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That basically has no no utilization or actually is just better utilized on your
phone when and where the consumer wants to exercise so to me it’s like the equivalent of the LaserDisc we’re going to look back on your computer and be like what did we create that for like what was the purpose of that not nothing nothing at all and I just I think like we talked about in The Last Story with Walmart and bonobos you can’t just purchase something drop it in your store and expect the Lululemon consumer especially in this case to just be like oh yeah I’m jumping on.
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I want to know what mirror is like you have to have a better strategic plan I think for how you’re going to bring that to your audience yeah I think that’s a great point and we like I personally like this acquisition when I first heard about it but I think that’s the point I missed which is the point you’re bringing up is like what is the actual Hardware substrate that you’re buying right relative to the the overall industry and how the industry is moving so I that’s that’s like the kiosk like why why are you having kiosks in stores right exactly uh Jeff.
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What do you think anything to add here yeah look I think I think they’ve found out some of the themes that you hit on Hardware in-home workout Hardware is hard yeah it’s really really like that’s hard too right yeah exactly it is really difficult to
win in that space yeah uh into Anne’s Point look I think I think this business just goes away I don’t actually think they sell um I think this business is Obsolete and one that they’re gonna have a hard time monetizing anything from um but yeah it’s it’s I’ll take it just to hockey analogy I think you know look skate to where the puck is supposed to be not where the puck Puck is and I think they skated to where the puck was at the moment for for uh uh for covet unfortunately yeah right the other thing I would add too is I think because I think there’s two parts of this story actually in retrospect there’s did they just buy the wrong thing which it sounds like we could argue yes it seems like they did then I would also argue that.
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They tried to implement it the wrong way too so have they even bought the right thing to implement it the wrong way too which is your point and like you can’t just drop this into a store amidst you know amongst people shopping for apparel and think it’s gonna work you can’t just build it and hear people come right you need to set up a direct sales approach with this and it seems like they didn’t contemplate that at all or the resources are going to be required to make that successful as well especially during the pandemic when this thing should have been going gangbusters too if it was a good idea so so I think there’s two lessons here like what are you buying.
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And then how are you planning to incorporate it into your Mainline business is fundamental to think about it I just kind of feel for them like the pandemic was crazy and everybody was trying to figure out real quick right yeah obviously from the last two stories but anyway all right let’s keep rolling let’s go to headline number three The Wall Street Journal is reporting let’s go to more bad news yes my God headline number three The Wall Street Journal is reporting that there are renewed fears of growing work stoppages at West Coast ports according to the journal Jonathan Gold vice president for supply chain at the national retail Federation said importers are increasingly concerned about a series of targeted labor actions that have disrupted major ports while in contract talks between employers and Dock Workers approached the one-year Mark with little sign of progress and importers got a taste of poor disruptions last week when Dock Workers in key positions failed to show up for shifts of the nation’s busiest container Report complex at Los Angeles and.
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Long Beach on the evening of April 6th and into the next day effectively shuttering operations for 24 hours don’t want your operation shuttered man no my favorite quote if you read this like if you do you should go in and read this in its entirety but my favorite quote was like the debate of whether or not good Friday was a holiday like they actually like some one side was like uh well we would didn’t show up because it was a holiday and they’re like uh this is never been a holiday that we seems like something that she seems like something that should be written into the Union contract for sure very explicitly okay but we have Jeff here yes I have to imagine your retail and CBG clients are asking you about this what in the world are you telling them how should they handle this yeah look I there’s I think there’s going to be some some continued disruption and by the way these you’re right these these headlines are uh are
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Just a page right out of fields like 2007. um but no I think it’s a description the disruption is inevitable in terms of of kind of the current Administration and and their strong support of the unions I think the question that we have to answer and ask for our customers is how long uh what impact and and really what do you do to
mitigate so look I think we we’ve kind of pulled internally within crg what do we think the actual likelihood of of.
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Some disruption leading to a strike and I think we’re leaning on you know better
than a 50 50 shot shot here that there is uh some some meaningful disruption in the port I think the good news is the level of imports that we sit here today versus what we were at uh five years ago is drastically different dramatically different as retailers still work through um some of the over inventory positions that they’re in carrying into this year the question that I have is is is this disruption going to extend into the holiday season uh and and then you have a a period of pinch point that can become meaningful so what we’re advising I think is is being a little bit
pragmatic about we still are over inventoried uh do we have opportunities to uh to carry certain certain uh skus or certain uh pockets of our inventory that has higher higher turn bring it in earlier carry a little bit heavier as.
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We think about uh uh coming into a tumultuous holiday season if this thing extends with anything that’s longer of a strike that makes sense yeah but it’s a slippery slope I would say you know bringing an inventory on in a market where you’re already over inventory isn’t really the great answer so you really have to be targeted in terms of what you’re where you’re going to over invest in in a short amount of time and Jeff my question for you too is I mean there was talk when this when we were having all the the backup at the ports last year there was talk about starting to shift more manufacturing to the US are you seeing your cpg and brand clients looking more into that or is that still you know a difficult thing to do when you have a price conscious consumer yeah you know it’s it’s uh uh I won’t name the company but there’s uh one of.
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One of my very close it’s actually my my cousin-in-law owns a large e-commerce retailer and he’s actually moving a lot of his apparel-based sourcing to Mexico um so whether it’s it’s U.S or North America I think is is he’s trying to take a little bit of the bite out of of the inconsistencies that he’s seeing with either Freight charges or or just Freight fulfillment uh and so trying to kind of get his mix right in terms of how he’s thinking about sourcing product within um either on a boat or or over over a truck right yeah true it anything you’d add here what are your thoughts the only thing I would add is if we’ve learned anything from the past two years it’s that disruptions and in the supply chain are inevitable and so hopefully um you know what we’ve discussed with our clients is just being flexible redundancy um having multiple options in terms of getting you know product from International markets to DC to store it’s going to be.
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You know important going forward and this disruption doesn’t seem like it’s near what we’ve experienced in the past couple years but there will always be these types of incidents that pop up and um getting you know let’s not get caught footed again right yeah Chris what do you think after hearing what Jeff no I think I think sure it sum it up well there to me the this is nothing new honestly like I can remember Port strikes going back to like 2003 I think with The Gap like that long
ago around 2002 2003 seeing the you know the ships in the bay there you know lining up and you’ve seen pictures like that over the last two years too so the playbook’s been written in my you know from my point of view so like everyone’s looking at contingencies they’re trying to figure out what to do you know the important thing for me is just say I feel for everyone involved because yeah.
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You know when you have to go through a year like this if you’re in planning an allocation in a retailer or supply chain functions your job just sucks and these guys jobs have sucked for the past you know three years and now this is going to potentially add to that so I feel for you guys out there and I do and uh yeah yeah
coming at you between this and social media changing your planning and allocation at the last minute like man you all you all deserve a a nice happy hour it’s a tough job all right before we get to headline number four this is the part of our podcast where we also tell you about another great retail conference Ann and I are planning to head to this summer and that is home delivery World home delivery delivery World great emphasis on home there are only eight weeks left geez eight weeks.
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Wow time flies they’re only eight weeks left until the doors open for home deliver every World USA 2023 the largest event for e-commerce retailers Grocers cpgs and 3pls in the U.S it’s happening this June 14th and 15th in Philadelphia 5 000 people will be walking the exhibition floor that will also be filled with over 350 exhibitors and 250 speakers and then I will be monitoring panels from the show and also live streaming from the show floor courtesy of our friends at openforce thanks to them for helping us to do that so don’t miss out tickets are limited get yours before it’s too late just head to terrapin.com home delivery world you need more emphasis terrapin.com home delivery world to get yours today oh boy headline number four ShopRite is piloting delivering in-store promotions via in-store TV is this kind of more of an uplifting story this is we’re getting
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To the uplifting part of the show yeah truth this is where I was like Truitt this one was made for you a coordinate chain storage ShopRite one of of Wake Forest banners is deploying a 32-inch front-end digital TV display from grocery TV and a select group of stores in the New York City metropolitan area and plan to continue rolling out the solution across more locations in its Network the article also goes on to add that ShopRite intends to utilize the displays both as a messaging medium and also to help reduce perceived wait time at the checkout and that the displays
can be bought programmatically have full video capabilities and can Target audiences on a national or Regional level true it retail media networks are all the rage so my question for you is this what examples have you seen of retailers working to effectively bring them to life in store.
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And is the ShopRite effort here a step in the right direction the floor is yours thank you so yes retail media networks very exciting um the buzzword of 23. so it is very
fast growing industry as you know there’s a lot of estimates in terms of how big it is 100 billion dollars either now or the next few years seems to be the consensus so I think it’s great for retailers to explore this and what you’ve typically seen is this done digitally on on you know uh retailers websites and displays and pdps and those types of things lower funnel to drive conversion with customers it is less obvious in store and so although I love you know a for effort with ShopRite the question I have is how do they gain buy-in improve.
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The return with their suppliers from doing this um and it feels a little bit closer to
me to traditional advertising NCAP signage and POS signage Etc how do you
know who the customer is how do you attribute a sale to the message of these screens and there’s a reason I was actually thinking you know your question was what other in-store mechanisms have you seen work well I really struggled to
think about what it was in store because so much of the volume is online because of the attribution factor and so um I think this is a big question mark to me we’d love to see how to would evolve I would love to visit a Thor and see it myself but um a for effort we’ll see if the return is there and if um if the players flood to this type of marketing approach yeah that’s a great Point that’s why to me like as you’re saying that I think one thing.
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I think about is like mobile scan and go shopping is made for the in-store media Network you know to be able to understand the attribution through and
through but Ann what do you think here like do you like this no I mean it confuses me because yeah I guess to me this is no different than like playing a TV commercial because at that point in time like I I like true it’s saying like
I’m really curious what kind of sales they’re able to attribute to these
screens especially at checkout like yeah how are they how are they showing and are Brands even seeing Lyft because of this because it seems so late in the game I know they talked about like people will see them as they’re like going up and down the aisles but are you really paying attention to that when you’re in the store no like I’m on my phone trying to look at my grocery list like making sure I got all those things subconsciously yeah I mean so it just seems like passive like if I’m if I’m a
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Brand like is this any better than just buying a TV spot really like anywhere else in the store so for me you know I’m there is you know Michael Pollock the CEO at grocery TV who was quoted in this article yeah wow so before yeah a long
time ago but yeah he he seems to think that there is something to this I wanna so I I think it’s worth exploring but I really want to see like to me it’s like the Shelf scanning cameras and like cracking people like SCS Omega tags doing or even like cooler screens that are like yeah right that’s a good example in the store environment and they’re able to see I saw this ad for tide on the Coca-Cola cooler screen did that person make the the journey through.
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The POS data later yeah like that’s where I think that power in the in the in-store signage is is living yeah I feel the same way like I I love this story for like what it could be yeah but I don’t love this execution of it like and I think you guys are right like the point of putting this at the checkling just seems like the wrong spot it’s too
late because it reminds me of like when I was doing cashier training for my store manager yeah role at Target like I spent a day doing cashier training one thing they impressed upon us is never ask the customer if they found it if they found what they were looking for right and so like you serving me up an ad at that point in time is right is that exact same idea yeah like it only leads to frustration and then if I see something I like I’m gonna piss everyone off because I’m gonna be like oh go get.
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That for me and you’re gonna have to wait in line and all that kind of stuff so just doesn’t seem right so the ideas that we’re throwing out there seem like a better better place to me to invest the money but Jeff let’s give you the last word on this you agree with us anything you’d add here yeah you’re not exactly where I was going I think you’re going to be limited to impulse buys at the register versus anything that somebody’s going to re-navigate themselves back through the uh through the store to to do the treasure hunt I think for extreme value retailers like ShopRite it’s look they’re trying to screen value right they’re trying to be a little quiche and and trying to get that that uh that perception ingrained in their customers heads but I I’m right there with you in terms of the location of these screens and and what they’re trying to accomplish I think is is a mess it’s a good point though impulse shouldn’t be discounted though like you there’s still a lot of volume that gets.
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Created through those check lanes and you know Sim cat your gas station and uh you know I think the gas station in lc2 is a really good one as well like you know you got them at the pumps those must be working to drive people into the pump so could that same behavior happen at the grocery store I might have flipped on this as we’re talking but I think the cool thing is it’s cool to see somebody’s trying it
we don’t know where this is going to go but it’s exciting to think about like I don’t know I I think if you’re gonna make the investment in putting the TVs in like is one single category of impulse enough to justify the investment when we start to look at scaling that out to more grocery stores it isn’t the pump though you know but anyway let’s solve this for another day but wow that was a great conversation there’s a lot of angles to that great uh all right.
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Let’s go to headline number five Petco has launched a new recycling pilot according to chain storage Petco in partnership with Trex the decking company uh it says that its customers can bring in non-curbside plastic waste such as used shopping bags and other plastic film to Petco stores for recycling Petco stores will also recycle their own materials shrink wrap from pallets can cases small bag dog food Etc um all with the goal of diverting incremental plastic waste from landfills the pilot is currently in approximately 40 stores and Petco hopes to expand the program to additional areas with the Trek’s partnership Network in the future and estimates that the pilot could divert nearly 40 000 pounds of plastic waste with the potential to grow to approximately eight hundred and sixty four thousand pounds it’s very specific it’s right when the program is expanding.
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Yeah right okay Truitt I’m gonna go to you first on this one Chris and I are out here at the uh lifetime theater classic Summit and everyone is talking about sustainability um it’s an outdoors industry conference so that makes sense but it does present some operational challenges I’m curious you know I know there’s so many of your clients probably working towards these sustainability goal or you know eliminating carbon footprint by X year what are you advising them to do when they’re trying to operationalize and and really just achieve these sustainability goals yeah where should they start yeah so sustainability look at the topic that is extremely important and will you know can remain important so I think finding your angle as a retailer or a customer I mean a company more generally super important I think the first thing it really does come down to credibility and.
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Authenticity and you know what we found through consumer research and worked with other companies is you have to actually align it to something with your corporate Mission and it has to be believable and if it’s just kind of a marketing campaign then that is literally the worst case scenario and if you know consumers are pretty Savvy and they found out about that so that’s more broadly I think every company should have a sustainable angle in their their mission and vision I think when it comes to actually product and commercializing it this is I think honestly very difficult I don’t think we’ve seen a lot of good examples of this this working where there’s a commercial benefit and it aligns to the mission I mean there are certain examples Lululemon bringing them back in they had a plant-based nylon this week that they announced that’s interesting is that one SKU or is that something.
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That they’ll actually have platforming based on that would be very interesting and I think aligning with you know their sustainability goals that they’ve outlined for 2030. so I just to me it’s um it’s it’s important to find your Niche it just has to be grounded in something and hang together with something bigger than an initiative or a press release or marketing campaign not saying that that this particular instance Falls in that category but I think that’s the watch outs we have yeah Jeff how about you I mean what are you telling clients that this has got to be top of Mind especially especially curious to get your financial input here like how are we it costs time costs.
32:29
Resources to be able to make this sustainable I remember trying to do this at Target with Veronica and Dante she and I were working on sustainability on store of the future like that’s a challenge that they have to face how do you how do you lift this to the priorities when it does cost retailers quite a bit to do yeah well I think what Petco’s done here is is trying to offset some of those costs that are the harder costs with with bringing traffic back into their store um so you know one of the things that is so attractive about uh this strategy is is that customer thought process as they engage within the ESG Marketplace so the the benefit that uh there’s a benefit to burden obviously with ESG the benefit is it is so wide and and Broad and wide
open for these these companies to engage in in more um you know practices that are aligned.
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With their mission vision statement um however I think there’s there’s a lot of times in reticent to just do certain things for the buzz or the media um versus to Truett’s point the end goal which is ultimately are you doing things because you’re just a believer of it and it’s at some cost um or are you doing things just to check an ESG box and and try to try to say that you’re an active participant yeah Chris we’ve been talking about this a lot and I know you you had some some ideas that sprang to mind as we were thinking about this related to what Jeff’s saying about getting customers into store yeah I mean I think there’s a couple points like one and this.
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Definitely was the topic everyone was talking about it and the point that stuck with me was when somebody said yesterday if your CEO is not out actually lobbying Washington for sustainability goals they’re not that company is doing lip service on their sustainability issue initiatives which I think is something important to think about and I have no idea I have no idea to the extent that I co is doing that so I’m not going to comment on that but I think it’s just important thing to think about and evaluate as you’re looking at retailers to decide where do they all stand but I think back to Jeff’s point I like this because it simply answers the question that is the fundamental question and why we do this show is why am I coming to the store to begin with Yep this is one possible reason and so if you can measure the traffic impact
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You can figure out a financially responsible way to do it then I’m I’m all for it and it also got me thinking like it’s my Merchant hat now and like why do we have recycling days like why aren’t those branded activities at Target at Walmart at name your retailer where people come in and they recycle their products we have sometimes you have like car seat trade-ins and things like that but why don’t we just have recycling days bring in your phones bring in your batteries do all that you
know what I mean like it just seems like a completely missed opportunity on The Branding side especially these repeat like traffic stores like Target Walmart and Petco like it totally makes sense I I also wonder like why are we tying us into loyalty that’s a very easy thing to do like Target can you give you know your extra five percent of people bring in recycling materials I mean yes it adds some operations challenges up front but you know those kinds of investments will continue to bring people into store into the store and continue to get
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People to be looking and you’re all given to charity just divert the money that way right so yeah fascinating all right let’s close it up you guys we’re going to the lightning round we need all right through it first question is going to you uh we’re gonna take you in the way back machine Mattel and GAP announced a new collaboration debuting with the Barbie inspired apparel line just in time for the new movie release this spring which of your favorite childhood Brands and current favorite apparel Brands would you most like to see collaborate it’s a very very good and interesting question so some of my favorite childhood characters were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles oh wow all right so I think it would be very I’m not cool enough to wear the but I think it would be very cool if you had a collab between them and Levi with like a denim jacket with a couple of the the you know
turtles in the back Raphael was my favorite yeah didn’t you have like a cut off sleeve like denim jacket that he wore in like the in the in the oh I’ve actually did you see how did your body.
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wow really I love teenage mutants no I was more of a Leonardo girl but you know it’s okay so that’s what you want you want that true you want like important is there a embroidery on this jacket too I feel like yeah exactly yeah it has to be embroidered but I think that’d be pretty cool awesome all right I know Ann’s it on that one all right Jeff Chick-fil-A is planning a new clothing collection to highlight its seven sauce flavors Jeff what sauce would you most want emblazoned on the front of a t-shirt that you were to wear on a Saturday first off I don’t know if anybody’s cool enough through our church jacket that he just referenced from the initial one I couldn’t pull that off no no that would be tough uh look I I think you know as a as a big Chick-fil-A connoisseur uh my uh my go-to would be the zesty buffalo sauce uh the the Chick-fil-A sauce that.
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They that they have that is the Special Sauce it would be a close number two um but I would like to see zesty buffalo on Just for um was it just say zesty or would you be wearing a sweatshirt that essentially just says zesty Buffalo who is that I think I have all kinds of connotations and I love it yeah I I’d probably do a front and back type thing zesty on the phone oh nice I love it I love this special sauce too that’s a great yeah too yeah for sure um okay Jeff back to you for question
number three Men’s Warehouse unveiled wedding wingman a digital tool that helps Grooms and groomsmen pick their wedding attire I want to know what chore in your life do you wish you could enlist a wingman for yeah it’s it’s I don’t know if it’s a chore as much as it would be farming out uh to Do’s uh but I would love I have two young kids and I feel like I’m taking them I’m they’re just glorified Uber driver so if I could Farm out yeah the Uber driving to uh to a wingman or wing woman uh that isn’t my wife so that.
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I actually can can get some benefit out of it it would be a home run all right the personal driver 100 all right sure let’s close it out McDonald’s said it plans to bring back the Hamburglar Truett What fictional character from your youth would you most like to see come back to life and no you cannot say the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles again for this answer all right well I would love to bring back the entire Sandlot baseball team oh yeah they don’t look the same and that is probably the issue that is one of my favorite movies and brings back amazing memories you know positive childhood memories any particular character you would like to see more than the others um the kid I don’t remember his name but the one with the really big glasses the really dorky kid who got the girl at the end yeah yeah I like them got to go with Smalls you got to go small all right and you got to go with the Omni talk retail Fast Five that wraps us up for today happy birthday to Clint Howard Jessica Lange and the Irreplaceable George McFly Mr Crispin Glover and the Dad Dad yeah Dad yeah Crispin Glover.
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Okay I don’t know about Irreplaceable but oh he was so good in that movie all right but remember if you can only read or listen to One retail blog in the business make it Omni talk the only retail media Outlet run by two former Executives from a current top 10 U.S retailer 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 comes with exclusive content that we make just for you and we try really hard to fit it all within the preview pane of your
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With you or anyone at the a m consumer in Retail Group what’s the best way for them to do that yeah we love to connect so there’s really two ways one is our website which is Alvarez and Marcel Dash brg.com or you can check it out check us out on LinkedIn Alvarez and Marcel consumer Retail Group just type that into the search and you’ll find a awesome well Jeff Truitt thanks for being with us on behalf of them the a m consumer and Retail Group and all of us here at Omni talk retail as always be careful out there the I talk Best Buy podcast is brought to you in association with the a m consumer 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 Firework firework is the largest video Commerce solution built for the world’s leading Brands they Empower brands with shoppable and live stream video on their own websites where people like to shut up put your Commerce in motion with
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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. 