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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 ranked in the top 10 of podcasts 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 June 8th 2023 I’m your host Anne Mezzenga and I’m Chris Walton and we are here once again to discuss the most important headlines from the past week that highlight how the physical digital and human elements of retail are coming together to shape the future Chris and yes do you know what today is oh my God we’re singing already it’s your stroke I know right anniversary do you even know what song I’m singing right I do not I have no idea Tony Tony remember quick I do know 20 20 but I can’t I don’t know that song well I just think basically the entire song is just that over and.
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Over again well thank you for that yes yeah yeah you know what you know what I’m gonna do on my stroke I think all stroke patients should do this but I don’t think they do I think they should go swimming on their stroke of History yeah and they should do all four strokes of the Olympic uh competition you know the breaststroke the bad stroke backstroke the butterfly the uh what’s the other one there’s another there’s the freestyle those are Strokes right I think I think that would be the place like a more is this like a play on the word stroke yeah of course it is yeah of course it is yeah I thought you’d pick up on that play faster than you did but okay you got a little bit of a night last night I had a little bit of a night we’ve had a little bit of a day too and I’ve got a garage sale going on out in the front house rubbing our new podcast Studio yes we’ve referred to affection last week as the attic it’s not padded turns out it’s not padded it’s warm in here and it is a.
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Little like um I was gonna say dangerous mind what’s the Beautiful Mind Beautiful Mind oh right it’s a little beautiful mind-ish that’s pretty funny actually yeah uh we got coziest fluff behind us if you’re watching on video as well so uh so yeah I’m ready to go and we’ve got we got trade shows Galore coming up in the next three weeks too yes we are going to be at Rice next week at home delivery world next week yes at Commerce next the following week um and then before we know it gonna be time for grocery shop I know and we’ve got a whole host of sponsors helping us with our work out there so we want to thank avalara yep at Rice yep open force.
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And Home Delivery world and also um uh at Commerce next we have viral yeah as well so cool cool new startup doing some cool things in the video space so thank you to all them for their support make sure you check out our podcast that we just released this past week with avalara with Meg Higgins of avalara um and Sharon gee from Bigcommerce and feed anomics that was a great great episode scares you about taxes Anne scares you about taxes tax man off your back end oh that’s what I learned and then you have Wendy Greenland from open Forest yeah she like I had so many people emailing me about her yeah and.
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Sending me messages on LinkedIn about that because it was so like powerful she’s just really impressive um and the work that open force is doing is it’s pretty cool it’s the first time ever for those that haven’t listened to it yet first time I’ve ever you any one of us has used the word murder in a podcast so you’re going to want to check that out you mentioned this part no no no no no in any podcast we’ve ever done yeah it’s like a little true crunch yeah it’s a little True Crime but it’s it’s it’s got some Intrigue some mystery it’s a great podcast you’d never expect it when you’re talking about retail Tech but but it brought that for sure all right and you mentioned grocery shop well yeah I got big news today and yeah today’s Fast Five headline read is brought to you in partnership with grocery shops coming up and I are excited to share some news about this.
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Year’s grocery shop with all of you they’re introducing a new component to their 2023 event which might sound familiar and it’s called Meet up yeah I’m not surprised to do that huh just like their sister event shop talk grocery shop is opening up their networking program to all of its 5 000 attendees and expects to host an incredible 25 000 meetings in Las Vegas this September it’ll be their biggest event yet and we’ll be there so come we meet with us yes we’ll be live streaming so much stuff going on the SCS and mag attack Booth once again our favorite partners for all the shop talking grocery shop events and you can learn more at grocery shop.com
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In today’s headlines and we’ve got news on Walmart connect expanding its in-store ad formats yes Petco’s new flagship store in New York City foxtrot opening its largest store to date instacart rolling out chat GPT search yes but we begin today with big rumors out of Amazon and you know when I was at my uh event last night people were asking me what like they’re like what do you talk about on your show and I was this is the headline that everybody was most impressed by so I’m just gonna like people who are not advertising people who are non-swing sales this was the headline that they thought was mostly so tell us what it is it’s Chris Amazon is said to be looking to offer free mobile phone service to Prime members according to Bloomberg Amazon is said to be negotiating with Verizon Communications Inc T-Mobile us Inc and Dish Network Corp to get the lowest possible yes I know um all in the hopes though this is important of offering Prime members Wireless plans for ten dollars a month Chris or potentially free to bolster loyalty among its best customers um Chris are you in alignment with the people I was talking to you last night you’re like wow this is actually that would be a pretty big deal that really surprises me because you know it’s a bunch of AD creatives like I’m surprised this of all the stories that we we just I’m not spread out like is like the big one but I guess yeah it’s a big.
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Advertising play right um yeah I mean to ask your question to me this is like let the battle begin I mean Walmart plus and Prime it’s on yeah we had pet care two weeks ago we got mobile phones today and yep so I have no idea what the economics of this thing look like absolutely zero yeah absolutely zero but I don’t care because strategically and from the consumer side of it I love it yeah it’s a great move and because I say that for one reason only a mobile phone is a necessity at this point right yes and one of the carriers that Bloomberg calls out and that you point out but they say that they they really need this deal like they’re really hot for this deal as a Dish Network yeah which happens to run Boost Mobile right which as most of you probably know caters to a younger teen and a younger adult audience and so that is squarely what Amazon Prime needs to keep growing its subscriber base and it also caters to a lower income demographic which probably also isn’t in Amazon Prime subscriber base so it’s a smart move when you put it in that context I’m just waiting for Walmart now to do something very similar or up the ante again in two weeks from now or next month or whatever yeah but but you can’t beat mobile I mean I think I think what you said is so important we you know your mobile phone is the utility it is not a luxury this is a utility nobody has landlines anymore like it’s I would say if you if.
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You assessed in your life like these are things I can live without which you have a very Discerning customer right now who’s starting to look very closely at those things especially in the demographics that you mentioned the phone is the last thing that you give up and when you look at how much you’re paying for a phone right now you know for most people I would imagine like anywhere between 50 to 100 a month and you can get a Prime Membership on in addition to that like this big your Prime membership is now a necessity yeah and that’s what I think is so powerful about this we also heard from Amazon this week like they’re adding the GrubHub partnership back into Prime Membership like they’re just it’s gonna be back and forth with Walmart and Amazon really trying to push and doordash and some others too but like how do you how do you maintain that subscription get more subscriptions in a time where people are gonna start looking and start making some edits right that’s why I have no idea how the economics of this work yeah like Prime.
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And giving them a free monthly membership like how much would they be paying to the to the mobile carriers for that right or like or maybe they’re going to be a small surcharge which is still a great benefit for the Prime customer I think even ten dollars right right but so I’m surprised they actually let free out of the bag and someone I know I know this is amazing all right wow that’s cool I had no idea that that headline was gonna the energy and excitement that they’re already nobody is operating nobody is awake from my my advertising reunion yet so nobody haven’t even gone to sleep yet no nobody’s gonna be listening to this for several days so it’s not that big a deal but not up to them though yeah all right headline number two this is my favorite of the of the five headlines we’ve made this week Walmart connect Walmart’s ad division has added some new ad features to its in-store marketing programs.
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According to retail diet Walmart has introduced two new features to be exact yes the first has to do with in-store sampling demos which Walmart plans to augment with quote QR code to carts that can link out to customwalmart.com landing pages end quote so explain basically what this is is that instead of just getting a coupon after you have your wiener wink like we talked about with the free ask a couple weeks ago now you just scan a QR code I I guess that’s something that’s happening which I’ll talk about we’ll talk about that I’m sure I just want people to understand because it sounds really like glamorous it’s an important designation.
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Dorothy is giving you the wiener wink and then she’s saying go to this keyword with a quote QR code which I didn’t read that very well either but the second yes has to do with Walmart’s in-store radio network okay which who knew Ann is present in all of its U.S locations Walmart is experimenting with monetizing this in-store radio network that again is present in all its locations including Sam’s Club and its distribution centers and they’re going to monetize it through audio messages that can be targeted at specific stores or regions of the country the format is built as again quote non-intrusive way a non-intrusive end quote excuse me to catch Shoppers attention as they are browsing the aisles and there are some pretty interesting things here what do you think of radio ads playing at your local Walmart in addition to the QR code scan I hate it you hate it I know we’re going to disagree wow yes I you know what I don’t I’ve never.
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Noticed before at Walmart I know radio going on in the background me neither there’s a lot of hustle and bustle going on yeah you know what I’m going to notice now and be incredibly annoyed by are you advertisements and it’s going to make you stop shopping there I don’t know but like yeah right that’s the thing is it going to make me stop shopping there possibly like look at how annoy like look at radio in general like radio went away because and when people are going it still exists but radio exists because they don’t want the ads and now you’re gonna take my already frenetic Walmart shopping experience and you’re going to add ads on top of it no thank you this to me I think is unfortunate because I think that it shows yes you know are any of these tactics new in-house like in-store display ads you know interrupting my Spotify playlist if I don’t pay for the subscription like yes that’s this needs of all these ideas have all been around.
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Before but what it shows me is that I think that retailers are starting to care too much about building their retail media networks and making money off the retail media networks and they are caring about the customer who’s shopping in their stores I I actually Dougie Doug you hear this one this is good well I just I think you have to be careful about how much you’re throwing in your customers faces like it’s gonna be it the way that people are talking about stuff like we talked about cooler screens a couple weeks ago like it’s going to get to a point to me Chris where it feels like the the entry like the scene in um oh my God it wasn’t Mission Impossible what’s the movie The Time Minority Report we’re like you’re going in and there’s just all these screens like barking at you but at least the screens for the most part right now are not talking to you and that’s my thing with the radio like I don’t need more noise in the background I I’m the.
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Screens can Flash at me and like promote an ad when I meant checkout or whatever if you want to do that or on the cooler door but I do not like this at all but why do you disagree with me interesting so uh interesting so I first of all I I wanna I’m gonna go back your point about radio is interesting though but I think I don’t think that that that’s associated I think more of what we want to consume On Demand is change which has led to the to the the the what’s the word I’m looking forward to the to the this this Evolution I can’t think of what I’m trying to say here to the to the decline yeah fine yeah that’s fine.
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Radio I think it’s more like the on-demand viewing because you still listen to podcasts when you drive or whatever and there’s still ads in that yeah I skipped them yeah in advance because I hate them all right okay yeah right okay that’s a good point as people do with art okay so so but I I mean okay let me get back to the story so like I I was the first when I first read this headline I was like this is so dumb okay we have to talk about this okay so stupid the QR code thing which you rightly called out is absolutely nuts like that I mean it’s not nuts it’s fine it’s just like this isn’t that big of a deal though like this just sampling went the way of digital which it should but I thought I was gonna go on a massive rant about how like you’re forcing a digital interaction when the consumer doesn’t want one nor do you need one in that experience yeah like there’s no point to it other than trying to capture the first party data which goes to your point of like you’re forcing this retail.
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Media connection this party data yeah stuff too much yeah so which I so 100 with you I think that that that headline is just flat out I don’t like that at all but the radio thing I really like I really like it because because the ads can be sold on The Impressions that are available inside a store and Walmart can understand how much traffic is coming in the store there’s Technologies out there that can be yeah and so having that understanding is very very powerful to the advertisers and the other thing about it that I like is that they can correlate it directly to the sales impact yeah versus like a billboard ad where you can’t and that’s it’s harder to do that right you’re just seeing that now here I can put the ad and I can over some period of time I can say look this is how many people after hearing that ad inside of 30 minutes or an hour purchase that from the register at Walmart at that exact time that is smart that’s.
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Powerful and I don’t think it’s that different than like back when we were kids again the old is New Again hey we’ve got a special price on beef chuck roasts yeah but we all went away from that because it was terrible because it was hard to imagine you couldn’t validate the value of it you just had people doing it like on the Fly you had schmoes like me probably who’d get up on the mic and be like hey guys you hear about this I’ll snow on eggs today you know yeah like that’s not gonna work but this can be very smart very stylish and targeted the other thing I love about it yes Amazon it’s a way to reach customers from an advertising perspective that Walmart I’m sorry that Amazon cannot do yes they don’t have stores and Target to your point will never do it yes because it’s not their brand people will still come and Shop Walmart and it will drive sales and it will have an impact that’s my take okay I disagree but we’ll see what happens I think it’s going to have a negative impact Doug I hope you’re listening to this I do I agree with you it like all it totally makes sense from an advertiser’s perspective but I think.
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This is a very advertising retailer customer section all right glad I couldn’t remember the word decline for some reason and on my stroke aversary that’s that’s that’s frightening oh it’s okay it’s okay worse things could happen um okay foxtrot this week opened up its biggest store yet according to c-store dive the store is 6 000 square feet which is nearly double the average size of a normal us convenience store chain and is located at South First and Annie Street oh my God I have my own Street in Austin yes Annie Street in Austin Texas the store also features an indoor outdoor covered patio in addition to an all-day Cafe along with locally sourced food and beverage options and is open from 7am to 10 P.M every day yes uh foxtrot it should be no noted currently.
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Has 27 locations across Illinois Texas Virginia Maryland and the District of Columbia Chris um this was like a last minute like eacon to the Fast Five uh but what caught your eye about this why do you think it deserves a place in the in the Fast Five I like this story too this is another one of my personal favorites today yeah I know we’re in the next one was when one you fought for a lot which I think we’re gonna get probably one of our biggest arguments of all time so wait for that folks um I like this story because it shows that Fox Trot foxtrot is growing at a really good clip you know they’re in four or five states already depending on how you want to classify Maryland and DC yeah argue that’s the one state or two states I don’t know what’s their fighting words through areas I know right but and the other part about it shows they have the guts to go bigger.
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Yeah I mean it tells me that their concept is working and that doesn’t surprise me at all because we visited their store in Dallas last year we shot a video out of it you can look for it up or look it up on YouTube um it’s a really well merchandised experience yes that is still to this day unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the marketplace yeah and the best way I could describe it and I was thinking about this last night is it’s like if Target Whole Foods and Starbucks all had a wicked drunken Menage à trois the night before yeah and this is the love child offspring that came out of that now who’s the father and the mother in that Menage à trois I have no idea but it doesn’t really matter to drive the point home but that’s kind of what it feels like it feels like a mix of those three things and it’s super cool it’s still well merchandise I love it congrats to them for the big opening I think you forgot like Etsy and Total Wine it’s been orgy now I don’t think I
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Think it’s gone beyond a ménage à trois this is now like a retailer orgy and you because you forgot about like the gifting portion of it and the wine and beer selection that’s in there like really great so very well curated High School wardrobe and it’s a saturnalia a what a saturnalia I don’t know what that’s another word for an orgy oh God I don’t want to know why you know that but no I think the points that you bring up is very important uh not about the saturnalia but actually just about the assortment at foxtrot like it is a millennial Mecca I think it’s really exciting to see where they’re gonna double the size like that was the only thing missing from this article for me is like what are you doing with that extra space all of the contents of that store are available for delivery within 30 minutes so are you adding to back of house to support that delivery business since you really get to know your customers in that area is it more about like being a place to hang out to like sit and have food and do your shopping while you’re there like I just want to see where they continue to expand and.
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I’m also curious to see as they as they get bigger and they open more locations if they add more Tech to this because it is the prime like size right now for some kind of like hybrid or autonomous checkout store for the rest of the store so I’m curious if that’s on the radar anywhere there to kind of further amp up the experiment especially when they have such strong like early movers early adopters as their core clients that’s interesting point too you know we don’t talk about this enough on the show too because we talk a lot about tech but you know part of the reason Amazon is struggling with physical retail is because people don’t just want a good operation in a physical individual no they don’t care about they want they want something that entices them they either want an experience or something of value to them and so as despite I think your calls are good like how do you continue to put the tech in and make this place operate better and stronger which I’m sure they’re looking at but at the end of the day it still comes down the fact they’ve got great merchandising yeah it’s a great Vibe it’s a great setup and that’s what matters most when you start talking about physical retail right I don’t.
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Think we talk about that enough yeah I mean it’s why Amazon Fresh is stalling you know like exactly what you said like the assortment has to be right you need to you need to have a reason to go there besides the fact that it’s convenient yeah and the convenience bar is so the the tables aren’t the table Stakes for convenience are so leveled now too yes everyone’s doing it about the same right especially when it’s around the corner right for sure all right headline number four has opened up a new flagship store in New York City and shout out to Mrs Ebert from my English class and that’s where I learned that word saturnalia according to chain storage why I don’t know I just remember that word okay 25 000 square foot store houses a full Suite of experiences products and services were hitching for a full service Veterinary why do I always get the veterinary reading I don’t know about the hospital dog training part here are some of the big highlights yeah the store includes a just food for dogs all one word kitchen which is a gourmet kitchen featuring trained chefs preparing small batch human grade pet meals formulated by veterinarians there you go and made with.
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Fresh whole food ingredients it also has a roofs Barber Shop good job which is the store’s Pet Salon that offers grooming services tailored to specific needs as well as a dog self-wash station I’m curious as hell to see how that works and also Petco love adoptions and I know I know bottoms your heart which are year-round cat adoptions yeah as well as other adoption events with local animal welfare Partners replete with an on-site photo booth that allows pet parents pet parents to capture the moment they welcome a new pet into their family so Anne in addition to this story giving us all warm fuzzy feelings you fought really hard for this this week like really really hard please tell the audience why well it’s not so much about about Petco although we have to give a shout out to Jenny wolsky who’s running right now on her team listening to this about the tremendous job that they did like it looks incredible they have levels they have like leveled up experiences they’ve got they brought in services and products and it’s it’s like created this beautiful space for pet.
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Parents and their pets to go like hang out it’s a destination it’s not just like uh I can cross these things off my list get my dog food but the reason that I really like this story is because with all the news this week also which we didn’t cover in the Fast Five about the Bye Bye Baby pending sale I thought it’s amazing to me that this experience has not been done in baby like I think I think there’s so much opportunity like you look at the pet market right now pet industry and services the business in 2022 was 137 billion dollars the baby industry in 2021 for you know all apparel gear all the things was 214 billion dollars in 2021 so you have the market there I think you have the opportunity to make you know this a place for moms who met on Peanut to like come together and meet or postnatal like support groups prenatal support groups.
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Like learning and doing demos I mean almost everything that you’re doing like having a Minute Clinic there for baby checkups like all the things that they’re doing with the dogs feel like they could be somewhat relevant to a baby experience and I’m surprised that no one is doing it so if you’re yeah at Babies R Us in the new initiative or bye bye baby if you’re thinking about buying them like I think you should be looking at Petco interesting and interesting um okay so we’re gonna get a pretty big kerfuffle on this one but first I do want to yeah I’m curious about the Petco thing in New York City we had to pick up Safeways in in uh in uh San Francisco I wonder if yeah pick up Petco’s in New York City with all the dog walkers going into the the stores you know and like trying to meet meet others pick up like for a date yeah I thought you were talking about like a product I just like the alliteration okay pick up Petco but anyway all right back to the kerfuffle I 100 disagree with you Anne okay I don’t I don’t think there’s an opportunity.
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There at all so and let me ask you two what age range of kid are you thinking you’re building this experience for what and and the moms like moms of what age range of kids I would yeah I mean I think that’s a good question we talked about this briefly but I would say like probably up to like five so like toddler up to toddler age okay good all right so that so that’s my point so like here’s here’s the big thing it’s like to me that’s why the analogy was sounds like it makes sense on the surface to me is a little bit flawed and the reason I say that is there’s four million bursts a year yeah okay so you take five times that’s 20 million kid 20 million that’s assume yeah that’s assuming no one has two kids in that age no Mom has two kids.
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No Mom or Dad has two kids Wanna Be make sure that we cover that so you contrast that though with the 120 million U.S households yes which according to Forbes 50 of them have dogs yeah and another 30 of them have cats yes okay so that’s an S load more people that have cats and dogs not to say anything about fish hamsters guinea pigs yeah so you have a different Market size and they live longer than five years yeah so there’s more opportunity for them to come in and the replenishment Cycles are different the other thing about those numbers you read probably half of that volume yes it’s prenatal stuff You’ve Got Gear the breast pumps the car seats I think over half was apparel baby apparel it probably is and that’s the other thing too and it’s apparel so the problem with that idea is that you need.
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The reason to come into the store and so at at the postnatal side of things there just aren’t those hooks to get you into the store other than feeding and diapers yeah and for the most part you can get those by going to another trip like either Target or Walmart or your growth or or your grocery store and then also like those services that you mentioned like like the the analogies to veterinary services or pet grooming they just aren’t really there for the kids like I mean I guess you could put a minute clinic in there or like ear piercings like you could put all these for a five-year-old yes for babies there’s tons of babies that get their ears pierced I guess I mean but I guess it just there’s a reason it hasn’t been done I think yeah and I think it’s because it’s hard so that’s my take I think there could be a there there but I think when you get down to it I think the market size is a lot smaller the addressable Market says a lot smaller than I think we probably realize does and it sounds good on the surface but I’m just I just can’t get there I can’t.
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I just I think as of as I’m arguing that much no as a mom who really something you want desire these services and as somebody at Target who worked on thinking about the mom who’s Desiring this connection I think that it’s it’s an opportunity I think it’s an opportunity I think pekko did a really good job of executing that space so yeah that third space for pet there definitely is a way to reimagine the baby shopping experience Beyond bye bye baby yeah 100 and that’s my favorite category we ever that I ever ran at Target I loved it so that’s why I’m so passionate about it too but what else is a nice nice little like yeah greeted disagree moment agree to disagreement wow we’re getting too too nice to each other Anne okay well maybe we’ll change later on um I’m just hungover still so I think that you just got me on a you didn’t get.
26:37
Me on my best quickest day um all right Chris headline number five instacart has begun rolling out chatgpt based search so according to the great Catherine Douglas Moran at grocery dive instacart announced Wednesday it has begun the rollout of an artificial intelligence powered Search tool that leverages chatgpt called ask instacart the tool allows customers to find products as well as recipes food prep tips and more using quote natural language and quote instead of keyword based searches companies said the new capability will scale to all U.S and Canadian consumers over the coming weeks Chris this is also the a m put you on the spot question so I want to hear what you think of this okay I also want to ask on behalf of a m they love the the applications of chatgpt and Retail including this one that instacart is doing here but they want to know in uh our opinions knowing that the chat GPT uh is still that chat GPT is still developing and has its Kings how much will consumers give the AI leeway for imperfect execution or does a retailer need to get this right first time to create a retain adoption which I think is a really good question yeah that’s a hella interesting question actually um you know for me that’s really crazy like for me the trickier part is actually getting consumers to search like that to begin with yes on the instacart side absolutely regardless of.
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How it works I think just getting people to do it because like for example I I was born away I was talking to Mrs Army talk last weekend I was I was like I was fooling around with chat TBT I was texting you I’m away all the time yes and she’s like what are you doing I’m like I’m screening I have the same response and she’s like what is that oh he said the same thing huh Mr Omnitalk said the same thing no I was I was saying the same thing what are you doing stop texting me these these like people people reading Irish omnitalks I was putting our podcast in an Irish accent it was really fun but anyway but she had no idea what it was so I think that’s what’s that’s what’s really going to the good part about this is and that’s where I think the interesting opportunity here is is so I like Chachi VT has the really big opportunity in front of itself to get the first mover Advance here like Google had in the day because none of us knew what Googling it meant was and we talked about this in our Microsoft interview that’s coming out in a few a.
28:47
Few weeks which is a good boost for that yeah which if you haven’t seen it 1500 people have already registered for that we’re talking with Microsoft’s David Leibowitz and Seb uh Reeve from uh Nuance about all the applications for AI and retail check it out you can go on LinkedIn you can sign up for it but we talked about that like he was kind of saying like that’s not gonna happen I was like well I don’t know what happened with Google like you Googled it so I think you could chat GPT the same way yes so that’s the question for me here now Behavior wise do I think there’s a there 100 yeah you know give me a recipe that meets these criterias costs this much or you know in the apparel world I got this this event that I want to go to I want to see these color of dresses or these colors of jeans or yeah means in these sizes it just makes sense to shop that way instead of having to pre-fine or pre-select all these defined filters for you which don’t always work yes so for that I love it and so I think it’s just a question of of how and when and I think the only way to do it is like instacart is doing is to experiment with it and the race is now on yeah instacart doing this signals that this is now going to happen right and commerce is going to change because of it yeah I I absolutely agree I mean you use the Google It example I’m even coming back voice like look at when Alexa came about or Google like people learned how to use that but I think that to a M’s Point that’s where it fell short like it was still not primed for shopping like it was not add this to my list is one thing but like it was a terrible experience if.
30:14
You wanted to actually shop for something and I think that people are going to start figuring out this this Behavior certainly the next generation will become so well versed in it and as people I mean again it’s only been around for six months so as people continue to apply this in their daily lives to and to their work like environment I think that people are going to start this is just chain gonna start to change the way that we do our shopping for the exact reasons that you want like I want to I want a recipe for dinner what can I have for dinner tonight I don’t want it to be what we had last night and I don’t want it to be where we’re going for a reservation this weekend like right all of those things are like or I want to make dinner for a friend for under fifty dollars send me recipes like all of those things are able to serve up and engage with you to like eliminate things right away it’s an idyllic way for the consumer to end up shopping and especially I think for the instacart Shopper the other part that I think is important for our listeners is as a brand or retailer you really have to be focused then on how you’re going to keep up with this how you’re going to start writing your you know keywords and your metadata for your products to support this kind of search which we also talk about with sub.
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And with David and you’re going to need to start applying your own AI in those cases because as again I’m bringing up this advertising reunion I had last night but like one of my friends who’s a wonderful designer her son’s going to school to college to be a copywriter and designer and she’s like why are you doing that the robots are taking over like this is the worst career you could get into yeah but she’s kind of I mean she’s kind of right like no copywriter human can keep up with the metadata that’s going to be required to respond to your consumers at the speed at which instacart now as it can as more people start to adopt this are going to be able to require data to be uploaded like it’s just it’s not possible so I think that’s my tip is for retailers is like you really need to be putting some time and effort into what your approach and strategy is going to be around this yeah it’s a great point you know who’s quaking or boots in who or roll it over in the grave Mrs thebert in my English class because having screwed around with.
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chatgpt for the last couple weeks oh my God students would love this thing oh it is is an amazing benefit to students yes I don’t even think you have to study anymore you know like you just write a paper with the thing it’s crazy how good it is all right and let’s close this Garg show up all right Chris uh let’s go to the lightning round Apple introduced Apple Vision Pro their VR slash AR glasses that they’ll be selling for nearly four thousand dollars next year I want to know if you’re gonna ditch the Oculus and you’re gonna get yourself on a waiting list to get yourself I’m not kidding on this one no I’m not I just why I can’t they look cooler they I I guess a little bit but I just I don’t want something like that on my head most of the time like I just I don’t want that experience it would have to be like so game.
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Changing yeah and we’ve talked about this before I just don’t until it happens in one particular industry yeah I don’t know if it were right across the hurdle there yet Fair all right this might be one of my favorite questions too I think I said that every week but Jimmy Dean intentionally intentionally placed misspell ads outside of last week’s Scripps National Spelling Bee and without looking at the screen from which I am reading this yes please spell this year’s winning word semaphile can I get a country of origin no you cannot well then I can’t spell it correctly what can I get a definition no you cannot I have no idea what I think it has something to do with plants actually it’s like a it’s like a I did look that up yesterday I think it was like a species of plant or or often around some type of furnace I don’t know and I’ll look it up for you as you’re trying to figure well that okay because then I’m thinking like chlorophyll so the spelling might be like s-a-m-o-p-h-y-l-l oh that’s pretty good.
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And the correct answer is p s a m m o p h i l e I got out on the word aluminum when I was in the spelling bee and I will never forget how to spell it and it brings back this is bringing back those like various you know bad memories because I got out on the word cholesterol I can remember that too I was in the second grade I got out of cholesterol ah and that’s crazy you and I can both remember yeah I bet people but if you were listening and you got out of the spelling bee I want to know what word it was you should shoot us a message on LinkedIn all right Chris uh Wegmans Food Markets plans to close its two level supermarket at Natick Mall in Natick
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Massachusetts later this summer because they could not get the traffic that they needed what is the last thing that got you into a mall Chris oh wow let me think about that while I’m thinking about that let me tell you what a semaphile is the semaphile is a plant or animal that prefers or thrives in Sandy areas and weird weird all right the last thing that got me into a mall fiori opened up a new uh oh uh or fiori open up a new uh store in the Mall of America and so I I went there with Mrs amitak on Mother’s Day okay checked out the white gym shorts which you know I’m a big fan of the white yes yes and the White’s always nice and uh yeah that’s what got me into the mall I like them all the mom’s buzzing in it’s yeah it wasn’t yeah all right nine years ago this week on June 6 1933 yes the first ever movie theater opened in Pennsauken New Jersey yeah and what was your most memorable Driving Experience what was playing and who were you with David’s question yeah I mean the dragon was definitely Titanic.
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Because it was such a long movie and I did actually go to it one time but I I’m staying with my parents who are going to listen to this right now so this is really I’m sure they’re gonna love this but I definitely said I was going to that movie at a drive-in that was like an hour out of town so that I could extend my curfew and go to Titanic which is three hours long so basically gave me four hours of freedom to did you go by yourself the Titanic Oh God dork I’ve had lots of friends well that was part of the question I said oh who do we go with oh it was like groups of friends we had like somebody’s Minivan and people were like hiding under the seats you know under blankets so that they didn’t get charged so there was like two of us going but there was like 20 was it a minivan or a van with like the stepladder on the back of it you know oh like a conversion van no it was a minivan like an astro uh oh my God remember that we’re a Toyota Previa no I think it was a it was a Ford Windstar for oh yeah or is it the arrow stuff yeah yeah somebody Stars yeah there were a lot of minivans back in the day oh my.
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God they were the best I can’t name any of them wow this is a just a walk down memory lane I know I know all right happy birthday today to boss guys Kathy Baker Picket Fences and to the woman who told us her boots were made for walking Nancy Sinatra and remember if you can only read or listen to One retail blog in the business make it on me talk the only retail media Outlet run by two former Executives from a top 10 U.S retailer our Fast Five podcast is the quickest fastest rundown of all the week’s top news and our Twice The Weekly Newsletter tells you the top five things you need to know each day and also features special content exclusive to us and we do it all just for you and we tried really hard to make it all fit within the preview paint of your inbox you can sign up today at http://www.onomytalk.blog thanks as always for listening in please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcast or on YouTube so until the next time on behalf of Anne and all of us at Omni talk be careful out there.
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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. 