00:00:03
Hello, you are listening to the Omni talk Fast 5 brought to you. In partnership with the A and M consumer and retail group Firework, SPS Commerce and Sezzle ranked in the top 10 of all podcasts globally. The Omni Talk Fast 5 is the podcast that we hope. Makes you feel a little smarter, but most importantly a little happier each week too. Today is September 7th, 2023. I’m your host, Anne Mezzenga. And I’m Chris Walton, and we are here once again to discuss the most important headlines the past week that highlight how the physical, digital and human elements of retail are coming together to shape the future. Chris It’s back to school week.
00:00:42
I know it is. This has been a crazy week for me. And crazy crazy week. Yeah. Why did you went back to school last week but yours went back this week. Well my As for those note actually I was on a call somebody this morning and they’re like. You’re in a different place, aren’t you? I’m like, yes I am because the Internet is out at my house and it is completely complete shot. I’ve got Comcast coming. They can’t come till Sunday. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m going to pull my pull.
00:01:05
Whatever hair I have left out, I’m just impressed you got a hold of Comcast. I mean, I think that should that should be celebrated as a win immediately. Like, no. Like a triumph, by the way.
00:01:15
There is no number anywhere visible on their website at all when it comes to customer service. Like, you have to like, really figure it out. But it’s actually 1800 Xfinity. So like, it’s pretty simple actually, when you get right down to it. But yeah, I got the blue banana sweatshirt on here. I’m doing whatever I can to get ready, which and by the way, I love any brand that could double for a secret password to a club.
00:01:36
Like, what’s the password, Blue banana?
00:01:39
Right.
00:01:40
Like that’s the name of that store that we went to. That was it. Madrid.
00:01:44
I think it’s blue banana, right? Isn’t it? I don’t know. I don’t know. But yeah, or you just come up with a very good name for some, like adult video entertainment company or something. Right, right. Yeah. Like that’s the password to a sex ring. Blue banana, Right. Oh, my God.
00:01:59
All right, Should we get this show started at before it goes totally off the rail? This is already going into a danger zone. So yes, yes, let’s.
00:02:06
Pull it back. Let’s put let’s get serious. Just add, let’s retail. But before we do that, I want to tell you all that in the mirror, blink of an eye, the countdown to the grocery ecosystems marquee event. Is down to a mere 12 days. 12 days.
00:02:23
Ann, this is when we have to start this one. We have to start cutting. These are like our Oscars. So, Chris, no more carbs, no more any any, no more alcohol. We have to start cutting so we can fit into our outfits for grocery shop.
00:02:35
I actually said that on I was. I was probably my interview with the Hungry Root CEO, which is going to be on the Main stage, and he told me I had to try the cookie dough because I just signed up for the service and I’m like, dude, I’m trying to cut weight here. I got 12 days. I can’t be any cookie dough.
00:02:48
Yeah, 100%.
00:02:49
Oh my gosh. But to that point, the buzz is absolutely electric. You can see the energy in our voices. Grocery Shop 2023 is primed to continue its legacy of of unveiling trailblazing innovations, and this year is no exception. Today, Grocery Shop unveils its pioneering networking and social activities program. And brace yourself. And because this is your passport. Do effortlessly navigate and select and plan your networking and social events while you’re in Las Vegas for grocery shop. With a wide array of 20 unique events, this program promises an unparalleled experience unlike anything you’ve seen before. I mean, it does sound pretty damn awesome, man, when you get right down to it, doesn’t it?
00:03:30
Oh yeah, it’s going to be great. I cannot wait. Cannot wait.
00:03:33
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I don’t think so. I mean, the only thing I could think of might be the the cashierless checkout store that they open, but I don’t even know if that’s made the Fast 5. So let’s go ahead, let’s do it. Headline 1. Chris Giant Food is planning to start doing receipt checks and to stop selling national brand items as it deals with theft. Take a minute, digest that one. It’s a pretty big change. So, according to Grocery Dive Sam Silverstein, employees at a Giant food location in Washington, DC today will start inspecting shoppers receipts when they leave the store as a supermarket chain tries to, according to Giant Food spokesperson John Aaron’s, quote, mitigate the unprecedented levels of product theft that has become unsustainable for our business and quote. In addition, the grocer also said that it plans to stop carrying certain national brand health and beauty products to boost the supply of similar private label items at stocks at the store in the coming weeks. Giant did not specify which national brands it intends to stop carrying at the Washington, DC store, but the Washington Post reported that the brands could include Tide. We have, Schnick noted. In the. I think I think there’s.
00:06:03
A typo in the article.
00:06:04
Actually, I think they meant Schick because I did look up Schnick and let me tell you, that’s going If you Google that, make sure you’re not at work because it is the title of an adult film, Blue Banana Productions. That’s for the After Dark podcast, But it does. The brands that they may be removing include Tide, Chick, Dog Degree, Panteen, Colgate and Advil. And Chris, you know what? We’re going to start off real hot today. Real hot. This is the A and M put you on the spot question. A and M would like you to answer this question in addition to your other thoughts on this headline. But A and M wants to know how do you anticipate that national brand partners will react to what Giant Foods is doing here? If we don’t their their strategy of if we don’t have it, they can’t steal it. Is this an invitation for manufacturers to start practicing in theft prevention efforts? Sorry to start participating in theft prevention efforts with their retail partners. We don’t have it. They can’t steal it. What do you think, Chris?
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So is it an invitation to the CBG partners to start participating in the theft prevention. Wow. That is a that is a that is a great question to start us off today. I love it. I love it. That’s why I love the I love the A and M team so much. My answer to that is pretty matter of fact. Leanne. God, I freaking hope so. I think that’s how I would sum this up because I think this headline as we sit back, there’s been a lot of headlines about shrink but. This headline shows that we have hit full, full stage problem stage. Right, Full level problem stage with this. Yeah, I mean, you’ve got this story. You’ve got the news of which we didn’t even cover on the Fast Five. We talked a lot about it. But you had Dollar General saying they’re going to do shrink formats, which is right. First time I’ve heard of a shrink format. I don’t remember ever talking about that in my career at Target or Gap. Like we had a shrink format. You had shrink tactics, never a, never a store designed solely for shrink to, you know, eliminate shrink. And then you got stories of Walmart putting police stations inside its stores, like like in Georgia, right. If I’m not mistaken.
00:08:10
Yeah, exactly.
00:08:11
Yeah, but the capper for me, Honestly and despite all those stories. And this? This is the biggest one. But the capper for me is I sent a I put a I posted a picture on social media this weekend that a friend sent me of the body soap aisle at Target in San Jose.
00:08:27
It was remarkable.
00:08:28
The entire aisle was 100% behind glass like you can see it Dove soap which was one of the things that they called out that they’re going to remove from the shelves all behind glass and the post just blew up. It’s clearly hot button issue but what I what I care about and you know in what we do is. Coming up with solutions, right. And that’s what’s interesting about this is I can’t fall out giant for trying this. You know, everyone is, it seems like everyone’s getting desperate, they’re trying something. But if I look into my crystal ball, it’s sad to see them doing this. It’s sad to see dog behind glass at a Target. But I think we’re going to see more of this and eventually I think we’re going to see retailers start to go the way of Costco, which. According to recent reports, doesn’t have a shrink problem because of how it functions, right. So I think you’re going to start to see retailers either charging a membership to shop or requiring a credit card scan and entry similar to how hotels do, where you like pay a fee to stay at the hotel that they’re going to give you back later. You know, depending on on what you do in the store, in their hotel experience, same thing could happen in retailers. So I think all indications are pointing to. That type of Costco ask or hotel type experience starting to come about. It won’t happen overnight, no way. But we are going to see it over time. And if if I’m a betting person, I I, that’s how I think this is going to play out.
00:09:48
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think I don’t have a lot more to add. I think you did a really good job summarizing that. I think that controlling the exit, what they’re doing here is the best thing that they can do for now. I mean, I think that’s the best way. You’re not, you’re not putting structures in place to like let people pass to get out. You’re you’re going to do your best that you can with the people, the individuals that are in the store that can help to try to monitor that and at least set the expectation for the customer at least until the retailers can start truly investing in the technology that are going to help them operate the stores so that they can prevent shrink. And to do that more efficiently and cost effectively. And I, you know, I think I love, I really do love A and M’s question because I think it’s a really important way to also start to bring the brands into this whole conversation because it does impact them. Like the shrink is not just something that targets responsible for or Walmart or Giant is responsible for. I mean it comes back to impact everybody in the whole ecosystem. So I think if if the retailers can start to pitch it to their brand partners as not only are some of these investments that you’re making in tech in the store to prevent this going to allow you to like better personalize promos, for example. Because once that person walks in, if they’re scanning their palm or they’re scanning their phone like or even their credit card like now you know who that shopper is, but you haven’t had the, the the ability to know before. And so I think that there’s a way to pitch this smartly to the brands to be like let’s invest in this technology together because it’s going to, it’s going to help everybody in this scenario and also removing that, that that shrink number that’s really starting to to grow. But the the removal of the products, Chris, like I just have to that seems like overkill to me. I mean, I don’t know what your thoughts are about that, but like it seems like there might, I don’t know, could that be an excuse for something else like they’re trying to push more own brands, But I I don’t know about that and I don’t know how long that’s going to last with some of those brand partners to just be like we’re not selling Tide anymore.
00:11:49
Yeah. It’s interesting though because those are the products that are, you know that people want to buy a discount through the marketplaces, nobody cares about buying the private level brands in the marketplaces. And so you can see why it’s going there. And so it makes me want two things that I would say before we move on the next headline off of what you said like so it makes me wonder as some people said it to the post on social media to do we get to the vending machine model to where those products are available at the.
00:12:09
But they’re all behind the walls and only available for pickup or delivery or something like that, you know and and and but the brands don’t want that and so you could do the customers, yeah.
00:12:19
No. And the customers don’t really either. And so it actually the second point is it costs of mind like I we go back to Dollar General format idea, I can remember when we rolled out it was called the P fresh format at Target. And you know, we actually, as the grocery team, when I was working in grocery at that time, we invited all the CPG vendors into Minneapolis and said we’re going to roll out this format to expand fresh food and frozen food to our customers, to the target customer and we’re going to expect you to invest in that with us. We’re at the same place with this now. So yeah, I think shrink formats are something that have to be thought about. And your point about okay, let’s invest in technology that accomplishes many, many things. As we’re trying to solve this one problem because we could probably create a better experience along the way, too. Headline 2. Amazon recently announced the Buy with Prime App for Shopify, a new app integration that lets merchants offer Buy with Prime via their Shopify store. According to Retail Dive, Prime members who use Buy With Prime on Shopify can now access free delivery and easy returns via Amazon’s fulfillment network. With the Buy with Prime option, Amazon Prime members can click Buy with Prime on a products detail page to pay for their purchases using the payment method saved in their Amazon wallets. The two companies will begin offering the service on an invite only basis to select shop with five merchants. But it will be available for all US based Shopify sellers who use or want to use Amazon’s Fulfillment Networks by the end of September. And lots of interesting angles to this one. Are you surprised to see these two frenemies link up like this?
00:13:49
No, this headline indicates you, you’re not interested. No second week in a row, right? Collaboration is the new competition, Chris.
00:13:55
Right.
00:13:56
I mean, yes, this is a win for everyone in the great Amazon versus Walmart debate. I think this is a great move for sellers because number one, it allows them to keep all that product information, promos, taxes, all those things in one Shopify dashboard. It’s wait, they have way too much going on, especially the smaller businesses to try to be managing across you know multiple platforms to do this. So I think that is huge and is now a go to. So Shopified now has that benefit of being the most organized, the most like well loved platform for going online from S&B’s all the way up to to enterprise retailers. And then you have Amazon here who was also winning like they get more retailers on the buy with Prime platform. They have another reason to get more subscribers to Prime because they’ve got all of these benefits and you can use your Prime benefits across multiple retailers. And you know, after talking to Jason Delray, Chris, this reminded me of when we talked to him and we read his book. And you I never realized until reading his book like just how quick the tit for tat is in the media with Walmart and and Amazon because Walmart came out the same week talking about like we’ve got all these new features to enhance our marketplaces for sellers like but but nothing of real substance in there. I think this is a huge, huge win for for Amazon, for buy with Prime and for shop by and all of the sellers that are on that platform. But what are your thoughts?
00:15:22
Yeah, no, I 100% agree. I mean, my quick take is and then there’s some interesting things that happened overnight too. But like, my quick take is Amazon can’t do Shopify. You know that Ship is sailed, you know? Or that train is sailed, whatever movie that’s from. But. You know, but what it can do, like you said, it can take a cut from what Shopify is doing and in so doing gift their Prime customers who aren’t hunting and pecking on Amazon, you know who are kind of more in that browse discovery stage via social media, most often more conferences in the purchases they’re making. And I think that makes sense. And in fact, Dan, I have been duped. So many goddamn Times Now by ads for what are eventually crappy products on social media, that I think I’m going to plan to start using the buy with prime option as like another test of legitimacy, right?
00:16:08
That’s a really good point. Yeah, because it yeah, you know where to go.
00:16:12
Yeah, if it’s there, I know that it’s a real thing. It’s available. Amazon’s been selling it for a while, you know, as part participating in its, it’s selling activities. But the other crazy thing about this Ant I don’t know if you saw this, but Flexport CEO, former Amazon executive Dave Clark also is out after like a year and you know. And and then they were providing, you know, they had bought the delivery services from Shopify and there’s that whole connection. So now you wonder if this is if Amazon’s going to start getting into bed with Shopify on that angle since it looks like, you know, Flexport’s not going to be able to do it. So deliverer, remember that was that whole story. But, but so yeah. And Rick Watson has a great post on this too on LinkedIn. You guys should check it out, Rick. Rick does awesome content each and every week on social media. He’s a great follow.
00:16:57
All right, Chris, let’s move on to headline 3. Under Armour has named John Barbados its new chief design officer, according to Chain Storage. Barbados, who started consulting for the brand earlier this year, will oversee the design studios in New York, Baltimore and Portland OR Oregon.
00:17:15
We’re gone. Wow.
00:17:17
Those Oregon people are pissed off. I know. I’m sorry that. Oh, my God. So sorry. I’m sorry. It’s. Sorry, it’s OK. So he will also lead the creative design and direction of the company’s full portfolio across apparel, footwear and accessories. Vorvados joins Under Armour following decades of experience with brands that include Polo Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Converse. He is credited with creating the Boxer brief at Calvin Klein and is perhaps best for his rock’n’roll influenced namesake, menswear brand John Varvados, with which he is no longer involved. Chris, what are your thoughts on Mr. Varvados taking it up at at Under Armour and or or yeah?
00:18:02
Well, this is where I’m going to be the contrarian me, you know that you know a lot of ways I’m famous for, but I I actually don’t like this move. Really. Yeah, I’m going against the grain intentionally I think. I think this move smells of a new CEO like, you know Under Armour has in Stephanie Leonard’s, and it smells of a move that someone would make when you’re only experienced prior to taking over an apparel retailer is 25 years at Merida International. And I think years at another hotel before that. So you know, it’s the move of hire the big name guy, try to juice the brand. But at the end of the day, the other part of the story that’s hit you to me is dude is 68 years old. And I looked it up. Yeah, yeah. I’m not trying to be ageist, but. So there’s no telling. I mean just with that you have no telling how much juice he has left. But at most, what does he have 10 years? So like, what happens after that? Like, so it seems like it doesn’t seem like a really effectual move. It seems like the sign of. Having a CEO at the helm that doesn’t understand what apparel and retail and retailing particularly is all about. Now with that said, I do love, I do love whenever Ken Pilot wears his John Barbados jacket whenever we see him at NRF in New York. So shout out to Ken, but I don’t know. You probably like this though, don’t you? I think you love this story.
00:19:17
You know, I I do like it. I think Gap should. I think this is what Gap should have been doing. I mean I think you need someone who your design team can look up to who customers, a name customers might recognize to get them interested in the brand again. I mean I think even if he is only there for 10 years, I still think he’ll give his unique fashion and industry point of view to make Under Armour be differentiated a little bit in the market. I mean there’s I don’t think it’s going to move them into a number one position to really compete with the Nikes and Lululemons. But I do think that I I’ll be excited to see what he comes up with and he’s already been producing some products. So I assume we’ll start to see some of the the influence that he’s had on the design team in the coming lines. But I think you know you you really do need to make yourself stand out especially like they’re talking about in this article as people are are wearing this product more daily not just for exercise where which Under Armour is synonymous with. So I think you know. The proof will be in the pudding. It’ll we’ll have to see what the actual clothing looks like and just how much influence he’s had on it. But I think it could be really cool to kind of have that design edge to the Under Armour apparel that makes me go to Under Armour for something to discover in that category out, you know, outside of my typical Lululemon or Nike.
00:20:44
So I’m going to push back on you be something you told me yesterday, which I didn’t know. I mean, I kind of knew. We talked about it, but I didn’t know the full story. But. I see. I still think it’s a, I think it’s a retread. I think it’s going back to a retread, you know, idea or brand here in a lot of ways and who he is. But like, you know, you talked about, you know, how Jenna Lyons came to be at J. Crew, you know, she was like. Coming out of the design school and then worked at j.crew and and and made her chops and just made it known that she was good at what she did. And Mickey saw that and you know, gave her a lot of power and defining what that brand was like. I got to imagine that there’s people out there like that that could could you do the same thing for a lot less money probably too and could potentially get a lot more tailwind behind their back? I don’t know, that’s just my take. This feels like this feels like a retread idea to me.
00:21:28
Could be I mean but Under Armour’s been around for how long and and what what is unique about Under Armour, what’s getting you to go buy that product. I I don’t know that there is something so I think it’s it could be worth a shot and and like I said it’s it’s definitely going to come down to how is the product differentiated. If it’s not, then I agree with you. This was not a smart move, but I mean.
00:21:51
And what’s unique is we must protect this House. 3 Did you read that article? Like, that’s their new Like Brand campaign. We must protect the house. 3 like, I’m like, OK, fine, yeah, whatever.
00:22:00
Yeah. 3 point. All right. This is. Yeah. Not going to not going to help you.
00:22:03
I know, kind of. Yeah, I know, right? Seems like kind of a retread, too. All right, headline 4. This one’s fun, too. JC Penney’s has announced a $1 billion turnaround plan. According to Retail Dive, the department store will invest in digital capabilities, in store upgrades including tech and merchandising and supply chain improvements. And its plans also entail boosting the retailer’s appeal through inclusive and affordable merchandising, customer service and local community engagement, All the things you would expect to see in a $1 billion improvement plan. Well, mostly expect to see, I should say. And yeah, this is a fun question. I actually like this question. I came up with you for this. So I came up with for you for this. If you had a billion dollars, would you invest it in JC Penney’s?
00:22:48
That would not be my first personal investment. No. Let’s say you got a.
00:22:53
Billion dollars to throw around at many speculative investments.
00:22:56
Which you would you invest? I still would not do it.
00:22:59
I don’t think this is a good investment then no.
00:23:01
But JC for the shareholders of JC Penney’s, JC Penney’s putting up this money themselves and I think it’s a great idea. I mean, if you’re going to invest in a turn around, this is how you should do it. Macy’s, listen up, pay attention. I’m still not sure that JC Penney’s can make a comeback. I will at that. I agree with one of the commenters in the article who’s like there’s still a relevancy problem for JC Penney. I agree with the next generation, like I think there’s still more you have to do. But I think they are making the right investments in inventory accuracy, enhancing point of sale associate tools like improved mobile app experiences for your guests. Like all of that are crucial pieces to a turn around developing the foundation so that when you do start to bring in relevant brands, you do start pushing new customers to your store, you are going to give them an experience at JC Penney that they have never had before. So I think that is really, really important. The second thing that I love about this, especially again if you contrast this with what we’re seeing Macy’s do, I mean Neil Saunders just put out some amazing photos of some tours to Macy’s and you know Macy’s is going there. They just are dropping the market at Macy’s to just call it you know the market like or on 34th these brands like a turnaround is not dependent on branding. It should not be a branding exercise. It has to be what JC Penney is doing here and that’s investing in the the technology, the, the infrastructure that’s really going to make your brand function from you know supply chain all the way down to you know the interactions with your customers. So I I would not invest in them, Chris, that wouldn’t, I would not put up my own money. But I do think that this is really smart, but.
00:24:46
Would you. So let me ask you, so you think the, Cheryl, let me ask you point blank, do you think the shareholders are right to approve this plan then or no, would you not have that was what I was trying to get at. Yeah, yeah. And I don’t know, I think you can turn around a brand through creative advertising. You know Dewalt’s the perfect case study for that. But, but I think the point that you’re making is smart because like the what you don’t see in this announcement is all the whiz bang stuff, you know which which you call that Macy’s, which Macy’s is famous for that, right? And so I actually think from a shelter perspective, this could have good returns. And I say that for two reasons. One, this company, believe it or not, still does 7 and a / 7 1/2 billion dollars a year. How many brands would like to have a relevancy problem with that type of volume? Kind of insane when you think about it. And they still are profitable. They had not income of $220 million last year. So regardless of what we say, I still think it’s a dying business. But there’s still an audience for department stores, like people are still shopping at them, which makes me my second point. And it goes along with what you’re saying too. I said on this podcast when he was hired that I love the hire of Mark Rosen. I love that they made that hire because he’s a long time head of e-commerce at Levi’s. He’s a long time retail guy. I copresented with him at a W Women’s Wear Daily conference in New York, I think it was back in 2015. And the guy gets it. He gets Omni channel retailing, what it’s about at his core. So if I’m going to bet on who’s going to steal share in the department store space. Macy’s, which is going off mall for some God unknown reason under Jeff Gannett and his whoever successor is going to be, which they’ve named, which I can’t remember his name, or a refurbished JCP under Rosen. I’m going with the ladder 100%. I’m going with the Ladder. I wouldn’t even give a second. I wouldn’t even give it a second thought because the guy gets Army channel retailing to a degree. We’ve seen Jeff Gannett talk on stage. The guy doesn’t get it. So they’re sure to be had across what it is essentially. I mean who else is out there?
00:26:47
Macy’s and and JC Penney’s now at this point, right?
00:26:52
Yeah. But in most malls for sure, I mean you have Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and some of you got the anchors.
00:26:56
Hanging out there some regional, you know, department stores, but like, yeah, and there’s he’s going to do smart upgrades too, because he understands what’s required to succeed in the Army channel environment. At least that’s my opinion.
00:27:06
Well, we’ll see, Chris, won’t we? We will see. Let’s go to headline 5 and close it up here. We ended with Sephora last week and this week we are ending with Ulta. According to supply Chain Dive, Ulta Beauty has expanded its ship from store capabilities to 276 new locations, which represents a sharp jump from the 115 Alta stores that fulfilled ecommerce orders as of January 28th. In addition, Alta has also expanded same day delivery availability to essentially all of its 1362 stores, a service which it also coordinates through DoorDash. Chris, what do you think about Alta now expanding the ship from store capabilities?
00:27:50
Yeah, the ship from store capabilities. Always hard to say. They’re on a hot streak. Ulta’s on a hot streak of late. I think it’s another great move from them. But but again, with a caveat, like kind of like last week with Sephora, you know, you know, bookending the the show 2 weeks in a row with the beauty retailers or ending the show with the two beauty retailers, they’re going to have to watch the inventory accuracy issues that come with this. You know, I worry that a year from now we’re going to be hearing about shrink at Ulta 2 because 100 stores, you know, yeah, you could, you could do this. The shrink impact might go unnoticed. It might not even be watched that closely because you’re watching other elements of the product project roll out. But 400 out of 1300 stores, then the impact’s not going to be hidden. And so I’m curious if you get a you start causing a shrink problem that you know exacerbates the issues because I still don’t think we understand that fully across retail. Going back to headline number one too, how much is theft and how much is really just shrink from bad operations and bad inventory accuracy as well.
00:28:50
That’s a great call. And I I think in mine, I just assumed that they’ve put some some plans in place, some foundations in place to support expanding this now to 400 stores, which I believe, like you know, not only helps their ship from store, but I think will also help to inform other areas of the store, better informed inventory, like data polls for future integrations with companies outside of of their current partnership with DoorDash. Especially when you look at, you know, they’re one of the biggest competitors who’s partnered with Lucky, you know, to help understand like what inventory is in which store. And if I’m going to, if, you know, if I’m a person that’s coming from TikTok, from a Charlotte Tillberry ad, and I want to go pick up something like I need to know what inventory is in what store. And so I think for me, it creates hopefully what Elsa is hopefully doing here. One of those, like once you built the road, how many cars can you get on it? Scenarios. So you know if they’re really doing this the right way, this they’re now better suited to support their DoorDash business, you know, delivery, same day delivery from store. They’re better suited for their own ship from store. And they’re also you know hopefully preventing shrink from happening at all of these stores once they have a better eye on who’s who’s in the store, what products are leaving, where the products are at and then other other things down the road. I think that it’ll prepare them for like smart store integrations, real time pricing, promotions, things like that. If they if they laid the right foundation for this which you bring up a great question like this happened pretty quickly just from you know January to now. So was that enough time to really put those things in place?
00:30:32
Yeah, you’re bringing up a good point because it’s not, it’s not a reason. What I brought up is not a reason not to do it. It’s a reason to put in place the systems surround sound systems that enable you to talk to your customers about it. Hence the lucky, the lucky, you know concept that you talked about, the lucky advertising platform that you know, helps retailers connect to their consumers. And then of course also like the assets protection technology that can come into play here as well. That’s really smart.
00:30:54
All right, let’s go to the Lightning round, Chris. Question number one for you is Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is now a movie and just broke box office presale records, selling $26 million on the first day that ticket sales went live. That’s just for AM C theaters, not for all of the theaters just at. $26 million in ticket sales, Chris. I made a post on LinkedIn last week and I set the over under at $1 billion in box office revenue. Are you going to take the over or under of whether or not T Swift will hit over a billion dollars in in box office revenue from the movie?
00:31:37
I mean given that you just said that’s just AMC, I think I’m taking you over. I mean yeah, the love for this woman is insane. It’s so it’s it’s insane on the level that I haven’t seen since Trader Joe’s haters of me on on LinkedIn that that. So yeah, I’m. I’m definitely taking over. All right. It’s September. So wake me up when September ends and.
00:31:57
And therefore it’s a long time. There’s still a lot of days left.
00:32:00
Right, Waking me up when it ends and and to that point is Green Day on your Spotify playlist. Where does Green Day sit with you in the, oh bands?
00:32:09
Absolutely. Dukey. Dukey was the first CDA put in my Sony boom box. I think I was in 8th grade when I got that. 7th or 8th grade. Yeah, I’m a big Green Day is Green is one of those bands that doesn’t get enough credit for how long they’ve been on the scene and and the quality of of music that they’ve been able to put out for several years. Billy Joe is like what, 60 now or something?
00:32:32
Yeah, he’s getting old. He’s getting up there. Yeah, I don’t know if he’s that old, but yeah, he’s getting up there for sure. It’s not his birthday today either.
00:32:39
Look it up. We’ll look up and see. Chris, Question 3. Airbnb is tightening restrictions in New York City and they have eliminated a large portion of available rentals in the city, citing that they bring unwanted noise, trash, and danger to the community. If you were to Airbnb your home, what would be your top three house rules to avoid these things?
00:33:01
Oh man, I’m going to take a page out of Chad Lust book from a couple weeks ago. I think 1 no dogs, 2 no dogs, 3 no dogs, in that order.
00:33:11
And that’s what I would say no. Did No.
00:33:16
And this one’s funny, too. A Delta flight was diverted back to Atlanta on its way to Barcelona due to a biohazard issue, which if you haven’t heard this story, you’re gonna want to read it because it’s very entertaining. It’s also quite, quite disgusting. What is your most memorable airborne biohazard issue?
00:33:34
I don’t know. I need to like, swallow the vomit that just came up as you were talking about this somebody.
00:33:39
Put somebody sent me the Twitter video of somebody on the flight and I immediately stopped watching. I’m like, no, no, I’m not watching this.
00:33:46
So disgusting, so disgusting. The closest thing I could think of was being on a very long flight that the air was not functioning and I was sitting next to someone who maybe hadn’t applied deodorant ever in their lives. And it the body odor for me, you know, in the bog of eternal stench, body odor is 1, garbage is 2, and sewage is 3I. I can handle almost anything except for body odor. It’s so bad. And that was definitely a biohazard and not just one individual.
00:34:21
I forgot, I always get reminded of that whenever we take the tube in London. Yes, extreme aversion to body odor. All right, on that extreme aversion of body odor, note happy birthday today to Julie Kavner, Corbin Bernsen and the wellknown German long distance runner Ruda Pippig. Because let’s be honest and track. Track athletes just need more love, especially long distance runners from Germany. And remember if you can read or if you can only read or listen. After one retail blog in the business, make it Omnitalk, the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top ten US retailer and two people who absolutely love doing what they do. Our Fast 5 podcast is the quickest, fastest, rundown of all the week’s top news. And our twice weekly newsletter tells you the top five things you need to know each day and also features special content exclusive to us. And we do it all just for you. 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 in. Please remember to like and leave us review wherever you happen to listen to your podcasts or on YouTube. So until next week and on behalf of all of us at Omni Talk Retail. As always, be careful out there.
00:35:28
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