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Hello, you are listening to the Omni talk Retail Fast 5 brought to you in partnership with the A and M consumer and retail group Firework, Avalara, TGW 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 October 4th, 2023. I’m your host, Anne Mezzenga.
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And I’m Chris Walton, and we are here once again live from the next. Live from Next to discuss the most important headlines from the past week and highlight how the physical, digital and human elements of retail are coming together to shape the future. Chris.
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Yes, yes.
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Do you notice anything new about me or something I read? I I noticed a couple things like in addition to being at NAX, which sounds like a big motor race kind of thing, or like the microphone.
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Move the microphone down, get NAX, NAX, come to next. But anyway, we’re at NAX. But yes, yeah, we have new sponsors.
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Yes, it’s like TGW like to welcome Avalara. Avalara, TGW To the Omni Talk Retail family Big.
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Supporters of ours, thank you to them and I’m excited to him because we’re going to have Mr. George Trantas, the Senior Director of Global Marketplaces. He’s going to. Join us in a couple weeks on Five Insightful Minutes. He’s going to give us 5 insightful minutes on a very cool topic.
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Folks, friends and friends and family of Omnitalk. He’s going to give us 5 insightful minutes on the 10 common mistakes retailers make when it comes to tax filing time. I can’t wait for that.
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It’s going to be a blast. I also need like a personal assessment from Mr. George Trantas on what mistakes. I’m also personal. Tax filing, yes, yes, that might be beyond help and I think for both of us we’ll see if he has enough time.
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We also, Chris, need to give him a special shout out. We got the most sweet. It was warm message from Justin Fuzzies. Yeah, down here in Atlanta at the Home Depot. Oh.
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That’s right. Yeah, from Home Depot.
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He left us this note, Justin said. I just want to say thanks for the quality of discussion on the Omni Talk podcast. I literally start my day with a long walk while listening to you and Chris.
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Oh, obviously Justin’s only listen to like 2 episodes. Yeah, but no, I’m just kidding. But thank you, Justin.
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That long walk you can do 2X speed, you know too if you get if if we’re too much to handle on the long walk. But but Justin wanted to tell us that he appreciates everything we’ve done for the retail industry and for sharing our experiences.
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Nice, super nice. And thank you for recognizing that we try really hard, Justin. We try to put, we put a lot of effort into this every week and it really makes warms our hearts honestly when we get notes like that. So thank you. Thank you so much.
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And Are you ready to do this? We’re going to do this live from the show. You got the registration behind us. We got people flowing through. They’re coming on by.
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Let’s do it standing after, you know, I’m seeing on the road for what are we like day six or something?
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Yeah, we got here on we. Yeah, we were in Nashville on Saturday, right?
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So like, which I love by the way.
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Yeah, Nashville is a cool city. It is a cool city. I didn’t get to see it cuz I was sick again. For all those that know me so well. I was sick stuck in my hotel room again.
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But hey, I’m here now. I’m back up right? And I’m feeling good. Let’s do this.
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Let’s do it all right.
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All right, in today’s Fast 5, we’ve got news on Walmart removing its self checkout lanes from its New Mexico stores, Gelson’s new store format, which puts EV charging front and center. Macy’s decoration this week that it will open as many as thirty small format stores. I know and can’t wait to talk about that one, what we’re calling the Curious Case of Walgreens versus Cool V Cooler screens. But we begin today with big partnership news out of Lululemon and Peloton. And I know you’ve got a lot to say about this one.
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I mean, I don’t have a ton to say, but I’m pretty excited about to talk about it, I have to say, All right, headline 1, Chris, Lululemon and Peloton are teaming up. This came right in last week under the wire. According to Bloomberg, Lululemon will make cobranded clothing that Peloton will sell on its website and at retail stores, and Peloton’s fitness content will now be offered to users of the Lululemon studio mirror and via Lululemon’s free digital app. At the same time, Lululemon is also discontinuing its relatively new digital only subscription that costs 1299 a month and plans to push users toward the Peloton app as part of the arrangement. Before I opine on my thoughts before you.
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Now, Chris. Opine, what would you say, what would you like to say about the peloton in partnership?
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Oh man, let’s see. I’m dying to hear what you have to say, but but you know, for me, I think it’s a, I think it’s a I think it’s a smart move. I think it’s a smart move for both parties. And you know, it’s probably probably spurred on by the fact that Lululemon clearly got burned with mirror like clearly. And so I think it’s smart because it’s just a partnership which we as entrepreneurs talk all the time.
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We’re always like don’t, don’t get into something you can’t get out of unless you absolutely are sure that you want to do it. And so partnerships are great for that reason, so. You know peloton, let’s see who gets what right Peloton, they get legitimacy and apparel immediately and Lululemon gets legitimacy and online fitness, which as you’ve seen is hard for them to do and I think it’s smart that they’re not charging for the subscription anymore. I think that’s an interesting move And so the two can see where it goes and maybe a merger isn’t out of the cards down the line. It’s still possible.
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And the other thing I I’m my hunch is it probably locks Peloton out from doing anything with Nike as well. I’m guessing that’s part of the deal. Or or potentially with any other shooters too. So for that reason I think it’s also smart. But but what do you think?
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You seem a little skeptical in some of my opinions there.
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No, I think. I just. I think the.
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Threw me a shitty eye.
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People are getting a little too aggressive with the merger. Like they just started dating people. Let’s not start talking about the wedding moms, OK? Like, let’s just let them feel it out. See how it feels.
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No, no, no, no. So my my thoughts here 1 Lululemon got the best end of this deal. One, they’re getting rid of mirror, they’re offloading mirror, which is going to be a big hit to their business. But they’re getting all of the Peloton people now in lululemon product. They’re going to be able to offload the content arm.
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Unfortunately, they had to lay off like 120 employees that were working on Lululemon studio, which is never a good thing but. It’s a great stopgap, but it’s it’s they can they can cut this, get it out, get that out of their history, forget all about it, burn it like Taylor Swift does her boyfriend. Wipe the mirror clean, right. Wipe the mirror clean and move on. And now they don’t have to upset any of those customers that paid $2000 plus for their mirror and then for for peloton.
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I think this is just a band aid. However, I think that this is not going to be. I don’t, I don’t think there’s going to be something there that makes sense for a merger when it comes to Lululemon. They might be getting some new subscribers out of the deal. But I think if we look under the covers and see how many people were really participating in Lululemon Studio, I I don’t think it’s it’s as many as Peloton might think that they could be getting in the long.
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Well, yeah, I imagine they had to disclose all that information too. But I think you’re right, like there’s probably not much on on that side of things. I’m curious if there aren’t warrants involved here too, Like certain things happen, they get the right to maybe buy stock in peloton or maybe acquire peloton, who knows. But so so you’re kind of like, it’s not not it’s cool, but it’s not that cool.
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Great for Lululemon Peloton.
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That’s kind of your take here.
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Meh. It’ll be good for you for the next five years. We’ll see how it goes. Like vanilla. I have a feeling Peloton could be waiting for that ring for a very long time.
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Lululemon’s like, boy, bye. I found a new, found a new. Bye, bye. Yeah, boy. Bye.
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Bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye all right headline 2 Walmart is pulling self check out out of three stores in Albuquerque and. The only city I know of with two queues. Yeah, I think about that one for a second, all right. According to Business Insider, two stores in Albuquerque, NM were recently renovated to replace their self checkout lanes, and changes to 1/3 area store are also slated to be finished in October. Walmart declined to tell Business Insider whether similar redesigns were underway at other US locations, but the company did say there is no plan for the widespread removal of self checkouts.
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Lanes at this time and yes.
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Why in the world would you think that Walmart would want to do this? To try this, to test this? What is Walmart thinking?
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It’s very simple, Chris, I think.
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It is too.
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I mean go and I have talked about this. It’s theft. I mean theft. We you and I just said grocery.
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Theft or shrink or both?
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I mean both. I think, like you and I have seen video footage of what happens at these checkout lanes and it’s not the people that you would expect. You know, like this is happening from grandma running grandma’s daycare center, you know, putting items in front of other items to scan them and put them in the bags. Like, there’s so much, so much happening here that I think unfortunately is going to make things that are convenient for the majority of consumers who are not stealing or not trying to play games at checkout like that. They’re going to lose this convenient option.
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So it I mean and and the other part of it too is like even the videos like you can’t really do anything outside of like know that these people are repeat offenders. I mean the the employees are not going to go after these people. Like, I think it’s it’s getting back to this idea of no one has a solution yet. So everybody’s going back to basics. It’s like what happened during the pandemic, like we’re going to have to write down order grocery orders by hand and deliver them.
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I guess we’re going to have to do this until we figure out a better tech.
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Solution. We have to go back to people, right. So the greatest people and we got to go back to people. Yeah. I mean I I I agree with you.
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I think, I think it’s, I think it’s both too. I think it’s 100% shrink and it’s probably. A lot of theft whether accidental or intentional because we just we just know throughout the grocery industry that self checkout is prone for that type of activity to happen where there’s just miscalculations of what’s going through those spaces. So The funny thing about it to me too, if I put my retailer hat on two and it’s, it’s like it’s straight it’s a total retailer playbook on how they’re doing this like you’ve got because I mean it’s it’s it’s, it’s, it’s. A number one example like they take a total market approach, they test it out, they assess the impact operationally and then they decide what to do next.
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That’s what Walmart’s doing here, which is nothing wrong. They said let’s.
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Pick a high shrink market. My hunch, Albuquerque, and let’s figure this out. No, there’s nothing wrong with that. But you can tell that’s what they’re doing, right? Like, it’s it’s it’s it’s a it’s a Telegraph move.
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So, so I can’t wait to see what Walmart learns from this like. Your question is great. Like are these stores more profitable with humans manning the tills? I mean that’s a mind blowing question that I don’t think anyone really understands or knows the answer to. And the answer to it, if it’s yes, could actually be earth shattering.
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Yeah. But you know, because given what we’ve heard, like I said before. This happens a lot. You know, there’s a lot of shrink that’s coming through these machines. So it’s possible that that could be the answer or it could at least be the answer in certain stores, in certain locations.
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And then you get back to the whole shrink format idea posited by Dollar General a few weeks ago where you’re like, OK, yeah, we’re going to have stores that are shrink formats, which means no self checkout machines.
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And this is also happening with people in the checkout lanes like they’re they’re still like they’re still sweethearting and all the other things that’s happening. It’s not as bad, but I think ultimately it gets down to what can what tech can grocers invest in and when does when does theft and shrink rise to the top of the priority list of how we’re going to run the business and where we’re going to invest those dollars?
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Yeah. But when you, I think when you get back to like when you think about the pandemic and how it’s gone up, the the increase in self checkout as a proportion of how people are using their, their average grocery store or their average supercenter is definitely higher than it was. So, you know, if you go back in theory that number should go down. It’s just a question of whether it’s not whether it’s worth the tradeoff. Of the staffing, right.
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So, right.
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All right, let’s move on to headline 3, Chris. Supermarket chain Gelson’s has launched a new convenience store format apropos given we’re at the National Association.
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Where we at?
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Where the National acts, it’s like a buzzer in my ear. It’s terrible. All right, back to Gelson’s new convenience store format. According to Chain Store Age, the specialty grocer, which operates 27 stores throughout Southern California, they will debut a new concept called Recharge by Gelson’s. Gelson’s is partnering with Electric Vehicle Charging station developer Rove to provide food and beverage services at its new charging stations and will offer a curated selection of foods, beverages and convenience items like we are seeing.
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The times that we read that on this thing.
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A selection of foods, beverages and convenience items.
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I think that’s every new store format, four of those Rove customers as well as neighborhood locals. So Rove plans to build 6 locations in Southern California beginning this year, with 20 stations planned by 2026. Back to your right market for testing being Southern California. What do you think about this move from Gelson’s Chris?
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I I think it’s really interesting. Like, have you been to a Gelson’s?
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No.
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See, I had not either. And the only time I’ve ever been exposed to one was on, I think Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David. And I went to one, though, in San Clemente. Oh yeah, actually not San Clemente, not in San Clemente, not technically San Clemente, but whatever. The town is right below there.
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That’s escaping me. Newport, Laguna Hills, whatever. I don’t know, but I can’t remember one of those other much more. The reason I say that it’s very posh.
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Wherever it was, was very you need to know that as a as a resident.
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San Clemente Yeah, that’s right. I got to start saying it right. But anyway, like, so so it’s a very posh place. It’s very high end. It’s a baller store.
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Like it is a great store. It’s when you want. On a shop, it’s very inspirational. And so like it’s a perfect match I think, to be the first mover on this from an EV charging front because it’s going to match up demographically there. And So what you have here is essentially the reimagining of the gas station experience, which is what I love because that’s what we’re talking about.
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It’s reimagining the gas station. Which is different than what we know before because EV charging for those that don’t know takes longer to do it. It requires a longer trip. So it’s made for that grocery store type of experience or grocery store type of trip. Yeah.
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So it’s smart for Gelson’s, particularly given the demographic to go into this space in the way they are. So. So I love it. I can’t. I can’t wait to try it out.
00:14:37
Don’t think I got to get an electric vehicle. And I do. I think army talk needs to procure. Mr. Mr.
00:14:42
Walton, the electric vehicle like the minivan you saw yesterday, Chris, was like, is that?
00:14:47
It was a hybrid, though.
00:14:48
What kind of band is that? Just because it was a hybrid minivan? It’s still a minivan. Is that an S?
00:14:54
You call a spade a spade. It’s still a minivan.
00:14:56
You just are really in love with a dad band. That’s all it.
00:14:58
Was a Toyota Siena. And it was awesome.
00:15:00
Oh my God.
00:15:01
But what do you think?
00:15:02
So I I think again, we look to London and to the UK and to Europe and what they’re doing there, because they’re already doing these kinds of things there. When I was at the Shop Talk Europe, I interviewed Tracy Clemens, the CEO of Convenience for BP and she was talking about this, how they’re already starting to convert stores into EV charging station and how they they already have a partnership with Marks and Spencer’s another like higher end food provider in the UK And they are continuing to expand that assortment to allow for the types of trips that you’re charging. It’s it’s no longer an impromptu 3 to 5 minute gas fill up and your Cokes and smokes and you’re out of there. It’s now I’m planning this have time. I’m reserving an EV charging station along my path wherever I’m going.
00:15:53
Now they’re starting to get into food offerings, which we’re hearing a ton about it and acts like everybody going in. As tobacco sales go down. Now they have to figure out how to save that basket and they’re going into food. So it’s a lot. Of like fresh prepared food, yes.
00:16:08
So it’s a lot of what we’re seeing happening already in the UK and I think will have to come as we see more and more EV drivers come through.
00:16:16
So you like this? You love it.
00:16:17
Oh, I think it was. You got to try it out.
00:16:19
You got to go see it. I can’t wait to go.
00:16:21
Maybe we’ll get a rental.
00:16:22
Maybe Retail W hopefully this is open by REtail W You tell you tell Retail REtail W that hopefully by that it’s open. But all right, let’s keep rolling because these next two headlines are also pretty, pretty banger headlines. All right. Headline 4 Macy’s says it will open up up to Anne, not up up to. 30 small store formats inside of strip malls.
00:16:44
They said that those two words together strip malls over the next two years. According to CNBC’s Great Melissa Repco, Macy’s has tested the shops. Which are roughly 1/5 the size of its traditional mall stores for nearly four years. Yeah, it’s been four years. Wow.
00:16:59
The stores offer a slimmed down mix of merchandise, host local events and have a more modern and open look. Plus, they’re also next to big box stores, grocers, and popular off price retailers like TJX, aka places that offer a high level of convenience, which Macy’s Chief Stores Officer Marc Mastronardi calls the “secret sauce” of this initiative. Oh boy.
00:17:22
And and here’s the other thing I read this deep in the headline they will also be called Macy’s as Macy’s says it plans to phase out the market by Macy’s moniker it used for its first fall smaller store formats throughout the country. So and do you think Macy’s designed to something here?
00:17:40
Like, do they have a secret sauce of convenience of strip malls, you know?
00:17:47
And this is an easy thing to put poo. But I’m curious what you think.
00:17:50
I was digging in to try to make sense, Chris, because I met Mark master Don. Shop. Talk. Shop talk. Yeah.
00:17:58
Last year he was he was on stage right after and smart guy like I I get there’s got to be something to us that’s. Italian, I mean, you know come on one of our people. So the first thing that came to mind was like, yes, I guess you have real estate savings like your your footprints smaller so. Per box, yeah, Per box. Like perhaps you’re getting money from the smaller footprint.
00:18:22
But what really confuses me here, we’ve been to the market at Macy’s in Texas in South Lake. I they’re not solving any of the core problems with this move. And so it really concerns me when you talk about Macy’s in this like North Star that they’ve always been trying to go to. And really for the place that Macy’s holds is like kind of the deter like the the the company that will determine the future of the department store. Like, everything’s following in in Macy’s footsteps and I just don’t think that this is going to turn out the way that they think it is.
00:18:53
And the other part of this is the TJ MAXX adjacency. That really confused me too because at least when I go into a TJ MAXX, like, I know it’s going to be a total mess and a treasure hunt. And like, stuff’s going to be on the floor when you go into Macy’s. Like that was my biggest take away from that market at Macy’s. Like, I’m still expecting a department store experience and it was just crammed with inventory, like stuff piled all over the place.
00:19:16
Like, yes, it looks great at the opening, but it’s just it wasn’t they’re trying to put too much into that small footprint. And I I really just wonder if this is going to move the needle for Macy’s the way that they want to. I it it doesn’t seem like there’s hope there for me.
00:19:31
That’s a really interesting question that you’re getting at too. Is like, even if even if you’re going to do it, like, should you even call it Macy’s at all, Like, because if it’s a great idea, it should be a great idea regardless. Well, and now you’re actually leaning into Macy’s and creating that psychological.
00:19:44
Connection with what you think a department store should actually be, but now it’s in a smaller box that’s a fascinating like the backstage, but that that’s what I’m saying. Like then you do just make it backstage and it’s all the like the like leftover inventory from last season that Macy’s started doing in their own stores. It’s getting a lot of track. I mean that’s doing well for Macy’s, but like is it again, I just, I don’t see the, the benefit that going into a strip mall is going to provide especially for for Macy’s.
00:20:11
For the longer term with the current store base, yeah, I mean I those are all awesome points and I don’t even know where to start with this. I tried to like boil down my thoughts into like I think like 3 points.
00:20:22
Well, Lee Lee, Sherwood Desmond is really excited for you.
00:20:24
Oh, she is, Yeah. Shout out to Lee. Yeah. But. And I share this a little bit on social media this morning.
00:20:29
But I think, I think when you look at this strategy and how it’s being talked about right now, it’s fraught with so many pitfalls. So first like one, they say that the stores are copying positively relative to the rest of the chain. But I don’t think that statistic is worth Jack all. And that’s a scientific term, Jack all because like like they’re going to be built in the best areas right now and so they’re going to have natural population growth. And there’s so many things that go into determining comp like how many, how much more staff do you have in those stores in your regular Macy’s, which we’ve been in them, they have, I think they had more staff in that store.
00:21:02
Pound for pound, they’re friendly.
00:21:04
Per Square, it was in the They probably have their best staff.
00:21:06
They’re more friendly.
00:21:08
The store team, the store regional teams are probably more focused on making sure that they work. So there’s a whole host of things that go in there. So unless you know the actual profit of meeting the hurdle rate on the cost of capital for the smaller box, because the cost of capital is still a total rate you got to hit, you don’t know. Which brings me my second point, which, and this I think is the most important point that I that I came up with last night for me is like department stores are about volume. They’re bigger boxes for a reason.
00:21:31
Small formats aren’t that, which means that Macy’s is going to be competing on thinner margins than the specialty apparel retailers which typically operate in those same boxes. And it’s going to be doing it with a more, a larger preponderance of market available goods. So that kind of in essence flies in the face of what a department store is in its business model. So sure, they can go after private label and they’re doing that. There’s articles in the news today, but like if you go after private label, then that isn’t really Macy’s either.
00:21:59
And Macy’s isn’t really known for private label. So you have to get over that hurdle too for this strategy to work. And so I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, every change to a business model has hidden costs. And I think there are hidden costs hidden in how we’re talking about this business model that aren’t quite visible yet, that are going to rear their ugly head in the long run. And Third Point is what you said, what the hell does this do for the existing chain?
00:22:21
It does absolutely nothing, you know. It takes the focus away, yeah, yeah, but that’s it. I like it for Bloomingdale’s because I don’t think Bloomingdale’s is as blanketed across the country now. They still have some of the same business model challenges, but you can take that up market on the service angle and take your prices up. Because I worry that the only way out of this hole is for Macy’s to inflate its prices.
00:22:41
But then it’s like, why would I shop there versus regular Macy’s? Or Why do I shop?
00:22:44
At once you go to TJMaxx next to where where I know what I’m going to get, I know what kind of shopping experience I’m going to get. And the brands are probably more premium than what I’m going to get at Macy’s. Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. All right, let’s move on to headline 5.
00:22:56
Cooler Screens is suing Walgreens Chris for reneging on a contract. To roll out its technology to 2500 stores, according to the Wall Street Journal, Cooler screens, the company that embeds sensors and digital screens into cooler doors that are programmed to play targeted ads to shoppers who walk past it, That’s a long sentence. Here is suing the pharmacy chain, saying that Walgreens obstructed and agreed upon nationwide rollout of the Internet, connected doors, and demanded their removal from all stores. Walgreens, meanwhile, says the technology from cooler screens just flat. Didn’t just fight out.
00:23:33
Didn’t work. Didn’t work, Didn’t work.
00:23:35
Chris, this is also the A and M put you on the oh, yeah, We haven’t had it yet, have we? No, no. All right.
00:23:41
And it wants to know, yeah, is this breakup between Walgreens and cooler screens A1 off hiccup or do you see this as indicative of a longer term concern for digital merchandising screens and bringing retail media in store cut right to it?
00:23:58
Yeah, I I, I think it’s definitely the, I think, yeah, I think this is a warning sign. You know we’ve had cooler screens on the program before. I think we’ve interviewed them twice and I remember talking their CEO arson at the time and saying to him, I have so many operational questions, but I want to keep those at Bay because it’s, you know, it’s an interesting concept. It’s an interesting concept. There’s a lot here.
00:24:20
There’s a lot to digest because if and here’s the point, if you read the the Wall Street Journal article, there’s a lot of, he said. She said on who’s responsible for managing these screens and who owns what in terms of how the digital content shows up on those screens.
00:24:34
It’s like a divorce.
00:24:35
It really is. It’s like you should have done this, you should have done that, blah blah blah. But like, here’s the point, managing these screens. I don’t think people really understand this. Managing these screens is basically takes the same effort as running a website when you get right down to it.
00:24:51
And in in actuality it’s harder because you have to manage a website that is on all the time in a physical store. It has to work every time, all the time. And so then it comes to the question like when it breaks, who’s in charge of fixing it, the store teams, the digital teams at headquarters, some third party that you’re assigning this like is cooler Screens responsible for it? I don’t know. But it’s a lesson for me, which is why I think, and I was questions right is like if you’re an executive and you’re thinking about this, you’ve got to be really careful about the digital media hype because there’s a lot to this you don’t want to.
00:25:24
I don’t think you want to be the first mover on this. You can test it for sure, but you’re testing period has to be longer because you’re going to have to see how these things hold up in store. And more importantly, you’re going to have to see how they hold up when your people turn over in their jobs. Like you’re going to need to do them for like at least a year because you have to know that your people can scale them. You have the intellectual understanding of how they work, what’s required for them to work, to make them work day in and day out.
00:25:49
So the human element of here is something that’s important. You can’t set and forget these things at all. So I that’s my take. I think it’s it’s like running a website.
00:25:58
Yeah, and I agree, especially when you look at store labor of these days like you and I visited one of these in New York when we were there last summer.
00:26:05
And do you remember like one of the screens was out and the and or like and the stores can’t fix?
00:26:10
And you open the door and there’s no more inventory left like there are clearly others. Are things that Walgreens team members need to be focused on doing before getting to this and updating this technology. It’s not impacting them at all whatsoever. It’s not what they’re being benchmarked on. And so I think that, you know, I let me start by saying I hate when these things don’t work because I don’t think that it’s not a good idea.
00:26:34
I think that what the problem probably was here is going from. Zero stores or from a few pilot stores to 2500 stores. Like there has to be more incremental phases so that you can learn to your point how this is going to impact the overall store operations. What this means in terms of training, what this means in terms of like does Walgreens have their own pricing accurate and up-to-the-minute so that it’s reflected in these things. That was another thing that they were talking about wasn’t right, like Walgreens price point wasn’t like tied in effectively to this.
00:27:07
And who’s measuring and watching all this? Like you said, it’s not said it and forget it. So I think you know the last thing that I would add, we just talked to somebody about this here today. But I think that the while digital media in store to answer names A and M’s question can have a lot of potential financial upside. You have to also be thinking about the other side of this which is the brands too like the data that’s coming in, the brand information that’s coming in talking about your website and all the components of that.
00:27:39
And the last like bit that they they complained about it but Walgreens did was that you know we’re we’re not getting correct information from cooler screens. We can’t it’s garbage in, garbage out data we can’t send. Our brands are already strapped. They can’t handle the data that’s good that we’re. Sending them.
00:27:56
So how are we going to make something of this investment when the brands are the ones that are supposed to be paying for the for these screens and for the stuff that’s going on the screens? Like the whole system needs to be realigned before they go out at 2500.
00:28:09
Yeah, 100%. And you know, going back to the shrink conversation too, if shrink is the way it is in the store, and it’s probably potentially less in a cooler. Or well, maybe not cooler. Cooler might have high shrink in it. A freezer maybe, Yes, but like a cooler?
00:28:22
Why is it colder to, like, stuff in your sweatshirt?
00:28:24
Yeah, you know, it’s probably harder to steal, you know, I would think so. I mean, I’m just, I’m just guessing. So was I, you know, But I think it’s probably harder to do or less less desirable to do. You know, you can’t just go. You can’t just eat that right away.
00:28:35
You got to take that home and do something that pizza. But like, but still there’s the data integrity problem. And so like with it being what it is, the chances of this type of thing working is really hard and so you’re going to have to devote the people to figure it out. And so like my hunch too is last point I’ll make an my hunch is they had like one person at headquarters that was probably in charge of managing the equivalent of a website in store. And if that’s the case, executives out there, if that’s how you’re setting this up, watch out because that should be your test that it’s not going to work.
00:29:04
Now I have no idea if that’s true, but I guess it, I’m guessing it wasn’t the amount of people that probably you want to put towards it because it’s a new initiative that’s always the way new initiatives work.
00:29:12
Right. All right, Chris, let’s go to the lightning round, question 1. Walmart is scrapping its requirements for a degree for some corporate jobs. I want to know, is there a job that you would have done if it didn’t require a degree?
00:29:27
Oh yeah, that’s that’s easy one. This one’s give me a shout out to my buddy Oven Bonsel. I would be a lawyer, but I’d be like the caveman lawyer from Saturday Night Live. I’m just a caveman. I didn’t have a degree, so I don’t know what I’m talking about.
00:29:41
Do you remember that skin? No, you remember that skin caveman, Frozen caveman lawyer with Phil Hartman. So great. All right. This is a little too old for me.
00:29:49
Oh, yeah, right. Here we go. Here we go. You’re. Aging out of the audience, Speaking of all the women is A woman is suing Disney for an injury wedgie.
00:29:59
She never. Heard that word before? Injurious. Yeah, me neither. It’s an injurious wedgie that she received at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park, which also didn’t know existed.
00:30:09
What is the worst wedgie you have ever received? Inquiring minds want to know.
00:30:14
How do you get a wedgie at a water park? Like going down a slide.
00:30:17
I think she must have caught it on something. And no, she got really hurt. It’s actually not a funny story at all. But yeah, it’s terrible. Terrible.
00:30:25
Well, the the first thing that comes to mind is mom jeans and the shorts.
00:30:31
Like mom jeans they give you wedgies.
00:30:33
They’re Levi’s mom, Jean. The first one they like, came out with is called the wedgie. Oh my God. And it definitely gives you the wedgie, especially like around the holidays, if you’ve been like, you know, you get gorgeous. Extra those extra pounds in front.
00:30:47
It’s just like, I can’t sit down. This is terrible.
00:30:49
That’s awful. I thought the mom, Jean, was supposed to give you more comfort. I thought it was about that. It’s not.
00:30:54
All of them?
00:30:54
Wow, deceptive advertising. All right, let’s keep going.
00:30:58
All right, Toys R’ Us is opening 24 new flagship stores and it’s also opening in airports and on cruises, which I think is super smart. I love that move. Chris, I want to know, would you rather be stuck in the Atlanta airport for 48 hours with only one working bathroom on the opposite end of the airport from where you are, or stuck on a cruise ship out at sea for 14 days that has Margaritaville stuck on repeat 24/7?
00:31:23
Oh my God, that’s like the lesser of two evils. I you know, I don’t want to get on a diatribe about airport retail, which I’ve done before. Like, I’m never a fan of seeing that when brands do that for the first time. I think it’s a tell. But anyway, for me, I definitely would not want to be in one bathroom situation.
00:31:37
That is never enough for for me and for everyone else.
00:31:41
You’re going to go out to sea with Jimmy?
00:31:43
Yes, I’d rather be at sea with Jimmy for two weeks. That that’s 100% fine. All right. And last one. NASA scientists recently discovered a ravioli shaped moon orbiting Saturn.
00:31:54
What kind of ravioli shape?
00:31:55
Like, just like you know, the standard. Like rectangular.
00:31:58
It’s not a standard like 3 different. There’s like a moon shaped ravioli. There’s like.
00:32:03
Triangle circle, raviolis like how big? Let’s your imagination what? It’s a boot. It’s huge. I have no idea.
00:32:09
Big it is. No, I mean like how big is a planet?
00:32:14
For my God, I know how big the moon is.
00:32:17
I’m saying so. So my question for you is because that that that question is actually completely academic to the question I’m going to ask you is what is your favorite pasta to consume?
00:32:27
Oh, Papa. That’s Papa Dell. Yeah, it’s my favorite. Wow. So good.
00:32:31
It’s like wide fat.
00:32:33
Like noodles that just is that the twisted?
00:32:34
No. It’s like a it’s like a fettuccine noodle, but three times the size. Like an oversized fettuccine noodle.
00:32:41
I don’t like broad flat noodles. I’m not a flat noodle guy. No, no. All right.
00:32:46
A wet noodle.
00:32:47
A wet noodle. Yes, 1000 Lashes with a wet noodle to you and to me. All right, let’s close this up. Happy birthday today to Dakota Johnson, Susan Sarandon and the true share for all you Generation X’s out there. The one and only Alicia Silverstone.
00:33:01
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00:33:32
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00:33:38
Or send it to us directly like Justin did.
00:33:44
Yeah, 100% we’ll take. Them in our dinner, LinkedIn in boxes, and we’ll read that. Yes, yes, yes, Yeah. We just ran into Jolene Buetner. She was here.
00:33:54
She like, stopped us while we were just getting set. Up and Kevin Struther and Kevin Struther shout out to Kevin and Jolene. So yes, we will take them any way we can. We just love, we just love affirmation and I think that’s what you’re saying. All right.
00:34:05
So until next week and on behalf of all of us that Omnitalk retail. As always, be careful out there.
00:34:11
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