00:00:03
The Omni talk Fast Five is brought to you in association with the A&M consumer and Retail Group the A&M consumer and Retail Group is a management consulting firm that tackles the most complex challenges and advances its clients people and communities toward their maximum potential CRG brings the experience tools and operator like pragmatism to help retailers and consumer products companies be on the right side of disruption and Avalara. Avalara makes tax compliance faster, easier, more accurate, and more reliable for 30,000+ business and government customers in over 90 countries. Avalara leverages 1,200+ signed partner integrations to power tax calculations, document management, tax return filing, and tax content access. Visit avalara.com to improve your compliance journey and Mirakl , Mirakl is the global leader in platform business innovation for eCommerce. Companies like Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Kroger use Mirakl to build disruptive growth and profitability through marketplace, drop shift, and retail media. For more, visit mirakl.com, and Ownit AI, Ownit AI helps the world’s leading retailers advance their eCommerce shopping experience with AI. To learn more visit Ownit.com And finally, Ocampo Capital Ocampo Capital is a venture capital firm founded by retail executives with the aim of helping early stage consumer businesses succeed through investment and operational support. Learn more@ocampocapital.com. Hello. You are listening to Omnitalks Retail Fast five ranked in the top 10% of all podcasts globally and currently ranked in the top 100 of all business podcasts on Apple Podcasts.The retail Fast five is a podcast that we hope makes you feel a little smarter. But most importantly, especially this holiday week in the US, a little happier each week. And the Fast five is just one of the many great podcasts you can find from Omnitalk Retail’s podcast network alongside our retail daily minute, which brings you a curated selection of the most important retail headlines every morning, and our retail technology spotlight series which goes deep each week on the latest retail technology trend. Today is August 28, 2024. I’m one of your hosts, Anne Mezzenga.
00:02:14
Think I’m still Chris Walton.
00:02:15
We think so. Here we are though. Once again, I’m in New York, Chris is back home in Minneapolis, and we are going to discuss all the top headlines from the past week that are making waves in the world of omnichannel retailing. Chris, you are just getting off of the first day of school. How did it go? How did drop off go this morning? Be mixed motions during that?
00:02:38
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kids are in fifth and fourth grade now, so they’re getting older, so we’re getting used to it. But, yeah, I’m coming in hot to this podcast. I literally just dropped the kids off the bus. Pickup time is 07:03. For my kids, that is so freaking early. I cannot wait until they get into junior high and the start date or the start times a little bit later, because, oh, it doesn’t.
00:02:58
It doesn’t get any better.
00:02:59
I know. It probably doesn’t.
00:03:00
Then you get into middle school, and they’re like, we don’t want to get up. I don’t want to get up for school.
00:03:04
I’m driving them around everywhere until they get their driver’s license and everything. Yeah, but, but, hey, hey, I said this morning. I said, hey, I got the kids to the bus. Mission accomplished. I got to pat myself on the back just for getting it done.
00:03:19
You do.
00:03:19
I know, right?
00:03:20
You do get an extra shot in your coffee this morning, I think.
00:03:23
Why are you.
00:03:24
You just. You knocked it out of the park. Good job, dad.
00:03:27
Thank you very much. Thank you. That’s very nice for you to say. So why are you in New York? I’m curious. Tell the. Tell our listeners, why are you in New York?
00:03:34
I am in New York because I was taking part in Scanditz empower event yesterday, which is like, a big event they throw for a lot of their customers. But let me tell you, I’ve gotten to spend some time with some incredible people. Welcome to the new listeners that we have who are at empower from the likes of Walmart, Crate and barrel, american eagle, um, u Haul. We have some people from U Haul, which was so fascinating because really, that how they’re thinking about, you know, their retail in store experience. And, yeah, we talked about everything that you can imagine. Party city. There’s people from. We had. I mean, everything that. Everything that you could be talking about about where people are making investments right now in retail and retail technology. And the team at scanned it, and Apple were so wonderful to host us. So it’s been. It’s been a riot.
00:04:21
So, Anne, were you hobnobbing? Is that. Is that the correct term?
00:04:25
Were you hobnobbing? I would say I was hobnobbing. Maybe a little bit. It’s very hot here. So we were kind of.
00:04:31
It is.
00:04:31
It was a little sweaty. Little sweaty.
00:04:33
So it’s been hot here, too in Minnesota. Really hot. Way too hot outside.
00:04:37
Oh, my God. We’re talking about the weather. We need to diverge. I feel like this is the Minnesota thing. What we gotta get off of it.
00:04:42
We need to move on to the headlines, Anne. And you know what’s funny? U Haul, I Haul, and we all haul for ice cream, which is going to come up later on in today’s headlines. But before we get to that, I.
00:04:52
Would eat a u Haul full of ice cream.
00:04:54
I would, too. Wouldn’t you? Yeah, they should do that. They should. You know, I just read a story that all the ice cream trucks are far fewer than there ever were back in the day when we were kids. So, yeah, maybe we rebrand a u Haul truck as an ice cream truck, put a little freezer in the back of it. All right. But today’s headlines are brought to you in partnership with Manifest, the who’s who conference in supply chain and logistics. The conference is taking place February 10 through the 12th in Las Vegas. Prices go up next month, so register now to join an and me to save $200 on your all access manifest Vegas attendee pass by heading to manifest vegas.com save with omnitalk. That’s manifest vegas.com save with omnitalk. You have to do, you have to do the save when you’re typing it in. All right, today we’ve got news on Chick-Fil-A opening a new elevated store with not one, not two, not three, but four drive through lanes and. Oh, my God, four drive through lanes. That’s insane. Amazon allowing FBA sellers to ditch, taking physical returns. I’m excited to talk about that one personally. The ongoing subscription wars between Amazon and Walmart prompted by Amazon’s new grocery delivery subscription and Walmart+’s new Burger King Perk. And we finished today, as I mentioned before, with ice cream and and a look at Unilever’s unique use of AI inside of the freezer. But we begin today with more marketplace news. Out of Walmart and take it away, please.
00:06:24
All right, headline number one, Chris Walmart has opened hosted us fulfillment to chinese goods. According to chain storage, Walmart has updated its Walmart cross border ocean shipping solution to provide seaborne transportation from select ports of loading in China to hosted Walmart fulfillment services or WFS facilities in the US. To use cross border solutions, the sellers must be a WFS seller that sources and manufactures goods in China and ship enough inbound inventory to fill a full shipping container. After determining that they are eligible for the service, sellers can then submit their information for review on the cross border Imports page in the Walmart seller Center. After an enrollment is submitted, reviewed and approved, sellers can begin booking inbound shipments, selecting shipments, and then sending inventory. Chris, there’s a lot going on here, but big story. How much do you think opening up hosted us fulfillment to chinese goods will augment Walmart’s marketplace?
00:07:27
Oh, wow. I’m going to get really scientific and sort of alliterative here, too. And to answer this question, sort of.
00:07:34
Alliterative, I don’t think there’s any other way. I think have to get really scientific here.
00:07:38
We’re talking, I think I do too. Capacity, right? Because we’re talking about shipping. Yes. There’s so much metrics in shipping and, but I think I would say a whole heap. That’s how important this is. Um, and I’d say there’s two points I bring up to your first, you know, essentially Walmart is taking a page out of Amazon’s book and they’re making it easier for their marketplace sellers to access the us market. That’s part and parcel what’s happening here. Notice how I use parcel, too. 2nd 2nd we’re on a roll already. I love this show. Second, I believe this is only step one of more to come. Walmart is very smart. And the next wave, which this isn’t, it’s very important to call that. This is not that according to this press release, but the next wave of this will be enabling direct to door shipping similar to Shein and Temu to Walmart’s customers actual front doors. Again, the announcement isn’t that yet, but which, when you start talking about that and given Walmart the largest retailer in the US, with the largest supplier network probably in the world, giving that supplier network direct access to us customers through Walmart’s marketplace means customers win at the end of the day because prices will be even lower on products that they can get from Walmart. And there’s a whole host of things that come into play here with how it can augment Walmart’s e commerce business by giving more options for when things are out of stock in the US. But I, I would even go into that now because at the end of the day, the consumers win, save money, live better. 100%. Walmart’s on its brand. Promise. Well done again to Walmart. I love this. Zachary.
00:09:05
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I don’t have too much to add here, but to me, this move, Chris, and I’m going to, I found a movie reference here because I wanted to appeal to you about really how impactful I think this is going to be for Walmart.
00:09:18
My God, this might be my most proudest moment. I know Omni talks fast. Five.
00:09:22
I wrote it. I wrote it. And I was like, I gotta find this is a perfect movie quote. But I, in my mind here with this move, Walmart is basically Daniel Day Lewis telling Amazon and Temo, for that matter, and Shein, I drink your milkshake.
00:09:39
Nicely done.
00:09:41
I think this is such a, like, for all the points that you explained and where we both think, like you mentioned, this is going to eventually go. I mean, I think this is one of the biggest moves that Walmart’s made to really start to compete with Amazon when it comes to, like, logistics and really offering the same kind of goods in their marketplace that we’ve been able to get and know and trust from Amazon for a long time. The second part about it, too is I think, you know, we’re, we’re going to have a session coming up here with flexports Ryan Peterson. But just talking about these shipping containers that are going across the ocean and they’re not completely full. Like sometimes they’re not even half full, he was saying. And I think that when you look at what Walmart’s doing, like, you have to make sure that the containers can be shipped fully. Like that’s going to help. There’s a lot of cost more sustainable, it’s going to be cost efficient. And I think that really helps them. Them being Walmart really start to accomplish goals that, like you said, are really going to provide the end consumer with so much more benefit and a more affordable product. So I think this is a lot bigger than maybe some people might have realized when they just looked at the headline.
00:10:44
So we are two thumbs up on headline number one for Walmart and. All right, let’s go to headline number two. Chick fil A has opened its first restaurant with a, quote, elevated drive through.
00:10:55
According to so many ways, right? In so many ways. Elevated.
00:10:58
Oh, yeah. So elevated. And yes. I can’t wait to talk about this. According to USA Today, the drive thru only restaurant features four drive through lanes and an elevated kitchen with a, quote, unique meal transport system described by the company as a, quote, sophisticated conveyor belt that streamlines food delivery by, quote, quickly moving the meal from elevated kitchen above to a team member on the ground below. End quote. The kitchen is also double the size of a typical chick fil a restaurant kitchen. There is no dining room or dining services at this restaurant, but the four lane drive thru has the capacity to support, quote, two to three times more vehicles than a standard chick fil a restaurant drive through. And what do you think of the idea of chick fil a opening restaurant locations without a dining room.
00:11:50
You set this one up for me because, you know, I love it 100%. Did you know that? I think this is great. It’s the same reason I lauded Starbucks last week and got a bunch of backlash from you and some of the A and M team. But I just, I don’t think you need space to eat inside. I think that this is going to do exactly what chick fil a sets out to do. They are going to be your go to because they are the most convenient option. They are, like, defining quick serve with quality and a quick experience through, in and out of that drive through, which I think can only be improved. Like, there’s always lines outside of there. I think this is a brilliant, brilliant move. And I’m excited to see, like, if they continue to roll this out. They’re, like, one of the most innovative QSR retailers out there. And I think that it’s going to be interesting to see, like, if this works, first of all. And then, you know, how quickly we start to see the chick fil a in our neighborhood that starts starting to exhibit this. But you, you go to chick fil a more than I do. So what are your thoughts?
00:12:49
Like, fast food habits are going to come up quite often on this podcast.
00:12:53
They are. They are.
00:12:54
So, wait, so you’re saying you would want more chick fil a’s like this throughout the country? That’s what you’re saying?
00:12:58
Hundred percent. 100%, yeah. You get the flywheel customer because, you know, I’m downloading the app, I’m giving you information about me. I’m placing orders ahead of time. I’m. Because I’m getting things quicker and the quality is still there. I’m going to keep coming back to you because I know I’m going to get in and out fast better than even, like, a McDonald’s or Burger King or some of the other places that are my other options. And I think that just continues this flywheel of, like, good customer engagement for chick fil A consumers and, and me, as a consumer, getting a better overall experience. Experience.
00:13:30
Wow. Okay. See, I don’t, I still disagree on this one because, um, I think it takes Chick fil a out of the customer relationship. So I think you have to tread carefully here, similar to, like we talked last week in Starbucks, because I’m of the opinion that your in store experience, particularly for a quick serve restaurant, is what cements your brand in me as a consumer. Um, and hopefully, and that’s, that’s, that’s why I have the feeling about chick fil a that I do. That’s why I have the feeling about in and out the way that I do. And I think it’s interesting that in and out hasn’t gone in this direction at all. So I hope Chick fil A is being smart about this and not thinking they’re going to jump all in and they’re just looking at this as a smart deployment in a few situations where they need the capacity, quite honestly. Because if you go the other way, I do worry that you start to face the same issues that Starbucks has in the long run in terms of the operations. And the other part I don’t like about this is the whole concept, the elevated concept, just smells of mass production. And the other thing I thought about, too is why are drive through lanes bad? People seem like they’re willing to wait in them. I waited 45 minutes in the in n out drive, drive through in California a couple of weeks ago, multiple times in the week, and I didn’t even sniff at it. And provided you have a good cycle time, like, if you’re getting the cars through every two minutes, it feels like it’s moving fast. It’s fine. I’m willing to wait. Um, and so, like, the other thing too is like, which I ask you this, Ian. We, I’m curious what your thoughts are. Which restaurant are you more likely to frequent more often? Right. The chick fil A, that’s the small one near your house, or the mega four lane drive thru with 100 cars going through it? That’s going to be kind of overwhelming. I mean, I’m kind of, when you put you disagree. So you go to the mega traffic Chick fil a automated process retrieval system. That’s what you do versus local one. See, I don’t go the other way.
00:15:21
That way. I don’t think that way. I think that one question that I have for you is like, how wonderful was this experience that you had the last time that you sat inside a chick fil a a Starbucks? Like, it was really good.
00:15:34
Chick fil A’s experience is really good.
00:15:36
I know that.
00:15:37
Really good.
00:15:37
The ordering I’m talking about, like the, you keep talking about the ambiance and the atmosphere, and, like, it’s this experience to be eating and dining inside of these places. Like, I don’t think it’s possible. I think that you, you just, you look at the quality. You have to look at the convenience first and the quality of the product. And, like, chick fil a stands by. The quality is great. People are willing to wait in line, but if I have if they’re across the street from each other. And I have the option of going through the four lane drive through or the single lane drive through, because it’s, you know, the night, the people are nicer. If I’ve got hungry kids and I need to get somewhere, it’s about how fast I can get out of there. So I think it’s just catering to those two different types of customers, and, and we’ll see. Like, maybe it’s not. I think you bring up a good point. Like, does it need to be the four lane drive thrus at every single place? Probably not. It’s a huge capex investment for chick fil a that. That’s probably not going to work everywhere. But in these high volume areas, I do think that I’m. I’m more likely to go to chick fil a than an in and out. I’m not willing to sit in the line for 45 minutes, um, maybe on vacation or something. That’s different, but, like, I’m not willing to sit in that line anymore. And I think that people aren’t willing to sit in the Starbucks line either. And that’s where the problems are really coming from. It’s not about, like, needing to have the experience inside of a Starbucks.
00:16:55
That’s interesting. There’s interesting two points to me. You know, one is managing the production flow operations of your food. Getting that in the customer is very different than managing the service operations of how you interact with your customer. And so the service operations of a chick fil a in this environment will change to 100%. And what they’re known for in terms of good service and human to human interactions is going to morph, because now you’re dealing with interactions of my drive thru orders. Wrong. My mobile pickup order is wrong. Like, who do I talk to for that? How do I get help with that? All achievable, but more complicated than traditionally done at Chick fil a. So I think that’s an issue. The other part about Starbucks, too, just to go back to that. I was in a Starbucks on Friday. I met somebody there. There was nowhere to sit. The place was dirty. Every table was unclean. It was disgusting.
00:17:41
Exactly my point. You don’t need that experience. Just go get your coffee. Starbucks is the go to for coffee. You want to go sit down and have an experience. I think that’s when you lean on your local coffee shop.
00:17:52
No, see, but I don’t want to because Starbucks is everywhere. It’s easy to be like, and that’s why so many business meetings happen. At Starbucks. It’s like, hey, let’s meet at the Starbucks. That’s why. And so that’s going to, I’m more reticent now to go get that extra coffee at my meeting at Starbucks, which I gotta think there’s a lot of extra copies being bought from Starbucks meetings throughout the years. But I don’t know.
00:18:14
I will tell of a lot of people that were coming in yesterday with Starbucks cups who had the option of free coffee or all the places, but they’re like, I like my Starbucks. It’s the same everywhere, whether I’m in Singapore, I’m in New York, and I can count on this coffee and it’s going to be exactly what I want. Like, I really think it comes down to the product, but I think, well.
00:18:33
I think the other point that we agree on fundamentally is like, yeah, okay, it’s probably the right thing to do because you went to a pickup only store the other day too, in New York, and you loved it. The right approach is probably, there are some pickup only options. Just how many of them do you need? How big do they need to be for sure to pump everything in and then make the other one? Still, what the Starbucks you need that has the experience that you want, right?
00:18:55
Yes. And that’s the reserve. Like, go to the reserve and sit down and then they care about what the in store experience experience looks like. I think it’s just, it gets to be a disaster. Like, counting on the, the in store experience. Chick fil a might be an anomaly, but, like, when you go into a McDonald’s or, like, you know, Chipotle, like, no one’s cleaning those tables. It’s, it’s just better to go and take my food and get out of there. So anyway, I sound like an old cranky lady.
00:19:21
Let’s, well, but service is why the margins are, you know, why the prices are higher at some of these restaurants too. Like, that plays into it. So, like, yeah, but anyway, let’s keep rolling.
00:19:29
Oh, my God, I can’t wait to.
00:19:31
Watch it because all these companies are going, you know, high on the hog into this type of thing.
00:19:36
Yeah. All right, Chris, let’s go to headline number three. Amazon is allowing sellers to ditch physical returns. According to supply chain Dive, Amazon has launched a program allowing sellers using its fulfillment services to issue product refunds without customers returning the item. Fulfillment by Amazon returnless solutions will help sellers avoid returns related fees by cutting out the physical reverse logistics process and letting customers keep the items. Instead. Sellers and customers tapping into the return list resolutions have to be in good standing with Amazon, and only customers without a, quote, history of abuse can be offered a returnless resolution. Some products are also ineligible for the program, including dangerous goods, heavy and bulky items, and those with an average sales price above $75. Chris, you mentioned in the intro that you are pretty excited about this, but are you buying or selling Amazon, allowing its sellers not to take back physical returns?
00:20:34
I’m selling this hard. I hate this. I hate. This is one of my least favorite headlines in the entire history of the show. Yeah.
00:20:41
Tell us why.
00:20:42
Um, because, you know who loses? Anne? Mother freaking Earth. Mother Earth loses on this one.
00:20:49
Um, among others.
00:20:50
But yes, I can’t think of anything more unsustainable. And this also feels like a blatant play to appeal to the sellers that Amazon wants to leverage via their shein and Temu copycat model that they’ve just announced in the last few months. And this is what has me worried. I’ve been getting more and more worried about this in the past couple of weeks, and this headline just cemented it for me, because here you have a company as big as Amazon, instead of a company as big and powerful as Amazon, which makes sustainability claims all the time, by the way, trying to figure out something that works. Instead, they’re saying, we just want to make money. We just want to make money. And there’s more money to be made by sticking customers with their returns and therefore more products, probably even more products ending up in landfills. That’s what’s going to happen here. And so as long as this fast fashion loophole continues to exist and policies like this start to come into play, everyone’s gonna lose ultimately. Yeah. And that’s why I hate this initiative. I don’t know, do you agree or do you think I’m being too strong and too.
00:21:53
No, I completely agree. It’s the first thing I thought of. Like, the first thing I thought of was like, is this really creating less waste? I mean, I think about the things, like, there’s a reason I’m returning the product. And in most cases, for me, when I’ve been returning stuff, it’s like the quality is worse than I expected, or like, it arrives broken or something. Like it’s just, it’s ending up in, like, I’m putting it in the garbage. I’m not doing something. Like, I’m not donating it. And to me, it seems like, shouldn’t Amazon, with their, you know, logistics processes that they’ve worked out for years, like, shouldn’t they have the most efficient logistics here possible to dispose of these products or to like figure out the best way to get these products either back into the sales cycle, which I, there’s a lot of sellers. If you look at this article from supply chain dive, like you have so many people commenting who are sellers that are not the team who, and sheinous types who are like, this totally screws us. Like we don’t want the people to keep the product. Like Amazon. You should be able to because of how quickly you can get products to customers, get them back to us so that we can put them back in, into our sales cycle in this, you know, within a couple of weeks so that we can actually get this product to somebody that wants it. So I don’t, I think it’s real bad news here and I think it’s going to end poorly for Amazon. I think we might end up seeing them kind of reverse and a course on this.
00:23:15
Yeah, 100%. There’s a whole host of implications for this too. Like, you know, number one, Amazon should be leading here. They shouldn’t be doing this. They should be setting an example. And the other implication too is like, what does this mean for Walmart as they try, we talked about that in the first headline. How does Walmart approach this? Does Walmart take a similar, like screw the earth, screw sustainability approach or do they come up with something creative?
00:23:35
They have stores. They have stores though. Like that’s the key thing here is like Walmart can do this better because they have stores and they’re going to like leverage that they can, they can bulk ship something when they have, like all of these things can be improved because of the 4000 plus network of stores that Walmart.
00:23:51
Yeah. Does Walmart start to iterate on this? Right to, in a way that differentiate them, differentiates them as a brand. Like they’ve been doing so well, which we’re going to talk about in the next headline too. And then the other point too is like when does the government just shut this, this loophole down too? Because like this, this, if we keep putting the insulin in the arm of this, like this, this is not good. This is not going to be good for anyone because this is what’s going to happen too.
00:24:13
So, yeah.
00:24:14
All right. Anyway, headline four. The subscription wars between Amazon and Walmart are continuing to heat up. Or maybe they are also just cooling down. And I don’t, I don’t know. I’m curious what your take is on this one. But according to retail Dive, Amazon launched an annual grocery subscription plan last week. The new plan costs dollar 99 per year and offers unlimited delivery on grocery orders over $35 from Amazon freshen, Whole Foods markets, and other local grocers and specialty stores listed on Amazon.com. who knew? And not to be outdone, according to a business wire press release, Walmart plus members can get 25% off any Burger King digital order every day and can also receive a free whopper every three months with any purchase. And Walmart obviously wants its Walmart plus members to have it their way at no additional charge. Can the same be said for Amazon’s new grocery subscription service?
00:25:08
Oh, my God, I love the Burger King thing so much. Like, I saw this headline and I was like, this is going in the fast five. It’s just another way that Walmart is. Knows their customers, number one, knows the busy families that they have who are just, you know, trying to. Trying to make ends meet. And fast food is still, you know, say what you will about. It’s still one of the most affordable ways to feed families. And now you’re offering 25% off of that. Like, that’s huge. I I got another. I guess I call this a. It’d be, it’s still film, but it’s not a movie. But I have another reference for you. I. This was another headline this week. Instead of Omar coming, remember from the wire? The wire again, Walmart coming. Walmart coming for you. Amazon while you. While Amazon’s adding more fees onto people. Granted, I know the snap discount. Like, you don’t have to have prime to use Snap benefits, but Amazon’s just adding on more costs for customers and especially their prime members. Like, you’re not adding to the benefits. Amazon. Walmart just keeps adding and adding and adding it and still, like, a lower annual cost for Walmart plus members with more benefits. So I I’m. I’m so happy. Walmart coming.
00:26:25
You seem really giddy. You’re like, giddy like a schoolgirl here. That’s great. Um, yeah, I mean, I I feel the same way. You do. I’m going to thread the line here between high praise and semi rant, I think. But I think the deal is super compelling to the BK partnership is super compelling. Cause, and as we mentioned before, my family is quite the fast food connoisseurs, and I did some back of the envelope math. Okay.
00:26:46
Okay.
00:26:47
Honestly, I go back to the whopper.
00:26:49
Whopper wrapper.
00:26:50
Back of the whopper rapper.
00:26:51
Yeah.
00:26:52
Yes. That’s what I did. That’s very good. We go to bk at least once a week, at least. And so if I just assume a $10 order, which is probably low because.
00:27:02
I got two kids and, man, you’re doing $10. They must be. You guys are having, you’re sharing a whopper. I feel like I can’t get out of there for like more than $30 these days.
00:27:12
Right, right. So, so, yeah, so, so, granted, this math is a low estimate, right. And I wanted to do it to keep the back of the envelope math easy. So what’s 25% of $10? Well, it’s 250. So that’s 250 per week that I’m saving, which adds up to over $100 a year when you get right down to it. So that pays for the cost of the Walmart plus subscription right there. That’s fantastic. And it’s probably more than that, to your point. So. But, and then now here’s the ramp part, the Amazon thing. I just don’t get it. Now I got to spend dollar 250 a year for prime and grocery delivery from Amazon, which has no storefront, which I don’t even know the quality or understand why I’m shopping there. Maybe whole foods, but. But it’s just a bridge too far for me. It really is. And I can’t imagine that many people are going to sign up for it, but I don’t know. Maybe I’ll be wrong. And then my last point that I’d make is, who are the specialty grocers and retailers that have hooked up with Amazon on this program? When you read them, you’re like, how desperate and non strategic can you be with all the other options out there? You want to help Amazon stand up their grocery delivery business? What the heck are you thinking? Like, that is absolutely insane to me.
00:28:24
All right, let’s go to headline number five. Unilever is expanding its use of AI image capture to improve ice cream restocking. Chris, according to consumergoods.com. have we had consumer goods.com on this? I don’t know.
00:28:37
I don’t think so. I think it’s the first time. Shout out to consumer goods.com.
00:28:40
Okay. Okay. According to consumergoods.com, unilever is equipping 350,000 freezers, or 30% of its top selling ice cream cabinets, in priority markets. With the technology, over the next two years, so far, it has completed installation in 100,000 freezers. The software takes photos of the inside of the freezer and automatically delivers the images to the cloud where AI can determine the stock level and generate orders for distributors for low inventory items. Since the initial implementation in 2023, the company has seen incremental growth that ranges from 8% in Turkey to 12% in the US and up to 30% in the good old country of Denmark. Chris, this is the A and M CRG put you on the spot question, too. Why not?
00:29:27
Wow. I forgot about that. We haven’t had it yet.
00:29:29
We haven’t.
00:29:30
That’s great.
00:29:30
Okay. A&M wants to know, Chris, from using shelf scanning robots, phones, drones and now Unilever’s freezer tech, the use cases for knowing real time on shelf availability and stock levels have been compelling. Why do you suppose that cpgs are leading this technology wave in general versus retailers? Awesome question. That’s a great question.
00:29:52
It is a really good question. And there’s a lot of good, good reasoning for it, honestly. And that’s why I freaking love this, too. I think, you know, for those listeners that may not. May not be aware, there’s. There’s many product categories, particularly in a grocery store, that the retailer controls the inventory flow for. And also categories where the CPG company controls inventory flow for. And those are generally called direct store delivery categories or DSD categories. And ice cream is one of them.
00:30:17
Also, like, lays, like. Right.
00:30:19
Like chips, soft drinks. Yep. Yep. A hundred frozen pizza, which I was going to talk about in a second, too. Yeah. So, like, this type of thing makes so much sense for those categories. And the fact that Unilever is publicly leaning into this makes me think that this is proof point number one, and it’s soon going to be followed on by shelf more. Now, you can’t do it in freezers, but you can do it with shelf cameras from, like, a Captana, which we’ve had on our show before. And you can do it in those categories, like you just mentioned. And so, you know, and then also, like, even the freezer installations, you can do it in frozen pizza. Like I was just alluding to, because the results already appear to be there. Unilever is not, from my memory, being. Being this, being the buyer of frozen food at one point in time, like 20 years ago almost, I don’t believe Unilever was as deep in the frozen pizza category as it is in ice cream. It’s the big leader in ice cream. But the frozen pizza category companies will get on board with this and see what Unilever is talking about, and they’ll start to do it, too, because the great thing about it, Ann, is, and for these categories, the retailer doesn’t really have to be involved. Third party service can come in, they can install the equipment, they can hook it up to the CPG’s inventory planning and their sales restocking team. And they can make it all happen completely exogenous to the retailers operations. And therefore, the retailer and the CPG win with this. And whenever you can create a one where both sides win in the discussion, that’s where you’re going to have innovation. And so that’s what’s happening here 100%. It’s a great question.
00:31:46
Yeah, I mean, I think. I think to go further on that, like, the other thing, especially at empower this week, we’re hearing so much from the cpgs who were in attendance. Like they’ve had to blindly rely on retailers for so long, or like, that one person going out and taking a picture of the display to like, or to the, of the shelves to make sure, like, they’re getting enough space in the freezers or that they’re getting the, like, that the products out on shelf. Like, they’ve had to kind of trust in that and rely on data that’s old lagging data that, that isn’t consistently updated in real time. And so this is going to give the cpgs that picture to really hold the retail partners accountable and then to help, you know, continue to make sure that they’re getting more products sold through. It sounds like it makes sense all around. It’s a better, more sustainable, better opportunities for cpgs and retailers to be on the same page about what kind of products they have in their shelves and making sure that theyre meeting the agreements that they both have.
00:32:43
Yeah, I think the last point I would emphasize there, too, and youre right about the sustainability side. It should, in theory, make the routing of your DSD drivers more efficient. They should be going to the right stores with the right products more often, and that should have cost efficiency season in the long run. So. Yeah, that’s a great point, Zachary.
00:33:01
All right, Chris, let’s go to the lightning round. Question number one for you is that Oasis is rumored to be getting back together after a 15 year hiatus. Which Oasis song are you most excited to hear them play?
00:33:15
Oh, wow. I’m so, I’m. I actually might go see the, see them, you know, like, I mean, I have never, I never go to concerts, but I actually might try to get tickets for them if they come to the states, particularly if they come to Minneapolis. Who knows if they will? Um. This one’s going to surprise you, Anne.
00:33:30
Okay.
00:33:31
My answer is actually, don’t look back in anger. I love that song.
00:33:36
That’s so good. So good that I think that was, um. That’s part of one of the intros in one of the articles, like, so Sally can wait and everybody else has been waiting or something.
00:33:47
Yeah. Right, right.
00:33:48
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have that.
00:33:50
Wait on her own. Yeah, right. What’s yours, though? I’m curious. Oh, it’s on the spot.
00:33:56
Yeah. I don’t know. I guess I would. I think Wonderwall is probably just like, a wonderwall.
00:34:02
Yeah, that was my choice.
00:34:03
I think you, like, want to hear that song again 15 years later. Because that, to me, is, like, the true test of, like, can you still hang? Can you still hang? I don’t know. We’ll see.
00:34:13
It makes me. It makes me nostalgic for the nineties, quite honestly. It really does. Yeah, I agree.
00:34:18
You and every, like, Gen X or Gen Z out there.
00:34:21
Right, right. All right. Olympic triathletes reportedly guzzling cans of coke to ward off bacteria from the sun. I think I said that. Right. Seine in Paris. What is one at home remedy you have taken in your life of which you are not proud?
00:34:37
The first thing that I could think of was the. I think. I don’t even think this is, like, a home remedy, officially.
00:34:44
This is going.
00:34:46
When I was in high school and we were drinking, there is somebody that said if you ate an entire loaf of bread, you would sober up quickly. Let’s just say I didn’t make it through maybe a third of that loaf of bread before I was in so much pain. Uh, that I was. I gave up on that theory. So that would probably be the one. The one home remedy that did not work for me. Yeah, not at all.
00:35:09
Did you eat it? Dried you toast it? Like, how did you.
00:35:12
No, I just opened up. We, like, went to Walmart, wonder bread. Loaves of. Yes, of, like, white bread, and just started, like, eating them because we were discovered. We’ll just say my girlfriends and I were discovered and we had to come home to our. Had to come home. And we were not ready to come home because we had been. We had been at a bonfire in the middle of the woods for a long time.
00:35:33
So word. Word to the wise for all those TikTok and Instagram remedies that claim to do everything for you to make your life better, I guess. Right, Anne? Oh, my God.
00:35:42
I never, never. Okay, Chris. Chris, question three. ThredUP is quietly launching a peer to peer marketplace. What item in your closet do you think would net the most value on the resale retail market?
00:35:55
Oh, you know, I actually did some research on this last night, and I started looking at the price of the Jordans that I’ve procured over the last few years. And. Easy. It’s actually my ivory craft. Jordan 3Ds.
00:36:09
That’s the most valuable.
00:36:10
I’ll talk in March. Yeah, those are the most valuable pair and also probably the one in the best condition if I was to resell them, which.
00:36:16
How much. How much could you get for them? Did you see?
00:36:18
I was seeing they were going for, like, 250 online, so.
00:36:21
Okay.
00:36:22
$30 appreciation, so to speak, from what I probably paid for them. So not much.
00:36:25
But that’s a whole BK drive through.
00:36:28
Yeah, it is. Order. Yeah, we should put everything in BK dollars from now on. All right, last one. Michael Bay is reportedly working on a new Skibidi toilet movie. Yes, that is true, folks, what does the word Skibidi mean to today’s youth?
00:36:42
Oh, my God. It’s so funny that you brought this up because we just took our boys to a Minnesota Twins game the other night, and somebody in front of us kept saying this, and I was like, so now our. In our house, we just keep saying Skibidi, and our kids want to murder us. They’re so embarrassed.
00:36:58
So the closest tactic, I should start saying it more.
00:37:01
Oh, God, it’s so funny.
00:37:02
Like, it drives me nuts.
00:37:03
Yeah. Like, oh, why are you acting all Skibidi? So anyway, I think the closest. The closest thing I can think of in, like, Gen X or millennial terms is skeezy.
00:37:14
I like what you did there.
00:37:15
Like, why are you acting all skeezy? So that’s what I. That’s what I think it means to today’s youth. I’m sure I’m wrong, and my.
00:37:25
You just dropped some huge knowledge on us, Anne. That’s a good lens from which to look at it. Like, what, Gen X gentle Zen, whatever, you know, term would you use to compare it to? And then also turning the tables on your kids and just using the word till they get nauseous of you. There’s a parent. That’s a great parenting.
00:37:41
There’s a great TikTok video out there of a dad going through a drive through, a McDonald’s drive through with his kids in the back and using all of their language to order, and they are just reeling. They are so embarrassed, and it’s amazing. So I highly encourage you to try that out with your Walmart plus membership when you go through the BK drive through this week.
00:38:00
Yeah. So therefore, TikTok is useful. All right, happy birthday today to Jason Priestley, Jennifer Coolidge, and to the man who never disappoints, especially when he gave us the great Maurice TT. Rodriguez in Boogie nights, the always reliable Luis Guzman. And remember, if you can only read or listen to 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. Our fast five podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week’s top news, and our daily newsletter, the retail DailyMinute, tells you all you need to know each day to stay on top of your game as a retail executive and also regularly feature special content that is exclusive to us and that Ann and I take great pride in doing just for you. 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. You can follow us today by simply going to to YouTube.com omitalkretail because watching us in video is the best way to watch and listen to this podcast. So until next week, and on behalf of all of us at Omnitalk, as always, be careful out there.
Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.