00:00:11 Anne
The Omni Talk Fast Five is brought to you with support from 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 for 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 Miracle, the catalyst of Commerce. Over 450 retailers are opening new revenue streams with marketplaces, dropship and retail media and succeeding with Miracle unlock more products, more partners and more profits without the heavy lifting. What’s holding you back? Visit Miracle.com that’s M I R A K L.com to learn more and Simbe Simbi powers the most retail banners in the world with today’s only multimodal platform for in store intelligence. See how Albertsons, BJ’s Spartan Nash and Wakefern win with AI and automation@simbirobotics.com that’s S I M B E robotics.com and infios. @ Infios, they unite warehousing, transportation and order management into a seamless, adaptable Infios helps you stay ahead from promise to delivery and every step in between. To learn more, visit infios.com or meet them at Shoptalk Spring in Booth 1908 and see how they relentlessly make supply chains better. 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 at ocampocapital. Hello, you are listening to Amit Talks. 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 Podcast. The Retail Fast Five is the podcast that we hope makes you feel a little smarter, but most importantly, a little happier each week too. And the Fast Five is just one of the many great podcasts you can find from the omnitalk Retail Podcast Network alongside our Retail Daily Minute, which brings you a curated selection of all of the most important retail headlines every morning and our Retail Technology Spotlight series, which goes deep each week on the latest retail Technology Trends. It’s March 26th. I’m one of your hosts, Anne Razinga.
00:02:33 Chris
And I’m Chris Walton, and we are.
00:02:35 Anne
Coming to you live from Shop Talk 2025 to break down once again all of the top headlines making waves in the world of omnichannel retailing. Chris we are right outside Meta’s Headquarters, as you can see.
00:02:49 Chris
Shop talk headquarters. Yes.
00:02:50 Anne
Yes. Yeah. Meta Shop talk.
00:02:53 Chris
Shop talk headquarters. Yes. You’re welcome. I just want to make sure. I didn’t want. I don’t want people to over assume the, you know, our esteem in the retail community.
00:03:01 Anne
You know, sometimes I wish we were in, you know, beautiful Northern California.
00:03:05 Chris
Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. We’re where they Palo Alto. Ish area. Yeah. That area. Menlo Park. I don’t know, but. But, yeah. But yeah, we’re together too. Usually we’re in remote locations. It’s good to see you.
00:03:15 Anne
I know.
00:03:15 Chris
It’s good to see you. How have you been?
00:03:18 Anne
You know, we’ve just been putting out lots of interviews over the course of the last couple days, trying to stay alive.
00:03:25 Chris
Yeah, we had a hell of a first day. Hell of a first day. And we got a great day coming today, too. A lot of great interviews coming today.
00:03:31 Anne
What was your favorite interview of yesterday? What should people check out?
00:03:34 Chris
I think the most memorable one was definitely the CVS interview that we did with Musab Bobilay. We had a joke that his last name rhymes with Vandelay, which. It does. Yes. He’s a Seinfeld fan. Yeah, yeah. But it’s great. He was talking about their strategy for CVS and how they want to, you know, localize their stores to the community. From a format as pricing and assortment standpoint, it was really cool.
00:03:56 Anne
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I. He was so gracious in letting us get all of our questions in that we had. We had to go off script. I had to go off script. So many questions about what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, but I mean, I’m excited to see what. What they end up doing.
00:04:11 Chris
You had a great interview with Fiona Tan from Wayfair, too. Like, that was really interesting.
00:04:16 Anne
Yeah, we. We had a session yesterday with F. Yonatan, the CTO of Wayfair, the CTO at Nix Knix, which is an Intimates brand. And then we also talked to Pad Mahari, who is the Chief Digital Officer at Purina Nestle, just talking about the technologies that they are investing in, how they’re investing in, and again, obviously, really cool to hear how they’re using AI.
00:04:41 Chris
I thought it was rapid fire, too. You kept them on their toes. Yeah. Got them buzzed a couple times. That was great. As a moderator, I always love when you get the buzz. It’s so cool.
00:04:50 Anne
They wanted the buzz.
00:04:50 Chris
Yeah. You want the bus? You got to get the buzz. You got to get the buzz. All right. And. Well, I Think we should get to this show? What do you think?
00:04:56 Anne
Should get to the show? Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. We got a cameo.
00:04:59 Chris
We have a cameo. And he just spilled the coffee, but that’s okay. Ben. Ben Miller. He’s here. For those watching on video, say hi. Happy shop talk, everybody. Thank you. All right. It’s okay. All right, Fashion. I’m going to be doing today’s podcast in a puddle of coffee. All right. But before we get started, I want to remind all of our fans out there that we are off all next week. We are shutting down the Omnitok headquarters for a much needed vacation. So there’s going to be no daily email, no podcasts, no Fast Five all next week. We will pick up our regularly scheduled programming the following week beginning on Monday, April 7th.
00:05:38 Anne
Where are you going? What. What is happening?
00:05:40 Chris
I don’t know yet, and I’m not sure yet. I’m still figuring that out. We haven’t. We haven’t quite figured that out. You’re going to Canada, though, right?
00:05:45 Anne
I’m going to. I’m Canada bound.
00:05:47 Chris
Yeah.
00:05:48 Anne
Hopefully. I’m really nervous that I’m going to end up on this show and I’m going to have a neck brace and be in full body cast from skiing.
00:05:58 Chris
Well, I personally would love that, just for the content, just for the visual content aspect of that. And so I’m not gonna say I hope it happens to you, but I think we’d manage if it did.
00:06:07 Anne
It’s a fear. It’s a real fear every time we go out.
00:06:10 Chris
That’s true, actually. You ski. All right. In today’s Fast5, we’ve got news on Amazon, Hall Klarna’s latest deal with doordash, Edible Arrangements, getting into of all things edibles, and Target’s new test of, quote, brown box delivery from stores via ship drivers. But we begin today with the launch of yet another plus program. Ann.
00:06:33 Anne
Yes. All right. Headline number one, Chris. Best Buy is connecting its retail media network to social campaigns via something it’s calling. What else? Social Plus.
00:06:44 Chris
Can we come. Can we stop it? Seriously? Yeah.
00:06:46 Anne
And you’ve got yourself a campaign, folks. According to chain Storage, the consumer electronics giant’s Best Buy ads, retail media network is unveiling Social Plus, a new offering for brands and advertising agencies that allows them to reach its first party audience and deliver metrics across social campaigns. Social plus is exclusively available through Best Buy ads and at launch includes Meta’s, Facebook and Instagram networks. With plans to expand to other platforms in the future. Social plus combines proprietary Best Buy customer insights with Meta’s Advantage plus shopping campaigns. And the solution leverages automation to find existing and prospective customers and serve highly targeted content to specific customers at optimal times. It will also provide SKU level insights through Meta’s product level reporting beta capabilities. Are you still with me?
00:07:36 Chris
I am, yeah. No, it’s pretty cool. I’m excited about this one.
00:07:39 Anne
Well, Chris, this is also the A and M put you on the spot question.
00:07:42 Chris
Oh, thank you. Thank you A and M for giving me the put you on the spot question. They’re just bright and early at 8am in Vegas. Thank you guys, I appreciate that very much.
00:07:49 Anne
They’re coming in. They’re going to mic drop right away, Chris. They want to know, do we just hear the best marketing response so far to a cookie less advertising world? Mic drop.
00:07:59 Chris
Okay, all right. Not the best because honestly. And the best is in store. In store audio advertising. That’s going to be the best thing that’s going to blow up. I’m big into that. So this might be the second best though, if I was to qualify it. But no, I really, I really do like this idea. I think it’s, I think it’s really smart. You know, you and I were talking a little bit about it before the show. To me it’s just, it’s, it’s really. No, it’s just a new age version of like showing ads on televisions that are in your store. You know, like you would see in a Best Buy, a Target or a Walmart. But there’s two big reasons I love it. You know, number one, the sales are attributable.
00:08:36 Anne
Yes.
00:08:37 Chris
So that’s awesome. And then two, this is probably the best part of it. Yes. Peter from Shein. How you doing man? We got lots of people stopping by today. The other reason I love it is it gets, it extends the media reach into things beyond traditional retail. It extends it into media. You know, like we learned from Robert Josek of Schwarz Group, the fourth largest retailer in the world, by the way, heads of retail media. He said retailers have to be very cognizant of the spend that goes to traditional retail versus media dollars. And this unlocks media dollars for Best Buy because it allows them to pipe in with advertisers that want to understand their shopper demographics and what they can do. So I love this. I think it’s just a brilliant idea. I think it’s really smart. I think it’s just a matter of time before we start seeing more people follow suit here.
00:09:25 Anne
You know, that was actually my one. I’ll start with my questions about this and then go into why I like it, because I also do like it too. But I also wonder, like, I think Best Buy deserves some credit here for First Mover Advantage and really being one of the first retailers to pilot this. But I wonder how soon this becomes table stakes for other retailers. Just the way that we’re seeing, you know, this expand retail media expand and To A&M’s point too, like, yes, this does give you, gives you visibility as a retailer into how people are finding you, how your customers are behaving in ways that they didn’t have visibility to before. But the last thing that I love so much about this, and I think that it’s really important when we think about where product discovery is happening and that is on the social channels like, like Instagram, like Facebook and being able to, for Best Buy to again get visibility into what people are discovering, what people are searching for and then really get into tailoring the campaigns to hit people at the right time with the right content, which is a huge topic of discussion here at Shop Talk.
00:10:37 Chris
Yeah. The one thing I would say too is like, the one watch out though is you can’t just like, you can’t just be the retail media prostitute. That’s the way I put this. You can’t just sell ads to anybody. You still have to merchandise them. You still have to make sure that you’ve got a governance process in place for that the right ads are going out to your network of people for the products you sell, particularly in your stores. And then as you try to extend into media as well, you got to be conscious of that. Now, I don’t think it’s that big a deal. It’s easily done, but it’s going to need to be done at a scale that we haven’t seen before in retail. The scale is different than the TV example I brought up before. Right. Like you are just hitting so many more people with so many more things and it’s super valuable.
00:11:18 Anne
Right. And there’s the tools now to do that. You know, there’s, there’s AI that can help you sort through that data, that information that can a B test some of these ads too, so that you are getting that right content that just wasn’t available before.
00:11:29 Chris
Yeah, exactly. Right. All right, Headline number two. Amazon is using its big spring sale to promote Amazon hall the big spring sale haul and is how I call it, is what I call it actually. According to Retail Dive, Amazon said It’s also offering 50% off Amazon hall purchases as part of its Brick Spring Big Spring sale which runs from March 25, so started yesterday to March 31. US customers who shop on Amazon Haul, a Temu and Shein like competitor that just launched in November, will automatically have the offer applied during checkout throughout the sales event. Available only via app and on mobile. All haul items are priced at $20 or less, with most less than $10. And some items. This blows my mind, priced at a dollar, so 50 cents, guys. Go get your 50 cent items. The selection includes home decor, fashion, outdoor gear and electronics. Hall orders over $25 also qualify for free shipping in one to two weeks. And 50% off Amazon haul seems pretty aggressive to me.
00:12:33 Anne
What do you think it is aggressive? I would have gone bolder actually. Yeah, I think that Amazon should free. I mean, I think, I guess I would have gone bo. I took your question to mean like it’s pretty aggressive with the promotion and like the awareness that it’s driving. Okay, I, I think I would have made this a bigger event and I just focused on Amazon haul. I think it should be an Amazon haul that’s the size of a prime day. Because I think that you’re facing some really stiff competition with Shein and Temu. You’re going to continue to face that, especially with some of the, the advancements. Like we talked to Peter Pernode yesterday about where Shein’s headed, what kind of things they’re investing in. And I think for Amazon to be a true competitor, this needs to be massive. It needs to be at key points during the year, so a couple weeks ahead of holiday, a couple of weeks ahead of back to college and things like that when you’re ordering stuff like this.
00:13:33 Chris
Interesting.
00:13:33 Anne
So I think, I think price point wise it seems appropriate, I think scale of the announcement like a spring sale, that means nothing to me as a consumer. A 50% off Amazon Wholesale, that’s something that I feel like is more.
00:13:48 Chris
I mean this is basically prime day for, you know, six days or whatever. This is their spring equivalent of that. You don’t think that means anything to the consumer?
00:13:55 Anne
Well, I mean I shock especially right now. No, I don’t. I don’t think it’s as important that if you’re going to go heading into Easter.
00:14:02 Chris
I don’t know. Okay, keep going.
00:14:03 Anne
I think that if you’re going to go. If Amazon’s truly trying to compete with hall, like that’s the headline here. We’re talking about hall, we’re not talking about spring sale. If that’s what you’re gonna try to do if that’s a real objective for you as a business. Amazon, I would have gone bigger and bolder and not thrown this in with a spring sale.
00:14:21 Chris
So you would have done something separate, standalone. That’s your play. And you would do it more often too. Yes. Okay, so, but Net Net, do you like this move?
00:14:29 Anne
Which move?
00:14:30 Chris
Just the move of like trying to get behind hall and fire, sailing it on price.
00:14:34 Anne
I think they have to. I think if they’re going to stay competitive, if that’s a business, a business objective for Amazon, then yes, they have to do this.
00:14:43 Chris
Yeah, interesting. But you know the points of. Well, I just think, I just, I think I, I disagree with you about the part about the spring sale in general. I think that’s an important event in consumers. You know, they’ve done it, I think, a number of years now too. I don’t remember how many, but, you know, and they’re doing it routinely throughout the year, so. But I think your point about, okay, how do you actually get people to haul is really what you’re saying. And for me, I don’t know, like, I’m kind of like, okay, you’re fire selling this 50% off. That’s what you have to do to get people interested in it. We’ve seen the studies that people are not shopping it. So, you know, that, that tells me that it honestly kind of reeks of desperation to me as a merchant. I’m like, you know, the last thing I want to do is like, fire sale my price to get people to do that. And so it just seems like a road to nowhere. And, you know, long term, it feels like a strategy would have taken to compete with Walmart back in the day, and you’re going to lose that battle. So why can’t she. And she and Timur can be defensible against that, especially for a week.
00:15:39 Anne
Who cares?
00:15:39 Chris
I’d just be like, you’re a nat in my ointment. Get the hell out of here. You know, so I don’t, I don’t think this is a good sign for them at all. And, you know, I think it shows that there’s a lack of, of creativity on how to, how to mimic or do what she and Timu do better. That. That’s my take. You agree with that?
00:15:56 Anne
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. No, I think, I think they’re.
00:15:58 Chris
So you’re saying they need to do something. This isn’t it. Yeah, I think we both agree this.
00:16:02 Anne
Whole thing is too muddled with too many Angles and, and just like go after one thing, put more product sets in the spring hall, then like, figure out a way to make this as big as Prime Day. If you really, if it’s a business objective.
00:16:17 Chris
Yeah, I’d actually rather see Amazon now that I’m thinking about it. I’ve never talked about this with you, but I’d rather see Amazon like using their supply chain infrastructure to help other retailers mimic what she and Intimu is doing. Yeah, you know, yeah.
00:16:28 Anne
If they could do it at the.
00:16:29 Chris
Price point, that seems like the way to go because there’s probably a lot of people that would want that from a product development perspective, especially the Shopify vendors, you know. But anyway.
00:16:38 Anne
All right, let’s go on to headline number three. Chris Klarna for the second week in a row is making our Fast 5 headlines. They have inked a significant new partnership and this time with DoorDash. We’ve got somebody from Doordash coming on today, one of the very first employees of DoorDash.
00:16:52 Chris
Sweet.
00:16:53 Anne
I’m very excited to talk to her. Jessica Locks will be on.
00:16:56 Chris
All right.
00:16:56 Anne
All right. So according to CNBC, DoorDash customers can soon buy with Klarna via full payments, interest free installments or deferred options aligned with payday schedules. Klarna said in a press release that DoorDash customers will be able to pay in full at checkout, split payments into four equal interest free installments or deferred to dates that align conveniently with when they get paid for Klarna. The announcement comes after it recently became the exclusive provider of Buy Now Pay later loans for one pay, the Walmart backed Fintech company. The partnership also strengthens Klarna’s position in the US Just before its anticipated debut on the New York Stock Exchange. Chris, I have to ask.
00:17:38 Chris
Yes.
00:17:38 Anne
You were just on your phone this morning trying to figure out how to get a product in a very short amount of time.
00:17:43 Chris
That’s right.
00:17:44 Anne
How long before you start using BNPL to your for your doordash deliveries?
00:17:49 Chris
Oh, my God. And like, as soon as possible. Like is yesterday an answer two weeks ago an answer 100%. I mean, you and I were joking about this. I want to bring it up for the audience. Do you remember where we were the first time we learned about bnpl?
00:18:01 Anne
No, you don’t. Okay, you gotta refresh my memory.
00:18:04 Chris
Okay. We were@shop.org in LA. It was September of.
00:18:07 Anne
There’s a lot going on during the year.
00:18:09 Chris
There was. Yeah, there was. There was a lot going on that trip which will stay between us. But it was shop.org 2018, we went by Sezzle. They had a booth and somebody recognized us from Minnesota. And they’re like, hey, come and check this out. And they told us about it. And I got like super geeked up about it. I was like, this is so cool. Totally makes sense if you can make this work. Yeah, it’s all coming back to me. Yeah. I mean, you were like three. You were like, you just had a baby like three months ago, Right?
00:18:34 Anne
I was not. Yeah, there’s a lot happening.
00:18:35 Chris
Yeah. And we had like this crazy Airbnb in the middle of downtown. It was just, it was awful. But anyway, great insight into, like, where the future was going that day. And so ever since then, I think it’s just, it makes so much sense because it is a smarter way as a consumer to buy things. Because you can get interest free loans.
00:18:53 Anne
Yeah.
00:18:53 Chris
So, like, why wouldn’t I extend my payables? And so you’re starting to see this everywhere now. You know, Walmart’s doing it. Doordash is doing it. It’s another great hook for doordash too, which we’ve talked about a while. Like, the Dash pass is very advantageous if you get your hands on one. So I, you know, I love it.
00:19:09 Anne
Yeah, I think you’re right. You know what? I think initially I was concerned about Buy Now, Pay later, about getting people into a position where now you’re using Buy now, pay later for food ordering, delivery. But then I thought about it, Chris, and it’s like, look at the contrast on the other side of things. You’re just putting it on a credit card.
00:19:26 Chris
Right.
00:19:27 Anne
You’re building up and racking up credit card debt. At least with this move, you’re, you’re able to, like you said, put it into installments, align it to your payday schedule so that you’re able to like, have more visibility or more activity, I guess, involved in how you’re spending your money. And I think that will become more and more important. I also think this is a big move for Klarna. Not only now do you have visibility as a global organization into how multiple customers around the world are spending money. But now you also have visibility into Walmart shoppers, a major daily essentials shop mass merchant, that they’ll have visibility to one of the biggest retailers in the United States. And now you have visibility into how customers are spending on immediate gratification categories like restaurant delivery, like other things. So I think you’re just building that moat too for Klarna for, you know, the data that they have and the visibility that they have into how consumers in the world are purchasing and behavior that they’re doing. So I think it puts Klarna in a great position as they’re headed for this IPO.
00:20:30 Chris
Yeah, 100%. I mean, God. Yeah. This is like similar to the Best Buy story. I mean, we’re see a lot of people starting to jump on this bandwagon too, because it’s going to be a ubiquitous way that people are going to start to pay and want to pay. And, you know, our job, too, is not to be the regulators. Right. Like, we think it’s just a better way to. It’s a better way for consumers to purchase products. The regulators can get behind it in terms of consumer protection and things like that. Yeah. All right, so let’s do this next one. Headline number four. I got to find my place here because we are. We are remote and Edible Arrangements parent company is launching a marketplace for weight for it. Edibles.
00:21:04 Anne
Love it.
00:21:05 Chris
Yeah. This is Ant’s favorite headline of the year, according to CNBC. Edible Brands is launching edibles.com, an e commerce marketplace for hemp products such as drinks and gummies. The website launches Friday, starting with Texas. The company is planning to roll out the platform nationwide quickly, with Florida, Georgia and other southeastern markets falling soon after. Texas and Ann, I don’t know if you notice, but we got some aloe black in the background that’s throwing me off here. Edibles.com will fulfill its online orders using its existing franchise system. The Edible Arrangements franchisees who participate will allow the nascent business to offer same day or next day delivery, just like it does with fruit baskets or chocolate dip strawberries. My favorite. Edibles.com also has a lease for a brick and mortar location in Inman park in Atlanta and said it plans to add physical locations other states as well. Ann?
00:21:59 Anne
Yes.
00:22:00 Chris
As the resident expert on all things edible, interpret that however you want here at Omnitalk. On a scale of 1 to 10, what do you think of Edibles.com I’m.
00:22:12 Anne
Giving this a big fat 10. 10.
00:22:14 Chris
You’re not going 11, huh?
00:22:15 Anne
Well, no, I’m gonna stay within the reins here a little bit. But I think that, look, this is Edible Arrangements. You win for finding great adjacencies that make your brand relevant. Again, like, this is a huge market, though people are still for some reason uncomfortable talking about it, even though it’s legalized in a lot of states. I think this is a great idea and will bring Edible Arrangements back into the fold. I mean, when was the last time you thought about arrangements?
00:22:44 Chris
Never. No, it’s never ever entered my thought process.
00:22:46 Anne
You have franchise, no offense. They’ve already established a grid of people of things that are happening. Like they’re already getting the infrastructure in place so that when this gets legalized across all 50 states, they will have people who are ready to deliver this same or next day. And that is in some states, that’s going to be your only option too. And that’s the other part of this. Like when you order any of the THC products in some states, delivery that you gotta have somebody do a delivery. It is not a comfortable experience. You’re walking down to a car the middle of the night with cash. Like, this is not someone. You don’t know who you’re talking to. Like, this is not a good experience for people. So you understand why there’s a lot of stigma to it. So I think that going forward with somebody who’s got an established reputation, I think that makes a lot more sense. And I think this is a great move.
00:23:39 Chris
The friction in drug buying that I’ve never thought about before and that’s really interesting.
00:23:44 Anne
Or alcohol delivery, I guess. Whatever you want, right? Whatever.
00:23:47 Chris
Whatever it is. Yeah, whatever it is. Yeah, no problem. I mean, I don’t have much to add here. I think it’s. I just say mazel tov. Like the fact that Edible Arrangements grabbed edibles and actually I want to go on the site now and look for it and see what’s available to my state is just absolutely. Just kudos to them. That’s all I’ve got to say. I got nothing to add.
00:24:07 Anne
You don’t have to place an order, but check it out. All right, let’s go to headline number five, Chris. Target is testing a new delivery method for its shipped drivers. According to Supply Chain Dive, the test enables brown box delivery or shipments outside of same day delivery and pickup options from the company’s retail locations to customers in areas without a sortation center nearby. Executives did not detail which or how many locations are participating in the program yet. They say, quote, while we’re in the early stages of expanding this test to more markets, we’re very encouraged by the early results as it’s making us faster and more cost efficient. And quote, Target EVP and CEO Michael Fidelke said, Chris, are you buying or selling Target’s brown box delivery test.
00:24:53 Chris
Oh, man, I have a lot of issues with this story and. Okay, a lot of. What are they? Well, let me get back to the answer the question first because I’ll get, I’ll unravel it that way. I think number one, I think it’s a smart idea.
00:25:08 Anne
Yeah.
00:25:08 Chris
But two, so I’m buying that it’s a smart idea, but I’m selling the fact that it’s an earth shattering idea. Right. And the reason I say that is because like, you know, Target has basically taken the approach of sortation centers.
00:25:20 Anne
Yep.
00:25:21 Chris
Walmart has taken this approach already. And it’s basically a function of where are your stores? Like are they near, are they near a location where a sortation center makes sense by that I mean like where you have a cluster of stores or are they more like Walmart where they’re probably out standalone on their own and a sortation center just defeats the purpose. Right. That’s the fundamental thing that we have here. So to me it’s like, okay, you’re, you’re testing this like no duh. Like I’m like, you should have been testing this already and it’s not going to be earth shattering. I mean it may be the right thing to do, but it’s like the way the article is saying like oh this great pilot, we’re doing all these things. I’m like, come on here people. Like you should have been doing this already. And it’s just, it’s just, it’s such a no duh idea that I can’t even get my head around how silly the positioning is of this in the media. That that’s my take on it.
00:26:06 Anne
Yeah, this, this did I feel like this was definitely a stretch. I mean I think that the, the bigger story was actually in the Wall Street Journal last week where Target was or finally announced that they built for cold storage facilities.
00:26:21 Chris
Oh, that was baloney too though. Oh my God. Okay.
00:26:23 Anne
I don’t know. I mean that’s, that to me is the right spot to start to talk about because they’re going after a market that they’re losing share into Walmart. And I think that, that starting to put in more facilities like that to me make much more sense than talking about doing something as obvious as. Yes. Testing out what happens with ship drivers. Now the only thing that I do worry about here is that like we’ve seen ship drivers. I told you about this. When like I’ve been to the sortation center outside Target. I’ve seen ship drivers that are sitting there with packages sitting outside their car trying to rearrange this. Like my question is like how well prepared are some of these Target backup houses and back rooms. How are they going to do this? I think Target needs to think long and hard about how they’re rolling this out in these test locations so that it’s set up for success versus just like jamming this in with, like, order pickup on the side or like, you know, getting in the way of trucks delivering. Like, I think that there’s more to this test and I just hope that it doesn’t become a distraction or doesn’t get killed too early on because it wasn’t set up correctly.
00:27:27 Chris
Well, yeah. And the other point I bring up too, that you’re kind of hitting on is there’s also the question about, is using gig drivers the right way to do this? Like, should you actually be using delivery? Well, I think for an economies of scale standpoint, from what I’ve talked to the people that know a lot more about this than I do, what they tell me is, like, you need for this to work, the stores need a certain amount of orders going through them, and you want to be putting those in, like, delivery trucks.
00:27:50 Anne
Sure, yeah.
00:27:51 Chris
And then you have the question of whether you’re better equipped to have W2 drivers handling those loads consistently, regularly, versus, you know, gig drivers as well.
00:27:58 Anne
You’re talking about the bunch a route where you’re like, your W2 drivers. They have vans that they’re using to deliver. It’s more systemized instead of just like, you know, pick up a shift today.
00:28:08 Chris
That’s where the real economies of scale come from. And that’s, I think, what Walmart is trying to do with their approach to this over the long run. I don’t know the exact split of W2, but I know from a. From an order capacity, from an order fulfillment standpoint, of course you want as many orders coming through that store as you can because that’s what makes it work and that’s what makes you drive profitability in the long run. So.
00:28:30 Anne
All right, well, you’re buying.
00:28:32 Chris
Well, I’m buying the idea, but I just. I’m not. I’m not, I’m not. It’s. It’s not the greatest thing since sliced bread, like, it was pitched in the media. It’s just. It’s just like I’m kind of pissed that you’re just now talking about this. You should have been doing this five years ago. And my hunch is that they were and they’re now just taking credit for it in the media. That’s probably what’s happening here. I’m shocked that they’re just now testing this. Honestly, as I think about it. At least I hope that’s the case.
00:28:55 Anne
Right.
00:28:55 Chris
To credit them a little bit. All right.
00:28:57 Anne
Okay, we’re going to the lightning round. Chris, question number one. Earlier this week, you asked your orange theory coach to play you a Christina Aguilera song to get you pumped up for your workout ranked, man.
00:29:08 Chris
I gotta watch what I tell you.
00:29:09 Anne
Well, it was a slow. It was a slow Newsweek in terms of lightning round.
00:29:13 Chris
That’s true. That’s true. Yeah, it’s true.
00:29:15 Anne
Rank your top three, Christina. Or do you go by X? Tina. What is she being called these days?
00:29:21 Chris
Oh, she’s Christina Demir Aguilera.
00:29:23 Anne
Okay, what rank your top three songs and was one of those top three one of the songs you had your orange theory coach play?
00:29:31 Chris
Oh, 100%. So. All right, top three. So let me think about this. I would go lady marmalade number three. I’m gonna go in reverse order. That’s a good one. Solid one. These are all good workout songs.
00:29:42 Anne
That’s not technically. That’s a moulin rouge, right? Soundtrack.
00:29:47 Chris
Yeah. It’s like a trio, right?
00:29:48 Anne
Yeah. Pink. Yeah, but you got little Kim on that.
00:29:52 Chris
Yeah, but. But she slays it in that. In that song and she slays it. All right, number two, fighter.
00:29:58 Anne
Okay.
00:29:59 Chris
Can’t go wrong with fighter. That’s a great song. And number one. The number one. And the song I asked for, believe it or not, ain’t no other man. Ain’t no other man. I can’t sing it either.
00:30:10 Anne
You wanted somebody to play ain’t no other man.
00:30:12 Chris
I went into my coach and I was like, hey, can you play? I don’t know what song it was I just heard on the radio, but I saw that it was 2006 and she looked it up. She’s like, ain’t no other man. I was like, yes. And she played it and I was like, woo. Yeah, let’s go. It was great. It was great.
00:30:25 Anne
That will forever be your walk up music.
00:30:27 Chris
Oh, yeah. All right. The Huffington Post recently released its 5 Foods to Avoid at airports out of the following list. Dan Fountain drinks, prepackaged sandwiches and salads, fruit cups, unpasteurized juices, and dairy products.
00:30:42 Anne
What is that?
00:30:43 Chris
I don’t have any idea. That one threw me. And sushi or raw food, which are you most likely and least likely to purchase? I feel like you purchase a lot from this list, actually.
00:30:54 Anne
Do I?
00:30:55 Chris
I could see you doing that. Yeah.
00:30:57 Anne
I mean, I. I think you’re not a fountain drink. I think I stopped going. Sandwiches and salads. I’ve Stopped completely.
00:31:03 Chris
Okay.
00:31:04 Anne
I. That was something that I. In a pinch, I would grab a sandwich or a salad because we were traveling and there’s just no options, but. I don’t know.
00:31:12 Chris
Fruit cups surprised me, too.
00:31:13 Anne
Yeah, I. That stuff is. I guess. And milk. I purchased the containers of milk, but I have to.
00:31:19 Chris
That’s pasteurized milk, though.
00:31:20 Anne
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that doesn’t count either. I don’t know. None of the above, then I’m. I’ve. You fully.
00:31:25 Chris
You’re still eating sushi at the airport?
00:31:27 Anne
No, no, no, no. None of the.
00:31:28 Chris
So which one are you least likely to purchase?
00:31:32 Anne
Probably sushi.
00:31:34 Chris
Sushi. Yeah, I think so. Airport sushi. I mean, we. It’s got the moniker for a reason.
00:31:39 Anne
There is like, I would buy freshly prepared. There’s a good sushi restaurant at the MSP airport. I would probably buy that freshly prepared. I’m not buying any prepackaged containers. No. Negative.
00:31:50 Chris
Better you than me. And better you than me.
00:31:52 Anne
Chris, according to a recent study, wearing socks has been shown to help you get a good night’s sleep because it helps warm the feet while reducing your core body temperature. Are you a socks off or on kind of sleeper?
00:32:04 Chris
Oh, man. And I don’t wear socks to sleep. But I tell you what, I do wear them to do absolutely nothing. I hate socks. And I hate wearing just socks. It’s terrible. I hate to sleep in them because then you get, like, foot funguses. I hate walking around the house in my socks because you sweat, you know? It’s a terrible idea. I don’t agree with this article at all.
00:32:25 Anne
Okay.
00:32:25 Chris
It’s a terrible idea. I hate walking around the house in socks because you step in a puddle and then your whole day is ruined. You gotta change your socks.
00:32:32 Anne
I will agree with you that the socks in the house are a bad deal.
00:32:34 Chris
It’s just terrible. So why would you do it? And then you gotta get up. Cause we’re old. We gotta get up in the middle of the night to go pee. The last thing I want to do is pee in my socks.
00:32:42 Anne
Well, or slip in your socks. Right. If you’re gonna be wearing socks to bed, I think you have to wear the ones with the Grippies. Like from the hospital.
00:32:49 Chris
100%. And in fact, I went down the stairs once in socks and I fell. It was terrible. You can’t wear socks. Socks on their own is bad for everyone. Don’t listen to this article. All right. The Wall Street Journal. This one’s great. The Wall Street Journal claimed that Minneapolis is the worst place to host a dating show based on the recent season of Love is Blind, of which your cousin was also a contestant.
00:33:13 Anne
Yes.
00:33:13 Chris
Do you agree or disagree with the Wall Street Journal’s assessment and why?
00:33:18 Anne
I 100% agree.
00:33:19 Chris
Do you?
00:33:19 Anne
It was such a snooze fest. This season was so boring. I don’t know if they changed the formula. I haven’t watched it since the beginning. I did watch this year because my cousin was on the show, but it. It’s like, it’s just too small town. There’s. We know we’re like a bigger city in size, but people know too many people. It was too boring. It was like. I don’t know. There was not enough drama for me in this. And people in Minnesota are passive aggressive, so I think they were much more careful and calculated about, like, how they’re going to, like, talk about things. So, no, I would not recommend filming a dating show in Minneapolis ever again.
00:33:58 Chris
Yeah, it’s a really good point. Every show needs, like, an east coast personality.
00:34:00 Anne
You got. Yeah, you got to have people that are willing to, like, tear it up little bit more.
00:34:04 Chris
Yeah. You can’t have Joe Corncob and Joanne Corncob. You know, they’re too passive aggressive, you know? Yeah. All right.
00:34:10 Anne
Thank you for calling us Corn Cob.
00:34:11 Chris
Hey, I’m.
00:34:12 Anne
We live in Minnesota.
00:34:13 Chris
You know, you can make the joke when you are one. Right? That’s what they always say, right? All right. Happy birthday today to Amy Smart, Jennifer Grey, and to the woman I have had a massive crush on ever since I first saw her in Bend It Like Beckham. Do you know who that is?
00:34:27 Anne
Anne Kira Knightley.
00:34:29 Chris
Yes, ma’am. Keira Knightley. Yes. She is amazing. And remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business, Make It Omnitok, the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top 10 US retailer. Our Fast Five podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week’s top news. And our daily newsletter, the Retail Daily Minute, tells you everything you need to know each day to stay on top of your game as a retail executive. And it also features regular content that is exclusive to us and that Ann and I take a lot of 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 YouTube.com omnitalkretail and yeah, definitely the best way to watch today’s show. And because we’re standing next to each other. We’re slagging each other off like nobody’s business today because we’re next to each other in person, which is a unique thing for us these days.
00:35:20 Anne
Oh, and stay tuned for tomorrow.
00:35:22 Chris
And stay tuned for tomorrow because we’re going to have the Shop Talk Key Takeaways podcast. It’s going to come your way, probably either late Thursday or Friday. So keep an eye out for that. And also, one final reminder, we are off next week again. We’re shutting down the headquarters. So no podcasts, no emails, no Fast five for the entire week because we are going on vacation. So until next, not next weekend, the.
00:35:45 Anne
Week, the week after next, April 9th, we’ll be back with a hot new episode.
00:35:49 Chris
Yes. And so, of course, as always, be careful on 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.