Transcript of Fast Five Episode: Walmart Signals Price Increases, Dicks Buys Foot Locker & Target Bets On Rural Growth? | Fast Five Video

00:00:11 Anne
The Omni Talk Fast Five is brought to you by 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 4. 150 retailers are now opening new revenue streams with marketplaces, Drop Ship and Retail Media and succeeding with Miracle, you can unlock more products, more partners and more profits without the heavy lifting. What’s holding you back? Visit miracle.com to learn more. That’s MIRAK, l.com and Symbi. Symbi powers the most retail banners in the world with today’s only multimodal platform for in store intelligence. See how Albertsons, BJ Spartan, Nash and Wakefern win with aiandautomation@symbirobotics.com and Imfios Imfios. They unite warehousing, transportation, and order management into a seamless, adaptable network. Infios helps you stay ahead from promise to delivery and every step in between. To learn more, visit infios.com and Clear Demand. Pricing shouldn’t be guesswork. Clear demands. AI power, pricing data, and optimization solutions help retailers stay competitive while protecting margins. Smarter pricing, stronger profits. Clear demand. Makes it. Happenlearnmore@cleardemand.com/omni dot 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.learnmore@ocampocapital.com. Hello you are listening to. Omnitalk’s Retail. Fast 5 ranked in the top 10% of all podcasts. Globally and currently. The only retail podcast ranked in the top 100 of all business podcasts on Apple Podcast. The Retail Fast 5 is the podcast that we hope. Makes you feel a little smarter, but most importantly, a little happier each week too. And The Fast 5 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 the most important retail headlines every morning, and our Retail Technology Spotlight series, which goes deep each week on the latest retail technology trends. Today is May 21st, 2025. I’m one of your hosts Anne Mezzenga.

00:02:38 Chris Walton
And I think I’m still one of your other hosts, Chris Walton.

00:02:41 Anne
And we’re here once again to discuss all the top headlines from the past week making waves in the world of Omni channel retailing. And we have a special couple of guests today joining us for their regularly scheduled monthly appearance. It’s the Alvarez and Marcel consumer and retail groups Christisa and Michael Pendergrass. Welcome back, you 2. Thanks so much for being here again. I want to kick it off by just having you each share a little bit about each of your backgrounds and the. Colour you’re going to. Provide to today’s show. So let’s get started with you first, Michael.

00:03:16 Michael
Thanks, Anne. So Michael Prendergast, I’ve been with A&M for about 7 years and prior to that, I was an industry retail hardened veteran. I operated for about 20 years out there. So I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen retail, I’ve seen consulting, I’ve seen a mix of both. So great to be here today and super excited to be talking about the subjects we have at hand.

00:03:37 Anne
Yeah, you’ve had a busy last couple of years, Michael. So we are excited to have you back on the podcast because it’s been a, it’s been a minute. Chris, let’s go to you next. Give us a little bit of your background too.

00:03:50 Chris Disa
Thanks, Anne and Chris, great to be here. Looking forward to discussing the five topics today. Similar to Michael, I’ve been here for seven years at A&M’s Consumer retail practise. Prior to that, I spent most of my career in industry across various leadership roles in merchandising, product development and planning and allocation. And certainly looking forward to discussing all topics retail today.

00:04:14 Chris Walton
Yeah, we are super excited to have both of you and and Michael for to to give the the the listeners a little bit into why and mentioned that you’ve been a busy guy. We haven’t seen you of latest because you were recently the interim CEO at Joann Fabrics. So yes, folks, we’ve got a big time guest on the show today along with Chris and both of them bring a tonne of operating knowledge, which is why we like partnering with them and why we like having them on the show each and every month. So and should we get this show started, I’m excited. We got some great topics.

00:04:42 Anne
Today, yes, yes, should absolutely get started. So much to cover, Chris.

00:04:47 Chris Walton
So much to cover. Can’t wait to pick these two sprains. All right, today’s headlines are brought to you by Commerce Next. Don’t miss your chance to attend Commerce Next with us, taking place June 24th to June 26th at the New York Hilton Midtown with over 2700 industry leaders, 75 plus sessions packed with insights and unmatched networking opportunities. This is the can’t miss event of the summer. And do we mention the Yacht Rock Yacht Party? Yeah, kick things off and.

00:05:15 Anne
Can I know?

00:05:17 Chris Walton
Right, Michael, A Yacht rock party.

00:05:19 Michael
Yeah, I mean, can’t go wrong with Yacht Rock, especially this time of year, throughout the summer. I mean, come on.

00:05:25 Chris Walton
Am I, Am I playing back from London? The guy was watching the Yacht Rock documentary and Christopher Cross is playing next to me. I was loving it all right. I couldn’t.

00:05:32 Michael
Hear it. Memorial Day is like the official kickoff for Yacht Rock, I think.

00:05:36 Anne
Yeah.

00:05:37 Chris Walton
It is it is so if you’re as excited about yacht rock as all of us are secure your spot now at commerce next and use code Omni talk all one word for 10% off general admission. And if you’re from a retail or brand, you may qualify for a free ticket. But act fast availability is limited and hopefully we will see you in New York and we all can go sailing together. All right, in this weeks Fast 5, we’ve got news on Target Circle 360 members receiving free same day delivery from 100 plus other retailers via shipped Dick’s Sporting Goods, acquiring Footlocker, the Cybercrive, the cybercrime wave that has hit European retailers very hard of late and whether the US is prepared for something similar. Can’t wait to talk about that Targets new small town store expansion strategy. Yes, folks, we have two Target headlines this week, not even factory in their earnings call, which will probably hit next week. And Radar. Spencer Hewitt stops by to check me on what I got right and what I got wrong about my comments surrounding the company’s Old Navy roll out in one of last month’s Fast 5 episodes. You’re definitely going to want to stick around and hear what he has to say, but we begin today with big news on the retail pricing landscape and do the honours.

00:06:55 Anne
Headline #1 Walmart CFO said last week that price hikes could start later this month. In an interview with CNBC, Walmart’s chief financial Officer John David Rainey said import duties are still too high, even with the recently announced agreement to lower them on imports from China to 30% for 90 days. John David Rainey said, quote, we’re wired for everyday low prices. It’s more than any supplier can absorb. And I’m. And so I’m concerned that the consumer is going to start seeing higher prices. You’ll begin to see that likely towards the tail end of this month and then certainly much more in June. And quote, Michael, we’re going to go to you first. This is a pretty heavy statement from EU SS, one of EU SS largest retailers. How do you expect other retailers to react to Walmart’s signal of price increases?

00:07:46 Michael
I think it’s huge. I think it’s a huge statement. And this is a topic I love talking about right now. Yeah, you know, it’s it is huge. And I think if I had a crystal ball right now, it’d be fabulous. I think we’d all be billionaires and from what we’re hearing from all the retailers and vendors that we’re talking to is that it’s an absolute free for all what people are doing with pricing. So I think it was pretty ambitious that Walmart came out and kind of planted the flag and said we are absolutely raising prices. And I think other retailers are either going to say, hey, we’re going to use this as an opportunity to take market share and sacrifice a little margin or, and keep prices where they are. Or other retailers are going to say, well, if Walmart’s doing it, we have a licence to do it. And then I actually think you’ll see a little bit of both of those activities. So it’s going to be very, very interesting to see how other retailers react. The other interesting thing that no one’s really talking about and you hear this a little bit is it’s 30% increase on top of the three O 1 tariffs that on average were 21% increase. So over a three-year basis, it’s over a 50% increase if you if you do it on a relative basis. So it’s not for the faint of heart to take prices up. So very, very interesting for Walmart and it’ll be very, very interesting to see what other retailers do with that.

00:09:17 Anne
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and I think you have to think about Walmart’s unique position to being a mass retailer and for things like food and other things that just don’t have the margins like you’re really, they’re really going to. There’s no way around it, it sounds like, but yes, definitely opening the doors for some other retailers to make make some concessions too. Chris Deesa, what are your thoughts here?

00:09:41 Chris Disa
Yeah, I think, you know, I agree with Michael. I do think that a lot of retailers, you know, for a lot of retailers, this is going to bolster their confidence in raising prices. But I think you’ll watch out for Walmart and other retailers that it has to be done surgically. There are some categories and items that are inelastic based on utility value or necessity, while others are not. And I think the cautionary tale for other retailers, specifically apparel or non essential merchandise retailers, that if you raise prices and then you have to increase your discount rates to move product in the future, then you’re really training your customer to expect a higher promotional value or activity, which can have long lasting long term effects. So definitely something to watch out for. There’s a Ying and a Yang to all of this.

00:10:24 Anne
Yeah, without a doubt. Chris Walton, jump in here. What are your thoughts?

00:10:29 Chris Walton
I mean, my question for for Michael since he started out would be, do you think the entire retail industry breathed the collective sigh of relief this week with this announcement saying, oh, thank God Walmart did this because now it gives us some room to move? What do you think about that?

00:10:42 Michael
It’s an interesting question. I I don’t think so. I think people are afraid to raise price because there are a lot of retailers with the section three O 1 tariffs and the inflationary environment of COVID raised price and they saw a linear reduction of units purchased. And they also saw a red line in the sand of being able to raise price to a certain level. And then when they got over that, their customers baulked at it and said we’re not purchasing. So I think it’s it’s sort of an interest. My point of view is it’s an interesting thing that Walmart did. And if I was a retailer, I’d be saying, OK, well, glad they’re doing it. We can potentially do it, but we’re also nervous about doing it. So I don’t think it’s giving everyone full licence to go out and do it.

00:11:34 Chris Walton
Yeah, that’s interesting point. Yeah, I think initially I thought yes, but now as as I’m talking to you and thinking out loud, I’m thinking maybe not. It kind of depends on what happens from here. Does Walmart follow through on this or not, given the kerfuffle that started there? But I mean, the other point I’d make too is the, the game. It just gives, it gives licence for the game theory to start around this across the industry, right? And you, you saw Home Depot come out yesterday and be like, we’re not taking prices up because they’re playing on the opposite trend in the media and, and the perception that they have there. So, you know, but at the end of the day, like Walmart sets the prices that and the rest of the industry follows. So if Walmart brings the prices up, then I think that gives them the sigh of relief. I think comes. But the trick is I I agree with what Chris said too. You got to be really smart about how you do this. You don’t want to tell people I think either. You just want to let the prices speak for themselves at shelf. I think that’s my big lesson here for all retails. They’re going to take away from this past week. It’s like you’re not talking about this as much as you can, you know, give, you know, depending on what your legal ramifications are in terms of what you got to report to the financial community. But and yeah, curious if you guys have thoughts on that too. But you know, for the most part you’re just going to want to let this sit and let the customers adjusted over time, I would think, right?

00:12:44 Michael
But the other interesting thing is Walmart is clearly the gorilla in the market place, right? And the hidden thing in this is Walmart can do whatever they whatever they really choose to do. So if they raise their prices and it doesn’t work, they will shift and pivot. It is so quickly it’ll make your head spin. They’ve got the margin then to cover the markdowns and they’ll kind of make the we raised our price mistake go away lightning fast. Not everybody else can do that and not everybody else has that latitude. So that’s where it’s a little scary too. And I look, I think it’s amazing. I applaud them for doing it. But at the same point like they’ve got a really easy get out of gaol free card and their customers very reactionary too based on the everyday low value pricing scheme. If you start promoting on top of that, it will clear goods immediately for them. And then so they kind of have a, a very easy safety backup plan. So raise prices, right, doesn’t work, pull the trigger, bring it down a little bit and then revenues go, revenues go through the roof. We take it on the chin from a margin standpoint a little bit. But in the in the quarterly calls, we’re now talking about a revenue increase with a little bit of margin dilution and the Street is going to say, oh, that’s awesome, we’re super psyched. So Walmart is kind of insulated in my opinion.

00:14:10 Anne
Yeah, 100%, Michael. I mean, that’s what I was just going to jump in and say too. Like they’re also building a Moat with retail media, the recurring loyalty revenue that they’re getting from Walmart, plus, like all of those things allow them over many of the other retailers that are, are in the industry and in the space, including Target, you know, who announced earnings this morning. Like Walmart is in a much better position to be able to weather this storm, I think than a lot of the other retailers out there. So I don’t think it’s wrong that they’re being transparent with their customers saying, look, this is going to happen and customers know they’re always going to be able to go to to Walmart for for that everyday low price guarantee. So I think it’s just it’s it’s taking a different approach that we’re seeing in the market.

00:14:53 Chris Disa
I also think that it depends on, you know, the level of which they’re taking the prices up five percent, 10 percent, 20%. You know, as an everyday low value retailer, taking five, 1015% up on, you know, certain inelastic goods may not be a big deal or other retailers who have a higher baseline, you know, it’s much more impactful. Yeah.

00:15:15 Chris Walton
Yeah, wow, wow. What a great start to this podcast. Holy cow, this.

00:15:20 Michael
Is buckle up on this one this The story’s still yet to be written.

00:15:24 Chris Walton
Oh my God, yes, the game theory starts today. All right, so headline #2 man. And there’s some, we got some more meat on the bones and a lot of these headlines too. Target Circle 360 members can now shop same day delivery with 100 plus retailers, according to Retail Dive. Through its ship service, the mass retailer will give subscribers access to same day delivery at Petco, PetSmart, CVS and more, all without price markups. Target Circle 360 has a membership price of around $99 annually, and new sign ups for Target Circle 360 can get $20 off their first order of at least $75, said Kara Sylvester, executive vice president and chief guest experience officer at Target. Quote. We’ve built a true digital shopping centre experience, making your Saturday errand run easier, faster and more affordable. And Code Christisa, are you buying or selling the new same day delivery perk for Target Circle 360 members?

00:16:24 Chris Disa
I am absolutely buying this as a consumer. You are, I am.

00:16:28 Michael
As.

00:16:28 Chris Walton
A. As a consumer.

00:16:31 Chris Disa
You know, I have Walmart plus, Amazon and Target 360 and I would say you.

00:16:35 Chris Walton
Already have it, OK. You already have it. OK.

00:16:38 Chris Disa
Most of my same day shopping habit is not solely based on price but availability. So for me Target 360, you know in the in the opportunity to now provide access and service to products from other retailers as CVS, PetSmart, etcetera. I think it’s a huge 1 and I’m all in.

00:16:55 Chris Walton
OK.

00:16:56 Michael
Start.

00:16:57 Chris Walton
Off strong and I think you like this too, right?

00:17:00 Anne
Look, I love the idea listening to that target earnings call today that is they are pumping this hard as they’re like growth engine to to continue to combat the earnings that were announced. I just don’t understand how you make money off of this. That’s my biggest question. Like with 0 markups, you know, you still have to make sure that the ship drivers are doing these one to one, you know, deliveries to homes are are, you know, is there a need at Target for you to really like, are you expanding to that many categories that Target doesn’t already cover? Like I just, I think it’s, I think it’s the right competitive move for Target to make in the play against Walmart Plus and DoorDash. But I just don’t know if it’s compelling enough to get new subscribers on board because of the limited assortment. It’s not, it’s not giving me that much more at this point to to drive me to get that that Target plus membership. I don’t think so. I have to sell but.

00:17:57 Chris Walton
So you’re selling it. All told, you’re selling it.

00:18:00 Anne
I have to I, I, I like the, I, I think it was a strong, it was a strong position. I just, I don’t understand how you make that work financially in the long term. I, I think it, it’s just not, there’s not enough there for me.

00:18:15 Chris Walton
What if I read between the lines? You don’t think it’s going to convert people to target 360?

00:18:18 Anne
Either I don’t, I don’t I don’t think there’s enough there, especially when you think about like, you know, people who are using the same day delivery service is a certain demographic of customer who can afford the the price increases anyway. I don’t know that you’re going to get people to jump ship from a DoorDash or from an Amazon or something Where? Or Walmart Plus even for that matter.

00:18:41 Chris Walton
Yeah, well, you got Chris Diesel, the Super Target 360 super fat over here, so we’re going to have to let him go into the conversation at some point. But first I want to get Michael’s opinion on this cause Michael’s Michael seems a little sceptical based on his body language and the looks he’s giving.

00:18:55 Michael
He gave if I put Aceo hat on for a second. Love the concept, hate the operational details of this. And I can actually envision in that crystal ball I was talking about from Walmart, a concept meeting saying we need to innovate. How do we innovate? How do we get better? How do we not let our competition take share from us? And someone raising their hand and saying, Oh my gosh, I love Amazon Prime and I love same day delivery. Why don’t we do that? And this is, this is a concept in my opinion, that should have never made it out of that innovation room because operationally I just don’t get it. And I also think, and I’m not talking about Target 360, I’m talking about the expansion of it in the same day service. The other thing I, I also think of it as sort of, have you ever been to a retailer and you go up to the counter and you have a pile of 10 things you’re buying and you haven’t shopped with a coupon or you haven’t shopped with the sale of the day. And the Brett, the person behind the register goes, oh, here, let me scan the coupons for you. I almost feel like you think of Petco. I’m going to buy it from Petco anyways. And then I get in there. It’s like same day service, like sure, why not get it same day. This is awesome. I just, I don’t get it. I don’t understand how they’re going to make margin on it and not only margin. I don’t understand how it’s not going to be dilutive to their to their overall operational standards as well as the the cost of doing business. So very cool concept, but it should have never made it out of the innovation room.

00:20:27 Chris Walton
Halle freaking lujah that IA 100% agree. 100% agree. Hallelujah. I mean, I, I would actually add that there’s more points to what my, I agree with everything you said, Michael, but I think there are other points that I don’t like about it. I think I agree with Anne. I don’t think it compels people to, to, to buy a Target 360 membership in comparison to every other option that’s already out there. I hate that it’s a membership programme that’s off the actual Target platform like that. You have to go to ship to that. There’s still a disconnect in the customer’s minds between those two properties. But here’s the thing that really sticks in my craw. Resources, as we all know are not infinite. The the capital is is is capital is finite. And so, and my thing is if and it shows just how lost Target is strategically. Like if you want to be a marketplace, why wouldn’t you instead invest in your actual third party marketplace and much making it much stronger and more compelling So you can get the benefits of things like Ann talked about with Walmart, like retail media and you guys, that marketplace has been growing at a snail’s pace. And that’s the first order thing that you do here because you can get the benefits of in store returns. You can keep the customers loyal to Target through that. Like it just makes so much more sense in an order operation standpoint. So it shows to me like, yeah, Michael, you’re dead right? Somebody came up with this idea in a meeting, they went for it. It’s, it’s probably not going to move the needle at all in the long run. And there are much simpler more ROI producing initiatives on the table that target has just been missing the boat on for so long. And this is indicative of that to me. So I 100% agree, Chris.

00:22:00 Chris Disa
I.

00:22:01 Chris Walton
Don’t he’s still liking this.

00:22:03 Chris Disa
I’m still liking this because I think you have to think about who is your customer that’s actually paying for this membership and if any of you have actually bought anything same day, you may have noticed that either through Walmart or Amazon, a lot of products are not offered for same day delivery. So to widen the aperture for target to actually partner with other retailers to expand the assortment for customers that want same day delivery, I think could be very beneficial. Do I think it’s, you know, a silver bullet and and going to help them from a growth perspective? Maybe, maybe not, that remains to be seen, but I do think that the the concept and is very interesting. And again, from a consumer lens, what I really appreciate is the opportunity to be able to kind of cross shop and actually have products delivered same day that I’m looking for. Because again, you know, shopping Walmart and Amazon, a lot of the everyday essentials that I’m looking for are not readily available. So I’m hoping that this that Target would provide that.

00:23:02 Chris Walton
The other point that’s interesting to me too is how long the Petco’s and everyone that was mentioned in this article let Target continue to do this too, because Target is essentially getting the first party data on this purchase relatively speaking too. So that’s a fear I have over time of how does the market respond to Target trying to do this for their loyalty programme, which is something the article didn’t talk about. And did you have a thought you want to?

00:23:21 Anne
Say I was just going to, I was just going to ask Christie so quickly like the only counter that I’d have to that is you get that with DoorDash plus you get same day restaurant delivery. So do you think that Target Circle 360 needs to add something else to make that $10 a month or whatever it ends up coming out to be? That could get me DoorDash same day delivery plus restaurant delivery plus, you know, essentials and all the other things that I need.

00:23:46 Chris Disa
I mean, I, you know, thinking about price, I typically find that DoorDash is more expensive and there’s a surcharge. So to me, I would rather, again personalising this, I would rather stick with target 360 versus having an upcharge. That’s what that essentials they want, yeah.

00:24:04 Chris Walton
That’s why they were playing that up in the medium. Michael, sounds like you want to say one more thing. Go for it.

00:24:09 Michael
Going back to the operational pitfalls of this, there’s a hidden, there’s like 2 layers hidden in here. A lot of the feedback that we’ve heard from the streets in regards to DoorDash specifically is that it doesn’t work the way you would expect it to work as a retailer in that the burden is placed on all of your own store line employees. So the door Dasher shows up, DoorDash pitches you, our people will go in, find the product, scan it and leave. What we hear unofficially is that the Doordashers go to the person at the front register or manager and say hi, I’m Mr and Missus DoorDash, can you find this product for me and get it for me ’cause I need to take it out, which is interesting. The customer is still getting what they want. However, for the house, like a target that creates store labour hour issues, it actually is the opposite of efficiency that you’re looking for. So I think from an operational standpoint, there’s some pitfalls in this move that are going to come back to haunt target, which is along the same lines of what Christice has said is I think strategically they’re missing the mark. They’re kind of looking at a bright shiny object, using it to divert away from some challenging earnings. And they really should be doing different, more macro strategic targeting of some of the opportunities and challenges they have in their business.

00:25:36 Anne
Oh, all right, let’s go on to the the next headline. Guys, this has been amazing. We’re starting so hot. I know.

00:25:42 Michael
Gotten it hot today. Everybody’s fully caffeinated today.

00:25:45 Chris Walton
Yeah, I’m very caffeinated, yes.

00:25:48 Anne
All right, headline #3 Dick’s Sporting Goods is set to acquire Footlocker for $2.4 billion, according to CNBC. Dick’s Sporting Goods said Thursday that it plans to acquire rival Footlocker as it looks to expand its international presence, win over a new set of consumers and corner the Nike sneaker market. Under the terms of the agreement, Dick’s will use a combination of cash on hand and new debt to acquire Footlocker for $2.4 billion. Footlocker shares soared more than 80% after the deal was announced Thursday. However, shares of Dick’s fell slightly, roughly 15%, as investors worried about the impact the merger could have on financial results. One analyst from TD Cowan even said that the deal was a quote strategic mistake as it downgraded shares of Dick’s to hold from bye. Michael, I’m going to go to. You first. Are you pro or? Con on Dick’s acquisition of Foot Locker.

00:26:44 Michael
So funny my my thoughts on this evolve almost to the minute. When I first read the headline I was actually very surprised and I hated it. I, I really thought it was bad. I think Footlocker has issues. I think they’re very fragmented. They’re very reliant on Nike. And you want to talk about a gorilla in the marketplace? I mean, Nike can seal your fate within minutes, either positive or negative. And I also think that the sneaker game is a very fickle game in regards to the consumer interaction. And although there’s a lot of spending power behind it, you have to be right with the the style skews direction that you’ve chosen. And I think Footlocker based on the number of stores, based on the country saturation, I think it’s a very, very difficult business to monitor and to manage and to run effectively. Now they’ve done a decent job, they’ve had good times, they’ve had bad times. But it is a very, very specific type of business to run, which you have these third parties that it’s basically out of your control. Your destiny may be out of your control. Like it’s been highly publicised. When Nike wanted to pull out of the market, Footlocker’s business had a precipitous drop almost immediately. When Nike wanted to expand the marketplace, and I’ll call it use Footlocker to gain market share, it was great. But the minute that wasn’t great, it was a problem for Footlocker. So I think there’s some huge inherent risks for Dick’s. So that’s number one. That’s why I hated it. Then I started doing a little bit more and I flipped. So I started doing a little bit more research on the size and scale of Dick’s and I was a little mistaken in understanding how large they are, a pretty big entity. I think they’re approaching $20 billion, right? So at that size growth, organic growth is difficult, right? One up 1% comp, down 1% comp, you’re kind of happy. But if you’re down 5% comp in a tough year, that is a massive hit to your revenue. So I like the fact that they actually acquired an adjacent business that’s going to layer in a multi billion dollar revenue stream. I thought that was a very easy pick up. And in rereading the releases, either the CFO or the CEO said we are going to add in I think 4.5% comp sales in the first year, which I liked a lot. So it’s, it’s so #3 my conclusion is the only way they will be successful with this is not integrating it into the Dick’s business. It’s sort of like a stand alone let footlocker run. If there’s some back of the house IT or supply chain efficiencies, you could create great. If you start to sort of matrix it into the Dick Dick’s organisation, I think that’s a massive disaster. They should just leave it as its own entity, let it run on its own, treat it as its own thing. Look for some economies of scale, but almost insulate and and have it do that. And if they can do that, it may be very successful for them.

00:30:17 Anne
Yeah, that I think what you’re saying makes a lot of sense. Michael and Chris Walton, I would go to you too and, and and ask, like, do you think that this also is helping Dick’s kind of eliminate some competition in the field? And then maybe even if they’re a separate entity or they’re, you know, Dick’s is just able to kind of keep the business separate, but maybe take some of that Nike relationship into Dick’s stores. Like will that help this position for Dick’s Sporting Goods?

00:30:43 Chris Walton
Yeah, I mean, that’s that’s we were joking before we started this podcast and I had kind of a potentially hot take, although I don’t think it’s that hot that I wanted to get Michael and Chris’s opinion to see if they’d laughed me out of the room on this. But I mean, the thing I like about this deal is like if I just go with the go into the realm of like, what if Dick’s just shut these stores down and the $5 billion in revenue that Foot Locker generates, a portion of that goes to Dick’s just through inertia. Then the when I think of the annuity on that volume year over year, the $2.4 billion seems like they got a steal. So I think minimally you approach it like Michael said, where you try to operate them if it doesn’t work. Like I feel like the worst case scenario here isn’t actually that bad in the long run. So for that reason, I like this move a lot. I but I don’t know, I might, I might be crazy in my math on that, but I’m, I’m curious what the A&M guys think.

00:31:33 Michael
It’s the old retail Holy Grail of does 1 + 1 equal two or three. Everybody always tries to say 1 + 1 = 3, but generally when you do that you don’t capture even one of the sale. So that 22 and change billion, 2.4 billion, whatever their actual revenue number is. If Dicks did close, all their stores could end up being a billion dollars or maybe a little bit even below a billion dollars. Now, if it’s profitable and the margin advantages you get work, then sure, it’s awesome. But I I think it’s a little scary. And the other the other key piece. I love the hot take, by the way. I think it’s a very interesting thing. But you made me think too, You know, Dicks now is wildly important to Nike, but now Nike’s wildly or Dicks is now wildly important. It’s like the symbiotic relationship. And it’s sort of like whoever is the strongest at the time is going to win. And if you read the tea leaves, Nike seems like they’re going through one of their sort of macro, not as strong as they normally are. So Dicks could be sort of pounding their chest saying we won here, now we’re going to turn the screws on Nike. But if history proves anything, nobody’s turning any screws on Nike over the long term. So I’d be a little bit afraid that all of my fortunes as Dicks and Footlocker now are heavily saturated in Nike. And oh, by the way, all of the other big sneaker makers have all taken a page out of Nike’s book, like Adidas, Puma, all of these people are doing the same thing that Nike used to do. And it’s going to be very interesting. So I, I mean, yeah, I think that’s like looking at the edge of the Cliff saying, OK, let’s shut Footlocker down and let’s jump. Love that. It’ll be interesting to see if that if that would if that would work.

00:33:35 Anne
You also have JD Sports knocking down the door too. And we just, yeah, the CEO Regis Schultz last week at World Retail Congress. And they’re taking a totally different approach with Nike. Like they’re going the storytelling route, they’re bringing brands in. Dick’s is just going for like, how much can we, how much Nike can we pound in and out of the store right now? And how do we get that to expand shoppers into other categories of our store? And I think JD Sports on the other side here, they’re they’re coming in. They’re they we have huge US expansion plans like I think this this hopefully will help solidify Dicks and and Nike together in in this option of we’re ready to compete with you, JD Sports, but Chris Walton jump in here quick and then we’ll go to Christiesa for the rap.

00:34:20 Chris Walton
I was just going to say, like I think the one point out that I that I’ve been thinking about when Michael said, you know, this 1 + 1 ever actually equal 3. I think the unique thing about this is the shopping experience at Footlocker is very different than the shopping experience for Dick’s. Dick’s is almost a standalone experience where whereas Footlocker is that mall based experience. And so in theory, where does the volume go over time is is got? I’ve been wrapped trying to wrap my head around that. And I think it presents different dynamics than a than say if the choir was basically competing in the same trip and they’re not in this case. But yeah, I don’t know.

00:34:55 Anne
OK, Christisa, the floor is yours, friend.

00:34:58 Chris Disa
All all very interesting points. I guess a few things to add 1 is I do, I do agree with Michael that the, the businesses should be treated separately. But I think, you know, what is interesting is that while there are some kind of back of the house synergies, I also think because Dick’s and Footlocker have two very different customers, there’s opportunity to learn from each other and and leverage your customer data and customer insights. Also, what’s really interesting is Footlocker has an international presence, which Dick Dick’s does not. So that could be an opportunity for growth. But I think underpinning all of this is Footlocker saw some major challenges. If you recall, they set up, set up a or set upon a path for a new strategy that kicked off in 2023 called Laces Up. And two big pillars of that strategy were around supply chain improvement and inventory accuracy, as well as the Omni channel experience for the customer. 2 critical pieces into, you know, kind of to create long term value. So the punchline here is that just because they’re acquired, there can be a lot of great opportunity for both organisations. However, they still have to. The leadership team still has to fix or improve upon Footlocker score business.

00:36:18 Chris Walton
Right, Michael, you want to say something else?

00:36:20 Michael
And one last quick thing that Chris just made me think of. The question is, are they going to be on the right side of history? When you look back with the massive change of the US department store and mall model, the answer might be yes, right? Because department stores are clear, clearly failing. This could be the future where you have a huge base, you start to bring in complimentary plug insurance, you let them do their own thing, you have them all have unique innovation as well as setting up multiple opportunities to shop for the customer. It’ll be very interesting to see how this one really works out.

00:37:01 Chris Walton
Yeah, and that’s why I made the point of Dick’s could be very surgical about which stores they decide to keep open given that phenomenon, so that the the draught from the sales volume goes from one place to another. Wow. And Chris, you brought up good points too, like the retail media angle here. They can that expands, you know, greatly across these two entities. Dick’s is a great Omni channel retailer, so they can probably bring that operational knowledge to Footlocker as well. So wow. And I think it’s time to bring Spencer onto the show, to put me in my place on what I had to say about him and Old Navy a few weeks ago. Joining us now for five insightful minutes is Spencer Hewitt, the founder and CEO of Radar, whose recent Old Navy partnership we featured in our Fast 5 podcast last month. Spencer, I was pretty direct in my assessment of the likelihood that Radar’s RFID platform will ever roll out to all 1200 Old Navy stores. So tell us point blank, what did I get right and what did I get wrong in my assessment?

00:37:59 Michael
Yeah, I think, you know, I think you’re right in the sense that is a is a phased, it’s a phased roll out. I think that, you know, old Navy’s a Gap Old Navy, they’re they’re very smart retailer. They’re pretty careful about their decisions. They’re great vision, I would say for for where they think physical retail can go. Yeah, I’m just saying like, listen, there’s a reason why, like, American Eagle rolled it out to almost their entire fleet. You know, I think you guys mentioned some kind of bed, like about putting up your house or something. I was wondering, like, what? You might want to bet in case you were wrong.

00:38:43 Chris Walton
Oh, man, I don’t know. Let’s talk about. We should talk about that. And the Ann and I had that bed going and yeah, I don’t know what you’re not you, you and I that should be. But I’ll. I’ll buy you a beer next time I see you.

00:38:53 Michael
Yeah, I think, I think, I think worst case, like if you’re right, I’ll get you $1000 gift card to Old Navy. And then if, if I’m right, then you know, we can come back on the show and talk about it.

00:39:07 Chris Walton
Yeah, I will eat crow in front of the entire audience, 100 percent, 100%. And like I said at the end of that podcast, too, I hope you are right. Actually, I hope you are.

00:39:15 Michael
Right now I.

00:39:16 Chris Walton
Wish you the most success in in what you’re trying to do too.

00:39:19 Anne
Well, and Spencer, I, I had a different opinion than Chris, slightly different here, but I want to know if you can just tell our audience quickly. Like what is it about your platform specifically and the unique special sauce that you bring to RFID and why Old Navy kind of chose you to roll this out in a phased approach fleet wide?

00:39:41 Michael
Yeah, for sure. So, you know, our approach to RFID actually started with wanting to deliver autonomous checkout as a use case for the industry. And like we look at that use case, it’s a lot more stringent in terms of the requirements you need to meet for it. So it’s like your location accuracy has to be better, your latency and speed updates have to be much faster, your detector rate has to be super high. So we’ve architected our system to have the capability to enable autonomous check out from the existing infrastructure that we deploy to retailers from today. And that has, you know, really driven core technological improvement. And like one of the things that we’ve done differently is. You know, there were some companies that did this back in the day, like, you know, think Magic had like a software defined radio approach where they can basically deploy hardware. They could update the signal processing remotely. You weren’t stuck with like someone’s reader chip. That’s kind of more the approach that we’ve taken. So we control everything from the ground up, not just the hardware and the signal processing, but also the software layer. So we really become, you know, superior core technology that’s really just like one quote unquote like throw it to choke for the retailer where they don’t need to worry about integrating and cobbling together a bunch of different pieces to make a coherent solution. And that includes deployment and roll out management.

00:40:56 Chris Walton
And Spencer, I’m curious too, you know, you mentioned Thomas, check out are are cameras and RFID readers a part of of the solution as, as it’s currently deployed or or how, how should the audience think about that?

00:41:07 Michael
Yeah. So we are only deploying RFID and other wireless technologies within within the sensors.

00:41:17 Chris Walton
Got it, got it. And how robust are the deployments at this point? So like, you know, as much as you can share with us probably, of course, you know, we want to be sensitive to that, but like how many chains, how many stores, you know, whatever you can tell us.

00:41:28 Michael
Yeah, You guys got that right. So we’re only in about 600 stores. All of those stores like really started rolling out in July of last year. So we hit about 100 stores a month from July of last year, you know, and we’re going to continue and accelerate that pace. But yeah, you got it about right in the in the last last episode.

00:41:48 Chris Walton
And it’s currently at American Eagle and Old Navy. That’s what you guys have shared publicly, right?

00:41:53 Michael
Correct, Correct. Yeah, Publicly that is the only two that are out. And then there are, you know, many other pilots that are kicking off as well or already in flight.

00:42:04 Anne
Spencer, I imagine that, you know, this is, we’ve been talking, we talked to you a long time ago when you kind of started rolling out with American Eagle, but why have retailers been so slow to adopt RFID, do you think? And, and how kind of give us a sense of how you see the future landscape playing out. Like will, will more retailers start using handheld scanners and then move to systems like yours? Like what, where are you placing your bets? You don’t have to give any specific bet that you’re going to place yet. I won’t put that on you, but but where are you placing your theoretical bets?

00:42:37 Michael
Yeah. I mean, I think handhelds are going completely away, I think.

00:42:40 Anne
How come?

00:42:42 Michael
Because they’re they’re a technology that was driven by technical limitations of RFID tags themselves. They’re not necessary. So it’s like, you know, 10 years ago, handhelds were really needed to make RFID work because you had these tags where, you know, transistors were larger. You need a lot more energy to power them up. It’s get really close to them to read them. Now you can read the tags from so far away. It’s really about, OK, how far away can you read them from, how few sensors you need on the ceiling to cover the store. And then, you know, how accurate can you locate now that you’re reading them from really far away? So that’s kind of the dynamic that’s shifting. And I, I really think handhelds will be completely a thing in the past in the same way like barcodes will be a thing in the past, you know, in the next 5-10 years.

00:43:24 Chris Walton
Wow. So Spencer, I want to press you a little bit on that too. So like one of the things we always hear when we talk to people about RFID is the accuracy and, and, and one of the good things about the overhead readers is you get the real time data flow. So so how are you solving? How are you solving the accuracy problem compared to others?

00:43:39 Michael
Yes, I mean we’ve worked really hard on our our receiver. So, you know, I can say that in you know, stores with you know, call it 65 to 100,000 items, we’re hitting a 9920% detect rate better than you’ll ever get with handhelds because handhelds get the factor in human error because people don’t always use consistently a job every day, day in and day out as a system that’s 24/7 counting things like I will tell you this much right now we’re doing 13 billion tag reads per day in American Eagle. That’s how frequently we’re pinging their, their, their inventory.

00:44:15 Chris Walton
Wow, wow. Well, man, thanks for coming on. Thanks for thanks for sharing your insight with us and it’s really great to have you and appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us.

00:44:25 Michael
Yeah, likewise. This is fun and I appreciate it and looking forward to circling back in in the hope for the near future.

00:44:32 Anne
Thanks, Scott.

00:44:33 Chris Walton
Paul, thanks, Spencer. All right, headline #4 Google data suggested that the cyber crime spree that is hobbled British retailers is now aimed at the US, according to NBC News. This time, hackers behind a series of destructive, financially motivated cyberattacks against some of EU KS largest retailers are now going after big American brands, Google said last Wednesday. Quote, major American retailers have already been targeted. John Holtquist, the chief analyst for Google Threat Intelligence Group, told NBC News at least three top British retailers have experienced cyber attacks in recent weeks. Marks and Spencer’s was forced to pause online orders for weeks. Hackers who contacted the BBC provided evidence of, quote, huge amounts of customer and employee data also stolen from the Coop Group and 3rd Herod’s restricted some Internet access at store locations, though a spokesperson told NBC News that it is not seen evidence that customer data was stolen. Michael, I’m curious how aware, especially given your recent stint as the interim CEO of Joann Fabrics, how aware are US retailers of the cyber attacks going on overseas and are they prepared or are they too distracted by everything else going on right now to make them a priority?

00:45:59 Michael
Aware, not prepared enough and too distracted on the difficulties in the market. And I’m speaking from experience at Joanne as the interim CEO. One of the first questions I asked was how prepared are we for cybersecurity and the answer was lacklustre. Within 60 days, we were set up like a Brinks truck picking up a cash delivery. So we quickly reacted and really protected ourselves. But it is not. If you polled CE OS, they would say, of course it’s a high priority. If you poll CI OS in the US, it’d be very interesting to see what percentage would say we feel that we are fully prepared and fully protected. I would only probably gauge it at a 20% mark. That’s fully anecdotal. I don’t have any data to back that up. But I think it is a major concern. It is also a major risk. I just don’t think retailers are as prepared as they need to be and protected as they need to be in a global US format. There are retailers out there that are spectacular at this, but there are also retailers that are the opposite end of spectacular. And in today’s environment being anything headed towards the opposite end of spectacular is a very scary and and risky proposition. I will say once it is a priority, it is generally there’s a low barrier of success to getting yourself protected from a cybersecurity standpoint. Now depending on your technology stack and what protections you have in place, it may be more expensive than what you would expect it to be, but it’s definitely money well spent. And I think every single major retailer and every single major hybrid wholesale retail Omni channel provider of product people that we used to refer to as vertical entities, they all need to have this as a top, top operational priority, not just a top strategic priority that someone reports in the board meetings and says here’s it’s a priority for us, here’s the five things we’ve done. And I also think it comes down to the boards and ownership of companies to be hyper village and and provide due diligence to it because it is a very scary thing if it when you really get under the covers of it. And there have been some highly publicised challenges in the US over the past few years. I think it’s a tip of the iceberg and I think everybody needs to be very aware and vigilant in protecting themselves.

00:48:54 Chris Walton
Yeah, wow, that’s, that’s really interesting and, and, and really harrowing in a lot of ways. And it actually jives very nicely with what we heard at WRC in London. And I mean, like, you know, for the for the most part, you know, the crazy thing was like people could not get groceries from these stores. You know, if this was their local grocery store, they couldn’t get groceries. And what I was hearing from sources I was talking to about this is they told me that this hit the retailers that were not all of them, but some of them were very hubristic about the quality of their tech stack and their cybersecurity. So if you’re in that position, yeah, I would take what Michael has to say here. Very right. Seriously, Chris, are you seeing this in your like, do your conversations in the boardrooms hit this at all like when you’re talking to retailers? What What? What is your take here?

00:49:33 Chris Disa
I think, you know, when I think about cybersecurity, I think two things are kind of at play, right? It’s like 1 is what is the potential interruption to your business? And that’s always top of mind. And #2 is what is the relationship with your customer, right? Because if we go back and think about, you know, the security breach for with Target in 2013 or DoorDash in 2019 or even the Vegas casinos, if you recall a couple years back, you know, some of the Vegas casinos had to close down because of the security breach. That does have an impact on your relationship with your customer and they go elsewhere. So I think I think some of the macro themes from what I’m hearing are always top of mind.

00:50:13 Chris Walton
Yeah, and anything to add here?

00:50:16 Anne
I think my, my only point is just kind of reiterating what Chris just said. Like I think that’s the biggest challenge that we’re seeing or we heard from the retailers in the UK who were impacted last week is you know, when you are walking stores and the inventory is gone, they’re going to start going somewhere else. And now when you look at how highly competitive that market is, especially in the grocery space, like they may never come back. And I think that’s what the real concern is from the retailers that we talked to who were hit by this is like, you know, they’re, they’ve already joined another loyalty programme at this point. And they’re, they’re, they’re shoppers that you’re a competitor now. And, and there’s really not a way to, like Michael said, you, it’s a, it’s an investment that you should make. That’s a great investment because it protects you against things like that that really could damage your business long term.

00:51:04 Michael
I think you’re both making a really good point about the customer at Joanne. We had an immaterial service provider to us. It was a very small service they provided us. They were hacked and originally they thought it would be days. It was multiple weeks that they were completely dark, completely dark. So if you go days, the demands of a customer today, it’s going to shake your your confidence as a customer in that company. If you go weeks, you’re definitely going to lose that customer for the most part and you’re going to have to bring them back. Maybe they’ll come back, maybe she won’t come back. But I think that’s the other scary thing in today’s cyber attacks. It’s sort of not your parents cyber attack anymore. When you go down, you’re going down and it’s it is long term and it’s 345 X as expensive just to get back to baseline. And even getting to baseline is very, very challenging and complex. So I think this is definitely one where you’ve got to be protected ahead of time.

00:52:09 Anne
Let’s go on to headline #5 wrap the show up. It’s already been so great. Target has unveiled a new small town store expansion strategy. According to Modern Retail. The Minneapolis based company is increasingly focusing on full size store development in smaller markets in rural communities, A departure from its previous emphasis on small format urban locations that dominated its expansion narrative from 2016 to 2021. Almost all of Targets planned stores are set to exceed 100,000 square feet, supporting the company’s quote stores as hubs quote fulfilment strategy that has become central to its Omni channel operations since 2017. Target’s growth ambitions remain robust, with plans to open approximately 300 new predominantly full size stores over the next decade. The retailer opened 23 locations in 2024 and has scheduled about 20 new openings for 2025, according to its most recent annual report. Well, Target already reaches roughly 75% of Americans within a 10 mile radius, as COO Michael Fidelke noted in March. The still trails Walmart’s impressive 90% proximity metric. Christisa, we’re going to go to you first on this. Do you agree that Target will find profitable growth by expanding into rural markets? I know you have a hot take on this one yourself.

00:53:28 Chris Disa
So as bullish as I was about Target 360, I, I think the jury’s out for me on this one. I think a couple of things that I’ve been thinking about. 1 is, you know, when you think about, you know, store expansion, you know, specifically Target in, in rural markets, it really for me is location specific. Does a Target store fill the need for a consumer in that market or is it another choice to Walmart, etcetera. Now, if they’re looking at it to say, OK, this is going to be a superstore and we can pull inventory and speed up our fulfilment in some of these markets because we all know that fulfilment times are lower or they’re slower, I should say, for some of these customers, then that could be a really good thing. But again, it really comes down to each market, each specific market. And it it what is the real need. You know, funny story, you know, Kmart, I don’t know if you guys know this. One of the last stores was in the Hamptons, you know at the eastern end of Long Island and now Target is actually filling the space. So while affluent it is also it is also rural. So as I think about you know Yacht Rock and White Pants etcetera coming into Memorial Day, I know a bunch of people out there are very and Rose, I know a bunch of folks and consumers are super excited that Target is coming to fulfil that need. But again, that is a market specific opportunity that may not translate across the country.

00:54:50 Anne
OK, Michael, what about you?

00:54:53 Michael
Yeah, I think this is another one that I it probably didn’t come up in the innovation lab target, but it probably should have never made it out of the C level strategic planning meetings and or approve approval for the spend by the board.

00:55:08 Anne
Give us the challenge.

00:55:09 Michael
Yeah, the challenge I have with this is I like I like Chris’s example of a target going in near the Hamptons, but clearly that’s not very rural. The rural markets are a challenge and all you got to do for the template of the challenges look at Dollar Tree, right. I mean did that story has been written, the outcome is written and it’s not successful. I also think Target is best when they are sort of the antidote to Walmart. Like when Target is Walmart, you don’t need Target, you have Walmart and Walmart is fantastic at it. Target has always been a step maybe 2, maybe 3 above Walmart. It’s still sort of similar, but it’s always been going back to the ads in the the early 2000s, Tarjay, not Target. So it was a great access point, but it provided a different experience in my opinion, than Walmart. So if they’re looking to expand and then if you read between the lines, that’s basically what they’re saying is we want to go more head to So I think it’s really it’s it’s interesting, but without a well thought out plan and to Chris’s point, very strategic placement in demographic areas that can support it, it’s not going to work.

00:56:49 Anne
Yeah, I would agree with you, Michael, if we were talking old Target, I think now you have to look at current Target and when you put it up against a Walmart, I don’t think it provides the same like Walmart’s come so far and improved. It’s especially the new locations of Walmart’s that they’re going to be building as well in these rural communities like their, their store formats, I think are comparable and if not bad, better than Target. Plus, I think you hit a lower price point. We get back to what we talked about in the first headline of, you know, you’re going to get the everyday low price at Walmart and, and there’s no way Target can beat Walmart on price. And So what, what are you left with for the shopping experience? And I tried to even go to like to the yes, maybe they could just build store fulfilment centres or something in these areas to just hit on faster delivery. But you have Amazon coming in and doing rural delivery too. And everybody knows Amazon already too. So I think, I think targets in a, in a tough space here. And I also wonder if this isn’t a bit of APR play as well, like if they’re going to these based on all of the, the footfall drop that they saw from a lot of the DEI initiatives. I also wonder if this isn’t saying, OK, we’re going to go and try to penetrate a new market here. But Chris, Chris D. So you got something to throw in.

00:58:08 Chris Disa
I, I will say they’re, they’re adding, they, their desire is to add 300 stores, which is a 15% increase. If we were talking 50 stores in select locations that you know, services in need, all four, but you know, 300 stores is quite bullish in my opinion.

00:58:26 Anne
I totally agree. Chris Walton, close this up. What’s the What’s your thought here?

00:58:30 Chris Walton
Yeah, I’ve been on my edge of my seat waiting to chime in on this. I think I actually have. I think I actually have first hand experience that’s pretty applicable.

00:58:36 Anne
For sure.

00:58:38 Chris Walton
Into this discussion, you know, you know I and the reason I say this I ran I actually was in charge of the stores in Scottsbluff NE and Casper, WY and they were some of the lowest volume stores at Target. And so to Chris’s point, if you’re going to build 300 of these, there just aren’t that many locations that are going to pencil. And I can tell you without giving anything away, the volume of those stores is like 50% of what an average Target, at least 50% less than what an average Target store is going to be. And, and to your point, I think everyone failed this. Like, you know, Walmart’s already there. Walmart’s better than it’s ever been. Amazon is going there too. And so for delivery, like, if that’s why you’re building these, why would you build stores just for delivery hubs? Like that seems like a really expensive proposition. Targets, Tractor Supply is also there. So how does Target win, How does Target win this battle in a that will return the capital that what Wall Street requires, given the historical performance of Target at a time in the cost of capital is also more expensive than it has been in years past. So I absolutely don’t get this. It’s it’s just another sign of just how lost strategically Target is right now, which Michael said right at the outset, like this is a discussion. This is just a pivot that should never have gone past anyone like and yeah, the the city targets didn’t work. No, no crap. We all knew that going into because you can’t build enough of those at A at a rate that’s going to have meaningful comp growth either. There just aren’t that many locations in the US where that’s going to play out either. But they were they were lined up on that strategy for five or six, you know, 10 years almost. Cornell’s been there since 2014. So so when do they get some really concrete growth strategies here? And I mean, I’ve been ran on this for the this pulpit forever. Like come. On this is not it.

01:00:25 Anne
Hopefully the acceleration team, that’s that they talked about in the earnings call this morning. It’s all down to the acceleration team, Chris. Acceleration, move forward and.

01:00:36 Chris Walton
I feel, and I feel I feel vindicated by that too. And because that I’ve been saying that this was going to happen for a year and a half now when we had the annual review show in 2023 with the A&M folks and, and it has happened. But I can tell you like, you know, before you announce this, go into the store in Scottsbluff and see if you want to, you know, replicate that model throughout the country. Like get off, get out of the corporate boardroom and see if that’s the model that you think is really going to work. I don’t know but.

01:01:01 Michael
Yeah. I mean, look, if retail one O one that is like really, really proven is that these XO market stores or smaller stores struggle. So every major retailer expands and then spends years trying to get out of the leases to shut the not profitable doors. They’re now saying we want to open 300 of these types of stores. So number one, that’s, that’s DOA #2. The other one that we didn’t talk about is Dollar General. Dollar General has these markets figured out they are growing their grocery business as well. Now that’s much to the not, you know, whatever, they’re just growing their grocery business. So like, what do these markets really need a target for? And I, I think the last thing that target absolutely needs to do. And if we were working with them, or if I was the Ceoi would say, let’s focus on ourselves. Let’s stop like these bright shiny object things. What do we need to do to be the best that we can be in our own 4 walls with what we have today and what we can control ’cause it doesn’t feel like they’re doing that and I think that’s a huge mess on their part.

01:02:13 Anne
You guys, you.

01:02:14 Chris Walton
Would get my vote, Michael. Yes, honestly, you can’t do no. I don’t think anyone could do a worse job quite honestly, but you would get my vote.

01:02:22 Anne
All right, well, let’s wrap up this wonderful show with the lightning round. Michael, we’re going to you first. The Golden Globes are adding a new category recognising podcast this year. If not your episode, this episode of the Omni Talk Retail Fast 5, which podcast would you put in the running?

01:02:41 Michael
Is this like a podcast in general or just one a specific podcast? I forgot to ask that.

01:02:47 Anne
It’s a it’s it’s any podcast from what I understand. So it could be call if it’s, you know, caller daddy, whatever you want. It could be, you know the you know how.

01:02:57 Chris Walton
I built this caller daddy every.

01:02:59 Anne
Week. Yeah, yeah.

01:03:01 Michael
It’s interesting. I call her daddy. I have listened to it because I actually think her business story is absolutely remarkable. So I’m totally intrigued by it. And I do think from a from a target audience standpoint, the content that she produces is dead on. That podcast is not for me in any way, shape or form, but I think she’s a genius at targeting her, her her basically her customer base or her demo. And I saw an interview with her and Dave Portnoy, which obviously she started on barstool and him being the normal brash person that he said it that he is. He said to her to Alex, he said, well, you’re just barstool 2 point O. But it’s it’s pretty interesting because she kind of Pooh poohed that quickly. But if you step back, you kind of go, it’s interesting she has now taken over the microphone and sort of the flag of that generation, which there are massive amounts of millennials and Gen Z ers and even Alpha that hopefully they’re not all listening to to that podcast based on vulgarity of some of it. But not being political. My choice would be Tucker Carlson. I find him very interesting. And this may sound crazy, but very, I don’t know if neutral is the right word, but inquisitive. And I heard a podcast, I was driving, we were on a long trip and I heard a podcast that he did about COVID and the COVID virus and the actual components from a biological standpoint. It was fascinating and it was very educational. And I’ve done research to see like if what he was saying was right or wrong. And he was completely down the middle of the road. So I I find him very interesting.

01:04:55 Chris Walton
Wow. All right, cool. Like to stay informed. All right, the fall of Farb. Back to you, Michael again. And then we’ll hit Chris with the final two. The fall of Farb, the latest in Netflix’s series of sports documentaries, retraces the good time gunslinger’s arc from humble Mississippi beginnings to his NFL peak to the texting scandal that tarnished his reputation. Where does Farb rank for you in terms of all time quarterback greats? Top ten, top 20 doesn’t rank at all. Where do you? Where do you put them?

01:05:23 Michael
So weird you, you got to you got to judge these guys ’cause they’re public figures, I guess on the whole body of work, right? So based on his sports stats, he’s like top three quarterbacks from his stats or top five. I can’t remember what it was, but when all the the stuff was coming from Tom Brady in when he ranks in all of the stats, whatever, they are very, very high. And his age, he was very old when he was still competing at a very high level. So he’s from a physicality, sports deliverable standpoint, very high from off the field behaviour. He’s like top 100. I mean, really like tarnishing his reputation. So this, yeah. So this one, I’ve, I’ve got no vote. I, I can’t really, I can’t really place him because it’s too tough to figure out where, where do you wait? Which and you know, how do you, how do you do it? But he’s definitely a tale of two cities.

01:06:25 Chris Walton
So, and he takes your approach, he abstains.

01:06:27 Anne
That’s right, I.

01:06:29 Michael
I.

01:06:29 Anne
Support that. I support that. All right, Christy, so question #3 Netflix just picked up Sesame Street streaming rights. Who is your Sesame Street spirit animal or I guess puppet? Maybe is the puppet?

01:06:43 Chris Walton
Right. Good call.

01:06:44 Anne
Yeah.

01:06:45 Chris Disa
Well, I guess that’s pretty easy because when I was three years old I dressed up as Cookie Monster for Halloween. So I’m going to have to going to have to go there.

01:06:54 Chris Walton
Perfect. That’s definitely a puppet. I don’t, I don’t think Cookie Monster really. This is an animal.

01:06:58 Chris Disa
That’s true. Definitely. I like.

01:07:00 Chris Walton
Big Bird. All right, last one. Starbucks availed its new summer product lineup yesterday, including a new Iced Torchata oat milkshake and espresso, and the return of fan favourite Summer Berry Starbucks Refreshers and a new Strawberries and Cream Cake Pop. Which of these items do you most want to imbibe this summer, Christisa?

01:07:19 Chris Disa
Probably this summer. Berry Refresher. Low sugar.

01:07:23 Chris Walton
The least amount of sugar.

01:07:25 Chris Disa
Of all the new items, yeah.

01:07:27 Chris Walton
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That were chotted though. Sounds tasty. I can’t wait to.

01:07:30 Chris Disa
Get it? It does, it does. My nephew’s like the cake pop so I’m sure I’ll be buying both.

01:07:35 Chris Walton
Night, Yeah.

01:07:36 Michael
Right. Is it me, is it me or do you guys feel guilty if you just go into Starbucks and order a regular coffee? Like, I mean, it’s amazing, right? The lineup, they have it.

01:07:46 Chris Walton
Is Yeah, it is. It is hard not to get swayed by something a little bit extra and a little bit sweeter. So. All right, well, that was a.

01:07:53 Michael
I’m sorry, one last thing and then I’ll close it out. Chris, we were on a project and we had a tried and true Starbucks lover and he would do whatever crazy drink was out there and somewhere around Easter there was a green matcha with like purple foam on the top, oat milk, lavender thing and we all made a tonne of fun of them. But my wife had one recently and I drank it. It was the best drink I’ve ever had in my life. So what?

01:08:19 Chris Walton
Was it called Do you Remember for our fans? What?

01:08:21 Michael
It was called. It’s a matcha lavender oat milk latte, ice latte, ice latte, ice latte. OK, yeah, it’s it’s fabulous. It’s right on the front of all of the of the Starbucks apps. Now maybe they’re targeting me now because they did that, but I’m a now a believer in any in the in non regular coffee drinks at Starbucks.

01:08:46 Chris Walton
Yeah, wow. Wow. That’s awesome. So fans, listen up. Go get 1 today. All right? What a great show. And this was fabulous, man. We went a little long, but I think it was worth it given the topics at hand. As I told these guys before we started, I think Michael and Chris drew the headline lottery this week because there was a, like we said, a lot of meat on the bones with all these topics. All right, that closes us up. Happy birthday today to Sarah Ramos, Judge Reinhold and to Kluber Klang himself. Mr. T, who if you want to feel old, turns 73 today. Mr. T is 73 years old. And remember, if you can only read or listen to 1 retail blog in the business, make it Omni talk, the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top ten US retailer. Our fast my podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week’s top news. And our daily newsletter, the Retail Daily Minute tells you all you need to know each day to stay on top of your game is a retail executive and also regularly feature special content that is exclusive to us and that Anna and I take a lot of pride in doing just for you. Thanks as always for listening. And 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/omni Talk Retail. Michael, final question for you. If people want to get in touch with you, pick either of your brands at the NM Consumer and Retail Group, potentially get you as the interim CEO for Target. What’s the best way for them to do that?

01:10:06 Michael
He used his e-mail m.prendergast@alvarezandmarcel.com.

01:10:12 Chris Walton
And Chris, same question.

01:10:15 Chris Disa
Same thing, CD said. Alvarez and Marcel or LinkedIn?

01:10:19 Chris Walton
Awesome, awesome. You can also go to the Alvarez and Alvarez and Marcel Consumer and Retail Group’s website and check them out there too. So until next week, thank you, Michael. Thank you, Chris, both for being here and on behalf of all of us at Omni Talk Retail. As always, be careful out there.