Transcript of Fast Five Episode: Target’s Woes, Lowe’s Marketplace & Why Sam’s Club Pizza Delivery Will Change Our Lives | Fast Five Video

00:00:11 Anne
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00:02:37 Chris
And I’m Chris Walton.

00:02:38 Anne
And we are here once again to discuss all the top headlines from the past week, making waves in the world of Omni channel retailing, Chris, Retailing. That’s what we do here. We are heading out to Shop Talk Europe on Friday and then we’re going to the Consumer Goods Forum the next week. This is the Omni Talk European Tour, so if you guys aren’t already, make sure you’re subscribed to Omni Talk on YouTube on LinkedIn so you can get all the latest interviews and news from both of those shows. Chris, who are you interviewing on stage next week at Shop Talk? You’re up. Remind me?

00:03:17 Chris
Yeah, I’m pretty excited. I’m interviewing executives from Tandem, Leroy Merlin, which actually some of the my initial conversations around that’ll probably play into today’s headlines, as well as the chief human resources officer at Ahold de Lez. And I’m, I’m, I’m pretty excited about it. And we’re going to be talking about one of my favourite topics. And I know it’s one of your favourite topics too, potentially even more so than mine, which is empowering store associates through technology. So yeah, I’m excited about it. It’s Monday afternoon getting ready for the show. Love Barcelona, love Amsterdam too. So it’s going to be a fun couple weeks. But what do you got on the docket? You got AI feel like you’re, you’re almost like kicking off the show. I’m the keynote stage if I’m not.

00:03:55 Anne
We are yeah, we’re I’m also going to be talking to Tandem, which is a brand that if you don’t know about for our US listeners, I was pretty impressed by, I mean, Chris, I, I was not familiar with them before we went into this shop talk Europe prep. But I’ll be interviewing their CEO JAMA on stage, just talking about how they are, you know, how the brand is continuing to expand hopefully into the US soon. But they’re like the number 2 retailer based out of Spain after Zara Zinditex. So big, big conversation. And then I’m also interviewing the head of global e-commerce for L’Oreal, which will also be a fun conversation. So getting them all out of the way on Monday. So Monday will be an action-packed day.

00:04:42 Chris
Yeah, it’s it’s funny talking to those guys too, because it sounds like there’s like a there’s a key to battle between the 1-2 and three positioning between Mango, Tandem and Inditex too, as as you talk about it. So yeah, so it’ll be good for for you and and for all of our fans to tune in all next week. So all right, what should we do this week’s show in? We don’t have any guest hosts today. We haven’t had.

00:05:03 Anne
No, just us.

00:05:04 Chris
Just us, Just us. Sorry, folks. Sorry, I already talked to fans. You just get anime today, all right? And this week’s Fast 5, we’ve got news on Sam’s Club delivering pizza, Lowe’s new third party marketplace, Google rolling out agentic AI, check out Nike’s plans to resume selling on Amazon. And A&M’s David Schneidman does stop by to share 5 insightful minutes on A&M’s latest consumer sentiment survey that they’ve completed heading into the summer. But we begin today with rather strange news coming out of our former employer, Anne.

00:05:38 Anne
That’s right, Chris, headline #1 Target is betting on a new acceleration initiative to turn around its performance. According to Retail Dive, Target announced the establishment of an enterprise Acceleration office, which is, quote, aimed at removing friction and enabling the team to make faster decisions in support of our growth and quote, said Target COO Michael Fidel Key, who will also reportedly oversee the initiative. The news comes after Target kicked off its fiscal 2025 with a decline in net and comp store sales, which were down 2.8 and 3.8% respectively, and in which the retailer also saw a drop in traffic and average ticket size, making it targets third consecutive quarter of negative net sales. Not comp sales, but net sales results. Chris, are you buying or selling targets new Enterprise Acceleration Office as the key to this turn around?

00:06:36 Chris
Let me say this and pump the brakes. That’s that’s the expression that I’m saying on the acceleration office. Pump the brakes and I’m going to get out of the gate quickly on this on this headline today.

00:06:44 Anne
And no one surprised.

00:06:47 Chris
No one is surprised, but I’m going to get pretty, pretty pointed too. I mean, the, the number one thing I would say or the question I would ask is how feckless can the CEO, Brian Cornell and more important the board actually be with this announcement? The last time I checked, what the acceleration office is, is the acceleration office is charged to do is basically the main job of the CEO. Now I’ve railed on the on this show for the past two years about how what happened last week was coming, you know, talked about it very regularly, honestly. And it’s because Cornell never had a growth strategy. Never. He’s never had one in place. And now, you know, everything’s coming home to roost. And so the board, the other part about this is the board is just sitting there almost like they’ve been caught off guard to this whole thing when lots of us have been talking about it. And now they sign off on an acceleration in office when the culture is dying on the vine from everyone we talked to you and Cornell is just sitting there like a lame duck. The quote unquote acceleration office will also no doubt be the first thing the new CEO cuts whenever he or she comes in because it’s just plain stupid. I mean, there’s no other way to put it. And so I’m going to say it out loud. I’m going to say it out loud. I’ve said it. I don’t think I’ve said it on this show, but I’ve said it in private circles, but I’m going to say it out loud today. I think Brian Cornell is going to go down as the worst CEO in Target’s history. And he should because when numerous articles and news outlets and social media are making comments comparing Target to Kmart, it’s just gotten that bad. And in my opinion and like I said it last month, it’s only going to get worse until the board gets rid of him and brings in someone that can bring back what targets all about and re enliven its expect more payless promise because when target is running well that is what it’s known for.

00:08:35 Anne
Yeah, it’s just really sad. I mean, Target being compared to Kmart makes my, that just is, I don’t know, it makes me feel awful. Like that’s not where Target should be. It’s really it, it is a brand that hold or held a lot of equity in people’s hearts and minds. And I yeah, it’s just I again, I cannot say it enough. I’m just feel for every one of our friends and family members who are at Target right now and who are trying to navigate these waters. I, I think the only thing I would, I would add into the rant, Chris, would be I don’t hate, I don’t hate the concept of an acceleration office, but it feels like something that should have been done during the pandemic several years ago when Target was riding high during that time to figure out how to continue that momentum. Right now, it just feels like it’s too little too late. And I, I feel like that’s the sentiment that I keep hearing from who are still a target is like Cornell’s e-mail that went out about the DEI initiatives too little too late, like the this acceleration office, too little too late. You’re, you’re 100% right that this just should be the role. Acceleration should be part of the CE OS role. And I, I will just end by saying one of the funniest things I heard to turn this around is that target insiders are calling the acceleration office target Doge, which I, which I thought was like not improving morale by any means inside, but but it was, it gives you a sense of how those internal employees are feeling. And it’s past time for someone new to take the helm and just clean house over there.

00:10:15 Chris
Yeah. And you know what’s funny, and I didn’t think about this until you just said it. We were part of the previous quote unquote acceleration office when we were part of the innovation portfolio, which Brian Cornell and the board abruptly shut down and said we are not going to focus on innovation. We’re going to stay core to what Target is, which in reality is antithetical to how Target originated. Target was a standalone concept created by the Dayton Hudson Corporation as an innovative idea. And so Cornell shut all those things down and now he and the board are trying to bring this idea back. You’re 100% right. This is an these are ideas that could work as long as they were interwoven in the DNA and they were thought about and done consistently, year over year over year, and money capital was devoted to them.

00:11:00 Anne
Yeah, all right, let’s talk about something more fun.

00:11:03 Chris
Yeah, because I I deliberately put this headline #2 in the.

00:11:06 Anne
Get it over with. Get this.

00:11:08 Chris
Where we would be, Yeah. But you know, the other thing I want to say, too is, you know, for those fans that, you know, those fans out there are listeners that are always like, yeah, you’re hard on target. It’s because I care, you know, like, I wanted to have people see what was coming ahead of time, you know, so you wouldn’t find themselves in this situation. But anyway, headline #2 Sam’s Club’s member Mark Hot Baked pizza is now deliverable and hot.

00:11:31 Anne
Fresh.

00:11:32 Chris
And just believe it or not, fans $8.98 Holy cow that is such a hot.

00:11:40 Anne
Place steal of a Deal Steal of a.

00:11:41 Chris
Deal, my God.

00:11:43 Anne
Yeah.

00:11:44 Chris
According to a Walmart press release, members mark members mark hot baked pizza. One of the hardest things to say is officially available through delivery in the majority of Sam’s Clubs nationwide and will be live in all clubs by the end of the month. Members can enjoy their favourite toppings, pepperoni, cheese and my potential go to 4 meat. Curious what those four meats are at? I was trying to figure that out without you.

00:12:09 Anne
Want to really know what the four meats are?

00:12:11 Chris
Oh yeah, I totally do. But that’s what I’m going for. Hot, fresh and straight to the door. I know that’s not your pick because it’s got ham in it. And if you need it fast members Mark Hot Baked Pizza is also eligible for express delivery, arriving in less than 3 hours from the time you place your order. And as pizza for under $10, delivered right to your door. Make you want to run out and get a Sam’s Club membership.

00:12:36 Anne
Yeah, I think it does. I mean, I think I think they’re going to get so many people who weren’t Sam’s Club members already who hear about this deal and realise like those pizzas are excellent. Like they’re big, they feed a lot of people and for the price, you can’t, you just can’t beat it. Not to mention, I think the gates that this opens for Sam’s Club for a delivery of other products, because it’s not just pizza. You can also order salads and other items from the Sam’s Cafe. You could order this in conjunction with your larger bulk item delivery. Like I think that this this could even be like the impulse item that you add on to the end of like, OK, I’m going to order my weekly like supplies from Sam’s Club and then it’s coming on a Friday. I’m going to have them deliver a pizza with that as well. Like this I think is so smart from Sam’s Club. It’s shows that they’re really working on how to figure this out logistically too, because of the, the requirements for delivery of a, of a product like a pizza. So I, I’m so happy. I think they’re going to see a lot of interest come in from just a simple let’s deliver pizzas announcement. But where, what about you? Are you, are you motivated to try the $8.98 pizza?

00:13:51 Chris
Oh, oh, you know me, 100 percent, 100%. I mean, this is an unassailable move of marketing genius to me. I, I freaking love this. I mean, my mom has this. I don’t have a Sam’s Club membership. My mom has one and we use hers. But I think she she gets back into town tonight. I think tomorrow night we’re dialling this up. We’re dialling up the Sam’s Club pizza, I think. And you know, but the one thing I will say though, the one misgiving I have and it was hard to understand this in the press release is the delivery window seems long. Like you have to be planning ahead. And we want to, we’ve actually put an inquiry out to the Sam’s Club team to come on a show and talk about this because we want to understand it better. But I think ultimately to save money and to get that kind of deal on pizza, I’m OK with that because pizza has gotten super expensive. And, and the best thing about it too, from from my standpoint on why Sam’s Club is doing this, I think you hit on a little bit, but to touch on a little bit more, it adds volume to their delivery runs as well. So, you know, you want you want more, you want more volume for every delivery you’re putting out there. So if you can time it up with the the other orders, you know, they’re going out to the neighbourhoods. I think that makes sense. So, so I love this. I think it’s just so differentiating. You know, it eats, it eats at Domino’s really big. But the other thing I love about it and Costco, Costco, they’re not, it doesn’t seem like Costco’s in any way going to be able to touch something like this because they’re so antiquated in terms of how they look at things digitally. So I think Sam’s Club continues to win with this and continues to win with younger generations. When you look at, you know, plays like this, this and scan and go shopping and you know, the receipt list check out and all that, kind of, you know, the whole that whole thing. So I don’t know if receipt list check out is the right way to say it, but you know what I’m talking about and help me.

00:15:33 Anne
Out, yeah, yeah, yeah. When you scan and go the scan and go check out where they scan the bottom of your or they scan your cart to make sure.

00:15:38 Chris
Yeah, you just walk through the arch, the archway, the archway check out, you know, So like, I think that’s, it’s just, it’s just they’re, they’re doing some great things there. Man, I wish I knew it was in the water down at Sam’s Club.

00:15:49 Anne
You you like Costco pizza, you still have to call. That’s the only option you have is to call ahead and pick it up.

00:15:56 Chris
And watch it if you want to pick it up and take it home.

00:15:58 Anne
Yes. And you do it. You do it because the pizzas are $8 and they feed up like if you, and I think that gets to your point earlier too. Like I know Friday nights I’m going to have a house full of kids and whatever. Like if I, if my delivery is coming on a Friday and I can throw those pizzas in, you know, I’m going to do it. It’s so affordable and it hits on convenience in a way that that no one else is can really do for me. So right now. So I think that’s, that’s huge. That part of it is huge. And yeah, Costco’s way, way behind.

00:16:30 Chris
Yeah. And add to your point, like if you’re ordering 4 pizzas or five pizzas, this almost saves you like 50 to $100, you know?

00:16:37 Anne
Sure it does. It’s insane. It definitely does. Yeah. Yeah, it’s it’s a great, great move. Well done, Sam’s Club. All right, let’s go on to headline #3 Chris Lowe’s is partnering with Miracle to accelerate its online marketplace. According to a Lowe’s press release. Through its partnership with Miracle, Lowe’s is positioned to scale its e-commerce business faster while allowing trusted marketplace sellers to easily manage their catalogues on lowes.com, better serving customers wherever they are in their home improvement journey. Since launching its Marketplace, Lowe’s has expanded its offerings from third party sellers, including indoor and outdoor furniture, kitchen and bath, home decor, power and hand tools, and more. The benefits of Lowe’s Marketplace extend to members of Milo’s Rewards loyalty programme, with members accruing points on any Marketplace purchases. All Marketplace products are currently available for home delivery and customers may return Marketplace products purchased through lowes.com directly to any one of Lowe’s over 1700 stores. Chris, I’m guessing you’re going to be as excited as you were for the Sam’s Club story, but are you? Are you excited about the Lowe’s new Marketplace partnership with Miracle and what excites you most?

00:17:51 Chris
What excites me most about it, I think you hit it right in the headline read honestly and it and it’s the it’s the combination of Lowe’s using and talking about loyalty and the value of their stores within the creation of their digital marketplace because that is how you differentiate an online marketplace and Lowe’s is clearly thinking smartly in that direction. The other point I would make is that an online marketplace is particularly important in home furnishings because what I’ve said before on the show 1000 times, furnishing a home is a massive chore and the more you can get done in one space, the better. Whether you’re a homeowner or even a contractor, even a pro looking to buy many things all at once. All of which then comes back to, as I said at the outset, and can be augmented by the loyalty incentives you’re doing to incent that behaviour. So that’s why I love this move from Lowe’s and a can’t. And again, you can’t, can’t discount the fact too that you can bring these products back to the store, which is also an important factor in driving loyalty as well and driving reuse. So, so net, net, I love this as well. I think it’s great. And kudos to our sponsors, Miracle for, for becoming the platform for Lowe’s. It’s awesome.

00:19:00 Anne
Yeah, I agree. I think I’m, I’m less, I think this will have less of an impact on the pro customer because most of those customers need to go get something same day like get that kind of thing. But what I really think this opens up is a is an extended audience for the Lowe’s home improvement customer. The the regular people out there who need these products, especially when we start looking at what you know, Dave Schneidman is going to come on and talk about in a little bit is changing consumer sentiment. You are now opening up the Lowe’s world of products to all sorts of options. It’s giving customers choice when they don’t have as much money. If they go into the Lowe’s store and they see two, you know, drills that they might need for an upcoming project and then they can go online and they can still get their rewards points at Lowe’s, but they can, they can find some other options that might be lower price or more middle of the road that Lowe’s just can’t carry inventory for in store. You’re, you’re hanging on to that customer and you’re getting them to come to you for, for more things because they know that you’re going to give them the assortment and a price point for the, for a good in, especially in all the categories that we just covered off on from home furnishings to power tools. They will have the customer coming there 1st and they own that relationship with the customer at the end of the day too, which that’s what more could you ask for. It’s such a smart, smart move from Lowe’s.

00:20:24 Chris
Yeah, and, and, and when you think about it too, like who they’re really trying to differentiate against here is Amazon on the one off, you know, pick offs, you know, and Amazon for the most part, correct me if I’m wrong, doesn’t have a loyalty programme. In fact, I paid $99.00 a month or a year, like $139 a year to Amazon to be loyal to it. And so now you’re, you’re, you’re taking that out of the equation. And Lowe’s is smarter than thinking about how do I use loyalty to build an online marketplace so that people realise that that’s dumb and I can get the same level and quality of service and better discounts and more affordability by shopping with Lowe’s. So I think, I think that’s the point that I hadn’t thought about until you just said what you said.

00:21:03 Anne
All right, Chris.

00:21:05 Chris
Let’s bring David on to the show. Dave Schneidman. Joining us now for five insightful minutes to discuss his company’s latest current consumer sentiment survey is the A&M consumer and Retail groups. David Schneidman. Dave, let’s start with this. What does consumer sentiment look like going into the summer months?

00:21:30 David
You know, first, thanks for having me as always, Chris and Ann. So, so you know, with the macroeconomic uncertainties, you know, there that is having a huge effect on, on consumers. You know, first was COVID, then supply chain issues, then the war, no inflations and, and, and now last tariffs. So, so consumers are planning on spending less and they’re planning on saving more during the financial uncertainties. They’re not super worried, but they’re being, I would say a little bit more vigilant. In fact, about 10% of all consumers are expected to spend less, where about 30% of consumers are planning on saving more. Now, however, most of the cutting is coming from discretionary spending. So particularly think like restaurants going out prepared food along with luxury goods, jewelries and accessories. So F&B that it is, it is still around a flat. We’ll talk more about that shortly, but consumers are just being mindful of of the unknown right now.

00:22:40 Anne
So, Dave, what kind of trade-offs are consumers willing to make then in search of a better value?

00:22:47 David
Yeah. So, so I, I mentioned that overall about it’s, it’s kind of there’s not much change with F&B from a macro aspect, but particularly about 25% of consumers still do plan on cutting back within food and beverage. So I think groceries and with that there’s there’s, there’s a couple of different ways about about 50% of consumers are are planning on switching to cheaper brands. So cheaper brands is more often, the second is buying fewer groceries, which is around 25% of consumers planning on doing that. And the last is just switching to cheaper stores. So going to be more mindful of of mass big box stores or discounters and that’s about the other 25%. Additionally, within that consumers are more willing to try other brands. Right now in fact about 30% of consumers will try almost almost 10 new brands and the leading factor of that is price. So price is having a huge impact on on trial, but you know, still wanting to be healthy, desiring to try new products and then just recommendations from from friends, families and influencers are still having impact on on consumer penetration.

00:24:02 Chris
Dave, what does all that mean for the private label side of the business?

00:24:06 David
Yeah. So, so consumers are increasingly embracing private label. You know almost 75% of our reports is that people are are purchasing private label somewhat often or often and over 50% of consumers believe private label has improved over last year. So private label’s here to stay. Perceptions are at an all time high in terms of quality, affordability, ingredients, accessibility. No surprise there. The leading driver of private label is, is purchase is, is price. However, taste ingredients still make up about 25% of the main purchase influencing power factors. So, so price ingredients are are here as well. So, so private label is definitely here, huge perception improvement and and needs to be part of a retailer’s plan going forward.

00:25:05 Anne
So then, Dave, as we close, what advice do you have for retailers who kind of are trying to navigate these changing consumer sentiments?

00:25:14 David
You know, besides looking at price, having the right assortment and merchandising, you know, two things that aren’t talked about as often are about loyalty and technology within loyalty. Consumers are engaging in loyalty programmes to stretch their spending power. About 2/3 of all consumers use a loyalty programme in food and beverage and grocery and it’s about 75% of of purchases within the loyal are influenced by loyalty programmes and that’s even higher for consumers who are under the age of 45. S loyalty programmes huge. And then the other technology, over 60% of our respondents interact with different technologies to influence their buying decisions, particularly subscription. Subscription models influence about 75% of purchases, in fact about 20%. Yeah, it’s crazy. About 20% of all grocery purchases are done 100% via subscription, which is which is crazy. So one in five consumers are doing all of their grocery shopping online and, and about 75% are doing at least 75% of their grocery shopping online. So subscription models are here and, and, and the main drivers besides deals and promotion, just convenience. We live in a world where people, you know, time is money, they know what they like, they know what they don’t like. And just that frictionless approach to grocery buying, which is a daily, weekly, monthly thing is, is, is huge to the consumer. So let don’t forget about loyalty and technology and they kind of go hand in hand. Huge impact to driving purchasing.

00:27:09 Chris
Decisions. Great stuff, Dave. Thank you.

00:27:11 Anne
Thank you, Dave.

00:27:12 Chris
If you want to read the latest consumer sentiment survey from our friends at the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, you will find it in full in our show notes from today’s episode. All right, headline #4 Google is rolling out a genetic AI Check out. According to chain store Age, Google is introducing a new artificial intelligence enhanced shopping experience called AI Mode. The tech giant’s AI Mode shopping experience combines its Gemini generative AI chatbot with Google Shopping Graph, a real time data set of products, inventory and merchants with more than 45 billion listings in stock inventory data from a range of retailers. Every hour, more than two billion of those product listings are refreshed on Google. 2 billion with AB. In the coming months, customers will be able to search for products using conversational language and see a right hand panel of images and product listings. Once a customer selects a product, a new Agentic AI checkout will help customers buy at a price that fits their budgets. Shoppers will be able to tap track price on any product listing and set options such as size or colour and the amount they want to spend, and then receive price drop notifications when ready to buy. The customer will then be able to confirm the purchase details and tap Buy for Me. Behind the scenes, Google will add the item to the cart on the retailer site and securely complete the check out with Google Play. This Agentic check out feature will be rolling out in the coming months to product listings in the US and there was a lot there intentionally because we wanted to make sure the fans knew how this was designed to work. And lo and behold, this is also the A&M put you on the spot question. Are you ready for it this?

00:28:50 Anne
Week. If it’s about Google Shopping, you know I’m ready for it.

00:28:54 Chris
I know I picked this one specifically for you. I put this as headline #4 specifically for you. All right, here it is. How much does this enhance the experience for those who currently use Google Shopping? Or does this have the chance to disproportionately pull from those who currently go directly to retailer.com sites for B to C buying? The floor is yours.

00:29:16 Anne
Well, listeners, I tried this last night and I will clarify the only the try it on mode was available to me. We the rest of the features it sounds like are coming soon to the rest of us who aren’t in the beta programme. But the AI generated image I put this.

00:29:32 Chris
Up.

00:29:33 Anne
I put these up on LinkedIn last night. The AI generated images are so good, like so good. And I’m a huge sceptic about the the fit me models and all these things. No, no, no, no. But I think what A&M were where A and M’s question is getting AT and what I think is the most impressive thing here is when when I’m as a shopper, I I put into Gemini like, hey, I’m looking for a suit for Barcelona for next week that will be weather appropriate. OK. That’s how people are going to be searching. They’re not going to the dot coms anymore. It’s it’s give me some options. And now if you think about where this could go eventually, just taking that picture that I’ve uploaded and showing me all of these items on me, on me as a model, not a model that looks like me, but on me. And I get to look at those. I mean, I was not planning on purchasing something, Chris. There are three things in three carts right now from just that thing that I was like, oh, I mean, you still have the issue potentially of arriving and it doesn’t fit as the AI model for sure. But you know what those things are in my cart. Those companies have my contact information. They’re pinging me and saying mango.com is like you, this suit in your cart. Here’s the picture of it on you once again. And do you want to check out? And I think the last thing that I’ll add about where where Google is really going to continue to stand out with this is when they start to add on these other features. And Nicole Netland, one of our former Co workers from Target store the future, who’s working on this project, she said in a in a chat that we had a few weeks ago at Google in New York, that the thing, the key thing here about where Google has a Moat that some of these other players in the space are do not have is they know what I’m looking at on YouTube shorts. They know what kind of content I’m looking at there. They know my Gmail address, they know what activities are on my Google Calendar. And so when you start thinking about how they can kind of do the push and pull with me as a consumer here, based on the inputs they’re getting from all of those sources and Gemini and the quality of the, the content, they can serve me up. I think this is putting Google in an exceptional place or as a challenger to some of these other big companies that are coming up in this, in this space, and especially as it applies to commerce. So I, I’m a huge fan. Chris, give me, talk me down.

00:32:04 Chris
Talk you down.

00:32:05 Anne
Where where am I missing some key points about this roll out?

00:32:10 Chris
Well, yeah, no, I mean, I think you’re bringing up some interesting points I hadn’t thought of in preparation for this. I mean, you’re right. I think you know, anyone that uses Google’s calendar, e-mail, even Google Chrome, Google probably knows more about you than you know about yourself. You know, it’s something I was used to say about social media, but but Google probably knows even more when you put it in that context. So that’s really powerful in what you said the point about the point about you better fit sceptic. I kind of I kind of gave you a Cheshire grin on the camera off camera, cuz I’m like, have you? Yeah, I mean, I feel like we’ve had lots of debates on this and but the thing I would make that I think what I I think I agree with you because I saw the stuff you posted. It looked amazing. My only question is like, is it really going to fit that well or is it just like super tailored to look good on you? I have no idea. And but that’s an important question that has to be uncovered and understood. So you know, for me though, the, the longer clear term implications of this like the agentic AI part of the conversation and Google start to take share from retailer.com or visits, you know, to retailer.com as A&M was asking. I don’t know. I think the jury’s out. I think it all, it all comes down to the UX and ultimately the ease of payment too, which we’ve talked about on past shows. You know, for me, the best analogy I can make to this is, and I think we’re going to be in like a Betamax versus VHS battle here in a gently check out, you know, you know, similar to Betamax, the best tech or the best modes, quote unquote, might not be the ones who went out. It could just be the, the, the whoever makes this experience, the one that’s the easiest to buy from. And Google, as much as it has these modes, history is not on its side when it comes to figuring out e-commerce at all. You know, it’s always been a tough get for them. And so will it be Amazon? Is it going to be one of the upstarts? I have no idea. I can’t wait to find out, though. And as you showed on LinkedIn, very admirable yesterday, we’ve got a front row seat and it’s going to be buckle your seatbelts because I can’t wait to watch this.

00:34:07 Anne
Totally. And I think one more thing I just add in closing, yeah, I think that Google Shopping in the past was never set up to work this way. Google is a tech company. They were not a commerce focus company. And I think that’s where they’re really, you can see like just with this AI, try an example, right? Like it’s I think. And to answer A&M’s question again, like I think, I think any agentic search is taking away from going to the.com. So it doesn’t matter it.

00:34:34 Chris
Will happen over time.

00:34:35 Anne
It absolutely will happen over time. So, so people like Google and what they put out here, being able to showcase multiple brands so that you as a consumer have the most choice like this. It’s it’s going to be great. I can’t wait. As a shopper, I’m thrilled. So we’ll see what we’ll see what happens next.

00:34:55 Chris
It’s it’s pretty mind blowing.

00:34:56 Anne
All right, let’s go to headline #5. Chris Nike reportedly plans to start selling on Amazon again. According to Chain Storage, following a six year hiatus, Nike will once again sell its products directly on Amazon in late 2019. Nike ended a pilot it launched in 2017 to sell merchandise directly to Amazon as it focused on selling more directly to consumers on its own website and stores. A Nike spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that it will resume selling goods via Amazon in the US as part of a broader digital commerce effort. The spokesperson said in the statement quote, this includes expanding to new digital accounts, including Amazon in the US, new physical partners like Printom, elevating retail experiences across the marketplace and launching Nikes AI powered conversational search to improve our online services and quote. In addition, Amazon confirmed via an e-mail to CNBC that it will start sourcing a quote much wider range of Nike products and quote for US shoppers. And as part of the relaunch, Amazon, as reported by WWD, has also told select third party merchants that they can no longer sell certain Nike items on Amazon starting July 19th. Chris, a lot in Nike’s digital plan here. Are you pro or con? Nike coming back to Amazon?

00:36:18 Chris
Oh, and resolutely hate this move. Yeah, I don’t, I don’t like it at all. I’m curious if you’re I’m curious if you feel the same way. Yeah, after our discussion on Saks 5th Ave a couple weeks ago, because I think Nike is a brand that should stand on its own. And you know, all these talks of the new partnerships with Urban Outfitters, they’re just to me they’re just silly. They’re just marketing vehicles to try to enliven the brand and they’re just a waste of time because they’re not going to add any discernible real revenue to the top line and they’re just a lot of effort. So I think, you know, I think when I step back and look at this from 30,000 feet, I think the previous regime had the right strategy, which is create a more direct one to one relationship with your consumers, which is what Omni channel retailing is all about, but just seemingly didn’t have the right execution. So going on Amazon just makes Nike like everything else on Amazon. And the other part about this which you alluded to in previous headlines today was you lose the first party data relationship with your customer too. And so I don’t know why you would do that in any way, shape or form. So to me, this move is emblematic of a company that finds itself in a really tough spot. The Jordan brand is clearly post peak now at this point. I mean, Jordan’s got to be, you know, in his 60s now, if I’m not mistaken. They’ve had trouble making their marketing athleisure. They haven’t been able to crack the code on that. They’ve also been losing ground in running. So going on Amazon, it may be a boost to short term sales, but the long in the long term, it’s a losing proposition to companies like Lululemon and on running who are going to keep that one to one relationship with their customers. They’re going to hold it dear and they’re going to hold it close to their heart because they understand that’s what makes them special. And Nike going on Amazon is no longer special to me.

00:38:03 Anne
Yeah, I, I actually agree completely. I feel like this is a very short sighted approach and in my mind really moves Nike to more of a utility purchase than a lifestyle purchase. Like it used to be a cache thing that like you’d have, you know, these limited edition drops and stuff. But if you’re, if you’re able to get this product in mass, it loses its, its uniqueness. And I think it also damages brand equity that they’ve built with JD Sports or DSG and Footlocker like we talked about last week, like what unique product are they really going to have when the majority of consumers are going to be like, but I can get these similar Nikes on Amazon for, you know, this price and get them delivered in an hour or whatever it is. So I, I think that to me causes alarm. Also, I wonder if this doesn’t open up Nike to more fraudulent products too. Like when you’re on the Amazon, you know, you’re on Amazon now. Like do are you opening it up because people are going to just search Nike or Air Force ones? Like, are they more susceptible to getting a product that isn’t an original, you know, Nike product? And how does Nike kind of control that part of it? Because that to me is another area where you don’t always know what you’re getting and Amazon’s not as, as I, I guess closely watching that as some of your other larger partners, but.

00:39:28 Chris
Yeah, I’m not as worried about that because I think the sub context to the headline you read is I actually think Amazon has made a deal with Nike to try to police that to a larger degree than they probably have in the past as well. That was what I I took from that. But it probably could potentially still be an issue. But you know, Amazon today, in today’s day and age with technology should be able to tell when somebody’s trying to, you know, put out a counterfeit pair of Nikes as a third party seller and get them off the site, because the only people that should be selling Nikes on their site are Nike, correct. In in theory. So yes, you know, in in theory, that’s the way. But I think the other the other point you made me think of too here Anne is like the drops. I used to go on the drops all the time. I’ve stopped looking at it because the product sucks. It’s it’s it’s not interesting. It’s just. Really lame and and they they got to re enliven their product strategy too. To your point like how you going to re enliven your product strategy and then how you going to decide who gets what product and going on Amazon just makes that such a complicated effort.

00:40:24 Anne
Yeah, yeah, it’s just it doesn’t doesn’t seem like the right move It it’s it feels like it’s just 100% utility like I need a new pair of shoes for my kid. I’m going to get the cheapest Nikes I can you know on Amazon have them delivered same day, which is it is good in those the short term it’ll probably boost sales a little bit, but but is that the lasting impression you want to leave with with your consumer? I don’t think.

00:40:48 Chris
So I thought, I thought you were comment about utility. What’d you say? Utility versus lifestyle? Lifestyle, Yeah, I think that that that nails it.

00:40:57 Anne
All right, Chris, let’s go to the lightning round. We’re talking pizza again. Pizza Hut is bringing back the Summer Bucket programme, which sparks so much nostalgia for me.

00:41:07 Chris
Does it?

00:41:09 Anne
I love to book it. Did you? Did you participate as a kid in Arizona? It doesn’t sound like you did, but if you did, what did you get on your personal pan pizza?

00:41:20 Chris
No, we didn’t. We didn’t have that in Arizona at least, was this.

00:41:24 Anne
The Midwestern.

00:41:24 Chris
Thing I I don’t know, I mean I went to a Catholic school and we only got pizza once a month. I did too. It was from some local dude who we were probably helping laundering money, you know, in reality. And you know, it’s like God knows what he was doing. But but I mean, if I were to get a personal pan pizza, I’m going, I’m going as close to four meats as I can get and starting with the big two, sausage and pepperoni. You know that.

00:41:46 Anne
You were putting money in Sammy pepperoni pizzas pocket. You were. You were not. There’s no pizza.

00:41:53 Chris
You know, there was some kickback going on there, like the local pizza guys giving pizza to all the all the school kids every, every once in a month on a Wednesday. Yeah.

00:42:01 Anne
For sure no book it programme there. Didn’t have to read a lot like 16 Boxcar Children books to to get that pizza.

00:42:09 Chris
No, Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Yep, Yep, shout out to them all right. The HuffPost reported this week that Anthropics Claude Opus 4 would result to quote extremely harmful actions End Quote to preserve its own existence, including potentially blackmailing engineers for things like extramarital affairs. How many years do you give us AD before Terminator the movie becomes a reality?

00:42:33 Anne
OK, you’re going to be really disappointed when you hear this, but I have never watched the entire Terminator movie so I feel like I.

00:42:42 Chris
Either one of them, T Terminator or T2. Oh my God.

00:42:46 Anne
I know I’m really embarrassed so I got I added to my watch list for this whole week. This weekend for the plane trip, I will try to watch Terminator, but I that this is a very concerning thing, yeah.

00:43:02 Chris
Right.

00:43:04 Anne
I still feel like we have water still. So like could, is it still going to be able to do that if we pour water on the machine? I think it is. I think it still can damage our lives. So I’m going to say 10 years.

00:43:20 Chris
10 years, God, I hope it’s longer than that. But my God, that’s such a crazy story. Such a crazy.

00:43:25 Anne
Story, I don’t know. I mean, what would you guess? Are you taking the over or under?

00:43:31 Chris
I think I’d take the over at 10 years, but I think, you know, if you go 50 to 100 years, I think, yeah, we’re there. We’re, we’re, we’re just, I think I’m, I’m, I’m sorry, grandchildren. Yeah, I am.

00:43:44 Anne
All right, question #3 Chris, the latest TikTok travel hack is a pillowcase. People are filling pillowcases with clothing and bringing them on board to avoid a fee for carry ONS. Can you imagine just stuffing all your clothes and your pillow and bringing that on? No. So as we head out for our two week tour, share with the Omni Talk audience what your best travel hack is.

00:44:11 Chris
Wow God I’m curious what yours is aside from sleeping in like an actual body cast when you go into some hotel. But but I have a.

00:44:19 Anne
Lot of travel hacks Yeah, I.

00:44:21 Chris
Don’t know, I, I mean, aside from being bringing my own toilet paper like we’ve talked about on this show, I would also recommend, especially for, for international travel, bringing a lot of high fibre snacks. Like I just went to the store and loaded up on dried dates and so that’s mine. But I what, what’s one of your travel hacks? I have no idea.

00:44:40 Anne
Slippers, bring shoes for the hotel room or ask your hotel for slippers. A lot of hotels have them. Think about all the places that those suitcases are rolling, that your shoes have travelled in all these cities and you’re walking around in your bare feet. Nasty number one. I do bring also bring a pillowcase, but for my own, like I just like to have my own pillowcase when I’m travelling. In addition to my sleep suit, I bring a candle for the hotel room because sometimes the hotel rooms stink so I have a little travel candle. I mean so many things I could the list could keep going on. I have. I just have become a very seasoned traveller at this.

00:45:23 Chris
Yeah, you have. Yeah, you have. You could you could use a suitcase just for your hacks is what I take from this.

00:45:29 Anne
It’s yes. It’s why I’m over 50 lbs every time.

00:45:32 Chris
Right, right, yes, you are. You’re ready. You’re always scared the line all right, last one and game five of the T Wolves versus the Thunder tonight. Who do you?

00:45:40 Anne
We got T Wolves always Wolves in seven. We’re going to go on a three. We’re going to go on a three-game run or we won’t. And that’s also fine because if they do make it to the playoffs, we’re going to be in Europe and I’ll be up in the middle of the night watching the triple Wolves games. So come on Wolves, Not a chance. I love.

00:46:01 Chris
You not a chance in hell, Anne and I’m going to go out on a hot take here too. Anthe Edwards is going to be come soon. One of the most overrated players in the NBA. That’s my prediction. Happy birthday today to Gladys Knight Carey Mulligan and to the man who played Joey in bad news bears, Brandon Cruz. 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 the current top ten US retailer. Our Fast 5 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 as a retail executive, and also regularly features exclusive content that Anne 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/omnitalk Retail. So until next week, and on behalf of all of us at Omnitalk, on behalf of Anne and myself, be careful out there.