Bonjour Omni Talk Fans! Greetings from the City of Light, where Anne and I have been conducting “important research” on French pastries and on whether Napoleon was a cooler emperor than Genghis Khan.
But between bites of pain au chocolat and rides on the Metro, we also somehow managed to record our weekly podcast live from the NRF exhibit hall floor, featuring some absolutely bonkers retail news this week.
In this week’s Fast Five Podcast, Anne and I explored:
- KROGER’S ROBOT REBELLION Remember those fancy robotic warehouses that were supposed to revolutionize grocery? Well, interim CEO Ron Sargent is now playing retail Marie Kondo, asking each automated facility: “Do you spark joy… or just massive losses?”
- WALGREENS: THE PARTY CRASHER Party City died (again), and Walgreens swooped in faster than you can say passport photos. They’re now selling helium balloons! I am already planning my birthday party in Aisle 3.
- STARBUCKS GOES FULL MINORITY REPORT Starbucks deployed computer vision to count inventory, which is fancy talk for “we taught tablets to judge your oat milk supply.” The goal? Getting coffee to customers in under 4 minutes. Currently, 20% of customers wait longer than that. Twenty percent! That’s like one in five people standing there, slowly losing their minds waiting for their Pike Place in the time it takes to climb Pikes Peak.
- PACSUN’S YOUTH TAKEOVER Pacsun created a “Youth Advisory Council,” and this council isn’t composed of random TikTokers either – they’re legitimate influencers with actual business sense.
- GOOGLE’S MIDLIFE CRISIS Plot twist: Nearly half of people now prefer AI search engines over Google. That’s right, the search giant that knows you better than your therapist is getting dumped for ChatGPT.
There’s all that, plus our hot takes on French culture, jet lag woes, and enough caffeine to kill a small farm animal. Suffice it to say, this week’s episode embodies why we created Omni Talk — to talk retail and debate French stuff.
Listen to This Week’s Fast Five Podcast
Be careful out there,
— Chris, Anne, and the entire Omni Talk team
P.S. Pourquoi les Français mangent-ils des escargots? (Why do the French eat snails?)
Parce qu’ils n’aiment pas la fast food! (Because they don’t like fast food!)
Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.