We just wrapped up another whirlwind week at NRF 2026 in New York City, and let me tell you — Anne and I are absolutely exhausted. Twenty interviews in the Vusion podcast studio will do that to you. But it was worth every hoarse word because the announcements that come out NRF every year are always newsworthy.
This week’s Fast Five, brought to you by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, Quorso, and Veloq covers five major headlines that Anne and I think are going to shape the direction of retail over the next 12-24 months. And fair warning: Anne and I disagreed on almost every single one of them, which as our regular listeners know, means we’re probably onto something important.
Amazon’s Boldest Brick-and-Mortar Bet Yet
Let’s start with what might be Amazon’s most audacious physical retail move to date: a 225,000 square foot retail store in Orland Park, Illinois. Yes, you read that number correctly. That’s nearly double the size of a Target store and right in line with a Walmart supercenter format. The proposed store will offer both groceries and general merchandise, include dedicated parking for pickup orders, and, wait for it, it’s going to be located right next to a Costco.
Anne thinks we need to wait and see the actual concept before passing judgment, which is fair. We’re only looking at city planning documents right now, and as Anne and I both know from our time working on store concepts, you only have to submit so much detail to get municipal approval. But here’s where I’m skeptical, and I didn’t hold back on the show: Amazon has no empirical evidence whatsoever that they know how to merchandise a store of this scale.
Think about it. Amazon Four Star? Forgotten and shuttered. Amazon Fresh grocery stores? Not exactly blowing the doors off anyone. Amazon Style? Remember that one? Yeah, me neither, and it’s already gone. Every physical retail concept Amazon has attempted has been, frankly, uninspiring and difficult to shop. So Amazon’s logic here appears to be: “We can’t crack 4,000 square feet, and we’re struggling with 40,000 square feet, so why don’t we try five to six times that?” It’s bonkers when you think about it.
But here’s the thing, the real value of any retail concept comes down to the overall experience design. Look at what Wayfair finally did after I spent years telling them to go bigger with their store format. They opened a massive location, and it’s working because it’s actually a valuable expression of their brand at scale. So the big question I’m left with is this: Is this Amazon’s last experiment in physical retail, or is it the first piece of a puzzle that we can’t yet conceptualize?
I don’t have the answer yet, but I do know this: There are 3,999 Walmart supercenters already out there. Over 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart. People have established shopping behaviors and loyalty. Getting customers to change those patterns and drive to an Amazon store instead? That’s a massive uphill battle, and I’m not sure Amazon has the merchandising chops to pull it off.
Google Flexes Its Commerce Muscles
Now here’s where Anne and I really butted heads. Google announced its Universal Commerce Protocol at NRF, and Anne thinks this could be the retail headline of the year. I’m not quite there yet, but I’ll admit it’s a significant move.
The UCP establishes a common language for AI agents and systems to work together across the entire shopping journey, and it’s backed by some serious players: Adyen, American Express, Best Buy, Flipkart, Macy’s, Mastercard, Stripe, Home Depot, Visa, and Zalando. Through UCP, shoppers will be able to check out from eligible retailers directly while researching on Google. They’re also launching Business Agent, which lets shoppers chat with brands directly on search like a virtual sales associate.
Anne’s bullish take is that this announcement is massive because retailers maintain their merchant of record status and own the customer relationship. She also pointed out that with Apple announcing Gemini as their AI partner this week, Google now controls 70% of agentic interactions for the US mobile market. That’s a serious moat.
Her argument is that when 90% of us still go to Google when we have a question about anything, and commerce naturally emerges as part of that search behavior, Google becomes the ultimate personal assistant, not just for shopping, but for scheduling, emailing, everything. I can see her logic there.
But here’s where I pushed back, and I stand by this: This feels like Google protecting the turf of its current business model, which is built around search. I’m not convinced that protecting the battleground for search is the same thing as preparing yourself for the future of agentic commerce. Google has never figured out how to become a commerce engine because that’s not how its business model has been built. So while this is a natural and necessary step for Google to take, I’m not ready to call it the headline of the year quite yet.
Can someone still come in, e.g. Amazon, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and figure out the commerce piece better than Google? I don’t know, but I’m not counting them out. And yes, a lot of people are now using ChatGPT as their default search engine on mobile, so Google’s dominance isn’t as locked in as it once was.
Listen to the full episode to hear Anne and me go at it on this one. It got heated, in the best possible way.
Circle K and Corso: 12,000 Stores Can’t Be Wrong
Here’s a story that doesn’t get enough attention but absolutely should. Circle K is expanding its partnership with Quorso to over 7,800 US locations. Yes, one of our sponsors, but also a company I’ve been personally excited about since 2020. Combined with their European rollout, Quorso will soon be live in over 12,000 Circle K stores worldwide.
For those unfamiliar with Quorso, they’ve built an intelligent management platform that consolidates tasks, surveys, performance analytics, and exception reporting into one spot for store managers. No more siloed solutions. No more overwhelming to-do lists handed down from headquarters that may or may not actually drive value.
I met Quorso’s CFO Phil Thorne back in 2020, and I immediately fell in love with what they were trying to do. The technology is smart, it’s low-lift, it pays back immediately both financially and, most importantly, for your store employees. And we had their CEO Julian Mills on the show at NRF talking about exactly this.
Here’s why I care so much about Quorso: Leadership comes down to three things. You have to give your employees complexity (make their jobs interesting), autonomy (let them feel in control of their responsibilities), and attachment (help them care about their performance). Quorso’s technology drives efficiency while delivering on all three of those principles. It makes employees happier while making it easier for leaders to manage their teams.
Quorso was one of the darlings of NRF this year. They were in conversations everywhere, featured in the Microsoft booth, and we had them on with Vusion. The reason? Now that AI is being deployed operationally across retail, platforms like Quorso can plug into those systems and give store-level employees the specific, ROI-producing activities that actually matter. That’s powerful.
The Amazon Buy for Me Backlash
Small online merchants are furious that their products are showing up on Amazon through the Buy for Me AI feature without their permission. Multiple business owners discovered their entire Shopify catalogs were available on Amazon.com without their knowledge or consent. One founder was even concerned that Buy for Me pulled products from her password-protected wholesale section, potentially exposing her wholesale pricing and creating tax liability issues.
Amazon’s position? Businesses can opt out by emailing them, and they claim they’ve received positive feedback on the program. Many merchants strongly disagree.
Anne’s take on this, and I think she’s right, is that this is just the reality of how brands are going to have to prepare for where and how they show up online. Whether it’s Amazon’s Buy for Me, OpenAI, Google, or any other agent, they’re all going to scrape data. Brands need to get their data house in order, period. They need to make sure password-protected sections aren’t exposed, that pricing is clean, and that their foundation is solid. This is a wake-up call.
That said, Anne also thinks Amazon needs to make opting out much easier, as simple as unsubscribing from a marketing email. Having to email a specific address is too cumbersome, especially for a company that’s also a retailer and not just a neutral search engine, she says.
My take? I think this headline is a bit salacious. Yes, the above-board thing to do would be to ask brands to opt in rather than making them opt out. But is opt-out unethical? I’m not sure. Is it fundamentally different from having a personal assistant buy something for you? Not really.
Here’s my hunch: Amazon is watching the vendors who are recording sales versus those who are opting out to understand how they should approach this program long-term. While the headline focuses on a few upset merchants, there could be 99% of brands that love the volume increase. If you’re one of the unhappy ones, opt out. It’s that simple.
This whole thing needs more time, study, and background information before we all get worked up about it.
Walmart’s $400 Billion Convenience Play
And finally, we get to what might be my favorite story of the week and what our producer Ella picked as her headline winner: Walmart and Wing are expanding their drone delivery partnership to 270 US stores by 2027, covering more than 40 million potential customers.
The expansion is already underway in Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta, with planned launches in Houston, Orlando, Tampa, Charlotte, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Miami. Delivery volume has tripled in the past six months. These drones fly up to 60 miles per hour, travel up to 12 miles round trip, and carry items up to five pounds.
We interviewed Greg Cathey, the man in charge of this program at Walmart, literally the day this announcement was made. He told us they’re seeing strong usage across four key areas: items people forget, childcare essentials (especially when kids get sick), pet treats, and (this is my favorite one) surprise and delight moments. Imagine having all the presents for your kid’s birthday party show up via drone, or having flowers and chocolates delivered to someone on Valentine’s Day. Okay, the Valentine’s thing is kind of lame, but you get the idea.
Here’s what I love about this and why I’ve always been bullish on drone delivery for Walmart: This is Walmart’s entry point into the almost $400 billion non-fuel convenience business. That’s a lot of zeros, folks. And I’m no math expert, but 400 billion is a number worth chasing.
Anne was surprised by how quickly this is scaling (270 locations in just over a year) and she compared it to Waymo’s driverless taxis. We’ve crossed the chasm. This is happening. Drones are coming to a city near you, and Walmart has the infrastructure to make it work because they’ve got the massive parking lots where these things can land.
I’m excited to get my first drone delivery, and based on Ella’s reaction on the show, I think younger consumers are going to eat this up. It’s futuristic, it’s convenient, and it’s exactly the kind of thing that keeps Walmart competing with Amazon in the fast-shipping race.
Why This Week Matters
What ties all of these stories together is something that Angie Brown, the CIO of Home Depot, articulated perfectly when she stopped by our booth. She said AI is helping retailers do things that were either previously impossible or required too many people to get the job done. That’s the thread running through every one of these announcements.
Amazon’s trying something in physical retail that would have been impossible to manage efficiently without modern technology. Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol only works because we now have the compute power and AI to make it seamless. Quorso is valuable because AI-powered systems can now feed it the data it needs to give store managers actionable insights. And Walmart’s drone delivery? That’s powered by AI-driven logistics that make 30-minute delivery economically viable.
We’re watching retail transform in real-time, and these announcements from NRF 2026 are going to reverberate throughout the year.
Speaking of . . .
We also had an incredible five-minute interview with Josh Friedman, SVP of Digital and E-Commerce at Ulta Beauty, about their invite-only marketplace strategy that’s already at 150 brands and crushing it. If you want to hear how Ulta is thinking about adjacent categories, maintaining authenticity, and even taking returns for marketplace items in every store, you’ve got to listen to the full episode.
Anne and I are heading to the airport now to fly home, our voices are shot, but it was worth every minute. This is exactly why we created Omni Talk, to cut through the noise, challenge the headlines, and have real conversations about where retail is heading.
Give this week’s Fast Five a listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Trust me, you’ll want to hear Anne and me debate Google. It’s worth it just for the back-and-forth.
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Be careful out there,
– Chris, Anne, Producer Ella and the Omni Talk team
P.S. Be sure to check out all our other podcasts from the past week here, too: https://omnitalk.blog/category/podcast/
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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.