Hello Omni Talk Fans!
I decided to do something a little different on this week’s Retail Fast Five and bring in some reinforcements.
And by reinforcements, I mean three additional guest hosts.
I was joined by Michael Prendergast and Ken Davidson from the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, along with my brother from another mother across the Atlantic, Ben Miller, host of GrocerTalk. The result was one of my favorite Fast Five shows of the year, with plenty of strong opinions, a healthy amount of disagreement, and at least a few moments where I was more than happy to let everyone else argue it out before jumping back in.
We covered Walmart’s ambitions to get deeper into restaurant delivery, Target’s new Beauty Studio, Sur La Table’s peer-to-peer resale marketplace, whether the traditional online checkout page is officially on its way out, and Amazon’s reported push toward fully automated delivery stations.
We also took a few minutes to talk Groceryshop, as Rocquan Lucas, VP of Content for Groceryshop, joined us for a bonus Five Insightful Minutes to preview what attendees can expect when the industry heads to Las Vegas later this month.
But what made this show especially fun was that we did not all agree.
In fact, Ken and I seemed to find ourselves on opposite sides of a few stories right out of the gate, while Michael reminded us all not to sleep on Walmart, Ben made the case for why Target Beauty Studio could be one of the most exciting merchandising opportunities in retail, and somehow we ended the show talking about tiramisu, Tom Cruise, and hypothetical tattoos.
Here’s what Michael Prendergast, Ken Davidson, Ben Miller, and I covered in this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Quorso, Veloq, and R&S Logistics:
Is Walmart About To Become A Bigger Threat To DoorDash And Uber Eats?
We kicked things off with Walmart, and right away, Ken decided to play contrarian. Walmart is expanding its restaurant delivery ambitions beyond the Subway locations inside its stores, with the potential to eventually bring meals from nearby restaurants directly into the Walmart app. Ken’s take was that while the idea makes sense, he still sees it primarily as a bolt-on to Walmart’s existing grocery and essentials delivery business.
Michael, Ben, and I were not quite ready to leave it there. Michael’s advice was simple: don’t sleep on Walmart. Walmart has a history of being underestimated, and once the company decides to go after something, it usually finds a way to figure out the operational details and scale it.
For me, the really interesting part is what happens when you look further down the road. Ben had visited one of Walmart’s drone delivery locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and pointed out just how many restaurants were nearby, including Dunkin’, Wingstop, Taco Bell, and In-N-Out. Add Walmart’s store footprint, restaurant proximity, and drone capabilities together, and suddenly the economics start to look a lot more interesting.
Ken may ultimately be right that this is just a smart bolt-on. But even if it is, it is still a pretty smart move. And if Walmart can eventually bring all of those capabilities together into one delivery network, DoorDash and Uber Eats should probably be paying attention. (Source)
Target Beauty Studio Created A Real Merchandising Debate
The Target Beauty Studio story might have generated the best debate of the entire show. Target is launching a new beauty destination across more than 600 stores and online, featuring more than 1,600 products from 90 brands, with more than two-thirds of those brands new to Target.
Michael’s biggest question was around strategy and discipline. Target has historically done well bringing recognizable brands into its stores, but he wondered whether the company can maintain that discipline or whether the pressure for higher margins will eventually lead it toward more private-label offerings.
Ken and Ben were much more bullish. Ken argued that Target already has the right customer base for beauty, while Ben made the point that beauty merchandising has changed dramatically since Target first partnered with Ulta. Today, success is increasingly about spotting what is trending, figuring out what is taking off on TikTok, and moving quickly enough to get those products into stores while consumers are still excited about them.
I was the one waving the caution flag. New does not automatically mean sellable. It does not take a good merchant to pick something new. Any merchant can pick something new. A good merchant creates an assortment strategy. So while I understand the appeal of newness, I hope Target is not simply making “new” the strategy. If it is, that could get very markdown-laden very quickly.
That said, by the end of the conversation, Ken and Ben had me feeling a little more optimistic than when we started. (Source)
5 Insightful Minutes With Rocquan Lucas
Next, we welcomed Rocquan Lucas for another 5 Insightful Minutes to preview what is ahead at Groceryshop and some of the conversations shaping one of retail’s biggest upcoming events.
We talked about what attendees should be paying attention to this year, the trends and technologies likely to dominate the conversation, and why Groceryshop continues to be such an important gathering place for the grocery and retail industries.
If Groceryshop is on your calendar, this was a great preview of what is coming and what conversations you may want to make sure you are part of.
Is Sur La Table’s Resale Marketplace Actually A Good Idea?
Then we got to Sur La Table and its new peer-to-peer resale marketplace, Second Servings. The concept allows customers to buy and sell used kitchenware, home goods, and dining products, and my initial reaction was pretty simple: I was not entirely sure why Sur La Table needed to be involved.
Ken took a more measured approach, pointing out that because the company is using a third-party platform to handle much of the operational complexity, this could be a relatively light lift that generates incremental revenue without Sur La Table actually having to own the inventory.
The bigger question, according to Ken and Ben, is whether it will ever be large enough to really matter. Ben also raised a great point about traffic. Sur La Table only has so many opportunities to communicate with its customers, and every email or marketing message encouraging people to shop resale is potentially an opportunity not being used to sell new products at full price.
But Ben may have uncovered the most interesting part of the story when he actually visited the site. Much of the inventory appears to be returns, damaged items, and open-box products from Sur La Table itself rather than true peer-to-peer resale. And if that is really where this is heading, I like the idea a lot more. Maybe the bigger opportunity is not building the next resale marketplace. Maybe it is finding a better way to move discounted inventory while keeping those customers inside the Sur La Table ecosystem. (Source)
Is The Online Checkout Page Already Dead?
By headline number four, we had moved from debating retail strategy to debating what the future of shopping itself might look like. A top Stripe executive recently predicted that the traditional online checkout page is on its way out, arguing that agentic AI will increasingly allow consumers to purchase directly from product pages or eventually have AI agents make purchases on their behalf.
This was probably the one story where we were all mostly in agreement. Michael pointed out that checkout is already becoming increasingly invisible. Between Buy Now buttons, Apple Pay, Shop Pay, and Amazon’s purchasing experience, consumers have become accustomed to removing as many clicks as possible between finding something and actually buying it.
Ken took the conversation a step further. Imagine asking your AI assistant to find you a new suitcase. It researches the best options, compares prices, checks reviews and delivery times, and then simply asks if you want it to make the purchase. For easily researched, relatively low-cost purchases, we may get to that world much faster than many people expect.
The bigger question is how much control consumers will actually want to give up. I can absolutely see people wanting fewer clicks and less friction, but shopping is also an experience. As Ben put it, if agentic commerce simply gives us another Buy Now button, then we have probably failed to grasp the potential of the technology. The goal should be to make people’s lives easier, not just make transactions faster. (Source)
Amazon + Robots = Yes
We wrapped things up with Amazon’s reported Project Tetromino, an internal initiative focused on creating fully automated delivery stations. And honestly, my first reaction was pretty simple: of course they are doing this.
Amazon has spent years automating warehouses and fulfillment centers, so it only makes sense that delivery stations would be the next logical area of focus. The real question is not whether Amazon can automate more of the process. It is how far the company can push automation while still maintaining the flexibility needed to handle the unpredictability of last-mile delivery.
And that is where the conversation got interesting. Automation is not always about eliminating people entirely. Sometimes it is about redesigning the work, improving throughput, and allowing employees to focus on the things machines still cannot do as well.
But if Amazon can successfully automate delivery stations at scale, it could have major implications for the cost and speed of its already massive delivery network. Which, as we all know by now, is usually enough reason to assume Amazon is at least going to give it a shot. (Source)
And that is a wrap on this week’s Retail Fast Five. As always, let us know what you think. Is Walmart about to become a serious restaurant delivery player? Is Target Beauty Studio a brilliant merchandising move or a markdown disaster waiting to happen? And are you ready to let an AI agent do your shopping for you?
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Be careful out there,
Chris and the Omni Talk team
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Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.