Walmart, Target and Amazon all ran deal events in the same October week. So why could you barely tell from inside the stores? On Episode 4 of Making Space Real Time, Chris Niesen is joined by guest host Dave Glaza, owner and CEO of retail media agency Digits Agency. Dave is a former Target merchant who helped run its early Cartwheel and Circle deal programs, and he was Chris’s neighbor, three houses down. Together they walk the stores and compare two very different go-to-market playbooks.
- October Deal Days: Walmart, Target & Amazon: At Walmart, rollbacks and everyday low prices filled the main aisle, and Deal Days barely showed up outside own-brand apparel. Target put real money into apparel and Halloween discounts, dropped its deals of the day, leaned into clearance, and gave only five to seven end caps per store to the event. Dave calls it “the remains of an in-store strategy.” He explains why these events began as pre-holiday SEO plays, why signing a two-day event in store gets expensive fast, and why the dates turn into a game of chicken between retailers. Amazon’s top sellers were staples like Lysol wipes and toilet paper, and 55% of its shoppers compared prices at Walmart and Target first. So is it time for each retailer to run its own themed event, on its own dates?
- Trader Joe’s: Fall Without a Single Deal: Trader Joe’s has no sales, no coupons, no loyalty program and no online promotions. It still uses 100+ new fall items to turn the season into a reason to visit, with pumpkins and mums on the sidewalk, flowers at the front door, every end cap working, in-store sampling, and chalk signage calling out what’s new. We talk about how it pulls this off (people, culture, resourcing and a small format with fewer end caps to get right) and what regional grocers can borrow from the playbook.
- The Final Checkout: Patina opens its biggest store yet at Southdale Square in Edina. Dave explains why retail media fragmentation across regional grocers is a growing problem for CPGs. Plus travel plans, Halloween costumes, and Dave’s Final Sale pick: how championship sports merchandise gets sold in real time.
Making Space Real Time is presented by the Association of Retail and Consumer Professionals in partnership with the Omni Talk Podcast Network.
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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.