Hello Omni Talk Fans! This week’s Fast Five news came in by the truckload. Or should I say by the Dasher?
This week was also a first in Fast Five history. For the first time ever, one person from the A&M Consumer and Retail Group took the guest host chair solo: the one and only Kelly Carey. She went toe to toe with me for 45 minutes and didn’t flinch once (though I may have a few times, especially given her Tootsie Pop take in our lightning round).
Here’s a sugar-free taste of what Kelly and I discussed:
- DoorDash is buying Instacart for $17 billion. Kelly sees two different shoppers on two different apps. I got a little Machiavellian and argued that DoorDash may not even care if the deal closes, because it works like a call option somewhere between $0 and $17 billion to kneecap the competition.
- Instacart is killing the Caper Cart. Kelly made a big call: this is the end of the smart cart, full stop. The retail historian in me isn’t so sure, but we both agree on one thing: never put the smart cart before the store.
- Starbucks posting a 7.7% U.S. comp. Is ticket outpacing traffic a yellow flag? Kelly thinks so. I don’t, and I also share why I now tell people NOT to mobile order when they’re meeting someone at Starbucks.
- Walmart+ is heading to Mexico at roughly half the U.S. price. Where does the Walmart+ domino fall next? (My money’s on Chile)
- Andy Jassy says Wall Street is “sleeping” on Amazon retail. With online store sales up just 2%, it feels a bit like kissing your sister. But here’s the crazy part: it still matters for every local grocer out there.
There’s all that, plus Kelly names the Milwaukee Brewers of retail, picks the store in which she’d spend her extra daylight saving hour, and calls out the next most overhyped piece of in-store tech, now that smart carts are on a likely hiatus.
Listen to This Week’s Fast Five Podcast
Be careful out there,
— Chris and the entire Omni Talk team
P.S. I’ve been trying to get rid of my old boomerang for years.
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.