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Retail TouchPoints | Will COVID-19 Impact Retail’s Vision For ‘The Store Of The Future’? 

In his role at Target, Chris Walton helped bring “the store of the future” into the cultural zeitgeist. In fact, he led the retailers’ Store of the Future project and also served as VP of Merchandising and Home Furnishings on Target.com. The experience sparked some career highs, as well as some critical lessons learned. Now, Chris shares his lessons and commentary on the industry as the CEO and Founder of Omni Talk, one of the fastest-growing retail blogs…and as podcast host.

Special Report: Chris Weaver Head of Brand Cotton On Kids

Chris Weaver, Head of Brand for Cotton On Kids, joins Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga and a live audience to discuss the impact COVID-19 has had on the apparel industry.

Chris walks the audience through the plans Cotton On has put in place to try and maintain customer satisfaction and manage inventory differently than they ever have before and also discusses some unique advantages his company has, like competing in two hemispheres, that set Cotton On apart.

Fast Five | Butcher & the Brogue at Hy-Vee

In this week’s Fast Five, sponsored by Trigo, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, Carter Jensen, and Emma the Intern talk DSW and Hy-Vee, Google’s free product listings, Facebook and text commerce, 7-Eleven again ahead of the curve, and Kroger’s safety guidelines.

Spotlight Series: Anonymous Location Tracking & Alert Monitoring with Kalon Welch of FastSensor [Podcast]

Having an understanding of where your customer is traveling through space is one of the foundations of omnichannel retailing and one of the most important elements of post-COVID retailing. Omni Talk’s Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit with down with FastSensor EVP and Co-Owner, Kalon Welch, to learn how his company anonymously and passively collects customer traffic data,, so that retailers can gain an understanding of how and where their customers are and are not shopping, how they should be adapting as a result, and, in today’s world, how they can also keep everyone as safe as possible.

You can learn more about FastSensor and FastSensor’s Active Distancing and Alert Monitoring (ADAM) here: https://mailchi.mp/fastsensor/social-distancing-alert-get-back-to-business-with-adam

**Sponsored Content**

Fast Five | Best Buy Is Making Smart & Tough Decisions

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by Trigo and Insignia Systems, Chris, Anne, Carter, and Emma the Intern discuss the week’s news live on Zoom, including Walmart’s continued community-first approach, buying groceries at McDonald’s and Subway, Amazon’s dark store in LA, autonomous vehicles, and Best Buy’s smart long-term outlook.

Spotlight Podcast | Basketful Co-Founders Eugene Burd and Jim Lesch

Chris and Anne speak with Basketful Co-Founders Jim Lesch and Eugene Burd about the origin story of their Basketful concept, a platform that brands, CPG’s, grocers, and big-box stores throughout the country can use to allow shoppers to go from Pinterest recipe to purchase and delivery-to-home in seconds. It’s a technology that could prove super useful right now, and one about which you will want to learn more.

Fast Five | The Apparel Time Bomb That Is About To Drop

Gap’s order canceling, the postponement of made up retail holidays, grocers metering and not metering traffic, another dubious hire/resignation at Macy’s, and how ridiculous it is that food stamps cannot be used online.

Special Report | What’s Happening in Our Grocery Stores With GrocerKey CEO Jeremy Neren

Omni Talk’s Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with GrocerKey CEO Jeremy Neren to talk about the current state of our nation’s grocery stores. They cover everything from technology in stores, labor challenges, workplace safety, and how grocers are quickly pivoting their models to adapt to the rapid pace of change COVID-19 is bringing. Stick through to the end for audience questions and Jeremy’s pick for the “product he’d most recommend a start-up food brand start producing.”

Fast Five Podcast: Walmart Is Setting An Example For Others To Follow

In this week’s Fast Five podcast, sponsored by Trigo and Insignia Systems, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, Carter Jensen, and Emma the Intern praise Walmart’s actions amid the coronavirus, discuss Kroger’s pickup only store and why more grocers need to move in that direction, plexiglass placebos, goPuff being there for healthcare workers, and the looming risks to the food supply chain that the strikes at Instacart and Amazon could portend.

Spotlight Podcast: Managing Retail Data Privacy with IntraEdge President, Dan Clarke

Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview IntraEdge President Dan Clarke to learn about how its new Truyo platform helps retailers handle customer data so that they can be compliant with the ever changing regulations surrounding consumer data privacy, and specifically GDPR and CCPA. Dan discusses how the Truyo platform, codeveloped with Intel, is able to manage the intake of customer data inquiries both in the digital and physical world with relative ease and then delivers a “How Millenial Are You?” for the record books.

To learn more about Truyo, click here: https://get.truyo.com/truyo-demo

**Sponsored Content**

Fast Five Podcast | Don’t Worry, Dillard’s is Still Open

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by Trigo and Insignia Systems, the full crew of Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, Carter Jensen, and Emma the Intern discuss the tragic comedy that is Dillard’s, Costco refusing to take returned TP, Fenty and Tik Tok, HEB’s new grocery delivery for seniors, and Amazon still making moves into grocery that have nothing to do with coronavirus.

Spotlight Series: Innovation Process & Action with PepsiCo Labs General Manager Anna Farberov

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Spotlight series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga chat with Anna Farberov of PepsiCo Labs. Anna Farberov and her team at PepsiCo Labs source the best and brightest start-ups across multiple sectors of the retail industry to ensure that PepsiCo is on the bleeding edge of the future of the industry. From pilots utilizing the gig economy to new ways of thinking of stores as “individual households,” you’ll want to hear her give the full picture of what they’re cooking up in the lab and across the full supply chain. There’s a takeaway for everyone, from the start-up tech company ready to pitch one of the largest CPG’s in the world to the retailers carrying their products.

Fast Five Podcast: Thank God We Have Kohl’s For Comic Relief

In this week’s Fast Five, sponsored by Trigo and Insignia, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss Kohl’s hilarious new partnership with Lands’ End, Starbucks’ decision to go pickup-only, Amazon and C9, the bleak bleak future of malls and department stores, and what the next two weeks could look like for Amazon and our local grocery supply chains.

To learn more about Trigo, visithttps://www.trigo.tech/

Fast Five Podcast | Say Fleet Feet Ten Times Fast

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by Trigo and Insignia, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss why Amazon may finally be showing some dangerous and uncharacteristic hubris, Fleet Feet’s cool new store concept, IKEA selling on Tmall, Burlington exiting e-commerce, and the canary in the coal mine that could be Stitch Fix.

To learn more about Trigo, visit https://www.trigo.tech/

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