Omni Talk Retail

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Carl Boutet (aka Canada Carl) stops by to chat all the week's retail news with Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern. The gang talks: - How Amazon & Kohl's finally get a room and consummate their love for each other even more with a reported grocery partnership (sorry, Aldi) - The sale of JCP and how it is reminiscent of a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (you know, the one where the knight just won't die) - Instacart eventually removing the "c" - An urban Ikea in the heart of San Francisco - How Walmart is digging in the wrong place with its drone announcement - And, of course, shepherds Yes, shepherds. All that and more in this week's Fast Five! To learn more about FastSensor, visit: www.fastsensor.com/retail To learn more about Takeoff, visit: www.takeoff.com/This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview Jordan Fisher, CEO of Standard Cognition, about the future of checkout-free retail. AI Computer vision-based checkout-free retail is all the rage right now, and Standard Cognition, with over $80 million in VC funding to date, is right at the center of that conversation, and especially in light of its recent announced plans with Circle K. Chris and Anne discuss the origin of the company, where the technology is now and where it is going, and why deciding whether or not to retrofit physical store footprints is one of the key questions that will determine future retailer adoption. They also put Jordan right on the hot seat (which Jordan handles with aplomb) when they ask him the question on every retail insider's mind -- "What was the deal with all those marketing claims of 3,000 Standard Cognition stores in Japan in time for 2020 Olympics?" Jordan explains how that rumor came to be and why the next few months will be a put up or shut up moment for him and his company, as he looks for, as you will see, a big exit for his investors down the road.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

In this week's Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, big news shakes the retail industry. Grabango, in partnership with Giant Eagle, opens a checkout-free and fully retrofitted GetGo convenience store in Pittsburgh. Walmart finally announces a date for its new subscription program, Walmart+. Amazon's first full-scale grocery store, Amazon Fresh, debuts to the public. Mall of America goes livestreaming with Popshop Live. And, Macy's tries to sell Wall Street on the idea that the world needs smaller, suburban Macy's stores. Newsflash -- it doesn't. Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern discuss all this and more, including Charlie Sheen, in this week's episode. To learn more about FastSensor, visit: www.fastsensor.com/retail To learn more about Takeoff, visit: www.takeoff.com/This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Anne Mezzenga sits down with Shelley Huff, EVP Direct-to-Consumer Serta/Simmons and CEO Tuft & Needle as part of her ongoing Women's Retail Collective Podcast Series. Shelley's career is unique in that it mirrors how shopping has evolved from her first retail job as a mall department store associate to her current role as CEO of one of the largest DTC categories in retail at Tuft & Needle. Shelley also shares several stories with Anne, including how she worked up the ranks from folding jeans in a Walmart store (wait until you hear what she found in a stack of jeans one day!)to leading several business units within Walmart's e-commerce division. This episode is full of great advice. Shelley talks about developing your own personal board of directors, how to handle failure and mistakes, and then closes by giving Anne her own personal Shelley-palooza concert lineup.This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

In this week's Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, let's just say we are glad we are not in the department store industry. In the span of the past week, Nike is rumored to be cutting off many big time wholesale partners and Facebook launched Shops. Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern talk all that plus Best Buy turning 250 stores into fulfillment hubs, Zappos opening a New York store, and Taco Bell building a drive thru line just for order pickup. To learn more about FastSensor, visit: www.fastsensor.com/retail To learn more about Takeoff, visit: www.takeoff.com/This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Walmart's Tennille Webb joins Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga to discuss how she worked with Mamava to make Walmart the first retailer to roll out lactation pods in over 100 U.S. stores. A journey that began with Tennille seeing Mamava pods within an airport ended with her cold calling Mamava herself and then working with the powers that be at Walmart to convince them to overhaul their capital remodel program and to replace Walmart's existing mother's rooms with more efficient, movable, and cost-effective pods, so that all Walmart customers and associates could continue to have more safe and clean places to feed their babies. The Mamava pods are flexible lactation space solutions linked into a smart platform that empowers easy wayfinding, autonomous access for moms. Moms can open them with Mamava’s free app — and when finished, return to shopping. To learn more, visit https://www.mamava.com/ To see Tennille featured on Good Morning America as well, click https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/wellness/story/employee-walmart-expand-breastfeeding-stations-stores-country-72500430 To learn more about Walmart's rollout of the pods, visit https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2020/08/25/walmart-first-retailer-to-install-mamava-lactation-suites *Sponsored Content*This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

In this week's edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern discuss what to make of all the earnings announcements this week (including Target, Walmart, Kohl's, and more), Simon's acquisition of Lucky Brand, Payless making a comeback, Standard Cognition and Circle K, and what Chris thinks is a weak excuse from Amazon on its liability surrounding defective products on its third-party marketplace. To learn more about FastSensor, visit: www.fastsensor.com/retail To learn more about Takeoff, visit: www.takeoff.com/This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

With COVID-19 now ever present, knowing where and in what parts of a store social distancing is working or not working, by way of real-time data, is more important than ever. Kalon Welch, FastSensor EVP Business Development, sits down with Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga of Omni Talk to discuss the ever-trending topic of workspace journey measurement through anonymous radio frequency tracking to make better decisions during these difficult times and how active distance alert monitoring (aka ADAM) could be one of the most important tools for retailers to deploy in their stores, in their warehouses, or even as they are unloading trucks to protect all involved. As Kalon says, "That which gets measured, gets done," and social distancing is pretty darn important to get done. To learn more about FastSensor, visit: https://www.fastsensor.com/retail *Sponsored Content*This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

In the latest episode of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by FastSensor and Takeoff, Chris Walton, Anne Mezzenga, and Emma the Intern take on all the detractors pooh-poohing the rumors of Amazon placing warehouses in Simon mall properties, discuss Wayfair's first-ever profit, and then geek out at the massive transformative grocery and convenience headlines surrounding Walmart and Instacart, Coty and GoPuff, and Kroger creating its own third-party marketplace. To learn more about FastSensor, visit: www.fastsensor.com/retail To learn more about Takeoff, visit: www.takeoff.com/This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

In the latest edition of our Omni Talk Spotlight Series, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga interview Sara Batchelder, VP of Retail and QSR for Numerator. Chris, Anne, and Sara discuss Numerator's unique panel data across both online and offline shoppers and then delve into some of the insights Numerator is already seeing around things like Click-&-Collect, the online acceleration in grocery, and the early promotional spending trends across various Back-to-School categories. For example, did you know apparel promotional spend is down 60% vs. the year prior? We sure as heck didn't. *Sponsored Content*This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy