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Recording of the Fast five, please welcome to the stage the co founders and hosts of the Omnitalk retail podcast, Chris Walton and Anne Mazinga.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you for joining us.

We have a massive crowd here for those people listening at home.

Don't even worry about it.

Standing room only, Ann.

Standing room only.

They even have headphones.

Dasha told me they have headphones in the back in case anybody can't hear and they want to stand.

So let me tell you, this is the show you don't want to miss, right?

Yes, and let's get right into it.

Ann all right, starting right now.

Right now.

Hello everyone.

You are listening to Omnitalk's retail fast five.

Ranked in the top 10% of all podcasts globally and currently ranked in the top 100 of all business podcasts on Apple Podcasts.

Chris and the only retail podcast in the top 100 business.

I believe that's true, Anne.

Yes, it is true.

The retail fast five is the podcast that we hope makes you feel a little smarter, but most importantly, a little happier each week, too.

And the fast five is just one of the many great podcasts that you can find from Omnitalk Retail's podcast network alongside our retail daily minute, which brings you a curated selection of the most important retail headlines every morning, and our retail technology spotlight series, which goes deep each week on the latest retail technology trends.

Today, Chris, it is April.

April.

October.

It's October today.

Yes, it's October.

And yes, October 9, 2024.

I'm one of your hosts, Ann Mazinga.

And I'm Chris Walton.

And we are here once again to discuss all the top headlines making waves in the world of omnichannel retailing.

Live from Grocery Shop, 2024.

Yes, and we are live from grocery shop.

It's just you and me up on a stage.

We got an audience of some of our closest friends and colleagues here, and I can't wait to get to it.

Should we get to the headlines?

Let's go right to it.

All right.

And today we've got news on Instacart adding games and personalized coupons to its smart cart, Whole Foods coming out and candidly saying why it will no longer deploy Amazon's just walkout technology.

Can't wait for that one.

Google enabling new shoppable visual search features Kroger adding Disney to its membership program.

But we begin today with quite big innovation news from one of our personal favorite retailers and Sam's club.

Sam's Club.

All right, headline number one, Chris.

Sam's club plans to open a new store without checkout lines.

According to CNBC, Sam's club is opening a club that will have no checkout lanes, will display online only items, and will have a larger area for fulfilling e commerce orders for curbside pickup and home delivery.

In this new club, which will open in mid October, customers will have to use a smartphone app called Scan and go to ring up their purchases as they walk through the aisles and then pass through a computer vision based archway to leave the store in the area typically reserved for cash registers.

The company will instead display online only items as wide ranging as a twelve foot Christmas tree and a five carat lab grown diamond that members can scan QR codes and go straight to those items in the app.

I think there's even a Mercedes like g wagon or something, right?

Yeah, I heard some type of suv.

I don't know if it's a gwag or not, but I'm not super familiar with the Mercedes line because outside my.

Price range now you can be.

Store workers will also have about four times more space for preparing customers e commerce orders for curbside pickup and home delivery, according to Sam's club executives.

Chris, I know you love this new store concept from Sam's club.

But just how much do you love it?

Well, and have you ever seen spinal tap?

I have, yeah.

I'm an eleven on this.

111 eleven.

Turn it up to eleven.

New store in Grapevine, Texas.

Yes.

I love it for a lot of reasons.

I think.

One, unlike Amazon go, the setup doesn't require inflexible merchandising, which we'll talk about later, for sure.

But more importantly, the overall setup that is being tested has already been tested with great regularity throughout Sam's club's chain.

So, for example, scan and go adoption is 30% chain wide.

Yeah.

And in May, Sam's club said that it planned to roll out the automated archways, the computer vision archways that scan your, your cart and, you know, correlate it to your receipt.

Yep.

And that they're already gonna plan to roll that out to all stores by the end of the year.

So the only big difference here with this store is that Sam's club is taking the audience, basically taking the audacious, audacious stance, and saying, you can't shop this store any other way.

That's what's new here.

And Sam's is also forcing.

It's similar to what they did with Sam's Club now back in 2018.

The only difference is the archways.

This is what's new about it.

I don't know all the puts and takes involved in this, but to me, it's a logical extension of the next iteration of now as a concept store idea.

And now they're bringing this grapevine store online, which is now a second concept store idea.

And for that, I applaud them.

It's a great way to do innovation and to learn what the more technically affluent generations are going to want from a warehouse club experience as you go forward.

They're only going to learn from this, and they're going to get better at what they do, for sure.

And I think that one important thing to point out here is that Sam's club is uniquely positioned to do this in a way that I think most grocers are not.

And that is because they have members.

It's a membership based club.

So they can require that you shop this store a certain way.

And I think that that's an advantage that they have.

And again, to your point, is definitely worth testing.

But I think it fits this overall theme here that we keep hearing about.

At least I keep hearing about a grocery shop where, yes, you may have to shop with, you know, the scan and go app or the caper.

Card from Instacart.

But there's enough incentive now for the consumer to pay this off.

And I think that's what's starting to change here with some of these required shopping tactics that we're seeing deployed by grocers and clubs.

Yeah, that's a great point, too.

The last thing I'd say on this one, I think the headlines are potentially giving this a little bit of a disservice to the emphasis on the checkout free nature of the store.

Because I think what Sam's club is really doing here is they've created a first truly personalized digital shopping experience where they can understand everything that's happening in the store, where the customers are going, what they're scanning, what they're putting in their cart, what they're leaving the store with, and that's the power of the data.

And they're also, don't forget earlier this year, a headline we didn't cover on our show.

They're piping retail media into the scan and go app, which is also going to be very powerful, to your point, about keeping track of your budget as you're in the store.

And the last point I make, and I think this is really important, they're way ahead of Costco on this.

Yes.

Like, Costco hasn't even sniffed in any of these directions.

And so when you think about this ten or 15 years down the line, then it becomes really powerful.

Yep.

All right, headline number two.

Instacart has added games and personalized coupons to its smart cards.

Do you think the Instacart people can hear us over there?

I think they can.

I think they can.

I think they should.

Come on over.

We're talking about you, Instacart.

Come on over.

Because we're gonna tell it like it is.

All right.

According to grocery Dive, Instacart announced Monday three new capabilities for its tech integrated shopping carts.

And are you ready?

One, gamification.

Yes.

Two, location based coupons.

I like coupons.

And three, quote aisle aware advertising format.

With the new features, customers can embark on interactive, quote gamified quests that Instacart says will make grocery shopping feel like an adventure.

Yeah, I can't wait for that.

And yes, this is also our put you on the spot question of the week, which, for those of you who have not heard our podcast, is the question that we get on the spot from the A and M consumer and retail group each and every week.

And here it is.

This week, you interviewed Instacart's chief connected stores officer at grocery shop.

Mister David McIntosh.

We did and discussed these enhancements from that conversation.

Do you believe that Capercart's gamification is an effective way to get consumers over the hump of using smart carts?

And can they truly, joyfully enhance two adverbs, truly, joyfully enhance the standard grocery trip, which has been historically thought of as mundane and one to get through as quickly as possible?

Okay, so this is a very multi part question here, so let me break this down quickly.

Number one, do I think that gamification is going to get people over the hump?

That's a stretch for me.

I think that once they use it, then yes.

So you still gotta get people to use it.

I think, like we talked to David about yesterday, like, yes, if you can get a streak going, yes, I would start to use the cart more frequently.

I mean, all the data that Instacarts put together shows that once you start using these carts, you continue to use them.

The NPR or NP's score is high.

People get value from being served up coupons in real time as they're walking through the store.

So I like this idea.

I still think that, you know, from the retailers that we talked to that are using them, like, it's still getting people to use them.

So that's number, that's number one.

Right.

I think that it will enhance the grocery shopping trip because you're getting money back in real time.

Right.

It's helping you get through the store.

And I, we both looked at the cart yesterday.

I have to say, like, that's, we're going to be on stage later today talking about, like, what our most surprising technology is of the show.

And this is one of the caper cart is one of my most surprising technologies.

I've kind of written it off and now we're looking at it again and seeing the benefits that it's providing.

I would say overall, I think that, yes, this is going to be a more joyful shopping experience.

Gamification is a cool way to do it.

It's still going to take some effort, though, to get mass adoption and scale.

What do you think, though?

Yeah, the cart's growing on me.

It really is the whole idea.

Yeah.

And you know what?

One of the most interesting sessions that I sat in was when Pepsi's vp of digital commerce was case studies for the application of retail media in store.

And it was funny because the two he singled out were the Sam's club scan and go app and the Capercart.

Yeah.

And that's because you can actually measure the impact that both of those are having.

So they're both a great conduit to achieve what you're trying to achieve, which is the personalized physical shopping experience.

Right.

But so the question to me still comes down to, and this is why it's great, because it's like, let's take the Pepsi challenge literally on which one of these ideas is best.

Right?

Sam's club sees 30% adoption on scan and go.

Like I said before, Capercart's adoption is growing, but it's still not at that level.

David McIntosh said, what?

In their best store, 10% of transactions are going through the capercart.

So my thought exercise is, you know, why doesn't a grocer have the guts to do what Sam's club is doing and go all in on the cart?

Like, you could force the customers to use the cart.

They could still use the cart.

It's still a cart.

Right?

They don't have to use the screen if they don't want to.

They can choose to.

But I wonder if there are other fundamental things that are preventing groceries from taking that approach.

It's an expensive cart.

It's an expensive cart.

You got to recharge the cart.

You got it.

There's nowhere to put a kit in the cart necessarily.

Without an add on, there's no place to put the water bottles as well.

The business model comes into play in terms of how instacarts work with the groceries, too.

So there's all these factors.

But I'm waiting for the day where someone gets as audacious as Sam's club and says, let's take this Pepsi challenge and see what happens here.

Because I think, to your point, if people use it, they really like it.

So let's get people using it.

More people like it.

They use it.

The retail media payoff is there.

40% of people are using the digital coupons from the cart that weren't before.

Like, there's clearly an RoI there.

It's just, how do you get the upfront capital to support it?

And which grocer out there of all of you in grocery shop land are going to try it first?

Chris dares you.

I dare you.

Yes.

Right.

All right, let's go to.

Let's go to headline number three.

Whole Foods daily shops will not feature Amazon just walk out technology, according to grocery dive.

Again, Christina Minardi, executive vice president of growth and development for Whole Foods in Amazon, said during a store tour ahead of the opening day of the first daily shop, it isn't suitable for a retail space that frequently changes and rotates displays.

Minardi reportedly said that the technology was, quote, cumbersome, end quote.

And that quote, if you have a bin of tomatoes and you want to all of a sudden just build some mozzarella on an ice bin and you can't because that has to be mapped to the cameras and it takes weeks, end quote.

That's not very flexible.

Chris, what does this news signal, do you believe?

Is it the death nail of just walk out deployments within grocery bum, bum, bum?

Oh, man.

And I think it, honestly, I think it might.

And kudos to the grocery dive team for getting that quote.

I mean, that's, that's, that's kind of really salacious.

Like, the whole system is cumbersome.

It's not great, for lack of a better word.

So I think it does potentially signal the end here.

You know, we've already talked about two other options on this show that from the retailer and the CPG perspective give you the same level of insight that Amazon's just walk out technology does.

We haven't even brought robotics into the discussion yet on the inventory side of things, which is much cheaper to deploy than a fixed position camera system as well, like schnucks is using, and BJ's and other grocers are starting to get on the trend with that, too.

So at the end of the day, the idea of being able to just walk out of the store as the selling point or as the differentiation point against all these other technological options doesn't seem like it stacks up to me anymore.

Yeah, it's a big bummer, too, I think from my perspective, because especially in these daily shops, they're meant to be like just a leg up on Amazon go shops.

It is a place where you would want this technology to work because it's that quick in and out trip.

You're just doing top up shopping throughout the week on the way to or from work or whatnot.

But I think the issue for me here is that, yes, it's going to be a difficult road ahead for them to sell this technology to other grocers, especially when, you know, more grocers are trying to look for flexibility like you were talking about, and scan and go and carts provide that.

I just, I think that it doesn't mean it's not going to work.

I just think where we are currently, Amazon's engineering teams have a lot of work of experimentation, and there has to be a lot of reduction in hardware costs as well, compute costs as well, to make this what they want it to be.

Yeah, and it just fundamentally has to work so different than to that point.

What's the Runway for that, you know.

And as an aside, too, because we have time, the show's running pretty fast.

Like, what is Amazon's grocery strategy?

Did you understand it yesterday when Claire Peters talked about it on stage?

Because I left more confused than I was going into that session.

Yeah, there was not a clear answer to that.

She definitely outlined all of the places and things that you can do in an Amazon store, like returning packages.

You can get delivery, but there's still a cost for that.

And I think that's the other part of this, too, that wasn't addressed yesterday.

Is that grocery.

Yes, you have prime, but it's an extra charge, extra monthly charge for prime members to get some of those grocery store, to get access to the grocery discount.

And all in all, to me, it's still easier to go to a mass merchant like a Walmart and get all of those things done in one spot and on a timeline that suits me.

It's definitely cheaper right now, you know?

And you know I'm a big fan of logic chains, right?

You know, I always drive you crazy.

I just didn't know.

I mean, you always drive me crazy.

Not specifically related to logic chains all the time, but yes, one of the factors, right?

Yeah, but yeah, the logic chain just didn't make sense to me.

Like, she was upstairs up on stage saying, like, grocery shopping has gotten so difficult in the last 20 years.

And I was like, really has.

It feels like we have all these options that make it so much simpler and in the flow of our lives.

So that's number one.

And then number two, she also said something to the effect of, like, people go to five or six grocery stores, you know, on a weekend, and we want to simplify that.

And I'm like, but wait, you're opening up another physical store for them to go into.

Like, where does.

I don't, I just don't get it.

It doesn't stack up.

But anyway, let's get back to the headlines.

All right, let's get back to the headlines.

All right, let me find my spot.

And I lost my spot.

All right, here we go.

Headline four.

Google has enabled new shoppable visual search features in time for the holidays, according to chain storage.

Google, which initially began connecting its lens image recognition tool to shopping activities in 2021, is now releasing several new e commerce features for Google lens users in reaction to data which indicates 20% of all Google lens searches are shopping related.

Wow.

Starting Friday, October 4 for Android and iOS devices in select countries.

Lens is prominently displaying key information when it identifies the product in a user's photo.

This means, Anne, a consumer can tap the lens icon in the search bar and snap or upload a photo to instantly see details like price across retailers, current deals, product reviews, and where to buy in one place.

In addition, a new feature called Circle to search.

Yep, I like the sound of that.

Lets lens users move from browsing the web, watching videos, or scrolling social media into image based shopping without switching apps.

Consumers can long press the home button or navigation bar on select Android devices, then circle, scribble or tap a product on the screen to find similar options and then add finally, there's a lot going on.

I know you want more.

Yes, I know.

If it has to do with Google Lens, I know.

Yes.

Okay.

And finally, Lens also now makes it possible to search with text and images at the same time.

For example, Ann, you could take a photo of a chair with lens and add words to narrow your search like brown or velvet.

Because who doesn't want to ask themselves in velvet?

And for all you Seinfeld fans out there, so my question to you is this.

You are the biggest visual search fangirl that I know.

Absolutely.

Will this change how you shop for your friends and family and even for yourself this coming holiday?

I, we, last week you talked about your headline of the year.

This might be one of my contestants in the running for headline of the year because especially this, like last couple days at grocery shop.

I am shocked at how many companies that I've talked to here, how many retailers, from club retailers to grocery retailers are starting to change the way that we search for product.

I mean, I think you ask how many people have, have gone on to Amazon or who have searched a question on Google recently and you get Gemini's results.

It's already training us.

And for me personally, I think surprisingly how quickly I'm getting used to expecting that quick search results.

The same way that I would go into a store and ask an associate in the store a question and I'm not getting served 5000 different products.

When I search for coffee makers like Paymin Najati from own it, he does a really good job of explaining what if you went into a Best Buy store and you said, I'd like to know about your coffee makers.

And the associate just showed you 3000 coffee makers and was like, good luck, goodbye, see you later.

That's not going to happen.

Figure it out for yourself.

And so what I love about what Google Lens is doing here is that it's like making search so much simpler.

And it's really capitalizing on how I think we're going to start to search differently as consumers and retailers are getting the punchline to the joke because everybody's starting to explore this in one way or another because it does simplify the online search process.

I mean, come on.

Can you imagine if I was like, took a picture of your jacket, like, I'm going to do it today at the airport?

Like I took a picture of some woman's purse last night at dinner and I was like, ooh, I wonder who makes that bag.

Visual search.

Pull it up.

I want to know if they have that in red.

And then it's searching the entire database, which is the second part of it.

It's not just Amazon search now where you're getting the products on Amazon.

It's everything in the Google universe that you're shopping.

And that's the other key part of this that I think is so remarkable.

Right, right.

Yes.

You are the biggest Google lens fan there is.

Talk to me about it after the podcast, people.

So headline of the year, huh?

That's how big you think this is?

I think it's major.

Okay.

I would say more, the more the change to how we as consumers search for products being the, like, subtext.

I don't know if I'm there with you on that because, you know, visual search, you and I've been talking about it for a long time, but the last point is what was really interesting to me, what you said, because we talk all the time on the show about the battle between Amazon and Walmart, and Jason Del Rey wrote a whole book on that topic and you even alluded to it in one of the previous headlines.

But the real battle when it comes to digital commerce is still between Google and Amazon, here in the US particularly.

And TikTok is closing in on that too, to some degree.

YouTube.

Yeah.

But I think it was funny that Amazon also, if you remember earlier in the week, announced what was basically a virtual carbon copy of these same features.

I don't think they called it circle with search or whatever the hell it was called, but it was like maybe.

Something like that, Rufus's microscope, something, Rufus.

Laughs it up or something.

I don't know.

But, but so, but then when you get to, when you start thinking long term again, 1015 year horizon, who wins?

I feel like Amazon gets left holding the bag on this because Google has so much more information available about commerce, about pricing, about where you can get things than Amazon does, that you wonder if over time, more of the volume doesn't migrate towards them or through them to other retailers than Amazon.

So I don't like, so net net, I mean, two headlines here.

I don't necessarily like the position of Amazon in grocery and in the realm of ongoing search too.

Right.

I mean, they've been leading for so long, it's, people are catching up now.

I think the last thing I would say though, too, Chris, is again, this is all dependent on how much the retailers are investing in this too, from their side of things.

I mean, I think I, the experience of Google Lens is only as good as the products that are served up when you do that.

Yeah, you can only find that bag if it's available online with the picture.

Exactly.

So I think that's the other part of this too, where we're really going to have to start to see manufacturers and retailers start to work together really closely to make sure that their products are being served up in the right way.

That's right.

All right, well, let's go to headline number five.

Chris Kroger has revealed that boost by Kroger plus will now include Disney streaming options as part of its annual membership subscriptions.

According to Progressive grocer, for its $99 a year plan, new enrollees and existing members may select a complimentary subscription to Disney Basic with ads, Hulu with ads, or ESPN plus for the duration of their dollar 99 annual membership.

For its dollar 59 plan, new enrollees and existing members may select a complimentary one time, six month subscription to Disney Basic with ads, Hulu with ads or ESPN Plus.

Chris Kroger landed Disney.

It's big news.

Yeah.

So what do you think this means for the retail subscription landscape?

Oh, wow.

I mean, if you're scoring at home, and let's score this at home.

Yes.

You've got Amazon with Amazon prime, pretty formidable, right?

Kroger and possibly Albertsons down the road, who knows?

Disney plus, also pretty formidable.

Walmart, Paramount plus, not as compelling, but okay.

I mean, especially if you like Yellowstone, wherever the hell that show's going.

And so the regional grocers, if you think about it, are gonna have a tough time competing because people are gonna become more sticky to Amazon, Kroger and Walmart for e commerce, grocery by way of these subscription programs and how enticing they are.

And once you get people into them, it's hard to switch.

Right.

And so the other part of this that makes me wonder who loses out nationally is target too.

Like who's target bringing into the party at this time?

I mean, is PBS available like.

Like, what other.

They have a great menopause documentary coming out this weekend or next weekend.

You never know.

Services out there, they're not dead yet.

Yeah, maybe Netflix.

Maybe.

Maybe Netflix gets into this party at some point, which would be kind of game changing if you could convince them to come in.

But, you know, I think grabbing Disney was a great coup for Kroger, and people are going to rue the day, I think, that they were able to get that, potentially, given all the content Disney has under its umbrella.

So I think this is big news, and it just shows you that the subscription battles are heating up.

They're going to get more and more varied and more and more differentiating and more and more enticing.

Yeah, I mean, I think the consumer wins.

Yeah, agreed.

We interviewed Vanessa Yates.

She's the SVP of Walmart plus a couple of days ago.

And one of the things that I thought was most interesting about that conversation is when we talked about the future of the Walmart plus membership.

One, how do you keep that price point at $98 and not increase it yearly like we're seeing from Amazon and some of the others?

And how do you get more products or more value for your consumers under that same umbrella?

And one of the things that she talked about that I think will be really interesting, especially as more Gen Zers and Gen Alpha come into the subscription market.

What else do they add to that?

And when does hospitality start to come?

And airlines like, you know, we know that that generation prioritizes experiences, so how do they bring more of that into this experience?

Even healthcare and other things, too.

So that's something that we'll be watching really closely and on one side of it.

And then I think the other part is Christy Argyllan at Albertson's media collective we talked to yesterday, too.

And you think about the retail media side of it and the data sharing that's happening between these companies.

Now, when you're connecting these programs and you have visibility not only to what the retail or what the customers are doing in a kroger, but what their behaviors are on Disney, on ESPN, on Hulu, and then what their, you know, down the road, what their extensions might be, where they like to vacation, what, you know, they.

What spending they do on their credit cards, and help kind of further inform the full package of what that membership can offer them.

Yep, 100% agree.

All right, well, that closes up the show.

We're on a tight timeline this week, so we can't do the lightning round like normal because we've only got 30 minutes on stage here at the grocery shop.

But we do want to give a big happy birthday today to Guillermo del Toro, Tony Shalhoub, and to the woman who will.

Is that monk?

Yeah, Monk.

Yeah, Monk.

Members and wings.

Remember the show wings?

Barely.

Yeah, that's like, I'm a little bit too young for that.

Oh, yeah.

Thanks.

Yeah, thanks.

I appreciate that, as always, resemble that remark.

And also, Ann, this is important to the woman who will always be known as Misses Stanwyck.

To me, the wonderful Dana Wheeler Nicholson from Fletch.

I have no idea who you're talking about.

I know you don't.

But remember, if you can only at.

Least one every week, there is at least one birthday every day.

Keep it on your toes, Anne.

And remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business, make it Omnitalk, the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top ten Us retailer.

Our fast five podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week's top news.

And our daily newsletter, the retail daily Minute, tells you all you need to know each day to stay on top of your game as a retail executive and also regularly feature special content that is exclusive to us and that Ann and I take a hell of a lot of pride in doing just for you.

Thanks as always for listening in.

Please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcast or on YouTube.

You can follow us today by simply going to YouTube.com omnitalkretail.

Special thanks to the grocery shop team for having us today.

Special thanks to Rob Herold of Everseen for providing moral support throughout this entire podcast.

And to everybody that came up to us throughout this entire grocery shop.

And for all of you who are joining us here today.

We could not do this without you.

It's the most fun job and we are so thankful for all of you for listening.

Yes, thank you for those of you that showed up and stuck with us throughout the last 30 minutes.

And so, until next week, on behalf of all of us at Omnitalk, be careful out there.

That's.