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Learn more@ocampo capital.com hello, you are listening to Omnitalks Retail Fast 5 ranked in the top 10% of all podcasts globally and currently the only retail podcast ranked in the top 100 of all business podcasts on Apple Podcasts.

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 5 is just one of the many great podcasts you can find from the omnitok Retail Podcast Network alongside our Retail Daily Minute celebrating its one year anniversary today, which brings you a curated.

Yes, 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.

It is today, February 26, 2025.

The retail daily minutes first birth.

I am your host, Anne Mazinga.

And I'm Chris Walton.

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

I love.

I love Ann.

How you said it is today.

It is today.

It is today.

February 26th.

It is today.

It is the Retail Daily Minute's first birthday.

It's going to go down in infamy.

That.

That's hilarious because.

Yeah, and you're.

You're remoted in right?

You're.

You're out in Palm Springs.

You're.

I'm Slumming it here.

JW Marriott.

Where are you?

Right here in Palm Springs.

Palm Desert.

More appropriately, I'm in Palm Desert.

It's very warm, very warm here.

But what kind of temps?

What kind of temps.

You see it out there and it was night yesterday.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

I mean I've been inside the conference center conducting interviews so I have not been outside more than to walk from this conference center to the other end of the hotel.

But I've heard it's very warm here and so everyone making sure of course that they stay hydrated here at ETL West.

But it's a beautiful conference, really good content so far and some really good interviews.

So make sure you check those out.

Chris.

Yeah, I've been, I've been here, I've been here like getting all the shorts ready and doing all the video editing while you're out in, in California.

And yeah, your interview with Denise and Cadella, the VP of fashion was banger.

That thing was awesome.

I can believe some of the things you got Denise to talk about and, and so articulate she is.

She just outlined her, her fashion strategy so well and there was one short I was putting together and I'm like, man, she just outlined her fashion strategy in one sentence.

Like that was all one sentence.

She crushed it.

So nice job on that and can't wait to see what else you get put together for the show.

Yeah, well I also, I'll be posting some photos too.

Chris.

I checked out the.

She mentioned the Palm Springs Walmart here and debuting some other fashion lines in that Walmart.

But I have some other interesting tidbits that I noticed that's not of their stores of the future, Chris.

But there is some really interesting stuff going on at the Walmart here that I haven't seen in Minneapolis or in any other Walmart.

So I'll be posting those on LinkedIn too.

And we can I'm sure follow up and talk about that whether it's in today's headlines or a few other places.

But before we go on, Chris, we've got a good month long run where I will be home, you will be home.

But we have some incredible events that I want to make sure that our audience knows about.

Number one, Revionics.

We have a LinkedIn Live event with them tomorrow talking about dynamic pricing which is going to be so important.

That's been the topic du jour here at E Tail is dynamic pricing.

Really?

And making sure that you're price investing in technology so that your pricing is consistent and can be changed with things like tariffs.

Number two, we have scanned it, talking about 2025 retail trends and the software and hardware that you need to invest in.

Keep bringing back that, sweating the assets that you currently have.

We're going to be talking a lot about that.

That's coming up the second week of March.

And then finally, Chris, we have picked out the best, the best in retail tech for the Shop Talk Top tech preview.

They'll be coming out on March 20th, so you'll want to make sure to catch that.

You can sign up for all these on our LinkedIn page, go to Omnitok Retail on LinkedIn, go to Events, you'll see them all there.

But you're definitely going to want to make sure you catch those when we're back.

Yeah, that's, that's right.

And yes, we're gearing up for Shop Talk in March.

That's why we're back, back in Minneapolis getting ready for that.

But the other exciting thing is we are taking over shop talks LinkedIn feed this coming Monday and Tuesday.

So stay tuned for that.

And I have some special fun video content planned as well.

Yeah, I hadn't thought about that until you just mentioned that.

But yeah, we got the Shop Talk tech preview as well coming up, you said on the March 20th.

So, yep, yeah, fans register for that.

It's going to be fun, it's going to be exciting, it's going to be great.

All right, as we do this, let's.

Get to the headlines.

Chris.

In this week's Fast5, we've got news on Joanne going out of business and no longer being in the fabric of our lives.

Sprouts getting ready to launch its first ever loyalty program.

Kroger and Schnooks each upping their quick delivery games.

And Walmart's new AI tool for merchants that they are affectionately calling Wally reminds me of Wally World.

Dan.

I can't get Wally World out of my head, but we begin today with big news.

Out of Adidas or Adidas, if you are listening overseas and.

Or how we probably should all pronounce it, really.

I actually can't.

I can't say Adidas anymore.

I can only say Adidas in my head.

Like it's the weirdest thing.

Like I had to actually think about how to do that.

Yeah, you're like a germophile.

What do you call German?

Like, how do you.

Francophile is French and I don't know.

But yes, now you're full on German accent.

All right, Chris, headline number one.

Adidas plans to integrate with Buy with Prime into its website and app according to Chainsaw Age.

Beginning in the spring of 2025.

During checkout, shoppers will see an option to log into their Amazon account and verify their prime membership.

Once confirmed, they will finish checkout using one of Adidas various payment options.

After the purchase is made, Amazon will fulfill all prime eligible items in the order and post purchase.

Prime members can view, manage and track their Buy with Prime orders from their order confirmation email, their Amazon account on Amazon.com or their Adidas order confirmation email.

You're all in on Adidas now.

This is great.

We're gonna just do it.

Let's just do it.

All in on Adios.

Let's just do it.

Let's just do it.

All right, Chris, question for you is what makes Adidas's decision to integrate with Buy with Prime the number one headline this week in retail?

Oh, my God, you cracked me up.

What makes it the number one headline this week is, I think it's just freaking smart.

Not so much for the short term confidence in buying purchases from Adidas or Adidas, but because of what the partnership means longer term for the evolution of E commerce.

And that's what I think is cool about this story.

So Adidas, I'm guessing, understands that winning the search game and getting traffic to a brand's own website is just going to get tougher in the years ahead if it's not difficult enough already, as we've talked about many, many times at different conferences.

And so now with Jenny, I, it's, it's going to be a probably impossible, right, like to cut through all that clutter.

So, so on the one hand, you have Adidas.

This is really getting hard.

You can't do it.

I know.

It's really challenging.

You have Adidas extending its reach via Amazon Buy with Prime extensions.

Also like we talked about last week, you know, in the, in the idea of, you know, Amazon showcasing the brands where Buy with Prime is lit up on their app, you know, so that people can purchase things from another site.

So this just facilitates that.

But, so I've taken a few shots at prime over the years and, but I think this is a big coup.

You know, I think it's a smart move by Jamil Gahani and the prime team to be thinking about prime in this way because, you know, it, it's where the, it's where search commerce is going in a lot of ways.

And I think Amazon is very well positioned to thrive in that because of, like talked about last week, they understand how to get people from, you know, they understand how to convert people when they're in the funnel.

And so that's what I think is great about this.

And I, I, I salute Adidas for going in, in this direction.

Yeah, I mean, I think the, the search thing is key here.

I think when you think about the practice, which is the, again, another topic that's been huge here at Etail is how you know, you, how you're searching for product is and how that's being served up to you, whether you're using, you know, a Gener or you're using Google Lens or you're using, you know, Amazon or you're searching on these other platforms.

But I think, like, just from a customer perspective, when I get those search results, say on Google Shopping and there's a Buy with prime badge on there and I know, like, oh, I see these same shoes that I liked that I want to buy and now I can go to this retailer and write on the picture to be able to like, see that you can use your Amazon prime membership to get this, I think is a really, a really catchy way to get new traffic to the site and to get people to buy via that platform.

So I think you're right.

It's really smart.

It's thinking ahead for how the future of search is going to continue to evolve.

And the second thing too, Chris, is that I think it's particularly important in categories like footwear and apparel, because what I think you'll be able to do.

A -hundred percent is 100%.

These are the categories that are the biggest offenders of ordering multiple sizes and shipping back, you know, three of them and only keeping one.

And I think that what this does for me is it, it gets your product back into rotation faster because you're leveraging Amazon's logistics platform instead of the Adidas logistics platform or the Nike logistics platform.

Like Amazon's fulfilling these orders, you get things back in rotation faster for categories, like I said, that are constantly being ordered in mass quantities and, and where, where customers just aren't keeping that product.

So I think that this is also a unique category set where this makes sense.

But what were you thinking of?

Because, well, I got this with you too.

Well, yeah, no, I liked what you were saying.

I actually was thinking about it differently.

I was thinking actually this is, it's a really smart play for Amazon in the fashion space in particular because the fashion sites know how to get people, you know, they understand, like how to position their product in the way that they want for their brand.

And so this is Why I feel, it feels like a nice marriage that are a nice marriage enabling tool that Amazon's come up with to enable the brands to still keep the design element, the cachet and the experience they want to have when people are on their sites.

And so that's, that's what I, that's where I was going about it.

Like, it feels very fit for fashion because Amazon, you know, Amazon again, the day you're just reordering your toilet paper and all that kind of stuff too.

And so we've talked about that before.

Like they're the spirits for everybody.

And so they've never quite nailed fashion, you know, as a, as a platform.

And so I think this gives the, the ability of the digitally native brands to still do that the way they want to.

And so it makes a, it makes a nice marriage for everyone involved.

Yeah, yeah, that's a great point.

Headline number two and Joanne is going out of business.

According to retail dive.

Joanne will shut down all of its stores pending court approval, the company said in a Sunday statement.

The move follows a bankruptcy auction in which the winners, GA Group and the retailers lenders said they will initiate going out of business sales at all locations.

And how saddened are you to learn that Joanne is shutting its doors for good?

You know, I was really sad when I read this.

I don't know why.

If it's nostalgia, everybody is all the memories that happened in this store as a kid.

I mean I spent so much time there.

I mean I was a total like, you know, stay at home nerd who just loved doing craft projects and stuff.

But I mean I, I just, I also think that the other part that's really sad about this is that I think it just means the end of a retailer and almost a retail category.

Like I, they talk about in the article that maybe this business could be taken online.

I just, I don't think that that's a viable option for Joanne.

I.

It's not core to its customer base.

There's too much competition when you start getting Joanne's product outside of like fabrics and things, you know, you've, you've got competition with Amazon and Temu for all the craft supply type things.

So there's no way that they can win in that.

But I mean, I think the retailer, like several department stores that we've seen close, like this is just the end of an era.

They haven't evolved.

The boxes are huge, rent is high and, and I, I would say like Joanne has done curbside pickup and things that they had to do during the pandemic.

But when you look at that in contrast with like a Michaels, for example, like you, you don't hear about Joanne trying omnichannel offerings or like doing the marketplaces or the in store events like you talked about with the Michaels represent Shop Talk Fall.

Like, I, I think that, you know, this is a hard category to keep relevant, and we just haven't seen the investment from Joanne to really make some pushes into that space.

So I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm, I'm sad.

Are you?

I mean, do you even care?

I feel like this is like just a party of one here.

Like, oh, I'm.

No, no, I, No, I mean, Ed, I, of, of course I care.

You know, like it's, it's a headline.

Of course I care.

No, you know, but I have been starting, Lily, starting Lingly surprised, if that's a word, by how much people are interested in this story.

Like, I, I trended the top.

Or I, I trended.

I searched the top.

You know, what was trending in Google yesterday?

And Joanne was like, number two.

I was like, wow, that many people care about Joanne.

Joanne or Joanne Fabrics as it used to be known.

That's crazy.

So, I mean, my big takeaways, My big takeaways aren't very different than yours.

I think mine is.

My big takeaway is that nothing is ever safe in business.

You can never rest on your laurels.

You have to be constantly evolving and trying to get better.

And sometimes the way the cookie crumbles, the, the macro trends are just out of your control and there's just nothing you can do about it, you know, and so I, you know, like you mentioned it, I'll just be more explicit about it.

Like, I wonder if the same thing isn't going to happen to Macy's here by the end of the decade.

You know, I think that's, I think that's, that's really what this story tells me.

If, as I step back and I look at the implications of it, or I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say too, like, I'm starting to have this fear about our alma mater Target as well, because I have legitimate concerns for them in the long run now too.

And I wouldn't have dared uttered those words five, six, seven years ago, but now I think, you know, given that just how things change and how you can't rest on your laurels, you have to constantly be evolving.

I think, I think I put them on that list too here, you know, over the next 10 to 20 years.

Wow.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's crazy to think about.

I mean, I do have to say, like, Walmart is giving them a serious run for their money.

I mean, like just, just going into, like we talked about it, like just going into that store and the fashion categories alone, like, and hearing Denise talk about like, we, we've never been present in there.

There's so much opportunity for Walmart to like come in and make a play to grab those, those customers away from Target, I guess.

Yeah, that's true.

Like, yes, I never would have thought of that until you said that.

But you do, you do.

It's like evolve or die, right?

What?

Isn't that like this, the slogan for like a T shirt?

Yeah, it's like this.

Yeah, it's like the slogan of Delaware's no, let's live free or die.

But I think, but, but yeah, no, I mean, I was writing an article, I was thinking about it because I was writing an article for Placer AI this week and you know, if you look at all the beachheads Target once held, they've all been under siege.

Like you've got Walmart getting the high income shopper to a really, really large degree, particularly in fashion.

As Denise mentioned, you know, on your show in your interview yesterday, the warehouse clubs are getting stronger, particularly with the younger generations.

You got Timu and she in, in the mix.

You don't know how long or to what degree, but they're going after that fast fashion space as well, you know.

And Wayfair, Wayfair is the go to place for online furnishings now too.

So like, and they're getting into stores so you know, there's a lot of guns pointed in that direction.

So.

Yeah, I don't know.

But it just, just goes to show you, you got to keep moving.

You got to keep, got to keep moving.

Joanne is the canary in the coal mine for all of our once favorite retailers.

It's, it's crazy considering all the retailers that have gone out of business recently and Joanne is the one that we're like, you know, having this major epiphany or.

But I loved it.

I loved all those wreaths that I made for people as gifts back in the day.

I could spend hours there on a Saturday.

It was greater.

I didn't know you're a reader.

You make wreaths.

Yeah, I like made these wreaths every year for Christmas where you like poke fabric into them.

I learned, I went to the classes all the time.

See, it's sad.

There's a lot of memories that are Dying.

Chris.

Thank you audience for sticking with us as I go through my, my childhood nostalgia.

I think audience, very, very happy to know that you were, you were once.

A reader and I was a reader.

Yes, yes.

Not a reefer, but a reader.

All right, headline number number three.

Sprouts will soon launch its first ever chain wide loyalty program according to grocery dive.

After showing promising results across test markets in 2024, sprouts farmers markets long awaited loyalty program will begin a phased rollout in Q3 of 2025.

CEO Jack Sinclair said during a Thursday call to investors the specialty grocer will continue to pilot the loyalty program and will quote, add additional functionality, end quote.

During the first half of 2025.

Sinclair added without providing any additional information.

Chris, how surprised were you to learn that Sprouts didn't already have a loyalty program?

Oh my God.

I'd probably about as shocked as, as shocked as Jack Sinclair was when he interviewed to be the CEO back in 2019.

I mean I can only imagine the look on his face.

He's probably like, like what?

Wtf?

You guys don't have a loyalty program?

Yeah, I see the dollar sign streaming through his eyes at that point, like I gotta take this job because that's, that's the low hanging fruit.

He's probably pitched out.

I, I can see him like when he's interviewing people that come to Sprouts, he's like, dude, guys, we don't have, they don't even have a loyalty program.

That's the opportunity we're talking about.

Here you come.

We're gonna kill this.

We're gonna do so well.

And, and Sprouts is killing it.

That's the thing that's crazy too.

They don't have a loyalty program and they're killing it.

The cops 11 and a half percent last quarter and loyalty programs only going to add fuel to the fire.

And the other thing about this too that I think is important is particularly in loyalty and loyalty in this day and age is digital.

And Sprouts customers are showing that they want to engage with Sprouts digitally too, which is something new and I think interesting that people didn't know about before because almost, and did you know this?

Almost 15% of sprouts sales come from digital.

That's crazy.

So yeah, it's not.

Or the digital.

Digital, it's probably not come from digital but like there's a digital component to 15% of their sales.

So this e commerce.

15%.

So like through, through like Instacart or something.

That's where People are finding them right now.

Yeah, probably like instacart, curbside it.

Probably.

Okay, pick up all the E commerce.

Internet, all the E commerce.

Got it.

Got it.

Said e Commerce is 15 of their business.

So you know, Jack and his team are just doing an awesome job.

And the fact that this is a bullet in the chamber that is just now being loaded is, is wild to me.

It's absolutely wild.

Like, how does a grocer not have a loyalty program?

My co op has a loyalty program down the road.

Right.

Like, I know, but it's weird though.

Like have you ever noticed that when, I mean granted we are only stopping in sprouts when we're traveling because we still don't have one nearby.

Yeah.

But like I've never even thought about that or noticed it going into a sprouts before.

Like I'm just like, oh, I just really like shopping in the store.

It's great and things are fresh and quality is good and all these things.

So I think you're 100% right.

I mean we talked about this last week with Save a lot too.

Like they don't have a loyalty program.

They didn't have a loyalty program either.

This is like the easiest low hanging fruit that you can get, like you said.

I also think that there's another edge to this that I find interesting.

And not to say that they're going to be like hugely discounting things for their loyalty members, but it does open up them opportunity for them to start to do special kinds of offers and previews for their Sprouts loyalty members.

But I think that Sprouts, Sprouts still is a little bit higher price point than Trader Joe's.

And now I think that once you start to bring this loyalty program in and you're giving these discounts, like I think there's going to be a huge grab from the Trader Joe's audience who are like this.

Sprouts has better quality.

They have national brands in there.

It's, it's really going to lead people from Trader Joe's and I think conversely you also have a pull that you'll get from Whole Foods participants to or Whole Foods customers too.

Because you don't have the cold, sterile environment that you've talked about with the Whole Foods Amazon partnership.

Now you have like all the best parts of sprouts, the best quality, the best store experience and now potentially a lower price point for it.

I mean I think that they've just got it in the bag and it's, it's like we already have said watch out for sprouts.

But I think, I think they're on a trajectory with this that you talked about.

Like it's going to be a huge, huge impact as they continue to expand across the country.

Yeah.

They're only in 24 states.

The other point I'd make that I make on what you just said too is like sprouts, Sprouts will willingly admit they're an additional trip.

Right.

Like you're the trip, you stop at sprouts when you're going on another errand.

Right.

And so a loyalty program only amplifies the fact that you would want to stop there on that trip.

So it's perfectly synergistic with how they position themselves in the market to your point about grabbing Trader Joe's and Whole Foods customers over time.

So.

All right, headline number four.

This one is the rare dual headline because both Schnooks and Kroger have upped their quick delivery game.

According to Grocery Dive, Schnooks Market is piloting late night delivery out of a fulfillment site in Ellisville, Missouri.

Customers can place orders from the Schnooks or Instacart site and get groceries after 10pm when the grocer's local stores are already closed.

The fulfillment site, which was formerly a Straub's market, I hope I'm saying that correctly, has home goods, drinks, prepackaged food, fresh produce and alcohol, the St.

Louis Post Dispatch also reported.

And not to be outdone, according to chainstorage, the Kroger Co.

Is also partnering with Instacart for its new express delivery service.

Customers can shop express delivery orders directly from the Kroger website and digital app, receiving the same prices, savings and rewards found in store.

And members of the $99 per year level of the Boost by Kroger plus loyalty program always get free deliver delivery on express delivery orders.

Yes, and I always love saying Boost by Kroger plus loyalty program.

That's my rolls off the tongue program.

Yeah, it just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

I know you have a lot of marketing thoughts on that one.

And why do you think we are seeing a rush of quick delivery headlines this week?

Week for one reason and that is the headline that I feel like fell under the radar as part of Walmart's earnings last week and that is that Walmart is now reaching 93% of households with same day delivery.

Let that one great point sink in point.

You look at the announcements from Kroger and Schnooks, the hours are exactly the same they're delivering until midnight and then they're starting back up at 6am which is what Walmart already does.

And ultimately Chris, this all comes down to what are my options, you know, if I go on Instacart or if I go to Walmart.

Plus the second I get home from second shift at night and I need groceries, do I care where they're from?

Probably not.

I just want to get them at that time when I need them, when I want them.

And so I think it's a great opportunity for, I mean I, even, even though it's indirect, I think competition with Walmart, I still think it's a great opportunity for schnooks and for Kroger because, and especially for schnooks because if I've never ordered from schnooks before but I go on Instacart and they're the one that's available.

It's the same thing with Save a Lot that we saw, you know, a couple weeks back with their, their format.

Like I don't care who the grocer is, I just, I want my eggs and my bread and my milk and my bottle of wine or whatever it might be when I get home at that time.

And so I think you, you're also gaining new customers in a way that you probably wouldn't have been able to before by not offering this service.

So I like it, I think it's smart.

I think the bigger headline here though is Walmart's, Walmart's coming for you grocers.

And you need to be prepared to have that same offering to hang on to your customers.

But what do you think?

Yeah, I, I agree with you at the start and then I disagree with you slightly.

So let me explain why.

So I think, and you mentioned the point about Walmart yesterday.

I think that's, yeah, that's crazy.

93 of the country, you know, is within same day now.

I, Right.

And that's, that's what the statistic you quoted and what it makes me think about too is I wonder if the, the level to which Walmart has been pulling the high income shoppers is not hurting all of grocery too.

Because you know, I think about these types of services and the thing I start about is these are, these are expensive, these cost money.

And so the people that are gonna, that are gonna utilize them the most are probably the people that can afford them.

And so, and those are your best shoppers traditionally too.

Like the best shoppers that make the most trips, that engage with you the most digitally.

So I'M wondering if Walmart is starting to pull them, you know, across the nation and that's why you're seeing this.

I don't know.

It's something I started to think about.

I have no idea.

I'm.

I'm sure our friends at schnooks will tell us if we're, you know, on the right page with that.

The part where I disagree with you slightly is.

And it's, it's not so much a disagreement, it's just, I think it's another wrinkle is like, like I think given that if that's the case then the grocers have, the grocers have to do this.

Right.

That they have no other choice but to do it.

But by the same token, unlike Walmart, I worry they don't have the same basket of higher margin items helping to defray of these efforts.

Yeah.

You know, or the number of deliveries going out.

So why you have to do it?

I don't know that it's economically sustainable to do it.

And that's the question I have.

And so, so you know, again it just goes back to.

Walmart has done a really, really good job here of differentiating themselves in the marketplace, particularly when it comes to grocery and quick delivery.

Right, I know, I think you're right.

And excuse me, another thing I think this will bring into the fold is what investments then do like schnooks and even Kroger, like Kroger is working with Ocado to help fulfill these orders.

But what investments will schnooks have to make upstream too to be able to support this?

Like, like will they have to get into micro fulfillment to make it worth it costs?

Right, right, absolutely.

But they are doing that it sounds like because it's a dark store, Right.

That they formerly there was a.

Formerly enough.

So that's an interesting wrinkle here too.

They are, yeah, seems like they're looking at that.

We don't know to what degree they are, but yeah, that's a great point.

Right.

Well, lots, lots to come and especially from that Walmart headline, 93%.

I just, I still can't get over it.

It still is astonishing to me but I guess it makes sense.

They're, they're.

Walmart is moving at a pace that not a lot of people can compete with right now.

That's for sure.

All right, that is for sure.

Let's, let's move on to headline number five.

Speaking of Walmart, Walmart has a new internal AI tool that helps Walmart's merchandising team analyze sales, pricing and inventory faster than ever, according to Fast Company.

To help merchants quickly access and analyze relevant information, Walmart has introduced Wall E, an internal generative AI tool that can dive into internal data to create responses in just seconds.

Wally uses a familiar chat style interface to retrieve relevant data from Walmart's databases while accurately interpreting product industry jargon and category names.

Wally can then generate quick answers tables or full reports as needed.

To make sure that Wally gives accurate answers, Walmart has deployed developed automated tests where the tool's numeric responses are checked against known answers.

The company even trained an AI judge to evaluate the software's conversations based on human annotated samples.

Chris, I have two questions for you.

Okay.

First, are you buying or selling Wall E, Walmart's new AI tool for merchants?

And second, this is also the A and M put you on the spot question.

Oh, God.

Yeah, we haven't had it yet.

Wow.

Okay.

A and M wants to know.

It makes a lot of sense that Walmart is making data more accessible given the vast hours merchants spend combing through data and looking for insights to optimize their decisions, address executional challenges, or give them negotiation leverage.

Walmart's been pushing on this front for several years.

But the question is now, with this live, how do job expectations for Walmart merchants change with this tool at their disposal?

And what challenges will it put on cpg, these suppliers, to add value as Walmart becomes more data savvy?

This is a perfect question for you, given your merchandising experience throughout the years.

What does this mean?

And are you buying or selling?

Wow.

Okay.

All right, so there's a lot of meat on both those bones.

I don't know how much time we have, but I think I'll take the A and M put you on the spot question first.

And I think.

Okay, I think that.

I think that question is a great one.

And there's really two parts to it, like what is the impact to the merchants?

And then what is the impact to the CPGs?

I'm going to take the CPG part first, because Walmart having this tool, this technological capability, I think is really interesting because it creates an asymmetry of information between Walmart and its supplier community.

And whenever there's an asymmetry of information, it's always an advantage in negotiations.

So, yes, the supplier community is probably a little anxious today about reading this news because they're going to have to keep up.

But yet Walmart has all the data and can analyze it in this way with all these fancy new AI tools as well.

So, so it's going to be tricky.

So.

But here's the other thing.

All right, going back to the other question, which, which will get me back to the other part of the impact on the merchants too, in the A and M question.

Am I buying or selling this?

I want to buy this so hard.

And I want to buy this so hard because as soon as I read this, I sent in a message via LinkedIn to Brian Knapp, the SVP of merchandising, trans quoted in the article.

I asked him to come.

Please join us and talk about it with us on our five insightful minute segment.

So, because I this is a major issue across every retailer.

One of the biggest frustrations and stress points of any merchant.

Any merchant and is the Monday morning meeting.

It is terrible.

And oftentimes this is what pissed me off the most.

Oftentimes the success of those meetings was 100% dependent on one, who had the time to come in early and pull a bunch of reports and two, who knew how to pull those reports the best.

Both of which are two skills that have absolutely nothing to do with merchandising.

So that's still going to be a little bit of the case because you're still going to have to understand how to use this like ChatGPT style analysis tool.

But I know for those listening, I'm speaking the language of the merchant right now because so if this works like they're saying it does, is it's a massive game changer.

It's massive, both for the long term time savings and also keeping everyone on the same sheet of music.

Because as I said before, last point I'll make is AI should drive the discussions in your morning huddle because it's objective.

It's much more objective than the DMM's wife telling telling her husband over the weekend, hey, I was in this store and I saw this.

Can you make sure your team looks into it?

That used to happen and it's so frustrating when you've pulled all these reports and your whole day is now thrown off.

And so yes, but the bar is going to be raised for the merchants to Adam's question, like the bar is going to be raised, you're going to be expected to do more and you're going to expect it to be more efficient and more productive and drive more volume.

If the tools work like Walmart is purporting that they do well.

And Chris, I mean, do you think that this could actually be an effective tool in training them?

Like, if you have if you're a new merchant, like many people start out in their retail careers as being a buyer's assistant or an analyst.

Like, couldn't this, couldn't this be an easier way of kind of training yourself if you had to?

Or is that not, do you not think?

Oh, yeah, no, for sure.

I mean, I mean it's, it's, it's amazing the amount of data that we all have as retailers, but how hard it is to get it in a way that we can understand it.

So like, for example, like, you know, say you were talking to Denise yesterday about the Scoop clothing line and you're like, yeah, hey, how do, how do my sales in, in the south compare to my sales in the North?

That simple question probably takes the average retailer a very long time to pull.

But if AI can work in the background and then you can actually.

And then you can go, oh, now tell me how it looks in Miami versus versus Fort Lauderdale and where are my in stock opportunities?

Where am I going to have, where am I going to have, you know, inventory outages forecasted in the future?

Like, you can just go crazy with this.

So that's why I'm a little, still a little bit skeptical about how well this thing works.

Yeah.

But it's cool that they're trying to do it and they're publicly talking about it too, because it's going to be a differentiator as people gravitate towards working at the places that try to make them work easier and not harder as well.

Right.

I was even talking about like just being able to put it into an Excel spreadsheet or graph or chart or something like.

Right, no, for sure.

Yeah.

Saves that work on their side too to like get to a point instead of having to like teach somebody how, how to do, you know, all of that, that busy work.

Really.

And it's been interesting too because I've been asking that question of a lot of people here at Etail too, Chris.

Like, how are you using AI in your day to day right now?

And like one of the really interesting ones, Andre Ribrov, he's the CEO of scentbird, I interviewed him yesterday.

He was on a panel with a bunch of other CEOs and they are using AI to completely eliminate the one on one meetings.

So like the whole thing is like eliminate opportunities for people to complain about their jobs basically.

So instead they're sending bots that are interviewing people throughout the weeks.

Like you'd be having an AI conversation, like a language based conversation with the, with your, your surveyor who's a bot.

Like your HSR rep.

Yeah.

But then they collect all this info and then when you have your one on ones that's like, here's how you've been doing.

These are the things that we should just like you said for the Monday morning meeting, like these are the ways that these AI tools are, are really finding efficiencies in business that might not be like an immediate oh, this is changing our bottom line, but I think improving the day to day life of, of work.

So I, I think this is a great, I'm super pumped for Walmart.

Even if it's just like baseline stuff that they're starting to do right now to remove this, this friction and to get to this data faster and have somebody be able to like work off the same, the same kind of dashboard of data and get to making those decisions faster.

So I love it.

I think it's huge.

Yeah, it's a great point.

Yeah, like review writing processes should be faster and more objective.

The other point too then that we talked a little bit about last week with Lens Lisa Collier, which you know, I was kind of like vibing with her as she was talking a lot because she was a former merchant too.

Like the, I hope this, I hope tools like this actually pull the merchants out of the spreadsheets and out of the like, like the data analysis thing and it gets them back to like thinking about and, and the art of merchandising in terms of driving product and putting it on display in the right way in the store and standing behind things with a point of view.

The thing that I cannot do, that I cannot do, at least not right now.

And so that's what I hope this, I hope ultimately comes from, from this.

Yeah.

And I think in closing, Chris, I think the, it's only going to get more complicated.

Like again, like Matt Pavich from Revionics is going to be on tomorrow and he's talking about like just how, you know, the number one thing that everybody's freaking out about right now is like regulations outside of their control with potential tariffs and all these things happening and you're, you're just going to be buried in the details of that business trying to figure out how to make sure pricing is accurate or all these things and you won't be able to, to stand behind your product like you're talking about.

And I, I just, I think it's impossible to move the speed without some of these tools.

So.

Yeah, but it's, it's liberating.

You're right.

Yeah.

You're Right, sorry.

I just keep going on this but like, because like the, one of the most eye opening things that Matt said in that interview was like, you can't look at a price of any product in isolation because it impacts another category.

It could impact another category on the exact opposite side of the store.

And there's no merchant that has the mental capacity to be able to handle that and compute that.

That Right.

So you're right.

And so hopefully like you can take all those jobs out of the auspice of the merchant.

Like I don't need to decide my pricing.

Like that can be helped or I can just, you know, green light it, you know, essentially, yes, I agree with that, you know, and manage by exception.

And so that's the beauty here.

Well, Wally, we have very high hopes for you.

Don't let us down.

I keep thinking the moose when he punches the moose at Wally World, like Wally World's freaking closed or whatever.

I don't know.

See, I'm thinking about Wally the Robot.

Like Wally.

Oh, Wally.

Yeah, yeah, that's where I was coming from.

But yeah, it doesn't matter.

Both, both.

Great.

I thought of that too.

I thought of that.

References.

Let's go to the lightning round.

Chris.

Let's, let's move this along.

Chris, question number one.

It was your birthday last weekend.

Happy birthday.

If you could have the power to have your family do something else besides sing Happy Birthday in honor of your birthday, what would it be?

Oh, man.

And that's.

As you know, I was sick as a dog on my birthday weekend and I'm still sick.

And took me about three headlines to get into the podcast to get my brain working too.

For those that, that stuck, stuck with us this long.

So my, my, my birthday wish would be that they could get rid of this cold that's plagued me for like the last two months.

It just keeps coming and keeps coming back.

And so that, that's, that's, that's, that's my answer to that question.

Okay.

I was hoping like you'd have them like give you a massage or like do something else that doesn't involve loud singing, but.

Okay.

Getting rid of a cold, I suppose is this is relevant right now?

Yeah, it is.

Yeah.

I'd say maybe give me an hour to read in peace.

I think that would be a nice thing too.

You know that that's a hard thing to come by in my household.

But.

All right, question number two.

Lester Holt is also stepping down more sad news this weekend as anchor of the NBC Nightly News.

As a former News reporter yourself.

Who is your favorite national, national news anchor of all time, Man?

Oh, there was a lot of people that I had to pull from here that were very close.

Diane Sawyer, Peter Jennings I liked a lot.

But then, you know what is weird?

I was like, I better fact check these people and see if they are, have gotten into trouble recently because I feel like there's so many that you're like, ooh, I liked their work.

All of theirs work.

Right.

But I have to pick Katie Couric because I always thought she did a really good job on a human level talking to people.

And I got to meet her once in an elevator when I worked at NBC in New York.

And it was, she was very pleasant.

So she was, she, she made, she made the full 360 view of a good, good integrity, integrity laden journalist and a nice person.

So are you taller or shorter than Ms.

Curry?

Break.

I'm curious.

I'm taller.

Are you?

Hopefully still am, but I don't know.

It was a long time ago.

Yes, I'm saying I'm, I'm probably shrinking as well.

So who knows at this point in time?

Lots of hunching over at a computer.

Okay, Chris, question number three.

Joanne Fabrics, as we mentioned, is about to be sold and all stores will be closing.

What was the last thing that you purchased at Joann Fabrics?

Wow.

This had, I had to go way back for this one, Anne.

And I was wondering.

But I do, I do remember it like it was yesterday.

I think I was like 6 years old.

My father, God rest his soul, took me in there and we bought a little hook rug.

Like a little rug?

Oh yeah, you know those things.

Yes, yes.

Like a little 8 by 10 hook rug.

And it was of the Los Angeles Raiders who ended, ended up becoming my, my favorite team.

And they actually happened to be in the super bowl that year.

And so I loved, I loved, I loved the NFL and I, I, I stopped loving the Raiders, thankfully, because I, you know, lots of reasons, but yeah, that was the memory.

What about the hook art?

Do you still love that?

Like, could you pick up hook art in your retirement or something?

No.

Oh, I could, I could pick it up.

Yeah.

But I don't, I don't still have it.

Yeah, I could, I could pick it up.

Yeah, I could hook a rug with the best of a man.

I bet.

All right.

I bet this the last one.

Boy Meets World Will Friedel says Ben Savage still won't speak to co stars amid.

It's, amid their estrangement.

I am curious.

And of the two Savages.

Fred or Ben?

With whom does your heart remember most fond?

Or does who do you remember most fondly?

And that's what I'm trying to say.

Oh, it has to be Kevin.

Fred.

Fred, without a doubt.

Like Wonder Years.

Oh, he was just.

That was one of my favorite shows of all time.

So Fred.

Fred wins.

My Fred, not Ben.

Okay.

So were you a Boar meets Boy Meets World girl at all?

Like, I.

Oh, yeah.

Topanga loved her.

She was great.

You were.

We watched Boy Meets World.

But.

But no, it does not compare to Fred Savage in the Wonder Years Little Monsters.

I mean, every.

I loved Fred Savage.

He was like Princess Bride icon.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about Princess Bride.

Yeah, yeah.

He was in everything and he was so good.

You went to college with him, didn't you?

I.

Yeah, I went to college with both of them.

Technically.

They both went to.

They both went to Stanford.

They got the two for one Stanford discount.

They did.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And yeah, let's just say.

Yeah, I never.

I never actually saw.

I never actually.

I think.

I think Ben came in like, as I was leaving, like he might have been a freshman when.

Right as I left.

But.

But yeah, Fred.

Fred was a year ahead of me.

And yeah, he was a.

He was an interesting dude and let's just leave it at that.

Interesting guy.

Don't ruin it for me.

I just want to keep him as Kevin from the Wonder Years.

Yep, yeah, yep.

He played.

He played on the reputation for sure.

All right.

Happy birthday today to Teresa Palmer.

Greg German.

Yes, it was a weekday for birthdays.

Probably the.

I don't know who either one of those people are.

Yeah, Greg German was on Ally McBeal.

And that's.

That's all I can say.

You probably recognize he played fish on Ally McBeal.

But yeah, it's probably the weakest day in history treating for birthdays because.

Because I also have to salute the man who sold everyone that was that he was related to the ancient iron chefs of the past.

Like, it was his job because literally it was the great Mark Dacascos of Iron Chef fame and also Double Dragon fame.

If you ever watch that movie that was made off the video game and shaking her head like, what the hell?

Yes, those were the three.

Three best most known people I could pick.

And like, I wasn't trying to go random.

Alright, well, remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business, make it on Retarch, the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top 10 US retailer.

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