Retail Fest, Click Frenzy, and a 13% share crash

The streak's broken — first missed week in three years, courtesy of Retail Fest swallowing the calendar whole. Mal and Alex are back on the mics with a full debrief on the Gold Coast event, the WhatsApp party, and the Pink Flamingo carnage. Plus the Simon Beard reel that turned a vague "the conference was rubbish" critique into a soft pitch for One Life Club — and why that whole move just didn't sit right.

The headline story this week is Gabi and Hezi Leibovich pulling Click Frenzy out of liquidation only weeks after Grant Arnott shut it down. The brothers are bullish, Mal isn't — the model has problems the Iran war didn't cause. Plus Super Retail's 13% share crunch, the AU retail "perfect storm" tightening, and an anonymous whistleblower letter accusing Harvey Norman buyers of taking kickbacks.

• The Retail Fest debrief, the WhatsApp crew shoutouts, and the Simon Beard reel that didn't land — including the One Life Club plug that took the gas out of it
• Super Retail Group shares down 13% as BCF LFL drops 3.3% on the back of an Easter weekend that got killed by fuel prices
• Universal Store sells off 3% on a perfectly good update — what it says about the youth fashion wallet
• Meta launches Hatch agentic AI plus Instagram in-app checkout, and Mal's meeting Mark Zuckerberg in a few days
• Gabby and Hezi Leibovich buy Click Frenzy and Power Retail out of liquidation — Mal's taking the underdog on this one
• The AU retail perfect storm gets worse: CommBank flags inflation hitting 5.4% by mid-year, Australia Post hikes 19%, big retailers offloading inventory
• An anonymous letter alleges Harvey Norman buyers took cash, trips and entertainment from vendors — and what brand owners should do about it regardless of whether the claims stick