Amazon's Desperate Grocery Play: Will Bundling Work?

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, and Scratch Event DJs, A&M’s Kelly Carey and John Clear joined Chris and Anne to discuss:Walmart’s new Symbotic relationship, aka its new robot deal (Source)The veracity of Target’s claims that it has cut its production lead times down from 7 months to 8 weeks (Source)Whether the American consumer really needs smaller Burlington stores (Source)Sephora’s plans to redesign its entire North American store fleet (Source)And closed with an examination of Walmart’s marketplace expansion via Rebag to sell the likes of Fendi, Chanel, and more (Source)There’s all that, plus pit diapers, roundabout rules of the road and the HQ amenities we all just can’t live without.Music by hooksounds.com#walmart #target #sephora #retailtrends #retailnews

22 Jan 57min

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, and Scratch Event DJs, Chris and Anne discussed:Macy’s shuttering some of its small format stores (Source)Amazon's $11 Billion AI investment in the great state of Georgia (Source)Best Buy launching a new marketplace with Mirakl (Source)Amazon allowing online retailers to use its advertising tools (Source)And closed with a look at the 1 + 1 = 3 partnership between eBay and Facebook’s marketplace (Source)There’s all that, plus Tim Robinson of Blue Yonder also stopped by for Five Insightful Minutes on returns management, and we also had a NYC-style lightning round, replete with long cab ride discussions about horseshoes, bad mice, and Anne’s brief stint as a tiara model.To read Blue Yonder's comprehensive report on returns, head here: https://chat.blueyonder.com/reimagine-returns?utm_medium=paid&utm_source=omnitalk&utm_campaign=jan25&utm_content=timMusic by hooksounds.com

15 Jan 45min

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, and Scratch Event DJs, Chris and Anne discussed:Walmart accelerating its rollout of digital shelf labels to all stores (Source)Cantaloupe’s innovations in smart vending for grocery stores (Source)Simbe augmenting its Tally Robot with fixed-positioned sensors (Source)DoorDash and Ibotta teaming up to offer DoorDash users better pricing (Source)And closed by debating whether or not “community spaces,” like the one recently launched by Giant Food, are ever a good idea (Source)There’s all that, plus Todd Barentine of The Barcode Group stopped by for Five Insightful Minutes on Costco’s 2025 strategy, and we also announced this month’s OmniStar (congrats Christina Minardi of Whole Foods) and discussed Waymo, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and which member of the X-Men Anne would most want to go on a date with.Music by hooksounds.com#OmniTalkRetail #RetailInnovation #DigitalShelfLabels #SmartVending #RetailPodcast #Costco2025 #GroceryTech #DoorDash #Ibotta #CommunitySpaces

8 Jan 46min

In this special year end edition of the Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Ownit AI, Avalara, Mirakl, and Ocampo Capital, A&M’s Chad Lusk and David Ritter join Chris and Anne to look back on 2024 and to salute everything that stood out in retail this past year.Who will win retailer of the year? CEO of the year? And which retail headline would you most want turned into a feature film?You will just have to tune into find out!Music by hooksounds.com

18 Des 20241h 2min

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Ownit AI, Avalara, Mirakl, and Ocampo Capital, Chris and Anne discussed:Amazon’s momentous launch of Amazon Auto (Source)Why Tractor Supply Company may be the retailer to watch over the next decade (Source)PorchPals new insurance offering for victims of package theft (Source)Whether Dollar General’s slowdown of its fresh expansion signals underlying issues with its grocery strategy (Source)And closed by dissecting the value of E.l.f. Beauty’s new 3D Virtual Luxe Lounge (Source)There’s all that, plus Brooke Chambers, Kroger’s Director of Digital Marketplaces, stops by for 5 Insightful Minutes, Shaboozy songs, Brain Rot, and Chris’s man crush on the Gambler.Click here to register for eTail West, and don't forget to use our promo code ETAILPARTNER.And, if you are interested in reading Chris’s latest article on marketplaces, you can also find that here: https://omnitalk.blog/2024/12/09/dont-leave-money-on-the-table-how-to-rethink-your-marketplace-strategy/Music by hooksounds.com#RetailNews #AmazonAuto #TractorSupplyCompany #PackageTheftInsurance #DollarGeneral #VirtualShopping #RetailTrends #OmniTalkRetail #KrogerDigital #RetailPodcast #FastFiveNews

11 Des 202451min

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Ownit AI, Avalara, Mirakl, and Ocampo Capital, Chris and Anne discussed:The implications of this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Week data (Source)Walmart’s aggressive push into livestreaming, culminating with Dolly Parton live on Cyber Monday (Source)OpenAI’s evaluation of chatbot advertising (Source)Digimarc partnering with Picadeli to reduce price look up fraud at the salad bar (Source)And closed with a discussion on how the retail industry should view overseas marketplaces, aka “Digital Dollar Stores,” getting into the toys business (Source)There’s all that, plus something called “Shrimp Jesus” and how often Anne gets a craving for Kraft Mac & Cheese.Music by hooksounds.com

4 Des 202440min

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Ownit AI, Avalara, Mirakl, and Ocampo Capital, Chris and Anne discussed:Whom to blame for the WSJ calling Target “dull” (Source)Kohl’s recent disappointing quarter and its new CEO hire (Source)Qurate’s rebranding and strategic push into livestreaming and social media (Source)TikTok quietly testing product links in posts (Source)And closed with a look at how significant Perplexity introducing a new shopping feature for its paid Pro users is to the future of retail (Source)There’s all that, plus Dr. Seuss, the Original Recipe or Extra Crispy debate, and why Chris has had it with these motherf**cking Shake Shacks on this plane!To register for Manifest, visit: ManifestVegas.com/SaveWithOmniTalkMusic by hooksounds.com#RetailNews #ECommerce #SocialCommerce #Target #Kohls #TikTokShopping #LivestreamShopping #DigitalRetail #OmniTalk #RetailTrends

27 Nov 202446min

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Ownit AI, Avalara, Mirakl, and Ocampo Capital, Chris and Anne discussed:Starbucks offering delivery via DoorDash through the Starbucks app (Source)Amazon shutting down a secret fertility tracking project (Source)REI’s latest attempts to thwart “serial returners” (Source)Retailers, like Zara, experimenting with radio emitting threads to combat theft (Source)And closed with a look at whether we should all by into Marc Lore’s “super app for mealtime” hype coming off Wonder’s acquisition of Grubhub (Source)There’s all that, plus Pepsi’s “Undercover Cups” campaign, weirdly hot Santas, and home for the summer stories of when Chris last donned a pair of rollerblades.Music by hooksounds.com#RetailNews #Walmart #REI #Starbucks #Zara #Wonder #Grubhub #OmniTalk #RetailPodcast #RetailTrends #RetailInnovation

20 Nov 202441min