Episodes

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Tailored Brands (parent of Men's Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank, Moores and K&G) files for an IPO under ticker "MENW," touting a six-year turnaround and plans for more than 500 new stores over the next decade. Temu triples the number of brands it proactively monitors for IP infringement to over 15,000, pushing its proactive-to-reactive takedown ratio to 331:1 ...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Amazon Shipping is aggressively undercutting FedEx and UPS on pricing, waiving residential and weekend surcharges to win shippers away from the legacy carriers as delivery rates climb industry-wide. Taco Bell has scaled its Omilia-powered voice AI drive-thru ordering system to nearly 900 U.S. restaurants across 38 states, reporting faster transactions, ...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five lightning round covers everything from whether Sam's Club has officially dethroned Costco for the best rotisserie chicken to Chris and Ben's favorite sporting event food traditions, including Buffalo wings, Sunday roasts, and Wimbledon strawberries and cream. Plus, they dive into England's World Cup run, Oasis celebrations, the most expensive sporting tickets imaginable, and Chris's most extravagant purchase on a dollar-per-minute basis. Tune in for the full epi...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment explores Amazon's new Alexa Shopping feature that gives customers access to up to 365 days of product price history. Chris Walton and Ben Miller discuss how greater price transparency could strengthen consumer trust, why the feature supports the rise of agentic commerce, and how Amazon continues to position Alexa as the future interface for AI-powered shopping. They also explore how this capability could eventually help AI agents make even better purchasi...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment breaks down New Jersey's proposed legislation targeting AI-powered pricing and placing a moratorium on new electronic shelf label installations. Chris Walton and Ben Miller discuss why electronic shelf labels have become caught in the AI pricing debate, how Europe embraced the technology through consumer protection initiatives, and why intelligent pricing and surveillance pricing are two very different conversations. They also explain why electronic shelf...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment looks at Lowe's decision to let store associates sell marketplace products directly through its in-store selling platform. Chris Walton and Ben Miller explain why this approach works particularly well in home improvement, how it strengthens the connection between digital and physical retail, and why empowering store associates with marketplace inventory creates a better customer experience. They also discuss why this model could work for retailers like Be...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment explores Amazon Web Services' $1 billion investment to embed AI engineers directly inside customer organizations Chris Walton and Ben Miller explain why AI success is no longer about choosing the right model. Instead, they argue that adoption, implementation, and business context will determine which retailers gain a lasting competitive advantage. They also discuss why Amazon believes retailers need hands-on support to move AI from experimentation to ever...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment examines Kroger's $1.65 billion acquisition of Giant Eagle and what it signals about the future of the grocery industry. Chris Walton and Ben Miller debate whether Kroger is making a smart strategic acquisition or simply doubling down on a business facing mounting competitive pressure from Walmart, Amazon, Aldi, and Sprouts. They also discuss why a successful family-owned grocer like Giant Eagle may have chosen to sell now, whether the acquisition creates...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: GameStop shareholders approved a stock issuance amendment tied to the company's pursuit of eBay, giving CEO Ryan Cohen more flexibility to sweeten a future bid after eBay's board rejected GameStop's $56 billion offer earlier this year. Walmart added eight new drone delivery hubs across Greater Houston with Wing, expanding its Texas footprint to 13 nests...

In this week's OmniTalk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Quorso and Veloq, Chris Walton was joined by recurring Fast Five favorite Ben Miller, independent retail analyst and former VP of Content at Shoptalk, to discuss: • Kroger's $1.65 billion acquisition of Giant Eagle, and whether the deal says more about Kroger's growth strategy or the mounting pressures facing the grocery industry (Source) • Amazon Web Services investing $1 billion ...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Walmart and Sam's Club are cutting prices on thousands of summer staples as part of a broad Rollback and member-savings push spanning grocery, household goods, outdoor living, toys, and apparel. Aldi is making its first move into Colorado, filing permits for two Denver-area locations as part of a plan to open 50 stores across the Denver and Colorado Spr...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Ocado announces CEO Tim Steiner will step down in 2028 following a boardroom tussle, as shares slide amid a stalled automated-warehouse strategy. Klarna applies for a U.S. bank charter, pushing further beyond buy now, pay later and toward becoming a full-fledged consumer bank. Kroger names Emilee De Martino as its new Chief People Officer, marking the ...

In this episode of Confessions Of Supply Chain Executives, host Chris Walton sits down with Amir Khoshniyati, Vice President at Wiliot, and Kay Irwin, National Practice Lead for Connected Assets & Smart Supply Chain at AT&T, to explore one of the biggest unsolved challenges in retail: inventory visibility. Despite decades of investment in supply chain technology, most retailers still struggle to know exactly where inventory is at any given moment. Products move through warehouses, distribution ...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Amazon commits $1 billion to a new Forward Deployed Engineering unit, embedding AWS engineers directly inside client businesses to compress AI deployment timelines from months to days. Albertsons works to fully scale an AI-powered merchandising intelligence platform, built with Databricks, across its grocery operations by the end of 2026. New Jersey pa...

It is that time of the year again! The time where Omni Talk and Placer.ai get together for their annual tradition of handing out mid-year grades across retail. Placer.ai's Chief Marketing Officer, Ethan Chernofsky, is back to give his mid-year report card assessment of which retailers are setting the pace, which ones are making impressive comebacks, and which emerging trends are shaping the future of retail. Using Placer.ai's industry-leading location analytics and foot traffic data, Ethan joi...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Kroger agrees to acquire Giant Eagle for $1.65 billion, with the Pittsburgh grocer keeping its name, headquarters, and myPerks loyalty program as a division of Kroger. Dick's Sporting Goods launches ScoreCard+, a $99-a-year paid loyalty tier offering $100 in quarterly rewards, free shipping, and exclusive perks. PlayStation announces it will end physic...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Target begins tracking unexcused absences and tardiness with a new points-based system launching this September, terminating workers who reach 12 points. Allstate partners with Macy's and Bloomingdale's to offer enhanced product protection plans at point of sale and online, covering furniture, fine jewelry, appliances, electronics, and more, with Allsta...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Saks Global exits Chapter 11 as "Exemplar Luxury Group," emerging with a dramatically smaller store footprint, sharply reduced debt, and a new strategic bet on full-price luxury. Amazon Prime Day 2026 logged $26.4 billion in U.S. online spend across four days — a new record — but Numerator data reveals declining average order sizes and household spend, ...

In this Retail Technology Spotlight series, Chris Walton sits down with Soroosh Seyhoon, Chief Revenue Officer at Zello, to explore how capturing and analyzing frontline voice data is transforming the way retailers understand and manage store operations. From AI-powered in-ear assistants to real-time operational intelligence, Soroosh explains why the conversations happening on the sales floor represent an untapped goldmine of data that most retailers are completely ignoring. Drawing from deploy...

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl. In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses: Lowe's integrates its third-party marketplace into its My Red Vest associate software, putting thousands of marketplace products directly in the hands of store employees at over 1,700 locations. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr Pepper roll out QR codes linking consumers to the American Beverage Association's Good to Know database. REI gets roasted onl...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five lightning round covers a little bit of everything, from the passing of legendary Fed chairman Alan Greenspan at age 100 and the question of who deserves the title of favorite economist, to whether Chris and Jenn are Prime Day shoppers (spoiler: neither is exactly hitting refresh at midnight). They also weigh in on Jersey Mike's overtaking Chick-fil-A as Florida's favorite fast food chain and Jenn makes a strong case for the family-sized sub. Plus, in honor of the...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment reacts to Target's decision to name fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi as its first-ever Creative Director at Large, a brand new role in which Mizrahi will advise on product design, mentor Target designers, and help the retailer reclaim its iconic cheap chic identity. Chris Walton and Jenn Hahn aren't exactly wowed. While they agree that creativity never hurts, both question whether a lack of design vision is actually what's holding Target back right now or wheth...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment covers Bed Bath & Beyond's Legendary Coupon Hunt, a 21-day nationwide sweepstakes inviting customers to dig out their old iconic blue 20% off coupons for a chance to win a $100,000 home refresh. Chris Walton and Jenn Hahn don't hold back. With only around 22 Bed Bath & Beyond branded stores still open and a grand prize that signals the brand isn't exactly betting the house on this one, the duo rates this squarely at a 99 out of 100 on the gimmick scale. T...

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment tackles Kroger's Q1 fiscal 2026 earnings, where the grocery giant posted $46.1 billion in total sales and announced that its e-commerce business turned a profit for the very first time, ahead of schedule. Chris Walton and Jenn Hahn give credit where it's due, but push back hard on the feel-good narrative. With identical sales missing expectations, e-commerce growth lagging the broader market surge discussed in the previous headline, and CEO Ron Ferens adm...