Season 7

July 12, 2025

McDonald's Spicy McMuffin, Furniture Eulogies & Dating Trends - Fast Five Lightning Round

Our lightning round covers McDonald's spicy breakfast innovation, Bob's Furniture's quirky "Furniture Eulogies" social campaign, and the new dating trend "Banksying." Plus Chris shares his furniture design advice and grocery ...
July 12, 2025

This "Gas Buddy for Groceries" App Could Herald An Industry Pricing War Very Soon | Fast Five Shorts

New app Grocery Dealz allows real-time price comparison across grocery stores, potentially triggering massive industry disruption. Chris warns this could herald the age of agentic AI grocery shopping that threatens traditiona...
July 12, 2025

Sephora & Lyft Partnership: Omnichannel Genius Or Well-Spun Marketing? | Fast Five Shorts

Sephora offers $20 Lyft credits to drive customers to stores during Prime Day week. Our hosts analyze whether this "delivered to beauty" campaign represents innovative omnichannel thinking or just smart marketing spin that lu...
July 12, 2025

Is Staples' Services Strategy Enough to Save the Office Supply Giant? | Fast Five Shorts

Staples pivots to services like TSA pre-check, passport photos, and Verizon device sales as core printing business declines. Chris and Anne debate whether this services salvation story can sustain the 945-location chain or if...
July 12, 2025

Amazon's UK Partnership With GoPuff Signals Marketplace Strategy Shift | Fast Five Shorts

Amazon teams up with Gopuff for 15-minute grocery delivery across major UK cities. Our hosts debate whether this signals Amazon's retreat from direct grocery or a strategic setup for agentic AI shopping experiences that could...
July 12, 2025

Walmart's "Dinner Tonight" Platform Will Kill the Meal Kit Industry | Fast Five Shorts

Walmart launches "Dinner Tonight" - a new meal solution platform that combines recipes, ready-made meals, and one-click ordering with same-day delivery. Chris and Anne analyze why this could be the meal kit killer and how Wal...
July 9, 2025

Walmart's 'Dinner Tonight,' Sephora & Lyft, Plus A New Grocery App That May Disrupt All | Fast Five

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group , Simbe , Mirakl , Ocampo Capital , Infios , and ClearDemand , Chris and Anne discussed: Walmart’s “Dinner Tonight” platform launch – T...
July 5, 2025

Lightning Round: Mall Makeovers, AI Mode & Our Thoughts On Tom Brady Macking On Sydney Sweeney

This segment on the Retail Fast Five podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Infios, Clear Demand, and Ocampo Capital, covers rapid-fire retail takes. Quick hits on General Dynamics buying Macy...
July 5, 2025

Fast Five Shorts | Will Starbucks' New Hiring Procedures Lead To Their Intended Consequences?

This segment on the Retail Fast Five podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Infios, Clear Demand, and Ocampo Capital, analyzes Starbucks' hiring transformation under CEO Brian Niccol. Starbuck...
July 5, 2025

Fast Five Shorts | Do You Agree With Hibbett’s Decision To Create A Standalone Kids App?

This segment on the Retail Fast Five podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Infios, Clear Demand, and Ocampo Capital, examines Hibbett's kids-focused digital strategy. Hibbett launches a stand...
July 5, 2025

Fast Five Shorts | Pro Or Con: Target Exploring A Factory-Direct Model?

This segment on the Retail Fast Five podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Infios, Clear Demand, and Ocampo Capital, breaks down Target's factory direct shipping test. Target explores factory...
July 5, 2025

Fast Five Shorts | How Long Before We Are All Grocery Shopping Via Smart Carts?

This segment on the Retail Fast Five podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Infios, Clear Demand, and Ocampo Capital, explores Wegmans' smart cart pilot. Wegmans pilots Instacart's AI-powered ...
July 5, 2025

Fast Five Shorts | How Should We Think About Walmart’s “Dark Store” Admission?

This segment on the Retail Fast Five podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Infios, Clear Demand, and Ocampo Capital, dives into Walmart's dark store pilot program. Walmart is testing dark sto...
July 3, 2025

Why Most Smart Store Pilots Fail (And How to Build One That Doesn’t) | 5IM

In this 5 Insightful Minutes episode, gStore by GregyOrange’s General Manager Troy Sewek joins Omni Talk to share his tried-and-true tips on tech for the world’s smartest stores. From RFID foundations to computer vision innov...
July 2, 2025

Target Goes Factory-Direct, Walmart Goes Dark & Starbucks Revamps Its Hiring Process | Fast Five

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group , Simbe , Mirakl , Ocampo Capital , Infios , and ClearDemand , Chris and Anne discussed: Walmart testing dark stores ( Source ) Wegmans...
July 1, 2025

Inside RetailClub: A Bold New Vision for AI and Retail | Spotlight Series

Omni Talk sits down with Krystina Gustafson, co-founder of RetailClub and former Shoptalk content chief, to talk about the new AI Deep Dive Retreat launching this September in Huntington Beach. In this candid conversation, Kr...
June 28, 2025

Lightning Round: Romance Novels, Soap Wars & French Fry Pizza

In this week's Fast Five Podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, our rapid-fire lightning round covers the week's quirkiest retail stories: Ollipop's 5-...
June 28, 2025

Amazon's Desperate Grocery Play: Will Bundling Work?

In this week's Fast Five Podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, Amazon is testing aggressive grocery bundling by showing 100+ food items during regular...
June 28, 2025

H-E-B Tests Grocery Robots: Innovation or the Next Garmin Dash-Mounted GPS?

In this week's Fast Five Podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, conservative grocery giant H-E-B surprises everyone by piloting autonomous delivery rob...
June 28, 2025

Walmart's New AI Saves Managers 60 Minutes Per Shift

In this week's Fast Five Podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, we discuss how Walmart is revolutionizing store operations with AI tools that cut shift...
June 28, 2025

Inside Whatnot: The Secret $5B Live Shopping Empire

In this week's Fast Five Podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, we deep dive into Whatnot, the live streaming shopping app that hit $3B in sales sellin...
June 28, 2025

$1.77B Grocery Mega-Merger: SpartanNash & C&S Unite

In this week's Fast Five Podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, we break down the massive $1.77B merger between SpartanNash and C&S Wholesale Grocers t...
June 27, 2025

How B&H Photo Builds Loyalty Through Radical Service | CommerceNext 2025 with Jeff Gerstel

In this exclusive interview from the CommerceNext Growth Show, Omni Talk sits down with Jeff Gerstel, CMO of B&H Photo and Video, to explore how one of New York’s most iconic retailers continues to set the bar for loyalty, se...
June 27, 2025

Mirakl Americas CEO Scott Eckert on Marketplace Growth and Retail Acceleration | Mirakl Summit 2025

In this candid conversation from the Mirakl Summit, Omni Talk sits down with Scott Eckert CEO of the Americas at Mirakl, to talk about his first 100 days on the job and what excites him most about Mirakl’s future. From unlock...