Lei Duran on Turning Lowes Foods Into a Crave Worthy, Entertainment Led Grocery Brand | FMI 2026

Welcome back everyone.

This is Omnitalk Retail.

I'm Anne Mazinga.

And I'm Chris Walton.

And we are coming back live from FMI here in San Diego from the Simbi booth.

Want to give a big thank you to Simbi who has helped us bring you all of the interviews that we've conducted today.

We'll be back tomorrow with more interviews as well.

So make sure stay tuned or come stop by booth118 tomorrow to come say hello.

We'd love to introduce our next guest.

We have Lei Duran.

Lei is the SVP of marketing for Lowe's Foods.

Lei, welcome.

I'm so glad to have you on the show.

So good to be here.

Yeah.

We've been talking about doing this for a long time.

Finally.

I know, we finally made it happen.

Yeah.

Past, you know, ships in the night.

You've been a long time, longtime fan of the show.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean I was going back, I'm like, I think it's probably eight years.

I mean you.

Yeah, yeah.

I would love to see the growth.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Well, it's always good when we get to interview a fan, especially a long term fan like yourself.

And you also have one of the more interesting backgrounds in retail of anyone that I have come across.

So I'd love for you to explain to the audience like a little bit about yourself and what you've done in your career and then also about your role at Lowe's and Lowe's Foods.

Yeah.

So I as I've been giving, you know, talking to all the great vendors here today.

As I go back, I spent a decade at Walmart both on the marketing side and then went over and was a merchant, so.

So I led multiple different billion dollar businesses there.

Came to the dark side.

I did.

Yep.

And then I went onto the agency side and worked there, realized maybe how to be a better client.

Went and worked for Kantar, so doing big future forecasting and then left and went to North Carolina for Lowe's Home Improvement and led their go to market strategy from a marketing standpoint.

The retail media network as it was growing.

And then I was like, you know what, answering on a quarterly basis is tough and there's something just so special about food and grocery.

And so I'm at Lowe's Foods now.

They're part of Alex Lee Retail.

So they have two banners.

I actually oversee marketing for both of them.

KJS and then Lowe's Foods.

And what's great about them is they are a fourth generation family owned grocer.

They have a distribution side as well.

And they have a reputation for breaking the mold and for having long term innovation and being super, super guest centric.

Right.

So it's amazing.

Yeah.

Isn't there some chicken thing, Ann?

Didn't we hear about the chicken thing?

What is the chicken thing again?

Remind the audience.

You know, it's really the impetus of it is our stor, especially Lowe's Foods.

They went through a brand transformation about 12 years ago and basically said, how can we create a differentiated experience?

And it's about being an entertainment company that is at the center of food and entertainment.

And so each one of our shops, it's a village of shops.

And each one of them has this specialness.

And the chicken dance is in our chicken.

Yeah, it's, you know, it's kind of like the Squiggly and the Walmart, but it's in the chicken kitchen.

And it's a way for our hosts and our guests to interact.

Think about if Disney and a grocery store had a baby.

That's those food.

That's those food.

Which is really top of mind right now.

I mean, we've been talking about you and I talked yesterday just about how, you know, a lot of companies are focusing on that, that convergence of being a retail provider, helping you find the groceries that you need every day, but also making it more experience based and really having that entertainment angle.

Why is that something that is so important to you at Lowe's Foods?

Especially when you're coming from a marketing angle like how do you think that differentiates Lowe's Foods?

Yeah.

We are all about out connecting our competition and it's around bringing culture, community together at the table.

And we truly believe in that.

And so with everything that we do from the engagement, there's a special thing we do called a two handed salute.

Okay.

And it is.

When our host pass you something, they use two hands.

Oh, really?

Little known fact, you can't pass something to somebody with two hands and not make eye contact with them.

Right.

And so, yeah, it's this moment.

And so there's, I love stuff like that.

There's all these little special moments and traditions that just separate us and allow that guest to be a raving fanatic.

And it's, it's a privilege to get to work on a brand where the goods, I keep saying, like the goods are good.

Yeah.

We just gotta tell the people, tell more people about it and connect with them and it's fantastic.

Magic.

Yeah, man.

Yeah.

We talked about fashiontainment on the podcast this week and this is grocertainment you know, really?

So that's cool.

All right.

So I'm curious, is this your first time at FMI or have you been here before?

I have not been here, so this is my first time.

It was.

Yeah, it's my first time I've been around grocery.

I mean I was at supported grocery on the Walmart side, but the this has been just a tremendous experience here.

What I find is that conversations are around practical innovation and connections.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

So that's been my experience so far.

We've met with a bunch of really great tech vendors, we've met with all of our CPG partners, and it really is around making sure that it's focused on the guest and bringing innovation and practicality centered around that.

It's been great.

Well, I'm curious, you know, Lei, you are competing in your region with a lot of other retailers, Food Lion, Harris, Teeter, Publix, Walmart, Kroger, others that are in that same area that are really focused on, you know, some of them like Walmart, being low price and convenience.

Others like, you know, Publix, who are like, have built this family owned organization as well and really like this keeping this private grocery organization going.

But you outside of the entertainment piece, the hosts calling your associates hosts, when it comes to marketing, how do you think that you really connect with consumers across the full funnel of before they're coming in, what they're seeing and experiencing, what happens once they come into the store and then their experience after?

Yeah.

What does that look like to you and you think really differentiates those foods?

So it's part of the reason why I joined the company.

We have built a experience focused on the store and so we've perfected it and our guests know and we've surrounded it.

We have guest data.

So we do personalization.

We're growing, we're on our maturation stage there, but really that go to market, how do we unlock new channels?

How do we still stay authentic?

How do we create a red thread that goes through everything that we're doing so it shows at the right place, but still gives that unique touch.

Yeah, we're on our precipice there, so I'm very excited about the speed that we can go.

So I've been here for seven months.

Seven months.

Okay, Seven months.

I was gonna ask you actually how.

Long it's been seven months.

Came in, said, hey, here's our opportunity.

Can we go do this?

Here's my idea.

And they're like, yes, let's go.

And I Said, this is amazing.

I can just go.

Yeah, I can go.

Yeah, I can go.

And so we, you know, Quick Fashion, rolled some stuff out, it's working.

We're driving traffic, we're seeing engagement, rolled some more stuff out, seeing growth.

So just really building that snowball, and it's incredible.

God, time flies.

I can't believe it's been seven months already since you and I talked on the phone.

Wow, that's nuts.

Oh, my God.

All right, so since seven months, enroll.

Okay, then my next question is going to be, what have been your priorities thus far and what do you still hope to accomplish in the remainder of 2026?

Which I guess we still have a lot of 2026 stuff, but what have you done?

What have been your priorities so far and what are you looking to do?

Yeah.

So first thing is to assess our market and understand the guests.

So where are our opportunities?

Where can we lean in?

Second thing is to really figure out what our message is out in the market.

So we have an opportunity where in our key markets, we still have people that don't know about us.

So understanding what that message is, what's the creative.

Some really exciting stuff to come.

And the fact that in seven months we've been able to understand it, brief it, unlock it, and we're about to launch is pretty incredible.

And then the last thing is really to build internal change around our go to market strategy and make sure that we're not talking only about the front page of the circular, because that's still a thing.

Yep, yep, yep, yep.

I've heard that story a lot, too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, so, yeah, those three.

So I'm curious, as a practitioner, you know, like, how do you actually.

How do you actually go about doing that work of identifying who your guest is?

So we have.

Most of our guests are carded guests.

So think about it as I say carded.

Because right now our loyalty program is more of a transactional.

We get your information, we give you deals, but really being able to dive in and understand who they are and when you look at what they're doing, the categories that they're buying, what their behavior is, then you build programs with vendors and in channels where you're able to make a difference, the guests will tell you.

Right.

And so that's what we're doing and.

Hence why you're at fmi.

Yes.

Right.

It all comes full circle.

And that's really impressive too.

One, congratulations on all you've accomplished in seven months.

Thank you.

The team has been incredible.

Yeah.

Like, I've said multiple times the team has already had many of these ideas and to give fuel to their ideas and.

And fuel to what was.

It was just the right time at the right.

And so we're just on this really wonderful journey as a company.

Yeah.

The right leader at the right time, too.

Thank you.

Well, I'm curious what your experience has been working for a regional grocer compared to all of the retailers you've worked for prior to that.

What do you think is the most surprising thing about your role now?

Is it the speed that you can deploy things like what kind of things are surprising you in these last seven months?

The comfort and courage to try things.

Two of our brand values are provocative and wit, and we will.

We'll try something and color around the edges, and there's a beauty in that.

And as a organization, both on the distribution side and.

And just our foundation, we believe in that.

And that's just exhilarating for the team.

You can create so much.

Once you get that velocity and that momentum of belief, it's incredible.

All right.

Okay, so we're gonna let you go on this question.

I'm gonna put you on the spot a little bit on this one.

I've been doing it all day to everybody, but I think you're up for it.

So if you look out prediction hat time three years out in the future, how will you know your marketing strategy worked and what metric are you going to use to evaluate that?

Well, first of all, they will not just think about it as a marketing strategy.

They will think about it as a business transformation strategy.

Wow.

So I truly think that that's the pivot that we are on from a marketing standpoint is it's not just let me go make an ad.

It truly is.

Let me understand the guest and let me be the beacon for the business.

So that's number one.

Number two, we're going to drive market share and show business results.

And number three, our brand is going to be truly just crave worthy and a destination.

And so I think that for me and for my competitors, those probably are key areas.

And how do you measure that last one for the audience?

Like, how do you in your position measure that?

Yeah, more of their dollars are coming into my store and that they will go past other people.

Got it.

So the trade spend in the area kind of thing.

And they will go past people like that.

We talk about consideration, awareness, but preference is I will drive past someone else.

I will get off of my couch to go.

Interesting.

Okay.

All right.

Nice.

Love it, Love it.

Lei, thank you so much.

It's been such a pleasure to introduce you to our audience.

It's been so wonderful talking to you.

Thank you again to Simbi for helping us bring you these interviews today.

Again, stop by booth 118 tomorrow.

We'll be here with more content for you to enjoy.

And until then, be careful out there.