Videos

Watch the full video with Walmart's Ashley Hubka here: https://youtu.be/EAsodj-1fYw

Watch the full video with Wiliot's Doron Hazan here: https://youtu.be/9ADhclQ3kHQ

Watch the full video with GreyOrange's Troy Siwek here: https://youtube.com/live/faU9TFZieO8

In this 5 Insightful Minutes episode, David Dorf, Head of Retail Industry Solutions at AWS, joins Omni Talk to cut through the AI hype and reveal what's actually coming for retail in 2026. From LLM limitations to agentic commerce reality checks, David breaks down why domain-specific models are replacing frontier…

A&M's Chad Lusk selects Aldi as the Retailer of the Year. Chad cites Aldi’s strategic expansion, noting that the retailer is expanding like "nobody else." This year, Aldi opened 225 new stores, marking its biggest US growth spurt ever. This expansion is changing the "landscape of of grocery." Lusk emphasizes…

A&M's Chad Lusk selects the Walmart and Rebag program as the best new partnership of the year. While there were many marketplace partnerships announced in the first half of the year, including strategic ones involving eBay and Facebook, third-party marketplaces like Miracle, and partnerships such as Best Buy and Ulta…

Snne Mezzenga reveals her choice for the most laughable headline of the year: Starbucks' decision to ditch its mobile pickup stores. The reported reason for this closure was "due to a lack of warmth and connection." Mezzenga questions who is complaining about a lack of "warmth and connection when I…

Chad Lusk names Fidji Simo, the former CEO of Instacart, as his pick for Retail CEO of the Year based on her move to OpenAI as the CEO of Applications. Lusk believes this was a "smart move" for Simo individually and views it as a "microcosm for retail commerce more…

Chris Walton names Walmart and ChatGPT’s integration as the retail headline of the year. Although the details of the integration are currently "amorphous" and not fully known, Walton explains that it's a significant announcement for several reasons. First, if the integration with ChatGPT happens, it could potentially hurt Amazon. Walmart…

Anne reveals her pick for the most overhyped retail technology of the year: Smart Carts. She has an issue with a particular headline from Instacart this year about the number of stores that had deployed the technology. The problem is that the public doesn't know how many smart carts are…

A&M's Chad Lusk's choice for retail technology of the year is pricing transparency afforded through AI. Using Grocery Dealz as a specific example, this technology price-compares like items across grocery retailers and helps customers build an online cart. This capability is incredibly disruptive, particularly to high-low pricing models which are…

After correctly predicting Target's CEO transition in last year's awards, what's the next big retail headline waiting to happen? The pressure's on for a 2026 prediction that captures where AI commerce is actually headed—and ChatGPT's inevitable monetization moves might be the obvious answer. Chad forecasts the retail headlines we'll see…

When Starbucks announced they were closing mobile pickup stores due to "lack of warmth and connection," did anyone actually believe customers picking up pre-ordered coffee were craving interpersonal engagement? This headline wins Most Laughable of the Year for reasons that perfectly capture disconnect between corporate messaging and customer reality. Anne…

What happens when Walmart—the ultimate value retailer—partners with luxury resale platform Rebag to sell Chanel, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton? In a year packed with marketplace partnerships announced almost daily, this collaboration stood out as the most unexpected and strategically brilliant move of 2025. Chad explains why Walmart's Rebag partnership wins…

When a struggling department store closes underperforming locations and doubles down on what made it iconic in the first place, is that the formula for a retail comeback? Macy's strategic shift this year might just prove that focusing on core strengths beats endless expansion every time. Anne breaks down why…

What happens when the world's most controversial fast fashion brand opens its first physical store in Paris—and the city erupts in protest? This retail headline has all the elements of a blockbuster film: international intrigue, cultural clash, and dramatic public backlash that made global news. Chris reveals why Shein's Paris…

Are smart carts the future of grocery shopping—or just expensive hype with misleading deployment numbers? When retailers hear about hundreds of stores adopting smart carts, they might not realize some locations only have 10-20 carts at tens of thousands of dollars each, creating a very different picture than full-scale deployment…

When a successful retail CEO leaves to join OpenAI, what does that signal about where the entire industry is headed? Fidji Simo's move from Instacart to Chief Product Officer at OpenAI isn't just a career change—it's a statement about the future of commerce itself. Chad Lusk breaks down why Fidji…

What happens when grocery shopping gets its own "Gas Buddy" moment? A technology that lets AI agents compare prices across grocers and build optimized carts could fundamentally disrupt how the entire grocery industry competes—and many retailers aren't ready for what's coming. Discover why AI-powered pricing transparency through tools like Grocery…

What happens when Walmart integrates with ChatGPT while simultaneously building its own AI search tool, Sparky? This move could fundamentally shift the product search landscape that Amazon and Google have dominated for years—but the full strategy is still unfolding in real time. Discover why Walmart's ChatGPT partnership is this year's…

Why is Aldi opening 225 stores while other grocers are struggling to keep customers? With 43% of shoppers cutting back on grocery purchases due to inflation and tariffs, one discount retailer is perfectly positioned to capture market share across all income brackets—and the data reveals exactly why their strategy is…