Episodes

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne discussed: The real reasons why Amazon would pull its Just Walk Out Technology out of its Fresh grocery stores and Whole Foods stores (Source: Payments Dive) Target installing cameras above its self-checkout machines (Source: Bloomberg) Kroger closing its three e-commerce facilities (Source: Grocery Dive) Costco offering Ozempic to some of i...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, A&M’s Abhinav Chandra and Ben Lowden joined Chris and Anne to discuss: TikTok paying creators commissions based on how well their content shows up in search (Source: The Verge) The serendipitous position Walmart+ affords Walmart in regards to self-checkout (Source: Supermarket News) Nike’s refocus on wholesale (Source: Retail Dive) Shein introducing its “S...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, recorded live from Shoptalk in Las Vegas, and sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne discussed: Macy's launching their "Bold New Chapter" strategy (Source: Retail Dive) Target going wholesale with their Cat & Jack line at Hudson's Bay (Source: Retail Dive) Walmart launching another SaaS play for retailers, "Route Optimization" (Source: Investing.com) Whether or not Simon's Southd...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, recorded live from Lululemon at the Mall of America, and sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne discussed: Walmart expanding express delivery into the wee hours of the morning (Source: Chain Store Age) Aldi’s aggressive U.S. expansion plans (Source: Fox Business) Kohl’s new partnership with Babies R Us (Source: CNBC) Michaels bringing its online maker marketplace alive in store (...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne discussed: Wendy’s about face on surge pricing (Source: KTLA-5) Target’s new paid membership program, Circle 360 (Source: CNBC) The RealReal’s store expansion plans (Source: WSJ) Sam’s Club’s new design thinking studio (Source: Chain Store Age) And closed with an examination of whether Whole Foods’ plan to open smaller stores is, first, a g...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne discussed: Macy’s bold decision to close 150 stores (Source: CNBC) Why Amazon’s move to offer scheduled grocery delivery could be one of the most important headlines of the year (Source: Chain Store Age) Microsoft's decision to fortify its Gen AI position by investing in Mistral AI (Source: Fast Company) Schnucks breaking ground on its smart...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, A&M’s Joanna Rangarajan and Cassie Ryding joined Chris and Anne to discuss: Why in the world Walmart would acquire Vizio (Source: CNBC) Whether Target’s new brand, “dealworthy,” is actually noteworthy (Source: PR Newswire) Starbucks new loyalty partnership with Bank of America (Source: Chain Store Age) Hasbro’s drastic decision to cut 50% of its skus (Sour...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Avalara’s Kris Rabideau stopped by for 5 Insightful Minutes on 2024 tax changes, and Chris and Anne discussed: The rumors that Target will roll out a paid membership program (Source: Bloomberg) If IKEA’s use of generative AI indicates that generative AI-based search may be more applicable to home furnishings shopping than to other categories (Source: Chain S...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne were live from Manifest as they discussed: Amazon’s new AI-assistant Rufus Grabango’s large scale autonomous store installation with Aldi near Chicago Gap Inc.’s hiring of Zac Posen Lowe’s and J. Crew's recent Apple Vision Pro endeavors And closed with a look at Starbucks new late night delivery partnership with Gopuff There’s all that, pl...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Shoptalk VP of Original Content & Strategy Ben Miller joined Chris and Anne to discuss: The rash of recent layoffs across retail and what they mean for how the average retail executive is thinking about 2024 Walmart’s big announcement this week that its store managers can make over $400K per year Some absolutely startling statistics on self-checkout from Ev...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, A&M's Michael Prendergast and Manola Soler joined Chris and Anne to discuss: If Macy's made the right move rejecting its buyout offer this week Whether innovation labs, like Walmart's Store No. 8, are ever a good idea How Wayfair's CEO can ever get the egg off his face in light of recent leaks and layoffs Estimated the viability of IKEA's new plan and orde...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five Podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne discussed: Walmart’s new Gen AI search announcement at CES Amazon implementing its Just Walk Out technology at hospitals Walmart’s Texas drone expansion plans CVS closing “dozens” of pharmacies inside Target stores And closed with a look at Sam’s Club’s brilliant new use case for computer vision, i.e. for exit receipt checks There’s all that, plus gro...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Wiliot, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne: Discussed Instacart serving up advertisements on its smart carts Split on Peloton and TikTok’s new partnership Lauded Starbucks for allowing customers to bring their own cups Debated the merits of fit tech through the lens of Amazon's new fashion AI enhancements And closed with another salute to Walmart for piloting mammograms in a Delawar...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Firework, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne discussed: Walmart’s bold and beautiful move to put BNPL via Affirm at self-checkout Amazon’s confounding decision to test an additional $9.99 per month fee on top of Amazon Prime for grocery delivery Why Macy’s shareholders should take a hard look at their buyout offer on the table Google’s second brilliant move over the last two months i...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five podcast, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Firework, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle,, David Ritter and David Brown, from the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, stopped by to help Chris and Anne hand out this year’s retail awards. All told, they gave out awards across 10 categories and also made some predictions for 2024, including: Retailer of the Year Headline of the Year Retail Technology of the Year Retail Person of the Year Most Overhyped Retail T...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Firework, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne: Discussed what really could be impacting shrink in light of NRF’s softening on its previously stated impact from Organized Retail Crime Disagreed about whether the world really needs Uber Store Pickup Lauded DoorDash for once again fortifying the strength of DashPass with its new Best Buy relationship Showed tempered enthusiasm for Walmar...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five retail news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Firework, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne discussed: Discussed why Etisalat’s new telecom store with Trigo is such an important mark in the evolution of retail Got excited for the merger between Foxtrot and Dom’s Threw shade at Allbirds for its apparent attitude and timing in selling on Amazon Explored what Nuuly is getting right in the rental and resale market And closed with a ...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Firework, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Anne and Chris: Got really geeked up about Amazon selling Hyundai online Pulled the caution flag out on all the Gap turnaround headlines Lauded Walgreens for its decision to close an e-commerce fulfillment center in favor of shipping more from its stores Feared we can already start to smell the smoldering dumpster fire at Kohl’s And closed with an in-person review of the n...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Firework, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, A&M’s Chris Creyts and Cassie Ryding stopped by to discuss: What to make of this week’s earning reports The new Amazon and Meta partnership Amazon Buy with Prime Assist Poshmark’s livestream Secondhand Sunday plans And the Founder of Chipotle’s new restaurant concept that runs on robots There’s all that, plus Nepalese TikTok bans, Andre 3000, and an all too intellectual d...

In this week’s Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Firework, Avalara, TGW, and Sezzle, Chris and Anne discussed: Amazon calling it quits on its Amazon Style fashion store concept Google’s launch of discount search Shein’s $90 billion IPO valuation IKEA pulling back its 5% loyalty discount And DoorDash piloting a new warning to customers about bad service should they forgo tipping There’s all that, plus Tomorrow's Jordan Berke gives us 5 Insightful Minutes o...