Instacart’s CEO Bolts, Primark Teaches Sewing & Amazon’s Robot Dials Dork Up To 11

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It's May 14, 2020.

Gotta be May.

Are we gonna sing that for every May headline?

It gonna be me, me.

I think we have to.

It's such a great.

It's such a great meme.

It's Such a great everything now at this point.

And I'm one of your hosts, Anne Mazenga.

And I'm Chris Walton.

And we are here once again to discuss all the top headlines from the past week of May, making waves in the world of omnichannel retailing.

And coming to you live this week from the World Retail Congress in sunny, beautiful, warm London.

Chris, what's been the best part of London for you so far?

And more importantly, did you get your pint of John Smith Smith or John Smith Smith.

Yes, Smith.

Yes, plural.

Okay.

Yes, Smith.

Well, no, no, John.

That's how you would say John Smith, but yes, it's a.

Yeah, John Smith's beer.

Okay, I did.

And, and I gotta tell you, shout out to my, my pundit brother from another mother across the Atlantic, Ben Miller, for hooking me up yesterday.

You're a saint.

Took me to a divey bar in.

Off the Houston station in London and got me a pint of John Smith.

And I, I have not had that much fun in a long time.

I had such a blast last night sitting outside with him.

The weather was beautiful, like you said.

Yeah.

Drinking a few pints and it was just like, it was so incredible.

So thanks to Ben for hooking that up for, for me and him.

And then we met up with you for dinner and yes, it's a great night.

I, I enjoyed it.

I, you know, I love London.

London is my abso of my happy places in the world.

So, yeah, couldn't be, couldn't be happier.

And London is off to a great start.

It's so beautiful here.

Like, I, I was playing, I packed all my rain gear, Chris.

I got waterproof shoes and I just, I mean, I think I'm going to do that every time from now on so that it's beautiful when I land in London.

Yeah, right.

Why not?

Jigs it.

Yeah.

And the, and the, the conference is really nice, too.

We're at the Hilton Park Lane, which is, is nice too, and right across from Hyde Park.

So, yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a unique time in London, a very special time to be here given just the amount of sunlight shining through my window right now.

Yes.

And we've had art.

We've only done one day of coverage so far upon recording of this podcast, and we've had some tremendous interviews already.

The CEO of JD Sports and my.

Personal favorite interview, too, and was Scott Price, who came back for a second year in a row.

Thank you, CEO of the DFI Retail Group.

Yeah.

Who.

He dropped some.

He dropped some really interesting tidbits.

I encourage everyone to listen to that interview.

I just.

We just posted it live last night on YouTube and it'll come out on the podcast channel earlier.

Probably came out earlier this morning for those listening on the podcast and had some really interesting things to.

Things to say about AI and the evolution of profit in the grocery space particularly.

So, yeah, it's been a great day and we've got a great lineup coming your way again.

That's right.

Okay, well, Chris, let's.

Let's get to the headlines from this week.

All right, this week's Fast5, we've got news on Amazon's debut of its robot Vulcan.

Live long and prosper.

Anne, I needed you to explain that to me, like for the audience to have some context.

Chris, just.

He's holding up the.

This like he's splitting his fingers.

I don't even know.

Do you really not know what the Vulcan symbol?

No, I don't know.

The Vulcan I know.

Oh my God, Dan Fawn is like rolling over right now.

He's dying.

That.

I don't know that.

But.

So you just lost half the audience and probably half the audience is like empathizing with you too, that they don't know.

But yeah, it's a Star Trek reference, which, okay, not surprising, that's what Amazon named their latest tech after some sci fi dorky thing which I'll.

I'll have a rant about later on.

But anyway, we've got that.

We've got Primark's in store repair classes, ASOS offering next day delivery through in post lockers, LTK bringing the bastard of life on its social commerce shopping platform and AWS.

Justin Swagler, aka as he likes to call himself JSwag, stops by to talk about all the technologies powering what he calls a quote store renaissance.

Yes, but we begin today with big news out of Instacart.

And yeah, shocking news for a lot of us, I think.

Headline number one, Instacart CEO is stepping down according to retail dive.

Instacart announced Wednesday that CEO and chair Fiji Simo will be departing in the coming months from the company to become the CEO of OpenAI Applications.

Simo will continue her duties at Instacart's helm and work closely to appoint her successor, who the company board expects will be an existing member of Instacart's management team.

Per the announcement, Simo joined Instacart as CEO in 2021 and led the company through multiple acquisitions and an expansion into New.

New in store technology like smart carts and digital shelf tags.

Chris, what struck you most when you heard the news about Fiji's departure here?

Yeah.

About the Instacart CEO's departure.

Wow.

A number of things.

And I would say, you know, in no particular order, too.

Just, like, off the top of my head.

First, you know, I didn't know she'd been there for years.

I looked, you know, I was surprised by that.

It didn't feel like she had been there that long.

I don't know if you felt the same way.

Yeah.

And that kind of brings me to my second point, which is, you know, secondarily, like, I still question if Instacart's in a better place than when she took over.

I know that that's how they're spinning it in the media.

Yeah.

It's just kind of the gut feeling that I have because, you know, I don't know, I've never been bought in on the operating system for stores, maybe for the regional grocers, I guess.

But there's a lot of competition in that space, too.

And comparatively, I still think Doordash's value proposition is.

Is much stronger in the landscape as we talked about in this show a lot.

So.

So I just.

I just kind of question that.

But I think the biggest takeaway for me coming out of the move, and this, to me is the most interesting point, is she essentially saying, E Commerce is so yesterday, and.

And she's saying, I'm jumping feet first into everything AI.

Yeah.

And that's a point that's really telling and that I think all of us need to come to terms with that.

You have someone who is smart enough to be at Metta, you know, on the upswing, then went to Instacart, kind of, you know, quote, unquote, transform them all.

The transformation is, you know, debatable and is now jumping into the AI pool.

Yeah.

So I think you just have to just take that into account.

Yeah.

I mean, I was not surprised at all, given her background.

No, I mean, I think this makes total sense, like, the longevity if I.

If I were her.

And looking at where the longevity is in a career, I mean, open AI is.

Is the spot.

Like, there's.

There's no turning down that job.

And I do think, though, that I disagree a little bit on where Instacart is.

I really do think that she helped Instacart get into a trusted position.

And there's probably so much more under the covers because so many of the people that we really respect as Innovators in the industry are partnering up with Instacart to do this store operations and to do some of the other things that they're kicking into place.

And also I think, you know, we interviewed David McIntosh, the Chief connected stores officer back at Grocery Shop and he was really impressive too.

And, and so as I'm thinking about the future of where Instacart's going, he would be top of my list for next CEO, I think, because I think that's where the most growth potential, especially when you start to think about retail media and connected stores and how Instacart's really going to have to position themselves for future success.

But I'm curious who, if you have anybody you would like, rise to the top of that organization?

I, I don't, I don't.

And the other part about the announcement to me is, you know, she's, she's, she's kind of a software leader in background versus an operations too.

And I wonder, you know, what they're going to look for in their net in the, in the, whoever takes the helm of the job because there is a lot of operations that go into running for sure and particularly as you try to become the store oper platform in the future.

So now I'd be speaking out of turn if I tried to even, even submit a name for who, who could best lead that job.

Just go, David McIntosh, I think you're a great guy.

I was impressed by you and I hope that you get the next role, should you want to accept that.

Yeah, yeah.

It sounds like they got somebody lined up internally.

I'm being excited to see what is.

All right, headline number two.

Amazon unveiled its first warehouse robot with the sense of touch, AKA Vulcan.

According to Geekwire, because who else could or should bring you a story like this?

The robot uses force sensors, force sensors and AI to handle and organize inventory with human like precision, or Jedi like precision, if you like the use of the word force sensor.

Vulcan is already running in Amazon fulfillment centers in Spokane, Washington and Hamburg, Germany, with future deployments planned across Europe and the US the robot mimics human touch to handle items in warehouse bins using a specialized tool with force feedback sensors to sense contact and pressure.

Amazon describes the mechanism on the end of the arm as, quote, a ruler stuck onto a hair straightener, end quote.

And it's worth checking out in the video folks from the source article in Geekwire.

One part pushes items around to make space while paddle like arms gently grip and insert new items.

And using tiny conveyor belts, another of the Robot's arms also uses a camera and a suction cup to identify target and extract items without grabbing anything extra.

And this, you get the lucky roll of the dice today, my friend, because this is the A and M.

Put you on the spot.

Question Take me to your leader is what's coming through my mind.

And there's been a lot of noise about Vulcan on social media.

Do you think that all the hula blue is warranted, number one?

And number two, where does the application of this technology begin and end in your mind?

Oh, my gosh.

There are so many nerd references in this that I don't even know where.

Yeah, I went all in a nerd today.

Well, first of all, I have to say I love the description that it's a hair straightener holding a ruler, not what I thought of.

And I'm also surprised that the nerds know what a hair straightener is.

That seems very off brand.

Do you know what a hair straightener.

Let me ask you this.

Who came up with that description?

Was it a dude or a woman?

It was probably a dude.

It was 100.

A dude dude, right?

Like a hair straightener with a ruler?

I think so, yeah.

Oh, I would think the opposite.

Do you know what a hair straightener looks like?

Like, do you think the average man knows what a hair straightener looks like?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Is it actually a hair straightener?

Yeah, I guess it is a hair straightener too, versus a curler, Right?

Yes.

This is what I'm talking about.

This is.

I don't know.

That's why I'm like, maybe.

Maybe it's somebody else.

Anyway, that's beside the point.

But I just love that description because I thought that's not.

Does not sound like it's coming from Amazon.

It's very, like something for the common person to understand.

They very pr.

Very PR teased, so to speak.

Yes.

But what I do think is interesting and why I do think that the hullabaloo is warranted is.

Is really kind of coming into the fore a little bit more even since we got here to World Retail Congress.

And I think that that's because we're hearing a lot of talk about investing in automation because it's one of the things that can help operations run more efficiently.

And that's something that retailers have control over in a very uncertain time when it comes to supply chain economic activity and disruption and all these things.

So I do like that Amazon is pushing further to figure out how we can optimize all of our.

Our, our warehouse operations so that we can utilize our human workforce in a way that makes the most sense and that will be most advantageous to our business going forward.

So that's.

I do think that this is really cool in that regard.

And if they can continue to, you know, make sure.

I mean, it's.

It's really fascinating.

I encourage people to watch the video because it's showing like, you know, they.

It.

It knows how hard to squeeze a product.

Like, you're reducing damages.

You have control over that.

And those are things that you really have to train people on to do to make sure how to do this the correct way.

So if you can, if you can standardize this, I think that with.

With automation, I think that's the way to go here.

But, but are you all in on Vulcan?

I can't even make the sign, Chris.

Not everyone can do that.

Yes.

Not everyone can do the V.

Yeah, I mean, the other point, too, I just make is like, you know, it's, It's.

It's something that humans just traditionally do better than a robot, you know, regardless of training.

Like, it's just we have the dexterity and the.

The ability to do this in a way robots can.

So it's been something that people have been trying to crack the code on for a while.

But, you know, I, I do want to go on a little bit of a rant here on, like, why are these names so dorky?

Like, why can't we ever name things that.

Why do they always have to name things after sci fi things?

Like, why can't we name things after characters from, like, Charlotte's Web or Anne of Green Gables?

And like, why does it have to always be, like, Vulcan or, you know, Jedi or.

So, you know, I, I just.

Anyway, but, but are you surprised?

I mean, I'm not.

No, I'm not surprised.

How many Big bang theories have you watched?

I know this.

I get so tired of it, too.

Same with all the tech company names like Penetrobe and In a Trobe and all that kind of stuff.

You know, it's the same.

It's the same realm, but.

But net.

Net.

I think it's big news because, like, you know, like, we just talked about it.

Expand.

It expands the range of items that can be picked mechanically.

Yes, but it does it in a warehouse.

That's the point I would make on the second part of a question, which is, where does this begin and end?

Because for the record, after last week's headlines, we got a lot of commentary on social media from what I would call some trolls.

So to Speak about in store robots taking workers jobs for restocking.

And that is not going to happen anytime soon.

Like, for that to happen, a lot of things need to come together and this whole concept is just, just taking shape in what is two warehouses that Amazon runs throughout the world.

Yeah.

So I mean, for that, for us to get to that eventuality of this hitting in store reshocking and shelves, process, shelving processes, you know, I'm thinking we're at least 20 years out on that at best.

Maybe somebody knows better than I do.

Yeah, I think we're, I think before we see that at scale across the industry.

At least, I think.

Oh, it's still across the industry.

Yeah.

I mean, like, it's going to be a long time.

At least 10.

You know, you got to go 10 to 20 years on that.

I mean, so, you know, so, you know, but it works.

You have to hit scale in the warehouse first because that's where the operation is more repetitive and repeatable.

It's done the same way every time.

Stocking a shelf is anything but.

That's why I'm taking the long, the long view of this, you know, in terms of the full impact of the industry.

But I think in warehousing it's, it's probably due to come here, you know, fairly soon.

You know, should Amazon and others like we've seen try to do this in the past, get, get traction with it?

Well, I'll take the under, Chris.

I'll take the under.

Yeah.

And we'll see.

Oh, you're betting today, huh?

You're betting on today, you're betting on Vulcan.

But you're, you're right, there's no.

I, I just, just, I, I follow my intuition and today I'm taking the under, Chris.

So I.

You can't just bet when you get are put on the spot.

You have to, you have to let the bet find you.

And this one, I'm taking the under.

All right, let's go to headline number three.

Primark has unveiled its first US in store repair classes, according to Chain Storage.

On Thursday, the global value fashion retailer launched its Love it for Longer Repair workshop at its Staten island store.

Customers that sign up for the free class will learn simple mending and upcycling techniques that range from fixing hems to adding buttons or pockets.

All participants will receive a complimentary sewing kit, repair booklet, and reusable tote bag.

Primark officially introduced Love it longer classes in 2022.

Currently, the company hosts nearly 400 free sessions in its stores across the U.K.

ireland the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Spain and France.

Chris, do you think that Primark's in store repair classes push all the right buttons, or do you think this is just a silly marketing gimmick?

Oh, wow.

You know, until you read the story out loud, I didn't even pick up the double entendre of love it for longer.

I just think that's hilarious.

But.

But anyway, it's.

To that point.

It's.

It's definitely a marketing gimmick.

But, yeah, it's actually one.

It's actually one.

I.

I actually kind of like it a lot because, you know, we talked about, like, yoga classes and other activities that I've railed on on past shows.

Ye.

You know, as shown by the 400 classes that the article referenced, that they've that pretty much done with this concept throughout Europe.

This, again, this event is easily repeatable and simple to execute.

I think it's pretty straightforward.

And so for those that are interested in it, I think it also probably drives traffic to the store in that day now.

And I mean, here's the point.

I know you're thinking this in your head too, but is Primark talking out of both sides of its mouth on sustainability?

Yeah, 100%.

100%.

Let's call.

Call it what it is.

But at the same time, the items are inexpensive, which people need.

Like, people need access to affordable clothing.

And so having ways to repair them or augment them could be valuable to a certain segment of their customer base.

So, Net.

Net, I like this.

It's omnichannel and design.

It brings traffic in the store.

I don't have any complaints about it whatsoever.

Oh, my God.

Well, I'll start with where I agree with you.

Yes, I love the marketing move and getting Primark credit for sustainability.

Well done.

Yes, you're doing that.

I love that they're creating their own content for people so that you don't have to be in a store.

There's all these YouTube videos and tutorials that they're also putting online.

So I think that's good for them from a brand perspective and definitely drives traffic and gets their name out there.

But putting it in the stores, especially in the US I think will be more work and effort than it's worth for the stores teams, I don't think.

I don't think this is any different than doing a yoga class.

I think it's the same.

It's the same effort for that team to clear the space, make sure that they have somebody check people in.

And I really think that when you talk about The Primark product, a five dollar T shirt is not something I'm, I'm investing time to fix.

I will just buy another five dollar T shirt.

So if I were Primark, I think I would do the opposite.

I would focus more on like a clothing recycling program with some sort of incentive to your point, because people affordable clothing.

But I think I would focus on like we're going to recycle these clothes, bring your bag in and get a $5, you know, coupon or some sort of incentive for people to participate in this because Even though there's 400 of these classes that they've done across a multitude of cities all over Europe, like we don't know if there's two people per class and they're just like box checked or if anybody comes to these classes.

I just, I could see this from a retailer like a Macy's or Nordstrom where it does make sense to invest in like, like upgrading or repairing product that's of a little bit higher value.

But there's no way in hell I'm doing a repair class on a five dollar T shirt that my kid rips a hole in.

Just.

Yeah, well your point about too is like how does this play in America versus Europe which is the context of all places.

Like yeah, I thought that was crazy.

Yeah, yeah.

Wow.

Shots fired.

Staten Island.

Yeah.

Wow.

But, but yeah, but no, it's a great point and you know, it's actually, you know, the, the, the, the differences between the American and European consumer we're going to touch on in the next headline too.

But before we do that, we've got to bring Justin from AWS on today's show.

Joining us now for our five insightful minutes is Justin Swagler.

Justin is the worldwide head of physical retail for aws.

Justin, let's start with this.

I imagine I, I know the answer to this question based on your title, but given the rise of e commerce and digital shopping habits, do physical stores still matter?

The unequivocal answer is yes.

Physical stores still matter for all retailers across all segments and geographies.

What we're seeing is at least 80% if not more of retail sales are happening physical stores.

But what we're seeing is kind of a store renaissance.

You know, during the days of the pandemic, retailers had focused so much on the investments in new technologies for digital and mobile shopping, but now they're re looking at their physical stores.

And how do I unify the journey from online into the physical world and creating that connected holistic experience for their consumers?

As well as investing in optimizing their operations and workforce efficiency overall, retailers are really looking at how do I deliver that efficient shopping experience and provide the digital tools and capabilities to improve the operations.

What technologies are the ones that retailers need to be focused on then for their stores to succeed?

Yeah, there's, there's a lot of different approaches and the way that we're working with customers and as we think about it, is kind of three key strategies or pillars.

So first is around edge.

You know, retailers and stores, they may have hundreds or thousands of distributed physical locations, but in order to deploy new technologies, they need to balance what do I do in the cloud versus what do I do?

And edge hardware servers.

And so being able to have a more modern edge versus cloud strategy helps provide the right infrastructure and those capabilities to deploy those new services.

Second, we're starting to also see more advancements in areas like computer vision and IoT or other advanced workloads in stores.

So being able to understand consumer behavior with existing cameras in store, to understand where do they go, what areas of the store are they looking at and what do they end up transacting from there and then unifying those data and capabilities in order to really get that enhanced overall operational and consumer view within the physical stores.

So, Justin, what would your advice be then?

To make sure that retailers are consistently.

Reinventing the customer experience, but then also.

Balancing that with optimizing operational costs and efficiency?

Yeah.

So a lot of it is starting to look at the connective tissue.

Right.

I hear from a lot of, I have all these in store technologies, how do I stitch them together?

Right.

And really to be able to advance and to provide that efficiency and experience, you got to really start to connect and unify those data sources and then start to bring in some of the AI and agentic capabilities from there to connect those sources.

And that's where really the future of stores is going to go is, you know, as events get triggered, whether it's through cameras or inventory or checkout lines, how do I automate the workflow to provide that great experience or to ensure my staff are doing the right tasks and the right work when they need to do it at that right time.

Gotcha.

I wasn't expecting the agentic AI drop there, but I'm always open to hear more about it.

So let's get you out of here on this then.

So if I take a longer term vision, what do retailers need to take action on now to drive more value for their customers and in the future?

Yeah.

So once you kind of Set up the edge and you bring in some of those advanced kind of applications and workloads, you stitch that together and I believe we're going to be creating agentic stores where it's going to be a lot of automation and orchestration of key events and workloads that need to happen.

Now this is not, you know, to say it's impacting staffing levels in stores, but it's helping to drive high value interactions and work for workforce and stores that lead to better experience.

So I'm sure you've been to like a QSR restaurant and the ice cream machine is out or you go to the store and that inventory is off the shelf.

Typically it's very manual for it to be addressed.

Once you unify that data and you start to bring in agent to capabilities, I can now automate that.

So if an equipment's broken, get that ticket to address it.

If there's items out of the stock, let's reorder the inventory automatically.

Let's get the task assigned to get the workforce to restock it, let's remove it from any mobile ordering for pick up in store, et cetera.

So those are the types of things we need to think about for retailers to be able to deploy those types of capabilities in 5, 10, 15 years down the line.

Geez, Chelsea, you just blew my mind.

Oh my God.

Thank you so much.

Thanks Justin.

Okay, headline number four.

ASOS is offering next day delivery to in post lockers.

According to Internet retailing, shoppers will be able to select impulse lockers at checkout as their primary out of home delivery option, giving them greater speed, flexibility and convenience.

The service is available for all ASOS customers.

With ASOS Premier customers receiving free delivery.

David Flavel, Director of Delivery Solutions of ASOS had this to say.

Quote, we know that customers come to ASOS for the latest fashion when they want it.

Adding in Post's extensive network of over 16,000 lockers and partial shops to our offerings with the next day delivery gives customers even more choice and convenience in how they get the fashion they love.

End quote.

And could you ever see us fashion customers ordering pickup?

Going back to what we talked about before.

Out of home lockers, out of home lockers.

That's 100 way to say that you do 100.

I think this is a win all around.

I think especially, I mean I order a lot of things online and I think when you, you look at the, the I think movement we've seen towards in store pickup for people, I mean that is has grown tremendously over the course of the last couple years, especially since the pandemic.

And I think that this is the smartest way that asos, an online retailer, can get product to their customers and can get me to go to ASOS when I might have other options to go to.

Because before it was everybody's seven days or three days, three days or three to five days.

But it costs a lot of money and now you can get a low cost product the next day and ASOS can put all those deliveries into the lockers.

They're not delivering this one to one, they're doing all these deliveries into one locker.

We're seeing like people in, and retailers and partners in, in Europe and across a lot of the European countries who are working with people like Cleveron to do this, this with not just retailer to consumer drop off, but we're also seeing them use these for peer to peer exchanges, which I think could be even more interesting.

Get more utilization of the lockers.

So I love this.

I think it's a very smart way for ASOS to be able to offer something like this without totally bogging them down with the costs of, of instant delivery.

But you're, I don't know, you're not giving me like, like go forward vibes on this, Chris.

I'm gonna slow my roll on this one a little bit compared to you.

Yeah, I mean, I think it, I think it's a great idea for Europe.

I mean, I think the model are, I mean the, it seems like the model's already tested for the most part in Europe.

You know, in terms of the different countries we've talked about and covered in the history on this show.

But in the US I feel like, I feel like there's some different dynamics here, I think.

Yeah, you know, one like for next day service, like, I don't know if I've got a clothing emergency, I'm probably just gonna go into the store and elect pickup.

And then I think also the, the, the population density dynamics in the United States are quite different than they are in Europe too.

So that makes this whole locker utilization and where do you place the lockers thing a little bit of a different, different battle.

I could see it taking, I could see it becoming something that we do as a norm.

But like everything in Europe, I feel like we're at least 10 years away from it.

So, so, you know, if you and I are talking about it now with ASOS's, you know, out of home lockers, we're, we're not going to be seeing it in the US until 2035, which is kind of sad and depressing when I say that out loud, but it's probably true given the amount of coverage and what we've seen in the trends on things like this in the show throughout the years.

I mean, there's still things we were talking about that, you know, are just now coming to the forefront, so.

Sure.

I don't know that that's, that's my take.

It's like one of those things, like, yeah, I wish we could be like this, but I just don't know that the US consumer will ever be that way.

Yeah, I mean, I do.

I totally see your point.

I do think though, with asos, that is a lower cost online only fashion forward like retailer being able to get this next day is another option.

Like, I don't want to go to Walmart or settle the T shirt there.

Like, to the idea that you can get this fashion to you, which I think the competitors are a Teemu or a Shein or some of these other things where you're waiting weeks for product.

Like these idea that you can get it next day I think is really smart.

But, but, but I can understand the U.S.

we're just, man, we're just slow rolling with some of these things.

We'd like stuff to come to us.

I'd rather spend $3 on a gallon of gas.

Go drive and pay.

That's right.

All right, let's go to headline number five.

LTK is partnering with the Bachelor franchise to launch a social commerce experience.

According to an LTK press release, the official Bachelor nation, which Chris, you are a part of, I became a part of with Golden Bachelor.

The LTK channel is now available and introducing a new way for fans to engage with their favorite reality TV franchise.

The new channel allows fans to shop fashion, beauty and home products that have that cast, have worn and used through the LTK consumer app.

So for background, for those of you who are not familiar with LTK, they claim they drive more than $5 billion in sales annually and reach 40 million monthly shoppers across its platform.

And that nearly 40% of US adult Gen Z and millennial women use LTK today.

So, Chris, wow, you're claiming that you were once a devout bachelor fan, but could you ever see shopping Bachelor wares via LTK ever, ever?

Have you ever shopped ltk?

No, I hadn't.

And this is.

This was kind of blowing my radar screen.

You were much more familiar with this than I would.

And that volume is pretty insane.

If that's the amount of volume they're pushing through it.

And yes, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I was a huge Bachelor fan.

Now I'm probably a lapsed bachelor fan.

And my good.

Did golden get you back on?

No, it didn't.

I need to give it another world, though.

I need to get back on the Bachelor bandwagon because those were great years in my life, actually.

You know, got the community going.

You know, I got into it with, like, Jen Zacharias, good friend of ours.

Like, she and I always talk about it, but, but anyway, yeah, I, I, I love the show.

So, you know, but when I think about this story, I think the way I'd sum this up is I just think it's new age product placement, but with two big differences, strategically.

Yeah.

One is attribution.

You know, the second one is possibly traffic.

Right.

But product, that's the second.

That's the big if is the traffic that you're going to get from this.

But so product placement's been around forever.

Like, you know, I think of the Snapple Seinfeld where he opens the fridge, he's like, do you want a Snapple?

You know, it's like, come on.

And, and the content studios have been trying to attribute product placement in all sorts of ways.

You've had, like, shoppable video come into the fore.

You've had QR codes on screen, all of which just kind of leave something to be desired.

So this is, this is better than that, in my opinion.

Okay.

Right.

I'm not going to go shop for, to answer your question, I'm not going to go shop for bats or stuff because that's just not what I'm interested in.

But I think there probably potentially are people that would.

But the big question then becomes traffic.

How much traffic will this partnership bring to the Bachelor franchise via the LTK platform?

But at the end of the day, I think it's a good experiment because the volume that's accrued through the platform is all additive for the Bachelor.

Right.

And it gives them a way to conglomerate all their affiliate revenue in.

And here's the other part.

In one easy way, all in one place.

Like any item that they want to you put through this platform, they can probably easily, easily attribute or I'm guessing that's what they're trying to do.

Yeah.

And so that's going to make it a much more easier proposition for them to reach consumers.

But the question is, will the consumers come?

Right.

It's the if you build it, will they come?

You know, conundrum.

And I don't know.

But if they've got that much traffic.

Yeah, Ambassador fans are pretty rabid.

Like.

Right?

I don't know.

It seems like a good idea.

This could be, this could be something in the long run.

Like it makes me think about, about, huh.

Does this become a new shopping platform in general, especially with that type of revenue already?

Yeah, I mean, I think it's such a no brainer experiment, Chris, because, you know, you, you think about the benefit here that's different than product placement in shows is that the Bachelor doesn't have to negotiate with any of the brands for these contracts.

They just left the money funnel in they're getting.

It's an entirely new revenue.

Right.

They just have to have approval for the affiliate links, right?

No, not even.

They just got to set them up.

No, you can just go like the, the way that these work is like, you know, at once you have a, once you're signed up for LTK or you're one of their people, access to their catalog.

You get access to the catalog.

So all you do is drop in a link.

There's no bounds.

They can go back to the very first Bachelor season and if that pair of heels that the Bachelorette is wearing are still available, you can take that.

So there's endless amount of revenue to gain.

Get here and you know, I can.

Get Juan Pablo's sucker shorts in if they still exist.

Now we're talking.

Yes, you can.

Yes, you can.

So for me, I think it just makes sense.

It's one, one way for them to further the engagement with their fans, to make products shoppable, to not have to deal with any brand negotiations, to just let the revenue come in as people are, are buying things.

They only get money when people buy things.

So, so it's, there's really no harm in this.

And I think, you know, the, the shopping experience, the LTK like user experience is pretty straightforward.

The only thing that I am wondering here, like, I think this makes sense right now.

There's no harm in trying it.

But will, as, as search continues to evolve and as people are using tools like Google Lens already to do this on any show that they want, like Will, will that, that continue to be a pattern of behavior that people go to?

Will they go to the LTK app or will they just, you know, pull their phones out, take a picture of whatever they see on the show and then they're.

They're going to Google to buy it?

But why not?

Well, LTK could still be in a good position in that strategy too, that you're talking about, like, if they're the ones that have the great search data that pops up on Google and then you end up on ltk, that's also a win.

Win there too.

So.

Yeah, it.

Yeah, it's.

It's.

It's something to watch for sure.

It's really interesting.

Yeah.

All right, Chris, let's go to the lightning round.

You get the first question here.

Okay.

This is a very apropos question.

There is a hilarious debate on TikTok right now.

I highly encourage people to check it out, asking, who would win in a battle 100 Brits or 100Americans?

Wow.

I want to know this.

Yes.

I want to know, if you were recruiting the American dream Team for this effort, which states and cities would you recruit from in the U.S.

oh, man.

Oh, that's such a great question.

And that the answer to this is easy.

I'm going 100% all in on Boston.

Oh, my gosh.

They did it once.

They could do it again, you know, and the muscles will come out in force to defend.

To defend our nation 100%.

I'm going all in on Boston.

No New Yorkers just busted Massels through and through.

The threads are so great.

You have to read these.

Like, people are like, going back to the Brits, and the Brits are like, oh, we'll get some people from Newcastle and all these places.

And then they're like, one answer.

Yeah.

One of the answers was, but in the US we have Florida, man, so we will win no matter what.

Like, he'll wrestle a gator to the death.

Not scared.

Like, it's amazing.

Go down this rabbit hole.

Highly worth it.

Oh, yeah.

That's so good.

Such a good question.

All right, the paper Peacock's new Office offshoot will debut in September.

I'm curious.

And where does the Office rank in your pantheon of great sitcoms?

Top three for sure.

I mean, I've never seen an episode.

You haven't?

No.

I've seen the British Office.

I've never seen the American Office episode.

I need to watch it.

Yeah, but it's in your top three for sure.

It's just.

It was so good.

And at the time, it was like.

It's like Friends.

Like, it was just.

It provided that moment of laughter that you knew.

Like, you knew you're gonna be laughing at something.

And.

And I love a show like that where you can, you know, you're gonna get a smile out of it.

Wow.

Top three.

Okay.

Yeah, I'll check it out.

What are your top three?

Ah, man.

I mean, seinfeld and Cheers are definitely.

Oh, yeah, running for one and two.

I'd have to think about what three is, and I'd want to spend more time on that than being put on the spot because you know how important pop cultural sitcom television.

I know.

My life.

I know.

How dare I ask such a question?

Okay, I'm gonna ask you another question.

Mars Pet Care today announced that they are collaborating with a mental health company, Calm.

On a collection of content that's meant to help pet lovers think about their bond with their pets as a way to improve their own well being.

What moment with sweet little Ginsburg makes you most happy or calm?

Chris.

Oh, man, that's easy.

Like, I love when Ginsburg, like, I'll be sitting watching tv.

I mean, everyone, I feel like every dog owner has this story.

But she'll come and she'll put her head on my lap, and then she rolls over and opens her belly to me and just, just puts her arms, like, straight out like Superman.

Ginsburg is a Bernadoodle for everyone who's.

Just a Bernie Doodle.

Yes.

Bernie Doodle.

And.

And she just has me stroke her belly for like an hour.

She just doesn't let me stop.

That's the downside of it.

Like, my arm gets really tired after a time and, and she's a very needy dog, though.

She just doesn't let me.

Just doesn't let me go.

But, but it calms you.

But hey, yeah, it calls me and I, I, yeah, I guess I'm, I'm.

I, I give her what she needs and.

All right, last one.

It is rumored that the final season of Stranger Things.

Yes.

And the final season of Stranger Things could debut as soon as October 10th, a little bit later than the typical summer release.

What are you excited to learn in this show's final run, Chris?

I feel terrible.

I can't even remember what happened at the end of last season.

Like, I need the recap.

But if I remember, barely something with the redhead girl was going on, right?

Yeah.

Didn't she, like, almost die or was like a coma or something?

I don't know.

She was like, possessed or something.

But, like, I don't know, there, like, I think there was something there that I wanted to find out still, so.

But I'm ready for that show to be over.

I know that might not be a popular opinion, but I think I kind of am too.

Like, if they held it out a little much longer, I think I'd be like, okay, come on, let's get this going.

Yeah.

I mean, Millie, Bobby, Brown doesn't even look the same anymore.

Have you seen pictures of her recently?

I'm like, how are you playing?

She's like 40 now, right?

Yeah.

Right.

But, yeah, no, I think the other thing I want to.

I want to see a steamy scene between David harbor and Winona Ryder, too.

That's what I want from this episode.

Yeah.

I want them to get it on that.

That's what I want.

Because.

Oh, yeah, he was in the Russian prison or something, right?

Yeah.

And they got back together.

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, something like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But, yeah, I want to.

I want to see them.

I want to see.

I want to see that.

I want to see what happens.

All right.

See them come together and.

Okay, whatever their two names are in the show.

I don't remember.

All right.

Happy birthday today to Tim Roth, George Lucas, and to the woman who wore the hell out of.

Anne's gonna love this.

Multiple pants suits in Veronica.

Suits.

They're just suits.

They're just suits in Veronica Garrett, the always stunning Cate Blanchett.

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