Kroger Taps Another Walmart Vet As Its First-Ever E-Commerce Chief | Fast Five Shorts

Kroger is named Nate Foust, a former Walmart and Jet.com executive, as its first ever chief e commerce officer.

Effective September 1, according to grocery Dive, Faust will become Kroger's executive vice president and chief e commerce officer, which is a newly created role for the company.

And he brings more than two decades of e commerce experience, including co founding Jet.com and serving as senior vice president of Walmart's E commerce supply chain.

Faust also helped start Olive, a sustainable e commerce logistics company.

And his resume includes an executive stint@diapers.com which Amazon acquired in 2020 10.

Jen, I thought people were moving towards more of an omnichannel.

Org structure.

So I find this, I find this announcement kind of curious.

Does the move to create an e commerce head at Kroger strike you at all as odd or are you seeing other grocers take this approach?

Hmm.

I think there has definitely been a move towards sort of erasing the distinction between e commerce and stores.

Right.

To organize under that Omnichannel customer, as you're alluding to here.

So you're definitely right there.

However, I think, and I could be wrong here, but I think Dave Gugina's role at Walmart in 2025 was actually this.

It was executive vice president and chief e commerce officer for Walmart.

And so that, that's interesting, right, because we've seen where Walmart has gone and the success that they' and the seat he's in today now.

Right.

What is interesting for me as I was reading through this headline and as you're sharing some of the facts here is that this is right for Kroger right now because they just recently, I think I was on your show when we announced that they just recently turned a profit in E commerce for the first time.

Right.

So if they just recently turned a profit, you could read that as, hey, things are going swimmingly.

They finally figured it out.

But in this case, putting this specific role to me says, hey, we're going to lean in here.

Like we may have figured out some things and we know the high margins that are available with retail media and such inside of E commerce, but we actually want to put someone in seat that wakes up every single day focused on E commerce and E commerce only.

And because of his background, I think you mentioned he was part of Olive.

Right?

He was also jet.com and diapers.com.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SVP of Walmart supply chain I think in the past as well.

Very supply chain logistics focused background here.

So if I had to make an assumption.

Kroger is saying, hey, we need someone to figure out the fulfillment and the logistics around E Commerce.

And his background sets him up nicely to do that, I would say.

I don't think the entire industry is going this way by any means, but I do think this is an interesting move.

I don't hate it if it's right for them right now to get it right.

I also think, you know, thinking about them compared to the competitors or in the landscape here, it might show that they're a year plus behind Walmart again.

I don't, I don't know.

They could have replaced Dave Guginas, but they've sort of.

Everyone else is sort of moving towards Omnichannel, but it's almost like we're not ready to move towards Omnichannel until we have enough figured out in this E commerce, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does.

It does.

The David, the Dave Gina example is interesting too.

Like, like, I think that was also partly like, hey, let's have him do this, because we know he's going to CEO here in a few months, you know, in a few, in a year or so.

Let's get him the, let's get him the taste of something outside of supply chain.

So it's a little bit of a different situation than saying, like, and the E commerce business at Walmart was on fire at the time already.

So it's a little bit of a different situation, you know, than what's happening at Kroger.

I think you're right, Jen.

I mean, number one, this is a signal.

And you and I talked about on the podcast, like, despite them touting that, you know, e Grocery was profitable, it didn't seem like it was growing as fast as it probably should have been.

In fact, it looked like they were losing market share when you look inside the data.

But, you know, for me, I.

You said before we got started, you think we're gonna disagree a little bit today?

I think I disagree.

I think this is a really bizarre move.

I think one I.

One, I'm always a little curious of the backgrounds, like someone like Mr. Faust has, like jet.com diapers.com.

You spent two years at Walmart after the acquisition.

How much did you really do?

There's a lot of coattail riding on that and what you could argue was kind of ludicrous VC investment driving those businesses too, because those businesses both don't exist now.

So does he really have the operational chops to run a business as complex as Kroger?

I don't know.

He wouldn't have been my first pick, I'll tell you that much.

But the other thing I don't like about this too, Jen, is like, we.

And it's kind of in the way I asked the question.

The organizational structure is really odd to me.

I mean, I've never, I, I guess, I guess until you just mentioned that one case, I had never heard of a chief E commerce officer.

And then also Kroger currently has a chief digital officer.

So what the heck is going on there?

That's very strange.

And then what happens if there's a disagreement between the merchant and the chief E Comm officer?

Who wins, who should win, who, who, who wins that argument in the boardroom?

Like, is Greg Foreign aligned with this guy?

Because he seems like he's giving him the keys to the kingdom.

So it seems like he's going to hold a lot of sway.

So I don't like it and I don't like the emphasis on E commerce either because I don't think that's where Greg Kroger's necessarily going to win.

It might help them keep up with the Joneses, but it's not going to be the panacea to long term differentiation that Kroger's needs.

So if the chief merchant is going to be fighting and battling it out internally with whatever the E commerce guy wants to do, that's problematic in the long run.

So, yeah, I mean, long way of saying, Jen, I don't like this move, but you get the last word today.

I hear you on some of those points.

I don't know that, that Kroger is set up to really be differentiated in the marketplace on E Commerce.

So I hear you on that.

They must.

I just think Greg Foreign must see enough of an opportunity here where he says, I need someone to fix it because there's, you know, X opportunity.

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, I think, yeah.

I think the last time I was on talking about this headline to Chris, we talked about the fact that their stores are not in great shape.

That was the same headline, am I right?

Yeah, yeah.

Right.

So I definitely think again, this, this move could make sense.

I think it signals a few things, I don't know, again, that I would say, hey, great idea for everyone.

I think it signals a few things about where Kroger's at, but I hope that it's not replacing the work they need to do out in the stores because that's really where you make your connection in the grocery industry.

Right?

Yeah.

And my hunch is Mr. Foreign and Based on how he talked about that.

For those that remember, he.

He's.

He's very focused on the stores, too, so.

So maybe that's what he's thinking is like, I'm gonna be the.

Where the buck stops.

Yes.

Potentially to ameliorate what I was talking about, so.

That's a good point.