Walmart Goes All-In On DSLs, Costco Makes A Tariff Pledge & Kroger Anoints An AI Chief | Fast Five

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It is March 11, 2020.

I am Chris Walton and we are here once again to bring you all the top retail headlines making waves in the world of omnichannel retailing.

And joining me now for her third appearance is our resident talent expert.

I always like saying that.

Jen Hahn, the founder of, founder and CEO of J Recruiting Services.

Jen, welcome back.

Thanks.

It's great to be here, Chris.

Yeah.

You know, we've got spring break next week, so programming note to everyone listening.

We're going to be off next week.

I'm very, very much looking forward to taking a much needed break.

But Jen, I'm curious, do you have any spring break plans?

Your.

We do.

So spring break here in Michigan is the first week of April, so it's a little bit later, but we'll be visiting some family in Florida for part of it.

And then I'm actually going to Chicago and a Cubs game with my fifth grade son for the sort of latter half or the weekend at the end of it there.

Oh, okay.

So the Florida thing, not a surprise given that you're from Michigan, right?

Michigan, right.

The Chicago Cubs.

Why the Cubs?

It's a long story, but he's in fifth grade and the fifth graders get a Chicago trip every year.

I did it for his older sister and now they've canceled that.

So I have committed to creating our own Chicago trip.

So that's what we're rocking with.

Do you have plans for your spring break?

Stepping in as the mom?

Yeah, I'm going to Hawaii next week.

I'm taking the fam to Hawaii.

Yes.

I was not.

I was not.

I was not pro this trip, Jen.

But.

But Mrs. Omni Talk talked me into it.

And she's like, nope, we need to go.

I was like, nah, the kids are too young.

Like, they should really appreciate it.

But she talked me into it.

She pulled the old historical card, Jen.

She's like, they can go see the USS Arizona.

And I was like, all right, fine.

Maybe can we go see a volcano, too?

She's like, sure.

So.

So, yeah.

So that's what we're doing.

I'm excited because it's still snowing here in Minnesota as well as we're recording this.

We just got.

Well, nobody, nobody regrets Hawaii, Chris.

So I think Mrs. Omni talk.

I think she's right.

I think you'll have a good time.

Yeah, I think it'll be fun.

Yeah, I go to Honolulu too.

I've never been to Honolulu before, so.

I've been to Hawaii, but not Honolulu.

So.

All right, Jen.

Well, let's get to this week's show.

And now for those listening, whenever Jen is on the show.

We ask her to help us to hand out our monthly Omni Star Award, which I love because Jen is far closer to the ground in terms of knowing which retail executives are really making the grade at their organizations.

And for those also new to the podcast, our Omnisar Award is the award we give out each month in partnership with Corso to recognize the top omnichannel operators out there.

Not the pundits, not the so called experts, but the real life retail operators making a difference in their organizations.

Corso's AI copilot coaches retail leaders to optimize store performance at every level, transform retail operations from data overload into data powered.

All right, Jen, without further ado, who is this month's Omnistar?

Okay, drumroll.

The Omnistar is Mark Chenier.

So Mark is the senior Vice President GMM of footwear at Academy Sports and Outdoors, and he's doing it at a really exciting time.

Academy's growing like crazy.

Gosh, it was a few years ago when they announced that they'd be opening an additional 160 to 180 stores over a five year period.

That's pretty, pretty big growth.

And Mark has been there for about 11 years now, so he's been a huge part of that change in growth.

And in my conversations with him, it's just really clear he's doing it right.

He's a super proactive leader.

He's thinking about two, three, five years from now, relationship focused and he, he and his teams really know how to deliver.

So congratulations to Mark.

That's awesome.

That's awesome.

Yeah, and it's the first time we've singled out somebody from Academy sports and outdoors too on this program.

So big win for Mark and the ASO team.

I love that.

I love acronyms, Jen.

You know that.

As a longtime listener, I'm a big acronym guy.

All of retail does.

Chris.

That's true.

That's a good point.

That's a really good point.

See, it shows you've been steeped in the industry, Jen.

All right, let's get to the headlines.

In this week's Fast5.

We've got news on Costco making a very public promise about tariff refunds.

Kroger getting serious about AI at the top.

I'm sure Jen has some comments on this one because they're naming the president of its 8451 analytics unit as its first ever chief data and AI officer.

Kroger again.

Yes, two times in a row, believe it or not, folks.

But this time for sending autonomous drones into the deep freeze to keep tabs on its cold chain inventory.

And Dick's Sporting Goods crashes the AI party in the App Store.

But we begin today with big news out of Walmart.

Headline number one.

Walmart is expanding its digital shelf label technology to all 4,600 of its US stores, completing what is likely the single largest electronic shelf label rollout in history.

According to numerous sources, roughly 2,300 Walmart locations are already running digital shelf labels supplied by Fusion.

For those that know us well, is a longtime sponsor of our work here at Omnitalk.

I have to single that out.

And the chain now expects the technology to be chain wide within the next year.

The system allows associates to manage price changes through a centralized platform using a mobile app.

What used to take days of manual paper tag swaps can now be done in hours, freeing associates to focus on customer service.

Two features stand out operationally.

One, stock to Light, which uses LED guidance to help associates pinpoint exactly where items need restocking.

And two, pick to Light, which helps fulfill online orders faster and more accurately.

Walmart has been explicit as well and this is important that the labels will not be used for dynamic or surge pricing.

The system operates on a closed loop, does not track shoppers and does not collect personal data.

Jen, we are starting off hot this morning.

You get the A and M Put yout on the Spot question right out of the get go and let me just tell you it's a doozy.

So here it is.

The question is together we vocalize strong excitement around the industry's introduction of digital self labels and specifically during Walmart's rollout.

Given their leadership position here, how do you expect Walmart to most likely leverage the labor time savings touted by the technology in balance between reinvesting into in store execution versus capture actual total labor spend savings?

Okay, better you than me.

First of all, I will say I love this move.

It's.

It's 2026, right?

Cars are driving themselves.

I think it's about time for digital shelf labels.

We've heard about them, we've seen them in sort of test mode.

I love this move from Walmart.

The best talent out there does not enjoy the monotony of price checks and price changes and chasing out of stocks in a reactive manner.

Right?

They're working on their heels in that world.

They're looking for roles and opportunities where they can actually show up and capitalize on opportunities and stay forward focused.

The store operations teams and leaders that we talk to on a weekly basis and really daily basis would certainly vote yes for this.

When I think back to my district manager days and even at that level I was always involved in little tasks like hey, this sign isn't correct.

And it's a store walk that could have been focused on where we could do better, where we could serve customers better, how we could be more proactive and increase that basket size.

And instead at a district manager level, I'm walking the floor saying like, we got to get that price changed.

I wonder what it is, what should it be?

Right.

If all of this can be done digitally, I think it's a big win.

I think the opportunity here is to simplify the store employees role.

Right.

It's become so complex and convoluted that I wonder how many store employees are actually out there thinking are the shelves full and are the customers engaged?

Like those are two questions that if, if I were leading store ops, those are the only two things that matter in that store experience.

I guess the store should be clean as well.

But if we can cut the rest and reassign through this automation or this technology in this case, I think it's a big win.

So to answer the A and M question, what does this mean for payroll expense?

Yeah, I don't expect, or I should say hope that they capture any labor savings, but rather that they reinvest this into in store execution.

So I hope to see zero savings on staffing.

And that's hard to say from a P and L standpoint.

Right.

But that labor should be reallocated to driving sales, finding customers that need help in the aisles, proactively finding opportunities to surprise and delight.

And you know what they say, sales cures.

All right, so go get the sales and let the labor expense take care of itself.

I would say this on that sort of surprise and delight factor.

Walmart's known for a whole lot of things.

They've been crushing it in a lot of ways.

They've been a lot of your headlines right over the past few years.

But in store services is not one that comes to mind.

You don't think I'm going to walk into a Walmart store and get fantastic service?

Someone's going to stop and ask me if I need help.

Someone's going to be there if I have a question.

I see this as an opportunity to change that experience in the stores while still minimizing those out of stocks and the price discrepancies.

But really I would treat this investment as an investment that will get that ROI on the additional sales and loyalty, not by cutting labor.

Well, Jen, as our resident talent expert, I have to tell you, I Respectfully, respectfully, 100% agree with you.

I 100% agree with you.

I do, I do.

And the reason I say that is, you know, yes, you're going to in theory get labor savings from reducing the workload of everyday price changes.

But as we know if for those in the industry, we've known that that was never enough to push ESLs over the edge of adoption.

Like it just wasn't.

The savings just wasn't significant enough.

The real benefit comes from, in my opinion, you know, really three things.

It comes for quicker and better restocking, quicker and better shelf picking.

And the other point about you're saying about the science, more effective promotions because your promotions are actually signed correctly and that is a huge impact on the actual revenue going through the cash register.

So I don't see this changing payroll allocation all that much.

Particularly when you look at the landscape of how omnichannel retailing is done.

And to your point about Walmart and service, the service at Walmart is just having the stuff on the shelves that needs to be on the shelves and having it priced right.

That's what Walmart just wants to do better every day because that's what their business model is.

Their business model is in on like high touch service.

And it's never going to be.

It's about getting people in and out with what they want.

And so for me it's not going to change payroll that much in the short term, particularly because it's just going to make Walmart more efficient.

And more efficient still means more profit dollars coming to the bottom line at the end of the day.

And the other important side note in this story I think too Gian, before we move on is now all other US grocers and mass merchants too, which really there's only other, really only one other one which is Target.

But all other of those groups of retailers are now 4,600 stores behind on a technology that we A&M2 have been espousing on this show for eight years.

It's been eight years I've been talking about this and now Walmart's all in on it for 4,600 stores.

So, so kudos to them.

It feels like one of those about time moments is what you're saying, Chris.

And I think I would 100% agree.

Of course it's an investment and they've been slow to make investments in retail with some of the uncertainty over the last few years.

But why not?

I see zero reason not to it feels like all of it is a win.

Yeah.

And the other point I'd make too there on that point is yes, 100% agreement.

And then we talked about Carrefour's announcement a couple of weeks ago.

Because the other point about this, to truly unlock this, you have to get some element of computer vision into the operation as well.

And you can do that through fixed position cameras, you can do that through robotics.

Not sure how Walmart's going to play that.

I imagine they're going to be testing that with fusion as well, similar to Care for.

But that is that, that is the unlock here.

And Walmart again is 4,600 stores ahead of everyone else.

That's the thing.

That's the main point that the listeners should be taking away.

Okay, well, let's move to headline number two.

So headline number two, Costco CEO Ron Bakris this week pledged that the warehouse giant will return any tariff refunds it receives directly to its members through lower prices and better values, saying the company will be fully transparent about how it passes along any savings if and when those refunds actually arrive.

Key notes to mention here according to Retail Dive the comments came on Costco's fiscal Q2 earnings call one day after the US Court of International Trade ordered Customs and Border Protection to begin removing defunct tariffs and processing refunds tied to IEEPA based duties that the Supreme Court.

Ieepa, Chris, duties that the Supreme Court struck down last month.

Backrest was direct in saying, as we've done in the past when legal challenges have recovered charges, our commitment will be to find the best way to return this value to our members through lower prices and better values.

Chris, what are your thoughts here?

Does Costco's tariff refund pledge represent a gold standards for how retailers should handle this moment, or do you think it's a smart PR move that may never actually play out?

Oh man, sounds like you've been listening to our show quite regularly.

I think, I think, I think gold standard, I would say, I would say, no, it's not the gold standard because I don't think every brand is the same as Costco.

You know, not every brand's customers identify with Costco the way that Costco's customers do.

But with that said, I do think it's a baller PR move.

It's right in line with Costco's decision earlier this year to hold true to its Deal DEI platform.

And for that reason alone, I think Costco is going to get a ton of PR mileage out of it and the other thing I'd say is Costco also tends to eat what it cooks.

So if and when, which is a big if and when about the biggest if and when one could possibly utter if and when the tariff refunds happen, I would bet that Costco will overtly and also transparently figure out a way to tell their customers how they're going to give them their money back.

It's not going to just be through like you come and get lower prices through our doors.

Like everyone knows that already.

So that's kind of a empty promise.

I think Costco will, you know, have something figured out to that degree.

So.

So, yeah, so I don't think it's a gold standard, but I think it's an absolutely slam dunk PR move given, you know, the success they've had already taking similar stances on issues.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know what else a CEO would say here.

Right.

It seems like the natural response and probably the likely move.

I think the other option that some, most companies are taking at this point is say nothing.

And so I like your point about it sounds in line with their DEI position is they just, Costco has just decided like we will say something.

Right.

We won't leave the elephant in the room.

We're going to talk about this, how we plan to handle the tariff situation if and when it might happen.

I think just days after the announcement was made.

So I think it's bold, the legality and the complicated nature of again, that if and when.

There's a lot to be seen on how it plays out.

But my thoughts were really similar to yours that if they are making this statement, I'd expect nothing less from Costco if and when they receive those refunds than to put this into motion.

Right.

Like even some type of promotion where they're sharing, like it's tariff refund week, I don't know.

But here are the price changes you're going to see or here, here's the membership levels we're going to offer for savings in that regard.

Spoken like a true merchant.

So I'm curious as the RTE again, Jen, then, so like you said, you know, what else are they going to say?

But, but I mean, like there's probably plenty of CEOs saying, like you said, we don't want to say this because we want to get the refunds and we just want to bank it.

So I'm curious, as the rte, what, what impact do you think that has on the morale of customers and both employees, if that ultimately is the position Your company takes, say, a year or two down the line should these refunds come to fruition.

It's something people need to be thinking about in terms of how you want to handle this.

Yeah.

So just for those listening rte, Chris has deemed as retail talent or resident talent expert.

Is that what I'm working with here?

Yes.

Right.

Yeah.

I'm going on the fly, Jed.

I'm in the moment here today.

You know, I'm bringing, bringing my A game.

Okay.

I just, I was doing the acronym sort of backpedaling in my head like rte.

Okay, I got it.

As the resident talent expert, I would say I think I understand your question.

The talent community responds to transparency and these types of bold statements.

Who will make the move?

I think the right people.

Right.

So if someone was thinking about working for Costco or interviewing with Costco, and Costco is one of the only that is making this type of a bold statement if they're the right person, if they're also the person that wants to make the bold statement, that wants to make moves, that wants to challenge ideas and stand their ground.

They're, they're interested in this.

And I think it's good employment branding for Costco to say, like, we know who we are and we show who we are.

It's similar to like a Trader Joe's.

Right.

The bold ways that Trader Joe's decides to not follow are so interesting.

There are some candidates that are not in, are not into it.

They're like, I can't believe they're not in E Commerce.

I want to be innovative in those ways.

There are other candidates that say, how cool is that?

Like, I want to be part of that organization because that aligns with sort of who I am.

So I think I'm answering your question there, Chris, in terms of how I think it could impact the talent market.

You are.

And it's a question that I hadn't thought about until I heard your answer, which is like, yeah, if, if, if you're not, if you're not talking about what you're going to do, you're signaling how you're thinking about this potentially.

And that could have negative implications on your brand in the long run.

If, if it ends up being that you're just pocketing these for extra profit.

So when you've got a competitor out there that's doing or saying they're going to do the exact opposite.

So I just think it's a fascinating question and for, for leadership to ask yourselves, how would I respond in this situation with the company that I'M running.

Yeah.

And I also think, I mean, geez, candidates would love to hear like we're going to offer bonuses with all those tariffs that are refunded, but I don't think that's the answer.

Right.

I mean, maybe that's an internal announcement someone could make, but I think what it does more than anything is it just shows a brand that is willing to speak out.

And so many are so afraid to make any type of announcement in this digital world, in the social media comment section world that we'll get to in a headline later, they're just so afraid to ruffle any feathers the wrong way that they say nothing.

And I don't, I don't see a lot of candidates that can stand behind that or get excited to work for a brand like that, if that makes sense.

Yeah.

And to your point, I imagine for Costco this is going to be a very good announcement for their sales and those bonuses will end up coming because of this and because of the action they're taking.

Like, it's all about the flywheel of how you produce revenue.

All right, well, let's keep moving.

Headline number three, Kroger.

I can't wait to talk about this.

Kroger has created a brand new executive role, chief data and AI officer, and filled it by elevating Milan Mahadevan, the president of its 8451 analytics subsidiary, to lead the company's entire AI and data agenda going forward.

According to Grocery Dive.

The appointment was announced on Kroger's fourth quarter earnings call by Chairman Ron Sargent.

Mahadevan will continue to lead 8451 in addition to taking on the role.

And all of Kroger's data and AI teams will be consolidated under his leadership.

His mandate is to, quote, fully maximize, not.

Not just maximize, Jen, fully maximize Kroger's data assets and develop next generation agentic capabilities that, per the company's statement, will, quote, reinvent how we operate as enterprise and redefine how we engage with our customers.

End quote.

And side note, reinvent is definitely the most overused word in all of retail media coverage.

CFO David Kennerly said the decision to create the position makes, quote, a big statement about how serious we're taking AI, end quote.

And confirmed that Kroger has significant investment dollars in 20, 26 and beyond targeted at making sure that we crystallize the this opportunity.

That too was a quote.

Jen, Here we go is naming an insider from 8451 to run Kroger's AI strategy as its new chief AI officer.

The right move.

I like this move, Chris.

So I'll talk a little bit about why retail media is like near and dear to my heart.

I love talking to retail media leaders because they're, they're many entrepreneurs inside of these large companies.

And so there's just this really cool fact factor about those that do really well in the space.

But Millen has been with 8451 for I think 10, 11 years.

He started in an innovation role and then he moved to the COO and now the president and CEO of the group.

Before that he was with Dunhumby.

So I don't hate this move.

I think it's a really strong choice.

Retail media was just as unheard of as some of this AI opportunity not that long ago.

True.

And I think leading a retail media group of this scale, you could sort of call it an insider.

But in many ways when you're in retail media, you're acting as a vendor partner to the business.

Hence the reason to create 8451 rather than just call it Kroger and a media division.

So if I were recruiting for this role, I like the transferable skills.

I like someone that has led and built what they have in retail media.

I think they're going to have deep experience and expertise in turning data and algorithms into revenue.

I think they're going to be fantastic at understanding how to build out new technology platforms and they've got that cross functional experience.

So they're enough of an insider or Millen in this case I would expect is enough of an insider that he truly understands the business well enough to implement AI in a way that could take hold in all of the areas of the business, not just one, not just merchants, not just operations.

Right where and how could it be successful?

The other thing I know about retail media leaders is like I mentioned earlier, they've got like this entrepreneurial spirit, which means they have this good mix of scrappy.

Figure it out.

You've got two to three years to make this thing profitable.

And by the way, there was nothing there before they got that.

But they also, and Millen specifically in his role I would expect, has incredible vision and strategy.

So they have to have both.

My only pause on this was when you said he will take over this new AI officer role but continue to run 8451.

So to me that's one heck of a role.

They're asking from Millennial.

We have talked to so many leaders that have been part of 8451.

Don Humby, Albertson's retail media collective targets Roundell.

I've never heard anyone, Chris, anyone in the retail media space, no matter their success, size, scale, that say they have it all figured out.

So what that means is Millen is now responsible for continuing to innovate and elevate 8451, which is also still changing at the speed of light, by the way, the opportunities there.

And the CFO is now saying his new side project.

And I don't want to say it's a side project, but that's what it feels like to me.

This is my only hesitation is the CFO is saying, also, could you, quote, reinvent how we operate as an enterprise and redefine how we engage with our customers?

End quote.

So for that reason, Chris, I think I like the move.

I think he could be a fantastic candidate to take this over.

I don't think it shows quite the big commitment that this headline is saying it does, because if they were really that committed, I think they would take him out of 8,451 and truly carve out this new role and make, hey, Millen, this is your job.

Go make it happen.

That would show a bigger investment to me.

Okay.

All right, so.

So what I heard from you is.

And we're gonna go a little long on this one, everyone, because I think.

Well, I already have, Chris, so I set you up.

Yeah, I'm gonna.

Even longer because I think this is a really important topic.

You know, it's basically, it's about how do you implement AI in a retail organization?

And so what I heard from you, Jen, is you're basically saying he's got the qualifications for the job.

Like, he seems like on paper, he seems like the right guy for the job.

My question, though is, is, is making a chief AI Officer the right thing to do?

Because we had A and M on a few.

We had a similar story.

Like, I don't remember who it was, which retailer was.

Might have been Dollar General, but I'm not sure we asked them about that.

And, and they were.

They were a little worried about that because they thought, you know, it was very similar to the approach that we took back in the 90s when E commerce came along.

You.

You separated E Commerce out as this kind of separate thing, and it lived on its own, and therefore it didn't get inculcated back into the full extent of the business.

Which, which, which I'm hearing when you.

When you're saying or you're talking, you're like, that's going to be tough.

Yeah.

Because he's still got to run a retail media business and he's got to figure out how to operationally get this inside of an entire organization too.

So, so, so that's really tough.

So I'm, I personally split on this and I'm going to, I'm going to kind of stream of conscious tell you why.

Jen, I want to go back to you, but you know, on the one hand, on the one hand, I feel like you need a wrangler of AI.

That's the best way I could put it.

Like you need a chief wrangler of AI in your organization.

On the other hand, you also need complete and total buy in from the business units to make AI work for them.

So is putting the data guy in a chief role like that the right move?

I don't know because what I hear from folks, I just did an interview on this that we released on Monday.

What I hear from folks is that data is actually not as important as people think given AI because you don't need the data lakes that you once needed because AI can sort through that in all kinds of new ways.

So I'm not sure the data guy's the right person to put in that now.

He might be fine, but I'm just saying in general now I'm talking broader retail landscape.

You can put it under the cto.

Is that the right move?

Possibly.

And you know Kroger cto, because you know how these things work, Jen, you know he's pissed he didn't get the title.

So there's already going to be infighting about who's going to support who on this initiative.

Or the other option is like, do you just charge your individual business heads deciding how and where to deploy it?

It's definitely a tough question and one to which I don't think anyone has the answers yet, least of all me.

But at the end of the day, it's why we do this show, to help us arrive at a collective understanding of what could or could not be the best move or what are the right moves to make, or definitely the wrong moves to make.

And to me it all comes down to what problems are you trying to solve with AI?

So if, if Kroger has.

So when I hear you, Jen, I say to myself, if Kroger has said we think the best place to deploy AI, first and foremost is in retail media.

Yeah.

Then I could get on board with it.

Like, then it seems like it's very aligned strategically.

But if it's hey, we wanted.

We want to define it across the organization.

I don't know.

I think there's still a lot of.

A lot of.

A lot of matzo balls dangling out there that we got to figure out.

But I don't know.

What do you think to everything I just said?

Matzo balls?

That's what I heard.

No, I'm just joking.

Right?

That's what I think.

No, I hear you on this, and I think it very much depends.

I think it depends on what your mission is with AI.

So if you are using AI as a business to help you run faster, if you were already going from point A to point B, but you're saying, how do we implement AI to now sprint from A to B, then I do not think there's a need for a chief AI officer.

Someone said it to me recently as.

But if you're building a plane with AI that's totally new and different, and you do need someone who is solely dedicated to understanding how you can utilize.

Utilize AI to build that plane and fly.

And so I think it probably depends on your chief Technology officer, who they are, what they already have on their plate, what their initiatives already were.

Certainly it could make sense to throw AI as a major initiative under your cto.

I don't know enough about what that CTO already has going on.

Right.

What systems and technologies, and are they more technical in nature?

Because I think bringing someone in that's a visionary, someone that already understands how to create Buy in.

You said buy in, right, Chris?

Anyone in retail media that has done well and has been there for almost 11 years and continue to see 8451 grow, you're creating buy in on both sides, right?

With the manufacturers, with the business units.

I think if Kroger's mission is to build a plane with AI, if they're like, no, no, no, this thing is bigger, we don't want to just leave our existing processes and do them faster.

We want new, different, bold things.

I don't hate the idea of giving someone this specific title to focus.

Maybe they are thinking like you are, Chris, and dipping their toe in and that's why they haven't taken his 8451 role away.

Right?

They're like, let's see if we made this his title and we're not ready to pull him away from 8,451 yet.

But that.

Those are my thoughts to what you said, Chris.

Those are.

That's where I'm at.

The one other thing I would say.

And because I'VE been talking to a lot of tech companies about this.

In fact, producer Ellen and I just did an interview with somebody where they said they made the key point, which I thought was really smart and articulate, was the boards are all asking everybody, what's your AI strategy?

And that's not the right question.

The right question should be what problems do you have or what goals do you need to accomplish and where is AI going to help?

And so when I see moves like this, it starts me to wonder what questions are being asked in the boardrooms.

And when you're making a chief AI officer, it seems like it's a response potentially.

I'm not saying it is in this case, but potentially it's a big watch out to be like, okay, we're telling our board we're putting somebody in charge of AI because we need a strategy around it.

And that is where the issues come in the long run.

So I would agree with you there.

I don't think an AI strategy, what is that?

Right?

I mean, if someone asked me that for my organization, I'd say that's not the right question.

The question is who do we want to be and what felt hard, impossible, out of reach two years ago and what problems are we trying to solve with AI?

And if, if I had someone like Milan to just Milan, if you'd like to join my team to step in and say, hey, here are our objectives, like here's our big picture out of the box, bold vision for who we want to be in the next few years.

We need you to help implement AI to move those things forward.

I agree with you on the business heads have to be the owner.

They know their business, they know the current process, so they've got to be in the loop.

But I think those business heads are probably thinking about how to run faster.

And Millen could be thinking about building the plane that gets you to the two to three year vision.

Yeah, if.

And I'm giving him a whole lot of credit here.

Again, let's just speak in generality, a chief AI.

Yeah.

And that's, I think that's what we're doing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Moving on to headline number four.

And we are going back to Kroger, Chris.

We're going back to Kroger because this time Kroger has deployed autonomous inventory drones from Corvus Robotics into its cold chain distribution operations, sending them into sub freezing freezer environments to conduct cycle counts that used to require humans to bundle up and walk the aisles.

According to Supply Chain dive, the drones, aka Corvus 1 for cold chain is what they're calling them.

Autonomously scan pallet locations across freezer zones at temperatures as low as -20 degrees Fahrenheit, giving Kroger weekly inventory visibility across its facilities instead of relying on periodic full physical counts.

The system operates without WI FI localization markers, lighting modifications, special barcodes, or a human operator, and does not require any infrastructure modifications to the existing warehouses, which I think matters.

It runs on a robots as service model.

So, Chris, I hear you've spent time in freezers back in your target days.

What do you think of using drones to surveil cold chain inventory?

Oh, geez.

Yes, Jen, I definitely, I definitely have spent time in, in, in freezers and you know, I'm going to drop another acronym because of the Corvus.

The CO think was the acronym you said.

Yeah, so, but, but yes, I have been in freezers and I, you know, it's funny, as I was thinking about this headline, I used to always say that price changes was the worst job in retail.

That's actually not true, Jen.

I probably, I bet you know this too.

The worst job is actually doing anything in the freezer because you can literally die if you get stuck in there too long.

And there's usually a story every year, no joke about somebody that gets stuck in a freezer and dies at some retail operation in the United States.

Kind of morbid, but kind of true.

So there's nothing more worse than, and awful than having to go into a freezer and, and, and in.

On top of that, there's going into the freezer quickly to get something and then there's having to be in the freezer to do inventory counting in a cold environment like this.

So, so I think this is a smart application of drone technology.

You don't have to worry about drones flying overhead of consumers.

You can also get pretty good camera coverage as well relative to fixed position systems.

So it seems like a win win application to me to improve inventory accuracy and availability, which helps the consumer at the end of the day and it keeps your employees safe and out of the freezer, which I'm sure they are going to love.

Jen, what do you think?

Yes, Michigan in March.

I'm ready for warm temperatures and staying out of the freezer myself.

But no, I agree with you here.

I don't see any issues with this.

It's all upside down.

From my experience and what I understand, I also remember being in the freezer to count inventory and by the time you're at the back of the freezer who knows if it's chicken wings or chicken legs?

It's something like that.

But let's get the heck out of here, right?

Oh, yeah.

Pounding inventory in the freezer cannot be accurate.

I've been there, done it.

Takes a special kind of resilience.

Even today when our clients are interviewing for warehouse or distribution leadership, they're still in that way.

And maybe you remember this, Chris, from your days in ops, they still take candidates through a walk through the freezer just to see if they can hang right.

Like, oh, and you'll spend some time in here.

So it's sort of a part of the industry that I don't think anyone would hate to lose.

And cutting out some of those extreme cold temperatures for employees and leaders is just going to increase the accuracy of their inventory as well as create some added perks for those.

You know, that's not their favorite part of their day.

It's not the favorite part of their job.

So definitely no downsides here for me.

I like this use.

Yeah.

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

100.

Yeah.

I mean, anytime you have to give somebody a jacket to do their job, you know, it's kind of like, yeah, this is probably not.

Probably not the best thing I want to be doing on a daily basis is going inside a freezer if it's going to require.

Yeah, I remember it was like, hey, and you get this jacket.

Like, it was a reward.

And you felt really special initially.

And then you were like, I hate this jacket.

Yeah, I've never had fingers anymore, Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I wish I never had to put

on my face when I'm with you.

It reminds me of that song, but, yeah, that's, like, exactly what it is.

You know, it's just.

It's.

It's a terrible job.

All right, last one today, headline number five, Dick's Sporting Goods unexpectedly crashed the top of the Apple App Store's free download chart last weekend, landing at number three, right between Anthropic's cloud and Google's Gemini.

And the reason has almost nothing to do with.

With shopping.

According to Inc.

The catalyst was Anthropic's refusal to allow unrestricted government use of its AI for surveillance and autonomous weapons, which drove a surge of clogged downloads, inadvertently pulling the Dick's app into the spotlight right alongside it.

The Dick's app feature behind the buzz is called Move.

It lets users sync a fitness Tracker and earn three scorecard points for every day they hit 10,000 steps, walk three miles, or complete 30 minutes of physical activity.

Social media lit up with Posts from people who hadn't thought about Dicks in years and suddenly downloaded the app specifically to get paid for going for a walk.

An incentive described as roughly the equivalent of 10 cents a day.

Whoa, Jen, what stands out to you, if anything, about Dick's mobile app suddenly rocking, rocketing up the charts?

Well, I will say I am going to download the app because I'm going for those watches anyways.

I'm taking my 10 cents, so it's working for me just hearing about it now.

So if I understand it correctly, Claude's team posted a screenshot of the top downloaded apps and they were all AI driven, but somehow Dick's Sporting Goods was in the mix.

Am I correct?

Yeah, I guess so.

That part's a little unclear and fuzzy to me too.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so the comment section took off as.

As one does, and then it caused even more buzz around why it's being downloaded and the features that people love and etc.

And people went to download even more, as I will do after we finish the recording for this show.

So what happens here in my mind is this is really just about consumer behavior, right?

Curiosity creeps in from the masses.

Everyone wants to know, why is a sporting goods store in the top Downloads with all LLMs outside of that?

Right?

Everyone wants to be part of what's trending.

And then, voila, even more downloads.

So the cool thing to me about this headline is it sounds like the quiet sort of unsexy work that's being done behind the scenes at Dick's to enhance their app drive.

Their downloads, happen to meet one of those magical opportunity moments of a viral post, and then bam, they're even more popular.

They were already in the top five.

And we'll see what happens when we all start being paid for our walks.

So, yeah, I like it.

I think it's a fun story.

Yeah.

10 cents a day, man.

I'm all, I'm, you know, I'm a frugal guy, Jen.

I'm all about getting $36 a year for recording my fitness activity.

Sure, why not?

You know, of course that assumes I'm doing it every day, which is a high, which is not very likely thing to happen in my life.

But.

But yeah, the other thing that stands out for me too, Jen, is the data.

You know, this is a great data play for Dick's Sporting Goods, particularly for, like we talked about, we talked about two headlines ago, retail media.

You know, adding this kind of data from consumers gives Dick's even more data to refine their advertisements in what is quickly becoming, as you described it very well, the most important additional revenue stream for traditional bricks and mortar retailers to capitalize on.

And so that's the real crux of what's going on here, is the data play.

And getting people like yourselves, like me, to now be interested in the Dick's app and downloading it and potentially correlating it to our workout data is very, very valuable in the long run.

So.

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

Jen, first question.

St. Patrick's Day is less than one week away.

What is your favorite St. Patrick's Day memory?

I know you don't love it when I talk about my alma mater, Michigan State.

Yeah, go ahead.

And I don't try to bring this up in every episode we do, but it just magically happens.

There's something about St. Patrick's Day and East Lansing that go really well together.

So I would say my favorite memory would have to be.

Cannot tell you which year, but it happens to get warm on St. Patrick's Day for the first time, everybody's out and about on campus.

A lot of green beer, a lot of sort of sunny day drinking.

Asleep by 5pm in East Lansing.

That definitely tops the charts for me.

So your lightning round question, Chris, I can't wait to hear your answer on this.

A penguin wandering away from its colony toward the mountains has gone viral online, and I did look up that meme, and the Internet is calling it the nihilist penguin.

Chris, what in reit, in this retail world makes you feel like that nihilist penguin?

Like a nihilist penguin?

What makes me feel like a penguin?

Jen?

That's your question?

That's what you're asking me?

That is my question.

What makes me feel like a penguin?

Oh, my God.

Off the top of my head, the only thing I can think of is my walk or my general gait.

As I get older, I feel like I'm walking more like a penguin with each passing year, Jen.

I feel like that's.

That's what's going on for me.

I'm kind of waddling as I get older, which is, well, nothing to think about.

Not if you download the Move app from Dick Sporting Goods.

Right?

Yes, yes, yes, of course.

That'll hurt my knee, and then I'll just be waddling with, you know, without any.

Anything I could do about it, too.

But.

But.

All right, Jen, since you brought up Michigan State, I was going to try to preempt you, but you preempted me, so March Madness is coming on very Fast here.

What chances are you giving old Tom Izzo and your Spartans this year?

It's always hard to count Izzo out in March.

Yeah, it is for sure.

But I did watch that loss to Michigan.

What was it this weekend?

This past weekend, actually.

Yeah, that was really, really tough.

I thought we had them this time.

Close enough, but not a win.

So I'll give them a solid chance.

I'm not going to give it a percentage here.

I'll put them in the middle of my bracket as the winner every single time.

But my husband's a Nebraska fan.

They are looking pretty, pretty great this year.

It's been a fun story.

We're also watching Illinois.

I'm from Illinois, so it'll be a Big Ten year for basketball, I hope, and I'm going to give is a shot.

So probability.

Probably.

Probably they make the Final Four.

What are you giving it?

What are you giving it?

20%.

50%.

Oh, come on, Jen.

Did you say 20?

Yeah, 20.

Of course I did.

Yeah.

They just lost to Michigan.

Well, whatever.

March is different.

We can't lose three times to Michigan.

Okay, 85.

85%.

All right, you heard it here, folks.

You heard it here.

85%.

Michigan State is in the Final Four.

All right, I'm loyal from.

All right, so, Chris, Friday, this Friday is Friday the 13th.

Are you superstitious at all?

Or is there one thing you just sort of won't mess with just in case?

Oh, that's interesting.

How superstitious am I?

You know, believe it or not, I'm not superstitious about Friday the 13th.

I've never even seen a Friday the 13th movie.

Not a single one, if you can believe that.

Which is surprising given my love of movies.

But I don't like horror movies at all.

But I will say this.

I always knock on wood.

You know, if somebody says something, I'm always knocking on.

What?

You do the same thing.

Yeah, I do.

I do.

Yeah.

I'm always knocking on wood.

I don't know why, but.

So I must be superstitious to some degree, you know, for that reason.

So, producer Ella, how superstitious are you?

Yeah, I'm pretty superstitious, I'd say.

Back in my sports days, I was athlete.

Yes.

Wearing the same ponytails.

I was doing my makeup the same way.

But when it comes to Friday the 13th, I kind of think it's a mindset, like the voodoo, the.

You know, if you think it's going to be bad, it might be bad.

All right, Ella, so let's bring you in again.

So what, what headline won the show for you?

I'm thinking I told everyone, folks, I told everyone that I had no idea which way Ella was going to go here.

And so I was watching her response in the zoom as we were doing the headlines.

And so I was thinking, I'm thinking you're going with Dick's Sporting Goods.

Is that the one you're going with?

Yep, you are correct, Chris.

But I'm giving myself two answers here because from a producer perspective, I think the best nuggets from today was 100% headline number three with your banter about Kroger.

And I think I don't have an opinion on this, but I think overall this will spark some really good conversation throughout the industry.

So that's my producer pick, My Gen Z pick.

Yes, take Sporting Goods.

I think it's incredibly interesting how much the Internet can redirect attention.

So having this, this move app go go crazy on social media.

And one viral screenshot.

A good review.

Someone talking about it on TikTok gets it to the top of the charts.

And I agree with you, Jen.

I'm definitely going to download it because I need a good incentive to get myself to go work out.

So those are my picks for the week.

That was going to be my question if you actually went out and downloaded yet Ella.

So.

Or if you are planning to so.

Yes, so.

God, all our Dick Sporting Goods fans are going to be loving this show.

Oh, my gosh.

All right, on that note, happy birthday to Thora Birch, Terrence Howard and to the man who played Peter Thiel in the Social Network, Wallace Langham.

And remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business, make it Omnitok.

Our Fast Five podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week's top news news and our daily newsletter, the Retail Daily Minute, tells you all you need to know each day to stay on top of your game as a retail executive and also regularly feature special content that is exclusive to us and that we all take a lot of pride in doing just for you.

Thanks as always for listening in.

Please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcast or on YouTube.

You can follow us today by simply going to YouTube.com omnitalk retail rte, aka Jed.

If people want to get in touch with you, there are lists listening to this podcast.

Want to pick your brain or anyone at the team at J Recruiting.

What's the best way for them to do that?

They can always find us@jrecruitingservices.com they can also find me and the company on LinkedIn.

So Jen is J, E, N, N2N's Chris Han, H A H N and then J recruiting services on LinkedIn.

We spend a lot of time there, being in the recruiting space.

All right, well, that concludes today's show.

Like I said at the outset, we'll be back in two weeks where I'll be broadcasting live from shop talk spring 2026.

So on behalf of all of us here, on behalf of Jen, producer Ella and myself, as always, be careful out.