Walmart Presses Its ‘Advantage,’ ALDI Recruits Teens & E.L.F. Goes Down A New Rhode

The Omnich Fast 5 is brought to you by the A and M Consumer and Retail Group.

The A and M Consumer and Retail Group is a management consulting firm that tackles the most complex challenges and advances its clients, people and communities toward their maximum potential.

CRG brings the experience, tools and operator like pragmatism to help retailers and consumer products companies be on the right side of disruption and Miracle, the catalyst of Commerce.

Over 450 retailers are now opening new revenue streams with marketplaces, dropship and retail media and succeed.

Leading with Miracle, you can unlock more products, more partners and more profits without the heavy lifting.

What's holding you back?

Visit Miracle.com to learn more.

That's M I R A K L.com and Simbi Simbi powers the most retail banners in the world with today's only multimodal platform for in store intelligence.

See how Albertsons, BJ's Spartan Nash and Wakefern win with AI and automation at Circle.

Simbrobotics.com and Infios.

@ Infios, they unite warehousing, transportation and order management into a seamless, adaptable network.

Infios helps you stay ahead from promise to delivery and every step in between.

To learn more, visit infios.com and Clear Demand pricing shouldn't be guesswork Clear Demand's AI powered pricing data and optimization solutions help retailers stay competitive while protecting margins, Smarter pricing, stronger profits.

Clean Clear Demand makes it happen.

Learn more@cleardemand.com omnitalk and finally, Ocampo Capital.

Ocampo Capital is a venture capital firm founded by retail executives with the aim of helping early stage consumer businesses succeed through investment and operational support.

Learn more@ocampo capital.com hello, you're listening to.

Omnitalk's Retail Fast Five ranked in the top 10% of all podcasts globally and currently the only retail podcast ranked in the top 100 of all business podcasts on Apple Podcasts.

The Retail Fast Five is the podcast that we hope makes you feel a little smarter, but most importantly, a little happier each week too.

And the Fast 5 is just one of the many great podcasts you can find from the Omnitok Retail Podcast Network alongside our Retail Daily Minute, which brings you a curated selection of the most important retail headlines every morning and our Retail Technology Spotlight series, which goes deep each week on the latest retail technology trends.

It's June 4, 2025.

I'm one of your hosts, Anne Mazinga.

And I'm Chris Walton and we are.

Here once again to discuss all the top headlines from the past Week making waves in the world of omnichannel retailing.

And, Chris, we are coming to you live from Barcelona for Shop Talk Europe.

What's been your best moment?

What best thing that you've learned or done so far in your time here in Espana?

Oh, man.

There's been a couple standout moments for me, and honestly, both of them have very little to do with retail.

One of them has to do with our podcast, but the first one is the better one, which is we were at dinner the other night, and.

We.

Were listening to a Swedish person regale us about how moose, particularly moose, are dangerous to drivers in Sweden.

And not for the reasons you'd expect, I guess.

When you hit a moose in Sweden, what can happen is the moose can go on the top of your car and that it contains so much blood that people actually drown and die from the blood seeping into the vehicle.

Yeah.

This is a real thing that happens in Sweden that you and I were unaware of.

And it's become the running joke of the show amongst all of us and our friends at Shop Stock.

So drive through any animal if you're driving, except for a moose, you stop for the moose, because you can drown in moose blood.

The more you know, Omnitok retail fans, the more you know.

Yeah.

What was the other thing?

The other one was.

I was sitting.

I was talking to Rachel.

We were.

I was at a table yesterday getting ready for doing some work, and I was sitting at a table with people getting ready to go on stage, and.

And I was sitting next to Rachel, tippograph of Mick Mac.

And I was just talking to her, and.

And there's a woman next to me, but she couldn't see my badge.

My badge was, like, under the table.

She couldn't see who I was.

And she's like, wait, do you do a podcast?

And I'm like, yes, I do.

And she's like, I recognize your voice.

And I was like, wow, that's so great.

I've never heard that before.

You know, usually we get, like, in the elevator, we'll be like, hey, why do I know you?

Like, have I seen you on social media?

I've never gotten.

I recognized your voice.

I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I think you make it.

You make it whatever you want, Chris.

Yeah.

She called out.

She's like, did you guys do the podcast on.

On ev charging at convenience stores?

I was like, yes, we did.

You know, we talk about all kinds of stuff.

And she's like, yeah, I listen to you guys regularly.

I love the shorts.

She loves how we clip it out too.

So our Fast 5 shorts, for those that, you know, don't want to listen to the whole episode.

You can just take what you want because she said, you know, you know, sometimes there's topics, you know, that I'm not interested in shorts.

Just let me get right to the point.

So, yeah, so I thought that was cool.

Man.

That is so cool, Chris.

So did you get her name?

Like, do you know who this.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

No, yeah, I should, should.

I meant to shout out her name.

It's Jillian from Deloitte.

Yeah, Jillian from Deloitte.

So shout out to Jillian.

Hope she's listening.

She's probably not.

She's probably just listening to the shorts.

We don't do the intro in the shorts, but.

But who knows?

But yeah, so, yeah, so shout out to Jillian.

So, yeah, it's been a fun week so far.

It's been a good, good, good conference and we got a lot of interesting headlines.

So should we get to it?

Let's see.

Do it.

All right.

In this week's Fast5, we've got news on Elf's acquisition of Haley Bieber's beauty brand for a billion dollars.

That's billion with a b.

Billion dollar Bieber.

Billion dollar Bieber.

Ooh, I like what you did there.

I know, I know.

That was, that was.

That was cool.

All right.

Victoria's Secret's website shut down last week.

Aldi's new digital work experience program for teens in the uk, David Bridle's new store concept, Diamonds and Pearls.

And Infios's Eugene Amood stops by for five insightful min.

How AI will impact order management systems in the future.

A topic that is near and dear to the retail geek in me.

All right, but we begin today with news on a trend we are hearing more and more about every week.

Food as medicine.

Ann.

Chris.

Headline number one is exactly that.

Walmart has introduced a virtual badge to help Medicare Advantage Advantage members identify items they can buy with their OTC benefits.

According to Retail Dive, people can add their benefit cards to their virtual Walmart wallets to access a digital experience that includes a product badge and search filter to identify items that are eligible for those benefits when shopping in stores.

The badge will appear when people scan eligible items barcodes with the Walmart app, the retailer's Quote Benefits program eligible badge appears on a wide variety of over the counter food and wellness products such as meal replacement shakes, ground coffee, vitamins, and cold and flu medication.

Customers can also access a tracker that lets them monitor their unused benefits.

Walmart said the Everyday Health Signals platform can enhance the well being of Medicare Advantage customers by providing information that can help them make healthier choices by analyzing their Walmart purchases.

The AI powered tool can provide the customer with the nutrition analysis and shopping list.

Chris, this is also the A and M put you on the spot right away here bright and early in Barcelona.

A and M wants to know on.

Three hours of sleep in Barcelona.

Yes, let's start off hot.

Yes.

A and M says we recognize and applaud Walmart's efforts to help Medicare members reduce the billions of dollars of their annually forfeited over the counter benefits.

Given this is a digital only virtual wallet and barcode scanning discovery process.

Is the overlap big enough to big enough yet between Medicare members and digital savviness to meaningfully succeed in this effort?

What a beautifully worded question.

And now I'll let you take take the stage and provide an answer.

Yeah, thank you and thank you.

That's so kind of you.

So yeah, I mean my answer to that question is yes, yes it does.

I think it will be meaningful.

And the reason I say that from Walmart's perspective, because the bar is incredibly low.

All you're talking about here is software.

You're deploying software.

So any usage you get on this is gravy.

And the cost of trying to do this imagine is not prohibitively expensive.

And the upside if you get people to use it is incredibly credibly high.

And digital wallets, while, while still new for some, are, you know, gaining more and more traction each and every day.

So that's why I laud this move because it's a trend we talked about.

You know, I said at the outset food is medicine that we're only going to hear more about because the number one answer to everything and everything in the world is money.

And there's a lot of money to be claimed for programs like these that is just going unused quite frankly.

So and I've been talking to a lot of companies recently.

I've been talking to I spending, I've actually been spending.

It's funny this headline came up because I've been spending a lot of time with a company called Sifter Price spent four hours with them in the last month just talking about this topic.

And they're a company that helps retailers identify items based on their nutritional ingredients and everything.

And so we were talking about like this similar use case for GLP1, like how do you help customers identify GLP1 friendly items very quickly and there's a merchandising use case in that.

So the last part I'd say is I just love this too because it a hundred percent aligns with Walmart's brand promise of save money, live better and that's what the world needs is right now.

And so I, I just can't do anything but applaud this.

I think, I think it's a great move and they're just going to learn from doing it too.

That's the other thing.

So like there's, there's no risk here.

Yeah, no, I, I agree.

I think it's really smart.

I think you, you're, you hit on it right at the beginning when you said like it's all, there's only benefit that comes from this.

Sure they might not see the adoption early on that they were hoping, but it puts them in a really good position to be prepared for even the next generation, which may be in a year or two.

Even where people are starting to use an app based platform to do shopping, especially, especially as search behaviors are changing.

I think yes, they may not start to ad some of the apps right away but if Walmart's thinking about this now, it's not only valuable to them, I think in an app, but it also helps their ecosystem prepare for searches like the ones you're talking about where people are saying are there products that qualify for Medicare Advantage and can you build me a shopping list and a meal planning tool for the week that includes those products?

Like that's a very real search term that anyone could be searching on Walmart right now.

And so I think it's natural, the natural progression is yes, now you go to the Walmart app to fulfill that shopping journey.

And finally I think this is also something I imagine that they could start to put on the digital shelf labels that they're going to be rolling out soon too.

Like there's a place there where potentially they could be putting some of this information.

I know they've already started to do this with promos or even snap an EBT eligible items.

So I think there's a state where this could go.

And so the key point here is they're preparing about it, they're thinking about it right now and retailers around the globe should really be, be paying attention to thinking about their own investments here in this type of data about the products.

It's now no longer just about ingredients anymore.

It's about the other, the other queries that will be coming up or how people are going to Be searching for the products.

Yeah, no, it's a great point.

It's about, it comes back to item data and getting your item data cataloged, you know, in similar ways like this.

Because you're right.

Yeah.

I mean, ChatGPT's usage rates are through the roof and people are going to start doing searches like that, whether it's on Walmart or through, through the generative AI interfaces.

The other point I'd make in closing too, and we've talked a lot on the show about, you know, like investments in in store clinics and things like that, you know, I think this is a much simpler way to go about it and to make a palpably diff, you know, meaningful difference in people's lives, relatively speaking too.

So I think, you know, it's, it's smart.

I think we're going to see more people jumping on this bandwagon.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

I hadn't even thought about that.

But you're absolutely right.

Like it's a way that they can get back to your live better part of their, their promise.

Yeah.

And you don't have to spend any money on physical infrastructure to make this happen, you know, as well, which is, you know, a very, very enticing way to think about, you know, how do you capture the money from, you know, that's going around in the healthcare and the food is medicine trend.

All right, headline number two, ELF Beauty.

Last week, I can't wait to get your thoughts on this.

Agreed to buy Haley Bieber's road, which I had to ask.

And how you, how you actually say that?

Because it's R H O D E whose trademark look is its glossy dewy skin, AKA glazed donut.

Also something I had to ask Ann about that I learned from you yesterday.

So for and they acquired it for $1 billion.

Again, according to Bloomberg in RDE, Elf is betting on a premium range containing just 10 main or hero products including Pocket blush and Glazing milk, which blur the boundaries between skincare and makeup.

This looks, this looks like a good fit with Elf selection, which is more focused on cosmetics and is cheaper.

For example, Elf's average price point is about $6.50.

Anne, I didn't know that.

Compared with almost $9.50 for mass market cosmetics brand.

Whereas Rhodes average is about $29.

So a significant increase.

But Elf is also paying a pretty polished price for Rode, also known for its sleek minimal package.

I can't take credit for that.

I got to give credit to Bloomberg for that one.

The $800 million in cash and stock payable at the close of the deal expected before September equates to a 3.8 times road sales of 212 million in the year that went and concluded on March 31st of 2025.

And that if you include the additional $200 million payable based on road's performance over the next 3 years, the multiple is actually 4.7 times.

So, Ann, my question for you is this.

Do you think ELF will see the long term payoff it hopes from acquiring road?

You know, I think that it's hard to say whether or not that will be.

No one has the crystal ball.

However, I, you're hedging.

I think this is a really good move.

No, I'm not hedging.

I think this is a really good move from elf.

I'm gonna start bringing prune shears to, to the, to the, to the, to the podcast every time you hedge.

Well, I mean, I'm, I think I'm just making a, a reasonable analysis of this, of this, considering both sides of the story.

It sounds like you're, it sounds like you're leading one way, though, so I'm curious to hear what it is.

I am, Yeah.

I mean, I, I, I'm certain as much as a Bloomberg reporter who wrote this article is, but.

Oh, you think they hated it?

You think the Bloomberg reporter.

I think that they were not positive on this and I certainly can realize that.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a, it's a lot of money going into a category that hasn't seen a lot of growth.

I mean, you have other beauty, like we'll say influencer, celebrity led beauty companies that aren't doing as well.

Cody had to sell Kylie cosmetics because it wasn't or sorry, not Kylie Kim.

Kim Kardashian's makeup line and fragrance line because it wasn't doing as well.

Like, this has not been the time for celebrity inspired brands.

However, I think that Rhode is, is different here.

If you look at Hailey Bieber's involvement, true involvement, we had this discussion yesterday in the creation of, of each of the products.

She's been very specific to only be releasing a small number of products.

I mean, I think that this stands a better chance than some of the others would.

And it's the reason why ELF is buying Road Over.

You know, Selena, Selena Gomez's rare beauty or makeup by Mario or another one.

I know you, I know you know all the names that I'm talking about right now, Chris, but I actually do know those.

In fairness to me, I actually do Know those?

Yeah, I just didn't know ROAD well.

But I think that the benefit here is really going to be on elf's side.

However, I think they're going to learn a lot from this premium line bringing them in.

As you mentioned, like, ELF started out as a, as a high end, approachable, like high end beauty quality products, low price point.

Like they started their products, I think it was at like 1, 3 and $5 when they came out three years ago.

So I, I think that the opportunity here for ELF is really to start to attract and learn from ROAD and how they might be able to start to get into the premiumization of their products because it's going to cost them more to, to produce them.

They talked last week at the same time they bought, they made this deal about how tariffs are going to increase the prices of their products by a dollar per product.

I think it allows them to start to, to start to eke into that upper echelon category and maybe they have Hayley like inspire a collection or they have Hayley partner with them on like collection.

That I think is a really important category and a really important audience to try to get after right now.

So people who can, who maybe can spend a little bit more than the ELF price point but aren't ready to pay $28 for a, for a, a the glazed donut.

Look, Chris.

So I, I love it.

I'm, I'm very happy with this move.

But no.

So now you love it.

Okay, good to know.

Good to know.

I don't know.

I mean, I, I have no idea.

And I will willingly admit to the audience I know literally nothing about the CPG beauty space.

So, you know, I'm not gonna have much to say here, but I think, you know, listening to you talk, there are a lot of things that have to be true for this to work out.

And every time I hear that, I get a little concerned, especially when the price point is that different from what, you know, the acquiring brand typically is known for and successful for.

So it's a different, it's a different muscle that elf's gonna have to use to make this successful.

So I think that, I think net.

Net actually hearing you talk, I'm actually a little bit more skeptical of this working out.

To say nothing of the fact I have no idea how, you know, Hailey Bieber's social influence is going to continue to, you know, move forward over the next decade, but which is a real factor too.

You have to factor that into the probability of success.

But.

Right.

But I, you know, my Last shout out to Haley, fellow stroke survivor, for getting her B.

And you know, she got her B like she got her two bees.

Actually, to your point, she got the Bieber and the billions.

So.

Yeah, I think the billions are the ones that I'd hang on to more closely than the.

Other than the Bieber last name.

But.

But yeah, yeah, it sounds like there's.

Been some friction in that, in.

On that side of things too.

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, I apologize.

Yes.

Yeah, I know about this stuff.

Oh, my God.

I do think that, like, you have to give Haley credit though.

Like Glossier.

Glossier couldn't do this.

And they were this also a direct to consumer skincare brand, not founded on a celebrity.

Like there is some opportunity here.

So if anyone can, can make this work, I think Haley's the right person to bet on.

But you're totally right.

There's a lot of other external factors that could impact the success of this down the road.

Yeah.

But in fair.

In fairness to Glossier, Glossier probably had offers and probably either didn't take them or has chosen not to take them too.

Because typically with these like, you know, typically with these like, celebrity inspired brands, they're built to do exactly this.

They're built to get acquired at a high multiple very quickly because generally speaking, they're run by legal teams out of la.

I don't know that that's the case here, but I imagine somebody is playing, is telling Hayley where to go and what to do and what, what products to evaluate, you know, at a certain time.

So, you know, you know how this works.

Let's just say.

Let's just say I bet Emily Weiss is not super thrilled right now that this just happened.

And of all the work she's been doing for the last, what, 10 years, she.

She didn't quite net that.

Yeah, I bet.

I bet she's.

I bet she's wishing.

Yeah, I mean, I have no idea, but I bet she's wishing she sold out a long time, potentially wishing she sold out a long time ago.

But then that's not true to her ethos of her brand either.

So who knows?

But who knows?

All right, let's go to headline number three, Chris, another topic that you'll be very familiar with.

We're talking Victoria's Secret.

No, you actually are.

The.

You actually have done a lot of work on this headline right now, so I'm excited to hear your perspective.

But headline number three, Victoria's Secret shut down its website in response to a security incident last week.

According to cnet, On Wednesday, the clothing and lingerie company replaced its regular US Retail site with a note to customers saying that it was aware of and dealing with the incident, adding that its website and some services were temporarily shut down as a, quote, a precaution, end quote.

It did not offer details about what kind of security incident occurred, but said that its brick and mortar Victoria's Secret and Pink stores remained open.

Chris, should Victoria's Secret site outage last week be a wake up call for American retailers?

Oh my God, 100%, yes.

And I mean, we asked Michael Prendergast this two weeks ago when we had A and M on the podcast and he, you know, he anecdotally said from his experience as interim CEO at Joann's that he would put the estimate at 20% of the US retailers that are actually prepared for cyber, you know, for cyber crimes to deal with them as they come.

And I, you know, for the last, again, for like about the last month, I've been asking a lot of people about this.

Both at this conference at Zoom Calls, I've talked with companies like, like Bodify.

And I was talking to Rochelle Thielen, the CEO of Traject Data at Shop Talk Europe.

And what I've been learning is that we are only going to see more of these incidents incidences, you know, which makes me feel good about our show because we've been talking about this and then, I mean, I don't feel good for Victoria Seeger, but I feel good for our show because we talked about this before it happened and then it happened and there's, we're going to see more of it because of the rise of AI, because the way with AI proliferating in the space, in the retail space, the way it is, particularly with agentic AI coming into the fold now.

Yeah, retailers and brands, websites are going to see more and more bots scraping their sites each and every day.

Which means when you think about it from an operations standpoint, it's going to become more and more difficult for the retailers to understand who are the good bots and who are the bad bots.

But yet the overall traffic of bots to the site is going to increase exponentially.

So not surprisingly, when that happens, more of the sophisticated threats are going to get through because the security systems are having to watch more things.

So the cyber criminals are smart and they know how to capitalize on recent trends better and faster than anyone.

And so the retailers are going to be, it's going to be difficult for them to stop them.

So I think Retailers listening.

If you're in this space, you probably already know this, but, you know, if you're an executive who's deciding budgets and you're a CFO trying to figure out, you know, how much do we earmark towards what.

I would, I would probably be leaning into this a little bit more, at least conversationally, in the boardrooms.

Yeah, I, I think that was an awesome overview, Chris.

And I think the last thing that I would just say, which we, you know, we talked about with Michael Prendergrass when we were talking about the, you know, the teams from co op and Harrods and others that have been hit in the UK recently with cyber attacks.

The, the loss to customers is so high, like when you talk and, oh yeah, think about like, even the reviews in and some of the commentary that they got for this Victoria Secret reporting.

Like, they're bad, they're bad.

They're people who, once you lose those customers, you're already doing so much to get them in the door to maintain them as a customer, especially for a legacy brand like Victoria's Secret or like Joanne that Michael was talking about last week, the cost to acquire those customers, again, I have to imagine far out it exceeds the cost to just get your cybersecurity house in order.

So I think that's the, that's the thing here, that it's not just the, the cost of the loss of data or of time or of, you know, resour put towards, towards getting the site back up online.

It's really the cost and the impact that this has on your customer base too, that I think people need to be putting into that consideration set it.

Puts in the mind of your customer.

Do I want to switch?

Right.

And that's never something you want to have happen, especially after a purchase like is happening in this Victoria's Secret example too.

And let's bring Eugene onto the show now to talk about the rise of AI and agentic AI, particularly in terms of how it relates to order management systems.

Foreigning us now for five insightful minutes is Eugene Amigood, the Chief Innovation Officer at infios.

Eugene is here to help us separate fact from fiction when it comes to harnessing AI for your supply chain.

Okay, Eugene, let's start with this.

AI is freaking everywhere.

But as the Chief Innovation Officer, how do you think about deploying across the supply chain?

I mean, like, I get bombarded every day with everything from predictive algorithms to gentic AI.

How should our audience think about separating true innovation from hype?

In this era, we think about purposeful Innovation to start with, right?

Again, there is a lot of AI hype and the way kind of to break through that is I think of different use cases and the right technology, right approach for these use cases.

When we think about AI, there is machine learning and predictive analytics, there are optimizers as well as the latest and greatest gen AI.

And depending on the use case, there's the right kind of tool to address it.

So first of all is partner with customers to co develop on specific use cases, on specific needs, instead of kind of thinking it within the black box.

And number two, many of us already have existing systems deployed and the innovation has to be augmentative, meaning that I may create a new module, new component that solves my specific need, drop it in, realize the benefit in maybe a couple weeks to a couple months and move on.

I have no more time to deploy these capabilities over long period of time.

So again, make it with purpose, use case based, as well as making it augmentative.

Eugene the retail industry is in a constant state of disruption right now.

And it's.

It seems like staying ahead is more than just reacting to market uncertainty.

It means designing your business operation for adaptability.

How would you say that infios thinks about innovation not only to navigate this change, but really to predict what's ahead?

With so much supply chain uncertainty and constant changes, right.

The deterministic rules and ability to configure the systems becomes almost impossible, right?

Again, during COVID there was a lot of disruption, but over time people thought, well, maybe it will stabilize.

And now we all understand, right, that this uncertainty does not go away.

If anything, it becomes more and more complex, right?

And so how do you react to this uncertainty?

So historically you would kind of set up all these different rules, configurations in your systems, or deploy the entire system to address it.

But now it has to be a lot more dynamic.

It has to be a lot more aligned with the business needs versus the systems, right?

So again, if I have a labor strike in my port, how do I comprehensively address it?

If I have a strategy to get close to my customers, how do I comprehensively address it and how do I react to these uncertainties?

And that's where AI and ML come in, where it can look at historical data, right?

And being able to react based on that historical data and make some predictions on it.

However, historically, the planning systems used to look at years and years worth of data.

But what we're seeing now from planning perspective, right, look at tariffs that change pretty much daily, or the labor strikes, et cetera.

You have to react so much faster.

So now the scope becomes so much more important to kind of look at the near real time data and to be able to react accordingly.

You know, the one thing you guys always talked about to me was like this idea of a quote unquote brain or a decision engine.

Given what you're describing, is that concept still in play here or how should we think about that?

Yeah.

Realigning the system capabilities to be closer to the kind of functional solutions that business needs is absolutely key.

And the decision engine sits at the core of it.

Historically, these decisioning engines used to be within transportation or within order.

What's the most effective way to fulfill an order?

What's the most cost effective way to ship a load across the country?

Now all of those need to be tied together to be able to react to those disruptions.

And the decisioning engine sits kind of outside and makes all this kind of both deterministic as well as AI based decisions.

Looking at all this holistically, which is not really possible in the old world when those decision engines used to be isolated.

Got it.

So.

So if I say that back to you, then you're saying that there's basically there's like going to the decision engine still matters, but there's almost a module in and of itself that is going to command and control everything else that's going on, Is that right?

Exactly.

So this module is the key, Chris, as you mentioned, because if it's an independent module, you can deploy it fast, you can realize the benefits, the intelligence of each individual system you rely on less.

But now this kind of consolidated decisioning engine can come up with the most comprehensive and kind of cost effective whatever you're optimizing on solutions that you would need.

What's a breakthrough that you see happening on the horizon?

Something that you believe is going to fundamentally redefine commerce in the next three to five years.

Again, there are two parts and I think they're both aligned.

So business is moving from again, this systematic approach of buying individual systems like OMS or front end or payment, et cetera, to kind of solving business needs.

And on the other side from technology is again, as I was mentioning, from this microservice to modules to agentic.

And what gets me excited the most, because I'm in the supply chain execution side.

This whole gen AI started as a natural language kind of processing, LLMs models, et cetera.

So it was really good, and I would always say it was really good for planning systems because planners interact in that way from execution.

The Less human intervention there is, the better your system works.

So historically, these LLMs and Genai was not built for supply chain execution.

So I think the most innovation will come from that space.

And now with the new technology around agentic, around this kind of autonomous agents being able to orchestrate in the real time.

Right.

Not spinning now, you know, chatgpt and you're asking a question, right?

If I'm scanning shipments, I'm scanning them, you know, within milliseconds.

If I'm processing orders, I'm processing it within the right single digit milliseconds.

And so that kind of ability to meet the business needs with this new tack, it's probably what's going to evolve over time in a very exciting and new ways.

Since you're saying protect the brain.

Thank you, Eugene.

That was great.

Exactly.

Eugene.

Headline number four.

Aldi is running digital work experience courses for teens.

According to Internet Retailing, Aldi has launched a free virtual work experience program for anyone over the age of 13 to help them discover retail careers.

The online course, developed with Spring Podcast, is designed to offer insights into various retail roles, from warehouse and store operations to office positions.

Participants will engage with videos and guidance from Aldi employees, as well as interactive quizzes and activities.

Upon finishing the program, they will receive a certificate to strengthen their CVs.

You can tell where this headline originated or resumes for future applications.

Since launching, Aldi says that it has already attracted more than 2,000 signups in hopes to inspire even more young people to explore careers in retail.

Ann, are you buying or selling all these new virtual work experience course for teens?

I'm buying the idea.

I think it's great.

I knew you would.

I think they're going to have to figure out how they get traffic.

Like that's my, that's my biggest concern here is are they going to see the payoff for the investment?

I went into the tool yesterday and I recommend checking this out.

I mean, it's really impressive.

Like I went through a couple of the sessions.

They help you set up a LinkedIn page.

They do like interview prep and practice.

Like it's a great thing.

I'm making my 14 year old sign up for this because I think it's a great tool.

Now, will this, will this result in Aldi getting an influx of new talent?

I don't know.

I think that's still to be determined.

But I do think, you know, having a son who's going through this process right now of trying to get his first job like this is a way to start to get them engaged and involved with your brand early on and leave a good taste in their mouth.

I think no matter where they end up going.

Like he could put this on a resume for a local grocery retailer or something when he's going in.

And there's really nowhere else to do that when you're early on in your job search.

And I think the other component of this that we're hearing loud and clear here at Shop Talk Europe is the investment in the people that are working in your stores, getting training as early as possible, continuing to train people as much as possible to do a multitude of skills, not just training them on task specific jobs, but really preparing them for a career in, in retail.

Because I think that that's a hard thing for a lot of retailers to find is, is good service right now.

So I think that this, this is Aldi making a strong investment here.

Whether or not it pays off still, still to be determined.

But I'm curious if you are buying or selling this, Chris, you can probably.

Tell what I'm thinking based on how I responded to your initial take.

Well, so as an actual recruitment tool, I'm selling this, but as a feel good branding story, which I think you just, you just pretty much outlined the case for that.

I'm buying that.

Like, I think it's a, it's a great branding story for Aldi, but the reason I'm selling it as a recruitment, yeah, I just, I just don't think it's grounded in the reality of how this actually works.

And the reason I say that is I spoke to Natalia Wallenberg, the chief human resources officer at AJO Delez, on stage here at this conference on Monday at Shop Talk Europe.

And she said, she talked about very extensively how they've built the process by which they can reject or accept an application to work in their grocery stores in eight minutes.

So that tells you the amount of traffic that's coming through and how quickly they need to short through it and how often they're having to replace the labor in the grocery industry.

Right.

So you have to move really fast, fast to, to actually get the benefit out of this, which is kind of antithetical to like sitting down, taking a training course, all that kind of stuff.

And you know, how much evaluation is really going into it, you know, at this, at the grocery store entry level.

So I think programs like this sound good, but they don't really move the needle to me and actually getting people into the door and through the vetting process, which is really what you need, you know, at the end of the day.

So I don't, I don't know.

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm skeptical of this one.

Do you, could you see a world where, could you see a world where, you know, like before the first interview, like yes, you have the eight minute process of acceptance for an interview or rejection.

Could you see a world where they're using something like this pre in person interview like you made it into the next round.

This is like a qualifier or some component of this is a qualifier for, for making it to an in person interview or no.

You don't think it's worth it?

You can tell right away?

Yeah, I don't know.

Having worked in the stores, I just find it hard to believe that the average person applying for an entry level job is going to take the time to do that.

Number one, you could mandate it, I guess as part of your application process, which would be good.

But I worry then that you're shutting down the funnel too much as well versus just getting them in and doing the on the job training based on the typical criteria you screen for.

So yeah, that, that's what's going through my head right now.

To answer your question, Anne, I, I.

Guess I'm just curious like yes, you, I mean, yes, they can, they've got the process down to eight minutes at Ahold.

But are they.

Would it, would it be a more worthwhile investment to spend more time in some of those entry level jobs to invest more so that there's less turnover so that you're, you're only doing this one, you know.

Yeah.

And all.

And I use the Ahold example just to talk, talk just to illustrate the speed at which, you know, things are happening.

But you know.

Yes, 100 Ah, hold.

Spent a lot of time on stage talking about the additional on the job training they're trying to give people too and the tools and resources that they want to give them to help them do the job so that they're getting people in quickly because it's, it's about, it's always, it's about hiring, training and retention, those three things.

And so you have to have all of that.

And this one, this one kind of falls in the netherworld of that when you think about the actual employee because it's more about giving education and certification to someone that could eventually work for you and it even leans more towards like the office side of it like a career in retail.

So like that's where it's just.

This one feels a little dissonant to me in terms of how it fits into the whole pie.

But, but I could be wrong.

I think Net net though it's still a great branding story.

Yeah, I agree.

Well, we'll have to see.

I'll make my 14 year old go through this process in full and then I'll report back.

All right, let's go to the last headline.

Chris David's Bridal has unveiled a new store concept.

It is calling Diamonds and Pearls one of maybe the greatest Prince songs ever.

And hopefully they are giving him his just dues for taking that name.

According to Retail Dive, the store features a curated selection of bridal fashion and accessories, personal styling, Shopify point of sale, integration for in store and online shoppers, champagne service, alterations and luxury trunk shows.

The store also carries exclusives not available at other David's Bridal locations.

Beyond launching a new store concept, the retailer has also expanded its product assortment.

David's Bridal recently teamed up with Perry Ellis and Cubavera to debut its first menswear collection.

The retailer released suits in April and is rolling out Cuba Vera items over the summer.

Chris, do you think the David's Bridal Store new store concept, Diamonds and Pearls will catch on?

Oh man, I feel like, I feel like I'm, I feel like I'm a downer on this podcast.

I don't feel like there's anything I've.

Well, I, I guess I started out.

Really?

You started out with Walmart?

Yeah, I lauded Walmart.

Yeah.

Which is typical.

So, yeah, but I, I'm skeptical of this one too.

And I think, you know, I mean, for a number of reasons, like, and endless aisle as a differentiator, especially in a physical store concept, doesn't mean that much to me because, you know, who already has an endless aisle in the online sphere, like, okay, fine, I can go into a store and I can look things up online.

Like, that just doesn't resonate with me.

And we've talked over and over again in the eight year history of our show about how that's kind of Fool's gold.

So that's number one.

The second point I make is promoting the Shopify integration.

Who cares?

Like that sounds like something to me that, you know, you throw it, you throw in to sound techie.

Right.

But it's really a tell that you aren't that techie in my opinion.

Like, and Shopify has its limitations as a POS platform from my understanding too.

So.

So no, I think for me this is going to be a tough get.

You know, had they, had they actually brought the menswear concept into a combined concept.

I think that's a better way to go because I would be interested in that.

Like, yeah, incremental hook there.

Like dudes, when they have to get their tuxes for the wedding, they don't care where they go.

So why are you letting that business go somewhere else?

Bring it together, make the unit more productive.

It's kind of the old like consulting case in business school of like, you know, how do you get the fast food restaurant to do breakfast, lunch and dinner more continuously?

How do you use the unused times of the day to be more productive?

So like that I think could work.

But, but as, as a, as a plan to like stave off what's already happening endemically to David's Bridal.

I just think this is another concept that's probably not going to work in the long run.

Really?

I.

Well one, you don't want the guys in the same bridal shop.

Like that's not a good idea.

You're not supposed to see the bride before.

But I don't think that there's anything stopping you.

I do think that you're on the right track of this idea could live on its own as a male concept for me.

I think this is a brilliant idea.

Chris.

I actually love the idea of bringing service.

You think about the things that they're talking about here.

Champagne, these little touches, they're, they're doing trunk shows.

They're really focusing here on service and creating a luxury experience that you have not gotten before at a David's Bridal.

You're now giving this high touch, high service experience at a lower price point product.

And I love this.

I think it's something that we all need to be paying more close attention to.

Again, something that we're hearing a lot about at Shop Talk Europe is this emphasis on service that isn't just at the luxury level that you like.

If we started seeing more retailers like this, like a David's Bridal, really lean in on experience.

It's, it's the one thing that I think can differentiate them right now because no one else is doing this.

It's like you go into a Macy's Bridal, you go into another, any other category.

Like you just, you don't get the level of service anymore.

It's all about transaction and having the least amount of people on the floor.

And I think this is one of these experiences where if I was at David's Bridal right Now, I would 100% be testing a concept like this.

And for the men too, like making this an experience where you all go pick out your tuxes, there's a whiskey bar, there's other things like that's what you get at the high end experience.

And I think that if they can pull this off and really invest in service and this high touch, I think that they could be doing a banger business right now and really start to stand apart from their competitors.

Because who doesn't want great service and an affordably priced product?

I think we're going to start to see people coming down from those luxury bridal experiences just because you have a more cost conscious consumer.

But yeah, so I think of two things in response to that.

So number one, you know, the thing about the men, like I think, you know, you can, you can solve that architecture, you can solve that through scheduling and oftentimes too like the men shop at a different time than the women do for the dresses.

So I don't think the fear of seeing the bride in her wedding gown is really that, that of an, that much of an issue.

But the second thing, like, yeah, I agree everybody wants better service, but the trick with providing better services, you need to pay for it.

And so that's what's unclear to me in terms of, you know, how are they getting the margins from this concept to pay for it.

You can just, you can't just wave your wand and give better service.

Yeah, so that to me is, is the element that was missing here.

It sounds like they're trying to put some higher end products in, but yet they're going to have a smaller array of products.

So, so, so maybe, but it's hard to become something that you're not.

And, and companies have failed on this attempt many, many times over the year because they forget that, you know, margins, the level of margin that you have is correlated to the amount of service you can provide.

And that's what makes this such a difficult get when you try to move up market in service.

And I just don't see that from this concept.

Yeah, I think that's the big, that's the big issue though that these retailers are going to have to contend with right now.

I mean, I think that's where things like AI come into play.

Like where are you able to save money, use leveraging AI in your businesses so that you can find some of that additional revenue to put towards service.

I just, I think it's going to be too, too much of a determining factor in the success of a business overall if they're not willing to invest here because this is too high.

Touch of an experience shopping for a wedding gown is too high touch of an experience to, to let that service element decline.

So.

Oh, okay, let me just press you on that.

Yeah.

Because like, if that's the case, should your new store concept be dependent upon that?

I think that's a tough service be dependent on you leveraging new techniques in AI to make it work financially.

I think that's a tough ask no particular, a company that's calling out Shopify as a key technological ingredient to this store concept.

I'm, I'm saying more from other areas of the store.

I'm not saying AI in the store.

I should have clarified.

I'm saying like overall, where can you, where are you as a business applying AI to refine and find more efficiencies in your business operations so that you can free up resources to pay for more and to allocate that to better service in the stores?

Because that, that's, that to me, you know, you're, you're, a lot of companies are reducing headcount right now at the headquarters.

Like that's what I'm saying is if you're going to reduce headcount there, can you start to put this back into service in the stores so that the, the companies stay alive and they become a destination for shoppers right now.

Right.

Which brings me back to the point of, yeah, if you're going to do that, do that for your fleet of stores that already exist because you're going to get more payback there than doing it, than trying to make a distracting new concept to work when you don't have that figured out for your chain of stores already.

Like, I don't, I, I, I'm actually getting more skeptical of this as we talk about it, but.

Well, yes, more, more discussion to be had on this topic for sure.

But for now, let's go to the lightning round, Chris.

Oreo maker Mondelez is suing Aldi, alleging that grocery chain copies its packaging to confuse customers.

What own brand product do you think is better than or as good as the original?

Oh man, you know, I don't, I don't, for some reason I, I don't, I don't buy that many own brand products.

I think because our grocery stores don't have a big own brand assortment because Minnesota groceries is kind of unique in that way.

But you know, for me, I guess I'd go with like the standard, like OTC drugs and you know, Mucinex, Benadryl, like Prilosec, like I'm buying all the generics of those, those Things are always at least as good, or at least my body tells me that they are.

That's great.

I'm glad.

I'm glad that they worked for you.

Yes.

Right.

Yeah, yeah.

No, Trader Joe's.

You don't do any of like the Trader Joe's dupes or anything.

I guess it's more of a beauty.

Thing too, is just like.

Yeah, it's just kind of like it's, it's, it's, it's label, you know, I don't think of it like the same way for some reason.

I don't know.

But.

Okay.

I mean, I guess.

Yeah, you do like peanut butter and stuff, you know, but, but no, yeah, yeah, no, I, I think, you know, I like, I like the way the private label Mucinex, you know, clears my lungs.

And a Kentucky mom found herself in a sticky situation when her 8 year old son ordered 70,000 dum dum lollipops.

Dum dums on her phone.

What have you accidentally purchased is almost as ridiculous as 70,000 dum dums.

The first thing that I thought of was one summer when I was home from school.

My mom was working and we were bored and there was a.

How old, how old were you?

Probably eight or nine.

I mean it was, it was like in elementary school and my brother and I were bored.

So there was an ad during the daytime soap operas for, for the Book of Mormon and they said they would send you a free book.

And I was like, yes, I'll take a free book.

Like, let's check it out.

We're bored.

And sure enough, they sent us the Book of Mormon and we had visitors from the LDS Church at our house for maybe the next next five years, calling, stopping by the house, trying to talk to my mom and get her on board.

And she was not thrilled.

She would not let me live that one down.

So.

Didn't cost her as much as 70,000 dum dums.

Yeah.

No, just her time and patience.

Yeah, that must have been one hell of a bill, the 70,000 dum dums.

My God.

Oh.

All right, Chris, question number three.

The creator of Succession reportedly skewers tech billionaires in his latest film, Mountainhead.

Will Mountain head be must see TV for you?

Oh my God, yes, 100%.

I'm actually dying to watch this.

I've been, I might even fire it up tomorrow if I can get it here in Spain.

But yeah, I can think of no one better who needs skewering or deserves it more than tech billionaires.

And that's, that's my Take on that.

What is it?

On what's.

What's.

Like, where do you find it?

I don't know.

I gotta look that up.

Fans, let us know if you know where it is or have watched it and give it.

Let us know your review too.

So.

All right, last one.

Sydney Sweeney.

This one's great.

Sydney Sweeney is selling soap that contains her own bathwater.

Whose bath water would you most want infused into your soap?

Sign me up for this.

All right.

And what bathwater would you most want?

No one's.

No one's.

No one's.

Come on.

You honestly want somebody's bath water?

Like, I have my own bath water.

Why do I need Sydney Sweeney's bath water?

This is like, only fans gone to another level that I am not comfortable with.

Like.

Like, only fans got to another level.

Like, that is.

That is like the.

I mean, I think that's the origination of this concept.

Like, it wasn't until a platform like only fans, where you start selling bath water to, like.

No, no, no.

I cannot say no enough.

Well, you must use bath water.

You must use water in the production of soap.

So, like, what's the big deal if it's somebody's bath water?

Like, you know, it's got to be.

Well, it's got to be cleaned, you know.

You know, Are you sure?

I think I.

It's got to be.

I don't know.

It's got to pass fda.

I don't know, but.

Well, I guess I don't know.

It's that.

I don't know.

Yeah, maybe not.

Who knows?

Are you gonna buy Sydney Sweeney's?

So.

No, I'm not gonna buy it.

Are you kidding me?

God, no.

Good.

So just shooting shopper.

I'm not gonna fall for this marketing gimmick.

Although, you know.

Yeah, you know, but, I mean, love.

Sydney Sweeney, but I don't want her.

She's still the human.

And I don't want her dirty bath water.

Everything she does turns to gold in my mind, but I'm not buying her, so no way.

All right.

Happy birthday today to Keith David, Angelina Jolie, and to my favorite Hardy Boy, Parker Stevenson.

And remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business, make it Omnitok, the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top 10 US retail retailer.

Our Fast 5 podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week's top 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 Ann and I 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.

Last time I checked, Ann, subscriber count is up over 160,000 subscribers.

So until next week and on behalf of all of us at Omnitalk Retail, as always, be careful out there.