Walmart Streams Dolly Live, Cyber Week & The Rise Of Digital Dollar Toy Stores

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Today is December 4, 2024.

I'm one of your hosts, Ann Mazanga.

Is that what data Zan I'm Chris Walton.

It is.

It's December already.

We're here.

We're gonna break down all the top headlines from the past week.

Chris making waves in the world of Omnichannel retailing.

Chris it's also the first week of the month.

I still haven't gotten the Bone Thugs in Harmony cameo yet to start singing Wake up, Wake up, Wake up.

It's the first of them, you know that song.

The first month.

No, I have no idea what that song is.

And Bones, we've.

We've talked about this before.

Bones.

I know, but I really.

That would be not in my rotation and not in my rotation.

Well, it should be.

And then I feel like that would be the best way to introduce each month's Omnistar, which you're about to do.

That's right.

Because it is the time to announce this month's Omnistar.

You're right, Anne.

And for those that may not be familiar with the Omnistar, while Anne sings quietly in the background, a song that.

I have no idea what she's singing.

Come on.

Yep, yep, I'm still singing it.

It's okay.

Go ahead, keep going.

Our Oddystar award is the award that we give out each month in partnership with Corso to recognize as the top omnichannel operators out there.

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

And Corso's AI copilot coaches retail leaders to optimize store performance at every level.

You can transform your retail operations from data overload into data powered.

This month's award goes to.

Ed.

Do you have a drum roll?

Do you have any other music you want to do here?

No.

Don't make me sing.

Don't make me sing, Chris.

No, I don't.

Go.

Go.

Flip the hair like.

Wicked.

Wicked.

Don't make me stick.

Don't make me.

Yes, there you go.

There you go.

I love it.

Love it.

This week's Omnistar.

This month's Omnistar award goes to.

Dave Weinhold, the VP of technology for Omnichannel Pricing, promotions and competitive intelligence at Lowe's.

Yes, we have known Dave.

Yes.

At Lowe's Companies, particularly because there aren't two lows in the retail industry.

Lowe's Companies, Inc.

To be exactly precise.

And we have known Dave for a long time.

And I got the chance to connect with him at a breakfast we hosted with Soft Tech at Shop Talk back in March.

And I gotta tell you, and I was.

I learned a ton from Dave.

And that just that hour I spent with him, he got me thinking about everything from pricing to what.

What particularly captivated me and still gets me thinking about that conversation to even to this day is his thoughts on the management complexity of having a remote workforce, which is a topic, I don't think.

Whoa, slow that down enough.

Topic of having the management complexity that.

Comes from having a remote workforce.

Like as a manager.

Yes.

It brings on a lot of challenges and Dave had a lot of articulate thoughts about that and it shows me that he's, he's thinking about things at the next level too.

So.

So, Dave, congrats, buddy.

This month's Omnistar Award goes to you.

All right, as we get to the.

Headlines, let's do it.

Let's do it.

All right.

In this week's Fast5, we've got news on Walmart teaming up with Dolly Parton for live streaming.

OpenAI Evaluating Chatbot Ads Piccadilly's new partnership with Digimark I always like saying Piccadilly whenever we can get them into the Fast five.

Shein and Temu getting into the toys business.

But we begin today with Black Friday and Cyber Monday news.

And that's right, Chris.

According to Adobe Analytics, Cyber Week, the five day period, even though it felt much longer between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, brought in online sales of $41.1 billion, which was an 8.2% increase over last year.

This was bolstered by record spending online during Thanksgiving, which was up 8%.

8.8% exactly year over year.

Black Friday, which was up 10.2% year over year and over the weekend of November 30th to December 1st, also up 5.8% year over year.

Other notable statistics include first that consumers spent a total of $13.3 billion on Cyber Monday, up 7.3% year over year and surpassing Adobe's initial projection of $13.2 billion.

Mobile shopping also dominated on Cyber Monday.

50%.

57% of online sales came through a mobile device.

In contrast, back in the 2019 holiday season, just 33% of Cyber Monday online sales came through through a mobile device.

Buy now, pay later also hit a new milestone.

BNPL usage hit an all time high on Cyber Monday, driving $991.2 million in spend.

Chatbots, powered by generative AI also made a mark on the holiday season on Cyber Monday.

Traffic to retail sites from chatbots.

I.

E.

Shoppers clicking on a link to a retail site increased by 1,950%.

I can't even believe that's a lot.

And then finally, basic zero.

Yes, social media influencers share revenue came in at 20.3% on Cyber Monday, which was up an impressive 6.8% year over year.

Chris, what are your takeaways?

I got the hell out of here and went to Mexico.

But what were your takeaways from being out in stores and online over Cyber Week?

First of all, my number one takeaways.

Nice Read of all those statistics.

Yeah, that was great.

Secondly, secondly, like when did Cyber Week become that?

When did it become Black Friday, December?

Monday?

I always thought it was Monday forward.

Like I don't know when this happened.

So someone clue me into that because that was news to me.

I don't, I had no idea.

You don't know?

But yeah, I guess, I don't know.

I guess I used to talk about it differently.

But there are, I have a lot of takeaways beyond, beyond those two things.

And in addition to that, I want to get to the implications because I think the implications of this year's Cyber Week, quote unquote, are pretty, pretty startling actually, when you get right down to it.

So yeah, one, I think it's a continuation of the trends we've long seen, particularly at this point in the year where, you know, and the specifically the statistic I would point to you are the overall online growth, the mobile dynamics and the BNPL usage.

Like all those are trends that have just continued forward.

Two, we made a joke of it because the base is low, but you have to, you have to call out generative as impact showing up for the first time, which I would equate similarly to how we looked at mobile probably back in 2010 when it was just on the scene.

General is going to follow that same trajectory, if not go even faster based on some of the other headlines we've covered on the show and are going to talk about later in today's episode as well.

And then three, as I've long said, influencers are the new merchants and to see them being responsible for 20% of revenue via affiliate linking is pretty darn telling.

Yeah, so, so those are my three.

But then fourth, poor stores.

Poor stores, yeah.

Lots of different figures out there.

And yeah, it feels like storage traffic was at best like flat and, and, but also probably down, you know, across the week.

But it's hard to tell.

People always have different numbers on that.

But, but I was personally shocked when I went to the stores on Saturday.

The mall and the stores.

I was surprised at how little traffic there actually was.

So that implies to me a couple of things.

One, it applies that retailers that don't get to the punchline to the joke of digital.

Next year you're going to see them unleash a whole host of store only door busters in a way that we've never seen before.

So that's going to be my tell in terms of who gets this and who doesn't understand where retail is going in.

Is the door busters next year.

But those that do, yeah, they're going to unleash their brands via TikTok live streaming, ensure that their products show up in the right way and are shoppable via AI platforms.

So it's going to be a tale of two retailers and next year, which way are we going to go?

And my bet is on the latter being successful, not so much on the former being successful.

What did you think?

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean I was actually surprised this year the, the mobile spending surpassing desktop, that that was I think a big number to pay attention to for all the reasons that you called out, especially the, the AI personalization that I felt like was being done.

And now, I mean I'm, I'm going through this anecdotally and what messages I was getting from retailers who I'm subscribed to, text notifications from or have, you know, whose app I have on my phone.

I think that was really interesting here.

And it gets at the, it actually to me gets the door busters question, which I want to see if we do actually see more door busters or if, because this generative AI being applied to personalization of these offers that we're talking about to me as a customer versus you as a customer, like I wouldn't be surprised to see if we see even further mobile penetration there and now that people are tracking us a little bit more closely.

Like if we step to see those doorbusters move from the store to mobile and online as a way for the retailers really to have a better sense of like how much inventory do we have, what demand do we have, what incentives can we get for people to come on so that we can develop that one to one relationship with our customers in an even stronger format.

Because I was getting so many texts like multiple times a day throughout the week last week and this week.

And so I think that that's something that I think we're going to continue to see monitored very closely and continue to whether that's an influencer sending that or the retailers themselves build as we go on to future Cyber Week deals.

But you know, the last thing that I'll call out, Chris, is that the retailers did seem very thirsty this year.

Do you familiar with that thirsty term, Thirsty?

Yeah, I am, but I don't know how in terms of my understanding of the term thirsty.

I'm not sure how I've been reading.

I've been reading a lot about this.

I've been hearing a lot about this from other friends.

You know, even at the Thanksgiving Dinner table.

Like what are you guys excited about for Black Friday?

It's my favorite question to ask.

And the response has been overwhelmingly like this deal fatigue.

Like when is, when am I going to get the best deal?

And if you have my contact information, I'm, I'm subscribed to your text program like don't send me a deal and say this is the best deal you're going to get.

It's 45% off something that never goes on sale and then the next three days.

Right.

You're offering me a different one like that to me is the real room for improvement here from retailers is that I think that there's too much deal display going on.

So pick one thing, go with it.

Really invest in AI to tell you who your best customers are and how to approach them with the right promotional strategy.

Because right now it just feels like it's, it's not strategic.

So that would be the one thing that I think I'll be keeping an eye out for next year for Cyber Week.

Yeah, interesting that that whole idea is interesting.

It's, it's harder to do than you would imagine because of the markdown cycles that come into play.

But I think the other point too is like, you know that that'll get, we'll get to.

In the next few headlines too is like yeah, with Genove coming on, do you invest in the platform?

Did you invest in your own platform?

So if people start using natural language queries in their searches on Walmart or Target or whatever, are you prepared for that?

Can you serve up ads in those?

Like that's that, that's how you get to the personalization you're talking about.

It's going to be hard to do when you don't have the first party data necessarily.

Right.

If you go through the open air and the perplexity and all that kind of stuff too.

Or an you could do what we're going to talk about in this next headline, which it sounds like we kind of agree that that's where we think the winners should place their bets is in the digital sphere versus going to store.

Yes.

Because in headline number two, Walmart teamed up with Dolly Parton for a Cyber Monday livestream.

Yes, Dolly Parton according to Chase Store Age, Walmart hosted a special Monday shoppable live stream on the Walmart live platform at 7pm Eastern on Monday this past December 2nd with the help of Livestream shopping technology provider Talk Shop Live.

I and I actually logged into it live personally from the grocery store while I was at the grocery Store.

I put it on, I watched it.

I actually, I actually made a comment as you too because you're our Walmart plus holder.

So like that's how I got.

So I said something that probably embarrassed you.

But, but yeah, Dolly was there.

She's talking about products which she had an interactive feed going on below and it was easy to click Buy links right at the bottom of the screen.

So, you know, and my question to you is this, as a new Walmart plus super fan, do you think Walmart is onto something with its jump into live streaming?

Yeah, for sure.

I mean I think Dolly Parton is a great like, yes, that helps make the headlines.

Of course people are going to buy whatever Dolly is selling.

She's so beloved among all of us here in humanity.

But I think what is most interesting to me about this headline that didn't get the coverage Chris that it should is that not only is Walmart investing in live streaming for themselves, but they are invested in doing this for other sellers on the Walmart marketplace who can now pipe their products in.

They can have immediate live stream capabilities.

And I think that, that like this is an all boats rise situation.

Like yes, if you know you're going to have consistent, great quality of live streaming from Walmart, you know, as a retailer themselves bringing on people the likes of Dolly Parton, your customers are always also going to expect to see that from the other sellers on your site too.

You have to have consistency as that brand.

So I think that's really the huge part of the story.

Sorry Dolly, I don't want to put you in the corner, but I think that's the key component here is that Walmart's going all in smartly as they do investing in live streaming across the platform, not just for themselves.

So I think that's, that's, it's going to be a great way to continue to keep customers coming to Walmart to shop and having a consistent experience.

What do you, yeah, those are great, those are great points and I would, I would, the thing I would add to it is I didn't realize how active, I mean you kind of highlighted a little bit, but I didn't realize how active Walmart is with live streaming.

I mean they aren't just, they aren't just working 9 to 5 on this and with Dolly they're working overtime with the likes of Serena Williams has done a live stream with them, Jordan Sparks and my personal crush and Instagram follow Christina hall even like they, they, you go on their page, they have all these live streams.

You can watch that are upcoming or they've done in the past.

And it's all accessible versus via the Walmart website too, which is something.

When Best Buy did this last year, we commented about how it was kind of disjointed.

You had to go off platform.

The experience was hard to find.

That's not the case here with Walmart.

And the other point I'd make too, and we've learned this through our conversations over the years, is it a live stream shopper is a more loyal shopper.

And that's the key here.

All this revenue from these events is additive.

The overhead's probably pretty low.

It's pretty manageable and easy to understand the impact that it's having from on the income statement.

As an isolated event, you can see what's working and what's, what's working well.

And you know how much it's going to cost, right?

You do?

Yes.

So like.

Yes.

And that's not, I was just going to say like the even more important point that you're getting at too, Chris, is that this content, while it was live at one point in time, now can go on product pages.

Like you still get that engagement with the consumer, the longer lasting engagement, the bigger basket size.

When you start putting that on your product pages like it's a no brainer.

Yeah.

And then the last point going bridging the two headlines that we talked about so far, like I went in search, I just went because I was like, oh my God, I had no idea Walmart was doing this much live streaming.

I went and searched live, live shopping at Target.

You know what it returned me and it returned me a toy shopping cart.

That's what I got back, a toy shopping cart.

So it goes back to your thing last week too about, you know, who's really, who's really investing here and who's really thinking about the next stage of retail's evolution.

I thought that was fascinating.

Yeah, I mean it's, you have this happening at Amazon still very significantly with their live streaming.

You have it happening in that Walmart, you have it happening at Wayfair.

Like all these major players are investing it in some way, shape or form and it's going to be critical, I think to a retailer strategy for next year.

Especially with the rise of influencer based purchase.

20% of revenue is coming from influencers.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

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

OpenAI is thinking about deploying chat bot ads.

Shocker.

According to Axios OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told the Financial Times that OpenAI is weighing the inclusion of ads in its products, but wants to be, quote, thoughtful about when and where we implement them, end quote.

Chris this is also the A and M put you on the spot question.

They have to say this.

A couple of months ago we talked about Amazon embedding ads in its Rufus Gen AI search, but at least that use case was based on product search.

When you talk about Embedding ads in OpenAI for any variety of search queries, how worried are you about this potentially disrupting the authenticity of results and commerce skewing non commerce conversations?

Chris oh, wow.

No, I'm not really worried about it at all.

And you know, I'm not, I'm not because I mean, I think it already exists.

I mean Google, Google already is totally, you know, everyone's used to it.

So I mean, and the other thing I think about too is like who doesn't want more ads in their life?

Like, honestly, like who doesn't, who doesn't want more ads?

But there's probably a few people.

But, but I think the other thing that's interesting about this is they alluded to in the article the fact that they're also thinking about launching a browser.

So they're clearly going after Google's territory here.

And so since it already exists, which makes sense, yeah, I don't see any worries that I have as a user or a consumer here.

But when I step back from the whole thing, step back, look at it from a higher level, I like this move because, you know, it should mean free access for consumers that want to use tools like this.

That's the thing about this, you know, it should also mean more deals on the products that I want to buy, like you were talking about in the first headline.

And the fact that last week we talked about Perplexity charging Pro users to shop via their interface means that OpenAI is definitely going to go all in on this.

You called it out in our show last week too.

They're going to go all in on the freemium model specifically, and therefore, of course they're going to deploy ads.

So, so, so while they're evaluating it to your point, it's a foregone conclusion at the end of the day.

And if you look at the rise of the other point I make here to close is like, if you look at the rise of social media services, even streaming services now, everything eventually appears to be going the way of freemium with ads, or at least lower cost with ads.

So net net ads, ads and more ads And I want to consume and it's the cheapest, most affordable way for me as a consumer to do it.

So bring it on.

That's what I say.

What do you think?

So my problem here, and maybe I'm Ms.

So listeners.

Chris, call me out if I am.

But my problem is like all of These sources that OpenAI is pulling from, they're from content that some of which has been created for profit.

Like they're from, you know, it's from an article in Refinery 29, like a reference with perplexity last week that's rating.

Like what are the best tools inherently biased content.

Exactly.

So I'm like, there's no unbiased content anywhere.

Really.

Like I just, I don't think that that's, that's a possibility.

So that word keeps getting thrown in here and I have a problem with that because I, I think they're, they're mistaking like where everybody's gathering all this information from.

So.

Yeah, but I think, but Ann, hold on a sec.

Because I say that's today, right?

Like you just talked about in the last like now you've got live streaming, you got influencers playing more of a role.

They're putting all their content now it's probably biased to degree because they're trying to sell you product, but you've got all their reviews and everything living on.

So the sphere is going to be peppered with all kinds of information at the most nano micro level around product for sure.

But again like you're getting anytime you have free, a free newspaper article that you're like, anytime you have free content, it's going to come with, with some sort of way to pay for that content being produced.

Right.

And there's no way to get the compute required for these chatbots like OpenAI to exist.

Like there's no way to do that without somebody paying for it.

Now I think that the thing that I actually like about this is that I think that the ads are going to get more personalized and more relevant because of this.

And that's where I think that's the, that's the benefit.

So if I am looking for, if I am asking a question of like, you know, I'm, I'm dealing with this health issue, for example, and then they're starting to serve up things that might be helpful that are relevant to that and that they know can continue to serve me in a way like this is again where if you're giving me information, what am I getting in return for it?

And I think that that's where these start.

These types of tools, whether it's Perplexity or OpenAI are really going to start to lever up on a, from like a Google perspective because they are able to give you richer data that is actually helpful to you when you're getting, you know, when you're giving them some information.

So to me, I think this is, this is a no brainer.

It makes total sense to me.

I think there's a little bit too much concern right now about unbiased information.

I think people need to dig a little bit deeper on that.

So, so basically net net, you're saying like Google's already a biased way that we all approach this now.

And so this is really no different.

Right.

Google, OpenAI.

Claude.

Like everybody's getting biased information already.

So it's not going to influence the.

I mean if you're not looking at anything you read online with a, with a grain, if you're not taking that with a grain of salt or you're, you're using a discerning eye to decide whether or not that's the source that you're going to use for your information.

Like.

Right, we all do that.

You should do that with these tools as well.

Right.

Yeah, you could go on.

We go on a tangential diatribe here of all the Black Friday deals you got to buy at every local news source you read on whatever app you read on your phone too.

But.

Right, but we won't and we'll spare our loyal listeners that because that's not interesting.

All right, Headline number four, according to Progressive Grocer, Swedish AI powered salad bar.

Five words I never thought I would ever hear myself saying out loud.

Swedish AI powered salad bar company Piccadilly and Digimart Corp, a global provider of digital watermarking technologies, have revealed a strategic partnership to address the increasing problem of retail shrink and food fraud in the fresh and prepared food categories.

The partnership integrates digimarc's advanced digital watermarks into Piccadilly's branded packaging, enabling retailers to implement secure automated product verification and ensure pricing accuracy at self checkout.

These invisible digital watermarks are embedded throughout Piccadilly's packaging for protection that's resistant to tampering and ensures that product information remains intact during the self checkout process, thereby helping retailers reduce price lookup fraud at self checkout.

And this is our second digimark siting this year in the OmniTalk Retail Fast 5.

Are you buying or selling invisible barcodes on your salad containers?

I gosh, I am buying and buying and buying this over and over again for a couple of reasons.

One, we've heard from grocers who are using this technology right now with the Piccadilly invisible barcodes and they used to experience tons of theft because they would have people putting different things in these to go salad containers and they wouldn't know what was in there.

And now when they're checking out, they're able to use the lookup code right away to know that that's a salad container or takeout container.

It should not weigh the weight of a, let's say a couple of steaks example.

Yeah, right.

And so it gives that indicator to the self checkout machine that or the checkout cashier that there's something that's not right about these things.

But second of all, Chris, as somebody who frequents salad bars very often in.

Grocery stores, you are a salad bar aficionado.

I am.

And, and when we know that you know, grab and go food, like what you can get from the Piccadilly station is something that we're going to see continue to increase both in grocery stores and in C store formats.

This is just a very simple way for me to just go put my thing on the table and get out of there, which is the point of grab and go food.

And this hasn't been something that you can do in a self serve environment like this.

So I think this is brilliant.

I, I think we're going to see a lot more of it.

But how about, how do you feel?

Are you buying or selling?

Yes.

No, I'm buying it.

I'm buying it too.

I think it's really interesting.

I didn't even know about the weight correlation thing that you talk, you talked about.

Like I was just thinking about used for unintentional and intentional theft.

I also like the consumer side of it too because whenever I go and get something from the style bar and want to go through self checkout, I'm never exactly sure how to pay for it.

So if I can just place it there and it knows that's great.

Like it helps me out.

I don't have to figure it all out.

I actually had to have somebody help me with this just the other day.

Like I had a container, I'm like, I don't know what to do.

Can you, can you come over and help me do it?

So, and at the end of the day, like it saves the retailer more money.

It potentially helps them make more money too.

So like, you know, especially in the grocery industry and I'm all for that.

Whenever, whenever those variables at play.

So I think this is great.

And not only that, but digimarc has a ton of other, you know, I think use cases that haven't even been explored yet.

Particularly when you start talking about backroom operations and finding products quicker and faster throughout a store.

Like, I don't know, there's a lot to like here.

I just, I'm curious to see, you know, where does it continue to expand from here on out?

Yeah, because before we were talking about this with like Walmart's brands, like embedding these into packaging when you're the manufacturer.

Right.

So I think like you said, like there's so many uses for this that I think we're going to start to see come become more common as their use cases and efficiencies increase for grocers who are, or other retailers and brands who are investing in the technology.

So yeah, the great thing about Piccadilly is it's very easy to implement there.

Right.

But when you start talking about getting all the other brands to label your products throughout a store like this, then it becomes challenging.

So.

But, yes, but there could be a use case there in the long run.

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

Shein and Temu have branched further into the toy market.

According to Reuters, both Temu and Shein are looking to win a bigger slice of the global market for toys, which fuels sales for retailers during the holiday season.

Toys drove $108.7 billion in sales globally in 2023, according to Market research firm Circana.

At Shein, which became popular selling $5 T shirts and $10 sweaters, toys are one of the fastest growing categories.

A spokesperson for the site said toys have seen double digit percentage growth in sales volume on Shein's platforms year over year.

TEMU also said it is seeing an increase in searches for toys by prospective shoppers.

So both Shein and Temu, however, some companies like Barbie maker Mattel, do not sell directly to Temu or Shein and its distributors are not authorized to do so, according to a Mattel spokesperson.

Chris, where do you land on this?

Are you concerned at all about Timu and Sheen selling toys?

This might surprise people.

I'm actually not at all concerned about it, you know.

No, I don't, I don't, I don't think it's a big issue, honestly.

I think this is the future.

I think this is where things are headed, headed.

And, and the reason I say that is the beauty of Shein and Temu is that they give access to products to A lower income demographic via their technology platform.

They're essentially using technology to reach new consumers.

That's the beauty of what their platforms do.

And I would add, I actually think the toy companies should jump into this relationship because they could actually sell their products direct from factory at more profit than doing it themselves in the States and thereby counteract the dupe factor more overtly.

That's what I think.

Right.

Because the key point to this headline, and this is what it always comes back to, and the key point to this headline is that people are searching for these products on these platforms, which means people want to buy them from them.

Right.

So it's, so it's time to get on board.

And Sheen and Temu, you know, they give you an advantage.

And the other point about this, which I've talked about on the show, you're never going to be out on of stock on toys with your consumer and consumer ever again.

That's what this technology allows you to do and that's how you can extend your reach and your relationship with your customer.

Never out of stock again.

Let that statement sink in.

Because if you think about it and you design it the right way, that can happen.

And in the long run, that also means, because this is the, this is where, this is where we are today, you know, low price.

But in the long run, that will allow the toy manufacturers or anyone else that wants to participate on the Sheen and TEMU platform to eventually place their products at a price premium, even though the play is at the opposite end of the spectrum right now.

Like, you can get this special GI Joe toy direct from factory whenever you want.

You gotta wait a little bit longer.

But hey, it's there for you whenever you want it.

We'll make it for you.

Done.

That's the beauty here.

And I can't wait for people to get that idea or that punchline, the joke and see what happens.

Yeah, I mean, I think that the key point here is that you're opening up your brand to more consumers.

Not just more consumers in the US but more consumers around the world and more consumers in different, across different socioeconomic backgrounds.

And I think that that's the, that's the key thing here.

You're, you're allowing more people to access your product.

And I don't see what, what the issues could be with that.

And really, I think what you're doing is you're putting that premium on how soon you want to get it.

Like, sure, yeah, if I want to go to Walmart tomorrow and I want to pick up that GI Joe toy, like, yeah, it's going to cost you twice as much.

But if you're willing to wait, you're willing to plan ahead like we all used to do, and you can wait for that same product to come from the same factory and wherever it's being made overseas, that, that there are people that will do that.

And I think that way you're just putting, you're putting the premium on convenience, you're not putting the premium on access to your products.

And so that's.

That to me makes the most business sense for these toy companies.

And I think it's going to be potentially troublesome for, for Walmart and Amazon and Target too in the future if, if, if these toy makers can open this or the manufacturers open up to new selling platforms like Timo and she and two.

Yeah, right.

They said they have like those three resources, have 70% of the toy market, if I remember right, Anne.

Right, right.

Yeah.

I mean, the interesting about this, like, with all the advances in technology right now, Anne, like, couldn't you, as Mattel say, like, couldn't you go to Sheen and be like, look, if you could promise me that you can use computer vision technology and AI technology to make sure that none of my Barbies appear on your site, I will give them to you?

Right, yeah.

And that's what I, that's what, that's the deal you have to make with me.

I would think Sheena Timo would jump at that opportunity to do that and make sure that that was happening for them because that's.

There's just a lot of opportunity there when you think about it that way.

Yeah, you would think.

I mean, that's the number one thing that I feel like in researching this story, like, there's a lot of these toy makers who are still claiming, like, look, there's toys on there right now that are copies of mine and then they get taken down.

But then the onus is on the.

Probably are on Amazon too, right?

Exactly, exactly.

I mean, I think this is, this.

This was always a problem.

It's happening in the dollar stores.

Like, yeah, you have fall off.

Instead of Olaf being sold, like, what are you gonna do?

You're gonna like, are you gonna go into every Dollar Tree store?

You, you had somebody on that.

But you know, like, this is just the cost of.

But at the potential for so much more business to be done if you can expand to these platforms.

But.

All right, Chris, it's time for the lightning round.

Are you ready?

All right.

Okay.

Question number one for you, Chris.

Olivia Rodrigo Launched her second pair of headphones in partnership with Sony.

Chris, what are your requirements for the perfect pair of headphones?

Inner ear, over the ear, celebrity collaboration.

Do you need to have Dr.

Dre's beats in there?

Like what.

What do you require as a podcaster and human and.

And that there's no.

There's no definitive answer to that question.

I think it really depends on the use case.

For example, as much as I love the Bose headphones that I'm wearing right now for podcasting on plane trips, I've always.

I've always wanted.

I've never gotten one, but I've always wanted a pair of the big, big, you know, mother honking, noise canceling ones.

That's been my dream.

I've never just put down the cash for that, but.

Yeah, but for working out, yeah, definitely.

I want ones that fit in my ear and it also stay in there despite the copious amounts of sweat that are released from my very polish working out body.

Because that is a common problem.

I sweat.

You can tell the audience I sweat more than anyone else you've ever seen.

A lot, but even close.

Either.

No, I do 100 agree with you, though.

As somebody who's traveled a lot in the last 48 hours, I feel like the over the ear headphones are the only way to signal to people to leave me alone.

Like, oh, when even my husband.

Yeah, because I always bug you when we travel on trips.

You're like, I have my earphones.

Like, I can't even see them under your hair.

And you're like, mad at me.

I'm like, I didn't know.

I think the solution is, yes, clearly, for me, that an over the ear pair of headphones are what I need to.

To signal to everyone.

They don't even have to be listening to anything.

Apparently.

I just need them so that we can.

Except for you, you have a.

There's a different dynamic there.

So for me, it would work perfectly because I have no hair to get out of place with.

For you, that's a dynamic that you have to consider.

Right.

So I don't know.

Oh, you mean because of the over your headphones?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

If it means that I can ignore people, I don't care.

The hair is the secondary.

All right, so got it.

So got it.

It's got it.

So you want your introvert moments.

All right.

Yes.

Second one.

Kraft has begun selling 15,000 boxes of its limited edition everything bagel flavor, macaroni and cheese.

Everything bagel flavor, macaroni and cheese.

Okay.

And I'M curious, approximately how many times a year do you whip up some Kraft Mac and cheese?

One for the kids and two, just because you crave it?

I OD'd on Mac and cheese in college, so it is not something that we have very often at our house.

But my kids like the Annie's shells and cheese, so we probably mix that like, four times a year.

Three or four times a year.

Oh, that's it, huh?

You never get a hankering?

You don't ever get a hankering for Mac and cheese?

No, it's just I do every once in a while.

I think college room did.

Why?

How much do you guys make it?

Are you, like, you're making it for yourself?

We used to make it a lot.

I don't make it.

I don't.

I don't eat a lot of dairy anymore for those listening.

But, you know, I still get a hankering for it, though.

Like, you know, good.

No, it's always the craft, too.

I always want the craft.

Yeah, right.

Okay.

All right, all right.

Well, no, not the Annie's.

I don't like the Annie's.

Oh, I'm a fan.

I'm a fan.

Okay, Chris, let's go to question number three.

3000 fake Gibson guitars from Asia were confiscated at Long beach harbor last week, proving that if the shopping deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Chris, what's one product you'd be okay with a replica of and instead of the real thing?

Oh, man, that's hard.

Um, I mean, the only thing that's coming to mind are, like, private label products.

Like, I'm generally okay with those.

Those are all replicas.

Can I say Tylenol?

Does that count?

Yeah, I guess, but I.

See, I was wondering.

I thought.

I was, like, trying to.

Yeah.

What was Your mind.

Where's your mind going on this?

Like, reps, in terms, they're called reps.

You know, like the sneakers.

So, like, you don't have the exact same.

You don't have the Jordan fours?

Like, you're getting the reps?

Reps?

No, no, no.

Reps.

No, See, I couldn't think of it.

I can't think of anything like that that I want.

Okay.

I don't.

I don't want.

I don't want.

Like that.

No, I don't want to spend it.

But if I'm going to get it or acquire it, I want the real thing or someone wants to give it to me, I want the real thing.

So, Yeah, I can't think of anything.

I was even thinking, like, houses Cars.

Like, you know what?

What?

How could.

I just can't come up with anything on this one.

All right, this one's great.

Shrimp Jesus.

Yes, Shrimp Jesus, a serious series of AI generated images in which Jesus is mel.

Is melded with the crustacean have gone viral on Facebook.

It is worth taking a look at Omnitalk fast, let me tell you, because it'll blow your freaking mind.

So, Ed, leaving Jesus out of this conversation completely and keeping this podcast as non denominational as possible, what is your favorite way to eat shrimp?

Oh my God, I still can't believe that that Shrimp Jesus exists.

I need to like immediately Google this right now.

The first thing that comes to mind and one of my all time favorite things which is popular this time of year, Katie Krueger, one of my old friends from the advertising days.

If you're listening, Katie, it's your shrimp cups.

She takes one of those tostitos like scoop chips and then you.

Oh yeah, like chopped shrimp, mayonnaise, cheddar cheese and black olives and green chilies.

I think that's all the ingredients.

But you stir them all together, maybe a little cumin, and then you bake them in the oven.

So they're, they're like these delicious little individual appetizer cups.

God, I'm craving them right now.

But yes, she makes them like around this time of year during the holidays.

Wow.

You have to get the recipe from Katie Krueger.

Oh, I have the recipe.

Post it online.

Okay.

I have the recipe.

I will be posting it online for everybody.

We'll get it out to you.

It's.

You will not regret it.

Easy.

Appetizer delicious.

You probably all inspired.

Yes.

But yeah, you probably could.

Yeah.

With those ingredients.

All inspired by Shrimp Jesus.

And because we are the podcast that brings you Shrimp Jesus.

All right.

Happy birthday today to Jeff Bridges Patricia Wedding and to the woman who gets more beautiful with each passing year, Ann, the glorious Marissa Tomei.

Second only.

She does.

She really does.

She's second only to Shrimp Jesus though.

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

I don't know if I can get through this.

Our Fast5 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 Ed and I take a heck of a lot of pride in doing just for you.

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You can follow us today by simply going to YouTube.com omnitalkretail so until next week, on behalf of all of us at Omnitalk Retail and on behalf of Ed and myself, as always, be careful out there.