Walmart Takes Vizio Private Label & Target Gives People A Big Reason To Go To Costco | Fast Five

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Learn more@ocampo capital.com hello, you are 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 podcast 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.

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It's July 23, 2025.

I'm one of your hosts, Anne Mazinga.

And I'm Chris Walton.

We are here once again to discuss all the top headlines from the past Week making waves in the world of Omni Channel retailing.

Chris, before we get into the headlines, you and I are headed out to the Hamptons of the Midwest.

Grand Rapids, Michigan next week.

First, I want to know, have you ever been?

No, I haven't been.

Yes, we're heading out there for the Spartan NASH Conference next week.

And I've never been.

And I'm curious, like, have you been?

And number two, do you think you haven't either?

My.

Here's my question for you.

Do you think the rapids are really grand, like, or are they more like, you know, because, like, Grant's a pretty.

It's a pretty bold statement, right?

Like, so, like, like you think we're going to.

Yeah.

Why, like, the canyon?

Like, are we about to go see the.

The Grand Canyon of rapids?

That's what my expectations are.

Yeah.

Yeah, right?

Because, like, there's only so many levels above grand.

I was thinking about this last night.

Like, maybe majestic beats grand.

I don't know.

But like, I'm curious, like, what these rapids look like.

I've never seen P of the Grand Rapids, right.

Are they going to be mediocre?

Are they going to be, like, no idea.

Is the city centered around them?

Listeners in Grand Rapids, what should we do and see while we're there?

At the Spartan Nash Conference next week where we'll be recording live, we will report back.

If you want to submit your ideas to us on LinkedIn, go ahead and do that and then maybe we can do some special reporting from the.

The rapids of the Grand.

The grandest of rapids will come.

I'm dying to find out what these rapids look like.

I really am.

Like, I actually, I. I messaged one of our friends on LinkedIn who's a follower of ours.

She lives in Grand Rapids.

I'm gonna be in town next week and like, let's, let's meet up.

Like, I want to, I want to know what I'm in for here, you.

Know, because I'm gonna be really disappointed if there's no rapids.

Chris, if that was just like, old.

A pebble in a stream, you know, like, just like, you know, like, I'm just not going to be into that.

So I don't know.

Anyway, like, old, like you have, you have visions of this grand thing and then, I don't know, this has gotten into like, we're in some serious Larry David territory right now.

Yeah.

I want to be blown away and I want like, Snake river, white water rafting rapids, American river, you know, outside Sacramento.

I want those kind of rapids.

I want white water and.

All right, we shall see.

Enough.

Enough rapid dialogue.

Let's get to the Fast5 headlines as Fast as we can.

All right, in today's Fast 5, we've got news on Tesla opening its supercharger diner, mall of America's new car counting tech, Tesco launching early delivery slots for families during the summer.

Target ending its price matching policy.

I have lots of thoughts on that one.

Can't wait to hear what you think too.

And and A&M's Chris Crates and Brandon PZ stopped by for five insightful minutes on how grocers should be thinking about space allocation for their future success and store development plans.

But we begin today with the Vizio into the future and okay, okay.

Headline number one, Chris.

Walmart plans to sell Vizio TVs exclusively as a private brand.

According to Bloomberg, Walmart Inc. Plans to make Vizio a private label brand by the end of the year and will sell its Smart TVs exclusive exclusively at Walmart and Sam's Club.

The retailer is bringing Vizio's operating system to its private label TV brand on that's O N N and has been working on making TV a shoppable experience in which consumers can buy items while watching shows.

Walmart acquired Vizio last year for $2.3 billion.

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

Walmart's move with Vizio may just look like not wanting to share sales of a top five TV brand in the US but, but explain to us all why this move, starting with the 2024 Vizio acquisition to begin with, isn't just about hardware, but about advancing an exclusive media ecosystem across content, consumer data, advertising and commerce that benefits Walmart and branded suppliers.

All right, all those things, huh?

All right, I'll do my best.

You know, I mean, first of all, with the announcement, I'm not surprised by this and I'm not surprised by the announcement at all.

I mean, I think, I think I predicted it on this show when we discussed the merger last year.

Which is why I like the deal, because there's two sides to this deal, which gets us the question that A&M's inherently asking.

The first part is you inherently lock the competition out from selling what has traditionally been an entry level TV and you're forcing them to find another source, you know, right here before the holidays too.

Now, hopefully you were smart enough to get prepared for that.

But the second piece of it is, and really this is what the core of the deal is really about for, for the most part is Walmart gets the controlled substrate atop which it can experiment with the full power of connected TV retail media advertising.

It's all about connected TV and programmatic advertising at this point.

And in fact, like a recent IAB report, my favorite, I think IAB may be my favorite acronym because it reminds me of Star wars for some reason.

But the iab, the International Advertising Bureau, I think it's International Advertising Bureau.

I'm not exactly sure.

You probably know that better than I do, but.

But they said that ad buyers expect 47% of CTV inventory to be biddable this year.

That's up from 34% in 2024.

So there's still a lot of room to grow there.

And when buying CTV programmatically, 41% of buyers also believe it will drive a better return on investment and ad spend.

And 35% expect it to be easier to achieve scale.

So that's where things are going.

And if memory also serves, and one third of Walmart's current profit is coming from retail media.

So this whole move just supercharges that position.

That's what it's all about.

It gives Walmart profit upside and therefore a competitive advantage against Costco, Target and other grocers, primarily not so much against Amazon, but against the other core of who Walmart competes with as it continues to reinvest what will become then over time, a disproportionate share of retail media dollars back into its business to drive growth.

So at net net, you know, people always use the expression like, you know, chess versus checkers.

Walmart and isn't just playing omnichannel chess to everyone else's checkers.

To me, it's more like they're playing a game of pickup basketball as adults against third graders, just squatting away everything that's in their way or, you know, or said another way, they're playing the long game and they're playing to their strengths.

So that's, that's the core of what this whole Vizio acquisition is all about.

Yeah, I agree.

I mean, I think there's just, we, we have no idea just the upside that they still haven't even explored yet or the possibility that Walmart has here.

And I think when you do compare it against Amazon and, and some of the retail media revenue that they've, that Amazon has right now, like Walmart's still in the very early stages of starting to compete with that.

And so I, I do think that this is a really good moat for Walmart in the race against Amazon.

Just because of this ecosystem that they're building.

And I think the other thing that you really have to take a look at here too, Chris, is think about the value of all of the data from Walmart customers.

You have them across all demographics that are going to be engaging with this.

A TV is a great way to get them engaged.

You know, you, you think about like being able to put this TV up in one of, in, you know, anybody's houses from, you know, people who are buying their first apartment all the way to, you know, somebody that's buying three of these Vizio TVs during Walmart plus days because they're the cheapest one and they're going to put them in three rooms of their house.

I think that's the thing that we're not talking about enough here is just the full 360 view that Walmart will be able to offer brands because they know about those people, what they're watching on TV and what they're engaging with, how they're interacting with their programs and, and Walmart plus and other other behaviors online and they have store behaviors too that they're going to be able to connect all this stuff together in ways that no one, not Target, not Amazon, not no one else can compete with.

And so I think this is really just the dawn of what we're going to see happen with Walmart and retail media and their potential here.

Yeah, you're dead right.

I mean the retail advertisers are going to spend money with Walmart because their data is going to be better and they're going to actually be able to see the closed attribution of the sale too, easier than they can through other, you know, connected TV vehicles.

You know, go ahead.

Yeah, and the last thing too, I think is we haven't, we haven't really dug into the hardware value of this too.

I mean, I think when you look at like we, I just used the example of Prime Week last week, Amazon, what are they giving deals on?

They're giving deals on fire sticks, on Kindles, on all the things that Walmart is now going to be able to offer their consumers to.

And in addition to just being like, we have one of the cheapest, best quality TVs, we're also going to give you, you know, $50 back Walmart, your Walmart plus account if you buy like they just, this flywheel is just going to continue and continue and continue.

And we, you know, right now people are focused on the retail media angle, but I also think there's a hardware benefit too of what Walmart's going to be able to do and how they're going to be able to drive traffic to their, their properties with something that's as big of a draw as a TV too.

Oh, 100%.

That's how I was going to close this.

This headline was, you know, it's not coincidental that they're planning this just in time, like three months out from Black Friday as well.

Right.

It's going to be a key piece of their merchandising strategy.

And I wouldn't be surprised if Walmart offers incredible deals.

They might tie it in with Walmart plus as well.

And it's going to get.

And they're going to try to put this into as many households as possible as soon as possible, starting with this Black Friday season.

So, yeah, I think it's a great move and that I can tell you really like it too.

And you're starting off very, very energetic and excited.

So.

All right, let's keep rolling.

This next story is.

This next story is kind of.

It's hilarious in some ways and not so funny in other ways, I think.

But headline number two, Tesla's Supercharger diner has officially opened according to Teslarati.com and did you know there was a site.

Teslarati.com I did not know this existed, but yeah, there's a lot of Tesla content out there.

Should one be interested in diving in?

No doubt.

I'm actually a little scared to talk about this story, to be honest with you, but Tesla has officially opened its Supercharger Diner in Los Angeles to the public for the first time.

It is an 80 supercharger lot with two movie screens and a full service 24.7diner that serves a wide variety of locally sourced food for patrons while they charge or even just stop by.

And not coincidentally.

And I'm curious to get your take on this too, the diner opened at 4:20pm because.

Of course, why not?

Because of the significance of 4:20, which did not dawn on me until about 20 minutes after reading that headline.

And are you buying or selling the idea of Tesla Supercharger diners populating the national landscape?

I'm going to go ahead and sell this one.

Are you okay?

I'm not hedging.

I thought you'd go the other way.

No, no.

Like, no hedging.

No.

Just going to full on sell.

Now, should convenience store retailers and fueling station retailers be thinking about the future of the fueling station?

100%.

That is something that we've been talking about.

I remember two years Ago at Chop Talk Europe, I was talking to the head of BP Europe about this exact thing.

What, what do you do when people start spending more time if they're going to be charging?

I think it's this concept though, is purely a marketing play.

I think it's just trying to get people to engage with Tesla during a time that the brand is not doing so well and you have some questionable behavior by its founder.

I think that is something that is, is the real focus here and I think a way to maybe try to maintain some brand advocacy for the Tesla founders who are still very positively Tesla.

I just don't see this as a concept that's going to go throughout the country, especially like this location right on Santa Monica Boulevard.

And I don't know if you saw the pictures, but I encourage people to go to teslarati.

They put up giant screens in front of people's patios.

So there's apartment buildings that are now like, there's not even more than a meter between the, the screen, now the back of the screen and these people's condos.

Condo building.

So I would not be surprised if we see this thing drastically reduced or shut down in the next couple months.

And it was, it looked at as, hey, we just wanted to distract people with this big marketing ploy.

The timing seems really interesting given what's going on with the brand right now.

So, so I'm, I'm selling it.

Keep thinking about how you're going to engage consumers in the fueling station, but not with this concept.

But what about you?

Yeah, well, I, I'm actually, I'm not as hard on it as you are.

I'm.

Okay, I, I am, I am selling it in its current iteration, you know, iteration.

The Galaxy Diner, whatever the hell you.

Want to call it.

Yeah.

You know, as an LA tourist attraction, sure, fine.

And you know, I'm not surprised.

It feels a little overblown, overstated.

But that's typical of first experiments because you can always scale them back too.

But the one misgiving I have about it that I think particularly is not going to work when you think about it from a user design perspective, is the movie theater.

Like, the whole thing seems to be way souped up more than it needs to be.

And the movie theater means the trip has to be planned like, and so the trip is going to take a ton of time.

So why do I want to introduce that friction into my life with EV charging?

That seems really tough.

So as I look.

And then the other point about this too is we look to the Evolution of EV charging too.

It's going to get faster, it's going to get quicker.

So like, I'm not going to, it.

May go away altogether.

I mean, you look at like hydrogen charging or whatever this is to like.

Yeah, I'm getting my keys on that one.

I'm not going there.

But like they're gonna make it faster where you're not gonna want to watch a whole movie while you're getting your car charged.

And nobody wants to sit and watch in their car and watch a movie anyway because that's gone away too, you know, and that technology has been a lot better over the years.

So.

So, you know, but the dining component of it, sure, yeah, I think that could work.

And maybe.

So that's why when I think about national scale, like I think if they went more still like the roadside flying J market rather than the tourist attraction and they try to populate those throughout the country because yes, if you're going to take your car on the road, you need reliable charging stations.

Like that's where I think this potentially still could go.

But yeah, as a current incarnation, like I'm just like, whatever, dude, total tourist attraction.

Get your 420 stuff, you know, take another hit on that 420 bog and whatever and, and, and scale this sucker back is what I'm thinking.

Yeah, could not agree more.

Moving on, moving on.

Let's go to headline number three.

MalvAmerica is expanding an ongoing deployment of Axis Communications car counting video analytics across more than a dozen locations on its 5.6 million square foot campus in Bloomington, Minnesota.

According to chain Storage, the mall has been deploying intelligent cameras from access to improved surveillance and security since 2023.

Now, Mall of America is also utilizing AI enabled video analytics to support parking operations and provide safety security to shoppers.

The mall initially piloted an Axis camera deployed on a light pole isolated from the building.

Despite difficult access to power and data, the trial system proved more than 99% accurate with performance improvements after minor adjustments.

The success of that initial test led Mall of America to expand the implementation and the car counting data now drives macro level decisions about mall hours and event planning as well as micro level scheduling for vendors and staff.

Looking ahead, Mall of America is exploring the addition of capabilities like people counting and license plate recognition, as well as leveraging line analytics to better understand customer trends such as distinguishing hotel guests from shopping center customers.

Chris, what do you think of Mall of America's new parking lot technology?

I like it a lot.

That's what I'll just come right out and say it.

The Mall of America and particularly Jill Renzlow and her team there.

And I got the chance to interview her on stage last year and you and I both known her for years actually too.

They do a better job than anyone of understanding that the measure of success really at the end of the day when you're talking about physical retailing is that people have a good time.

And particularly when you're in malls, like the casino analogy is 100% apropos.

So, you know, finding a parking space quickly impacts whether people are happy.

Feeling safe impacts whether people are happy.

Getting through lions quickly impacts how people are feeling.

So knowing how much staff like you mentioned in the, in the article, that impacts that too.

So yes, yes, Net net.

I love the investment and can't, I can't wait to see what they do next with it too.

And because I think there's angles from talking to her on stage last year, there's angles on the safety and the theft prevention side of this that I think get really interesting in the long run.

Yeah, I think you hit on safety and convenience like number one and two things that they have to make sure are, are set up.

People have that great experience when they're at the mall.

What I really love about this though, Chris, is using AI to analyze the license plates and where that can go.

The future of this investment, because what I think, you know, you have right now is the mall knows about traffic.

They can count people coming in and out.

They could do intercepts to gather data from visitors that are coming through the mall at key points of time.

But with this, they could actually start to get the same visibility for their tenants that they have on an online website.

They know this, the zip code that people are traveling to.

They know the time of, that they're spending at the mall.

They know what times of year they're coming.

So are their peaks really, you know, should they start focusing on, you know, different times of year outside of, you know, the, the holiday summer break peak that they get, the back to school shopping peak, the holiday peaks that they get.

This is really going to allow Mall of America to personalize the experience for their cons, their consumers or their, their visitors more than they ever have before.

And I think that's what's really key here to that casino experience that you're talking about and giving people a feeling like this mall shopping experience has been 100 designed to suit me and the needs of my family, especially for those travelers.

They have tons of people that come from like 2, 2 plus hours away to do shopping trips here.

And I think that's the real unlock here and the value to future retail tenants that they're not going to get at a lot of other malls yet.

So that, to me, that's really where the future of this goes.

And this technology from Axis is really kind of checking all those boxes for the mall.

Yeah, that's a good point.

It should make their marketing more effective over time.

You know, if you know what percentage of your cars in your parking lot are from Iowa versus North Dakota, South Dakot, Illinois, which they get a hell of a lot of people from many different places, it tells them where they should put their marketing at what time of year.

So, yeah, that's a great point.

And all right, let's bring A&M's Chris Crates and Brandon Pisley onto today's show.

Joining us now for five insightful minutes is the A and M consumer and retail groups, Chris Crates and Brandon Peasley.

Brandon and Chris are here to Discuss A&M's latest research on the power of advanced space planning.

And let me tell you, folks, this could not be more timely.

Chris, let's start with this.

Why is it so important that grocers evaluate their space strategy now?

What's changed?

I think from a macro standpoint, highly inflationary environment.

You also have E commerce hitting the center of the store and really changing what categories people look to grocery stores versus other channels for.

You know, on the fresh produce side, you have health and wellness taking center stage.

You have the GLP1 drugs really changing what people are shopping for in the store.

And I think the kind of summary of it all is it's producing really different category outcomes in a grocery store.

You know, our research shows over the last five years there's been about $37 billion of growth in the fresh food, fresh and food areas of the store.

On the other hand, you've got $27 billion of revenue lost in general merchandising areas of the store.

And so it's a really important time for grocers to step back and think about what they're using shelf space for in the stores, what their customer missions actually are, and how they can be more productive and differentiated for their customers with that space.

This is a pretty big overhaul for retail organizations.

What are retailers missing in this process?

Like, what are some of the challenges that they're coming across as they start to embark on this endeavor?

So the first is they tend to underestimate the complexity associated with, with making.

You know, I've seen that most retailers have a Pretty well defined assortment process and they tend to think I'm making space changes.

This is just an extension of my assortment process.

But it's much, much bigger than that.

You're impacting a lot more categories at the same time.

Often the categories don't sit directly adjacent to each other where you're growing space and where you're reducing space.

So there's kind of a cascading implications across the categories in between.

And you're also enhancing the customer experience when you're making these space changes.

And so it's a lot more than just product changes.

The second thing I would highlight from what retailers often miss is kind of a level of executive support and sponsorship.

Right.

This isn't just a merchandising driven initiative, Right.

But you need support from the CEO on down.

You need a, you know, it's not just cross functional teams that are going to stand up and drive this, but you need to be thoughtful about standing up.

Kind of a center of excellence with a cross functional team that is empowered to make decisions and drive the process from end to end.

Someone that led this effort to redesign Target Store and its layout five to ten years into the future, I can attest to that.

So what best practices do you recommend, Brandon?

What do retailers have to get right if they're going to try to do something like this?

Because space changes are so complicated.

This is a space that's worth starting small and then expanding.

You want to take a couple of pilot stores, you want to test your concepts, you want to hone those concepts, you want to get customer feedback, feedback from store associates and refine the ideas.

You want to measure the results.

And then at the same time, you want to build your playbooks.

You know, how are you going to scale this?

You know, what are, what's the training program going to look like?

How do you go and teach the rest of the fleet how to do this appropriately?

The second best practice that we recommend is thinking about future proofing.

So going back to Chris's example, right, let's say you're a grocer.

Fresh business has grown, you know, 10 to 15% over the past couple of years.

But if you expect that business growth to continue, right, you may actually want to lean in more and make, you know, broader, more sweeping space change.

Maybe you want to change your space and freshness 20 to 25%.

And so you need to be really thoughtful around, you know, what are these trends, you know, which ones are you going to take a bet on and how are you going to enhance that customer value proposition of it.

What are you and the team at A and M advising that retailers start doing today to really get started moving on this and thinking about the future and what, what space planning should look like for their organization?

One of, one of the primary things is really, I mean, Brandon hit on it is it's talking about what, what's the organization going to be that's going to drive these efforts and putting that in place so that you're able to take a non biased, a non biased perspective and kind of navigate the silos of the, a typical merchandising organization and really evaluate the trade offs in space.

So I think that's the first step is putting that right organization in place and empowering them.

I think, you know, from a more foundational element, if you were sitting in a place where you say, hey, we have a very basic space planning capability, you know, the first thing I'd start to do is build a chart that shows how much of our shelf space across our fleet do we give to different categories versus how much margin they drive in our business.

And I think while it's not a completely linear chart where anything below the line is bad, anything above the line is good, et cetera, I think it'll start to help you think about where are the outliers in our business.

And you really have to look at it through the lens of, you know, what is our, what, what category, what are our category roles?

What missions are we targeting with our customers?

And that needs to guide some of those conversations.

But really for me, that's the most foundational starting point to say what are the things that really jump out in our business that likely don't make sense and need to be iterated in the.

Next concept, both in the current state and then projecting out 5 to 10 years too.

Right, Chris?

Yeah, I think it's a great point, Chris.

It's an opportunity to take a merchandising stand and develop a point of view of where you want to go over the next five to 10 years.

And you know, Brandon talked about it, it's not an effort that you do every single year.

You're not constantly moving space.

I think about it more of a two to four year cadence of where you're, you're making macro space adjustments, significant macro space adjustments in your store.

So, you know, Chris, it's a great chance for your merchants to help drive your merchandising strategy on how you're going to differentiate yourself and where you think the market's going over the next couple years.

Excellent.

Wow.

Great stuff you guys.

Thank you both.

And if you're interested in reading A&M CRG's report on the power of space planning, you can find a link to the report in our show.

Notes Headline number four.

Tesco has launched early delivery slots to help families over the summer According to the famed Retail Gazette out of the uk Tesco is open open its delivery slots earlier to help families over the busy summer period.

The grocery giant has enabled UK shoppers to access eight weeks worth of home delivery and click and collect slots over the summer for the first time instead of the usual four weeks.

It's also removed its same day charge for home deliveries and click and collect slots from selected stores.

The fee previously cost shoppers two pounds sterling.

I always like to say that for home delivery and £1 for click and collect, said Tesco Online director Rob Graham.

Quote, this is a great time to plan ahead and let Tesco take some of the stress away from those summer activities by booking delivery or collection slots up to eight weeks in advance.

And I'm curious, do you think Tesco's early delivery scheduling will ever catch on here in the US I see a.

Lot of potential for this.

I mean you're already seeing some of the retailers like you know, even the, the marketplaces like an instacart or ship and then you know, Walmart letting you pick out a week in advance.

Like you're already seeing some of this start to happen.

And I love this idea.

I mean you, you think about like the opportunities that this gives for like back to school.

Like I could plan my back to school shopping as soon as the week, you know, gets, as soon as the, the list gets released which is usually like mid July or something.

I could, you know, I know I'm gonna have a fourth of July party or I know I'm going on vacation and this allows me, me to like as soon as I have those plans cemented be like I'm going to schedule a delivery so I don't have to think about it, check done, I can just focus on getting to where I need to be and having that, that moment or that party or that vacation or being prepared for back to school.

And I have to imagine that this is going to provide some benefit for the retailers too to like have those orders in and guaranteed sure there's probably some last minute substitutions that'll come up but that happens with any delivery order.

So I, I think this has real potential.

I'm curious to see how it goes with Tesco knowing that that market's you know, slightly smaller than, than it is sometimes in the US with those, some of those deliveries.

But I, I'm really excited for this.

And you picked this headline for the, for the Fast five and I'm really glad you did because it really got me thinking.

So I'm curious.

Oh, did it?

Yeah.

I'm curious if you're feeling the same way about it still after our, our preliminary chat yesterday.

Yeah, I think so.

I mean we always, we try to bring in insights from, from Europe as much as possible, in particular the UK and particularly in the UK in the grocery market too.

And I think, you know, the way I see this evolving the US is, you know, first you go to, you, you go to, you know, weekend deliveries or scheduled deliveries in a shorter time frame and then you go further out to the eight weeks.

And we're already seeing companies like Buncha, who we've spotlighted numerous times over the past two or three years, having a lot of success white labeling this type of service where for them it's like scheduled weekly Deliveries with their W2 drivers White labeling it as an option for shipping on the product detail pages of most of the, you know, experiences of the companies they're working with.

So I, at the end of the day, when you just step back from it too, this is the pure definition of what omnichannel retailing is because it's getting the products to customers when and where they want it and how they want it.

Right.

What, what, what better definition is there of that, of a company trying to do that?

And to your point, it does help the retailer because they know their demand in advance.

They can plan around that.

They can plan their, the, the space allocation in their trucks, their delivery routes.

They can make sure the inventory is there.

So there's probably less canceled orders if they know like three months ahead of time.

Usually they can get goods in three months, especially food.

Like, you know, that shouldn't be a problem for the most part.

So, so that's why I think I like it and I'd like to see, I'd actually like to see the US grocer, the US Grocers in particular move faster towards this because I think the demand is there and you could probably potentially save a lot of money in terms of your E Commerce fulfillment costs in the long.

I would think so.

I would think so.

And operations.

I mean, I think, yeah, I think there's a lot of potential.

I'm kind of curious what's been keeping them from going this route already.

Why we haven't heard anybody really exploring this further, but they're busy.

They're busy.

But we are hearing some.

We are, we are here.

Some good.

We can't say who, but we are hearing some good.

Some good.

Some.

Some very smart companies that are starting to bite into this Apple and they're, they're moving in this direction.

So that's good, right?

Okay, let's go to headline number five.

Target will no longer match pricing for identical items at places such as Walmart and Amazon according to Retail Dive.

Target will no longer price match products starting on July 28.

The company said that it's found that shoppers, quote, overwhelmingly price match Target and not other retailers, end quote.

According to a statement from a spokesperson that was shared with retail Dive.

Under the previous policy, Target would match prices for identical qualifying items at Amazon and Walmart.

Shoppers could request such price matching at the time of purchase or within 14 days afterward.

Chris, do you think Target will regret the day that it made the decision to stop price matching or do you think stopping price matching is a good move for them?

Man, I have not talked to you about this one at all.

So I have no idea which way you're gonna go with.

Go.

Go with it, go with it.

On it.

So I'm a little worried that I might be dangling on a limb here, but we'll see.

But you know, for the whole.

And I can't get behind this.

I just can't.

I've tried really hard for a lot of reasons.

First, the number of people that actually price match is pretty damn negligible.

So it's not going to move the needle financially.

Like, it's just not so.

And then my second point that I'm kind of annoyed about in terms of how this was conveyed in the media is if the customers are overwhelmingly price matching Target, you have to ask yourself, why is that Target?

Your prices should.

Your prices should never be lower than Walmart and Amazon.

So.

So I'm not buying that that's the real rationale either.

Something else has to be going on.

And the only thing I can think of is that they're scared going into the holidays because of the impact of what they're seeing in the macroeconomic climate.

And they're scared of it in a way that they've never had to be before because as the mentor said to me, they try to do a good job of comp shopping Walmart and Amazon wherever possible.

And so.

But Target can't win a price war, but they can lose one.

And so I think they're saying we want the Flexibility to not have to match Walmart and Amazon in the upcoming season.

And is that threat real?

Yeah, possibly.

But on the flip side of it, you already have people shifting to Walmart and Costco and now you're giving them another reason to shift allegiances.

When price perception has always been a problem for you, Target.

That's why you came out in the spring, in the summer and talked about your price decreases that you're planning to take.

So, so net net.

Even if that's the rationale which I could understand potentially strategically, one, Target's not saying that, so they're kind of being obfuscating in the media.

And two, I don't like that rationale either.

So you know, I had place to run data for me and too.

So I'm going to add some data in this conversation.

Did you know that the percent of shoppers that are also shopping Costco Target shoppers that are also shopping Costco regularly has gone from 28 to 30% in just the last two years.

You know that's almost a 10 change.

So that's pretty significant.

And so you're just giving people more reason to question, am I getting a good price at Target?

When you're taking the price match out and that's why the price match exists.

So overall I think it's a short term reactionary move.

It's like honestly the best thing I can equate it to is it's like getting rid of Reddit, Red and khaki versus making a long term decision that is the best decision for the brand.

The brand at Target is the weakest it's ever been.

It is the weakest it's ever been the brand of Target itself.

So get it.

Ring price.

Getting rid of price matching sure as heck doesn't help that brand perception in my mind.

So Chris, I mean I'll start off by saying that I agree with you.

I don't understand here and I cannot make heads of tails of how this was messaged.

Like was this leaked to the media?

So they had to put something out because if I were Target I would be, I would be more strategic about this message.

Like as a member of Target circle perks you get.

You know, we're going to make sure that you're part of the the like best price that we can give you or that we're researching these top items for the season to make sure that you're getting the lowest price possible and you're earning rewards or something like that.

Like this, the way that this was pushed out just we're ending price matching feels like another reason to further prevent somebody from shopping at Target.

And I think while that while the timing might be necessary due to, you know, the cost of goods changing this time of year, it just, it feels like the timing is just absolutely poor in terms of a guest perspective and whether or not I'm going to choose Target or if I'm going to go to Costco, like you just said.

The last thing that I wonder about, Chris, is I again, I think if I were Target I would be investigating where I can make this up in terms of technology.

Like are you investing in digital pricing or different pricing software to make sure that you don't have to manually do this like that your guests aren't the one bringing these price differences to your attention.

Or if fraud is the issue where like you feel like people are take overwhelmingly taking advantage of Target, like what are you investing in there to make sure that you're, you're set up for success?

The technology is out there Target.

And that's what I really baffles me because it feels like there should be more to this instead of just, oh, we're just going to stop doing price matching because the optics of that are terrible.

That's, that's where I'm reading between the lines here.

And I think, I think that's, it's, it's, there's one point that you made in there that's that it's especially salient to me which is the fact that Walmart's going to have electronic price levels on every shelf.

So Target, you're already going to be behind them anyway.

Right.

And so now you're taking price match out and that's going to make the perception of your prices relative to Walmart because Walmart can be more flexible even worse in the minds here from where it is now versus where it's going to be a year or two, two from now.

So the only rationale I can think of is that Target wants to be able to control its prices and doesn't want to have to the comp shop.

Comp shop, Walmart and Amazon anymore.

It's the only conceivable way.

And I think the other point I make too is you're kind of giving them credit for the fact that this got leaked.

I'm actually curious if it didn't leak because this is such a significant change that they have to get in front of this.

They have to communicate this to people very clearly that you can no longer do this in our stores.

True.

You know, you don't want to just, you know, you don't want to just throw that onto people like, willy nilly.

And they came up with this bogus excuse of, like, people price match Target more than they price match the other retailers, which you should have.

How do they know that saying that you should have?

Well, because they know who they're price matching.

They know who they're giving the data for.

Like, they know who's coming in and what ad they're they're referencing or what price they're referencing.

But why should that be happening?

Why should your own customers be caught price copying you?

That's insane when you think about it.

So, like, the rationale is insane.

The.

The reading the headline, too.

I'm like, I have the.

I have a feeling the reporter doesn't even know what the hell they're saying.

And because, like, that's essentially, I think, what they're saying.

So, like, you know, the reporter should have been like, why is that happening?

So I don't.

This is so net.

Net.

We both hate this.

We hate this move.

I just don't get it.

Somebody's gonna need to take me to coffee and explain it to me.

I. I will listen.

I. I just don't get it.

Okay, Chris, I've tried and I'm not.

And I do not want to continue to critique Target, but they just keep giving us so much fodder of things that just aren't making sense.

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

Question number one.

You probably already know about this app, but Neon Coat is an app for influencers with 5000 or more followers that provides free perks to 1500 restaurants, services, and experiences.

Chris, if you were asked to be on this app or approved to be on Neon Coach, or perhaps you already are, what would you want free access to?

Does this include LinkedIn followers?

And because I'm curious, like, I mean, I don't know how this works.

I am not certain, but I think we could qualify.

Yes.

Let's apply.

Yeah.

All right.

Yes.

I mean, my number one is I love movies.

And, you know, I love movies.

Amc.

I want the free AMC movie Pack.

Like, I want to be able to see whatever movie I want.

You know, my.

My dream job is.

Actually, I haven't told you this.

My dream job is to stop what we're doing and become a movie reviewer.

That's what I love to do.

That would be amazing.

But what's stopping you?

Just get it going on the side.

Chris, I'm time.

Yeah, time.

But I saw Superman.

I loved It.

And I went to the movie theater.

I saw it.

It was great.

And I miss going to the movies.

I just miss it.

And, you know, partly because it's so expensive, too.

It's not affordable.

You're one of the myth.

You're one of the myth blockbusters that Ethan Chernofsky was talking about last week about returning to the movie.

100%.

I am.

Yeah.

You can't beat it.

All right.

My kids hated it, but I loved it.

All right.

Southwest Airlines passengers will fly in assigned seats for the first time on January 27, the carrier told CNBC this week.

And I'm curious.

I don't know which way you're gonna go on this one, too.

Does the.

The announcement of a signed seating at Southwest Airlines make you more or less likely want to fly swa?

I.

You know what?

If I'm not flying Delta, I don't.

I have zero expectations for that flight.

I'm just happy I get to the place that I'm going to go.

So it doesn't matter to me one bit.

I. I mean, I was never a big fan of the Southwest onboarding thing anyway.

Thought it actually caused more confusion.

So I.

That's fine with me.

I don't mind.

Doesn't make one bit of difference.

Yeah.

Do you care?

Crazy to me, though.

What?

Well, it's.

I don't know if.

I don't know if I care as a passenger, but I care as a business.

Like, there are whole operational cases at, like, I can remember many, many operational business school cases about Southwest Airlines and why they operate the way they do.

And now they just seem like they're becoming another.

Also ran airline in all of their policies.

And so I just can't figure out for the life of me why they're going in that direction.

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

In and out President Lindsey Snyder told reporters that she is moving her family out of California because living and working there has become too difficult.

As someone who now considers himself a Minnesotan, what would you do to try to sell Lindsay as the number one reason to move her family and in n out headquarters to Minnesota or somewhere in the Midwest?

Wow, that's a tough sell.

Number one, I think.

Well, it wouldn't be the Juicy Lucy's, and I don't think I could sell the Juicy Lucy's, which, for those unfamiliar with the Juicy Lucy's is a hamburger with cheddar cheese packed inside it, so when you bite into it, it melts and burns the hell out of your mouth.

Because honestly, In N out can beat a juicy Lucy any day of the week.

So I. I wouldn't say that, but I.

You know, can I.

Let me ask you a question.

And can I say the warm, inviting, and passive aggressive nature of Minnesotans.

Do you see what I did there?

I did.

I did.

You could say that.

I don't think that gets us closer to an in and out in Minneap, but I think that would be.

That might be one way of trying to get.

To get her and her family to pick Minneapolis over Nashville, I think, is where they're going.

Yeah.

Nashville.

Yeah.

Good choice.

Good choice, by the way, Lindsay.

I like it.

All right, last one is kind of sad news.

And Malcolm Jamal Warner sadly passed away this past week.

What is your fondest memory of Theo Huxtable?

Ugh, that was so awful.

He drowned in Costa Rica, right?

That was terrible.

Yeah.

Even another guy.

Another guy's in critical condition.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

I would say I had to go back to the archives because I couldn't remember his character.

I remember watching him and having a fondness for him.

I couldn't remember a specific memory.

So one of the videos that I watched was when his sister Robin brings.

Or.

Sorry, his sister Denise brings Robin Givens.

I forget her character on the show, but he brings her.

And he, like, is trying to, like, put the moves on, and his shirt progressively just keeps on buttoning more and more.

And then her boyfriend comes like, oh, it was so good.

Just like, classic Theo trying to impress Robin Givens, who's just like, Badass B, you know?

It was great.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, there's so many great memories with him, for sure.

Even the pilot episode, you know, where he.

His dad's, like, showing him the budget with Monopoly money, and his dad's like, so you can have a girlfriend, and he just, like, rips the money out of his hand.

I just love.

I just love that.

All right, well, that closes us up.

Thanks for a great show, everybody.

Happy birthday today to Joel Edgerton, Francis McDormand, and to the man known to us as Coughlin, who gave us unforgettable laws in the movie Cocktail.

Unforgettable laws like never tell tales about a woman, no matter how far away she is, she'll always hear you.

The great Briar Brown.

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