Walmart, Whatnot & WTF Is H-E-B Doing With Robots? | Fast Five
In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and ClearDemand, Chris and Anne discussed:
- SpartanNash’s merger with C&S Wholesale Grocers (Source)
- Whatnot, the $5 billion shopping app you probably haven’t heard of (Source)
- Walmart equipping its store associates with mobile AI tools (Source)
- H-E-B piloting autonomous deliveries in Austin, TX (Source)
- Amazon testing tighter grocery bundling for same-day deliveries (Source)
- And AWS’s Daniele Stroppa also dropped by to help us hand out a new award we are giving out each month in partnership with AWS, and we are calling it the Retail Startup of the Month
There’s all that, plus french fry pizza, steamy romance novels, and whether Chris prefers bar soap or body wash in the shower.
P.S. Be sure to check out all our other podcasts from the past week here, too: https://omnitalk.blog/category/podcast/
P.P.S. Also be sure to check out our podcast rankings on Apple Podcasts and on Feedspot
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#RetailNews #WalmartAI #WhatnotApp #RetailTech #GroceryDelivery #RetailPodcast #OmniTalk #AmazonGrocery #LivestreamShopping #RetailInnovation #SpartanNash #Botify
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Transcript
The Omni Tech Fast 5 is brought to you by the A and M Consumer and Retail Group.
Speaker A: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.
Speaker A: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.
Speaker A:Over 450 retailers are now opening new revenue streams with marketplaces, dropship and retail media.
Speaker A:And succeeding with Miracle, you can unlock more products, more partners and more profits without the heavy lifting.
Speaker A:What's holding you back?
Speaker A:Visit Miracle.com to learn more.
Speaker A:That's M I R A K L.com and Symbi Simbi powers the most retail banners in the world with today's only multimodal platform for in store intelligence.
Speaker A:See how Albertsons, BJ's Spartan Nash and Wakefern win with AI and Automation@7simd Robotics.com and Infios.
Speaker A:@ Infios, they unite warehousing, transportation and order management into a seamless, adaptable network.
Speaker A:Infios helps you stay ahead from promise to delivery and every step in between.
Speaker A:To learn more, visit infios.com and Clear Demand pricing shouldn't be guesswork.
Speaker A:Clear Demand's AI powered pricing data and optimization solutions help retailers stay competitive while protecting margins, Smarter pricing, stronger profits.
Speaker A:Clear Demand makes it happen.
Speaker A:Learn more@cleardemand.com omnitalk and finally, Ocampo Capital.
Speaker A:Ocampo Capital is a venture capital firm founded by retail executives with an aim of helping early stage consumer businesses succeed through investment and operational support.
Speaker A: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 podcasts on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker A: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.
Speaker A:And the Fast 5 is just one of the many great podcasts that you can find from the Omnitalk 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.
Speaker A: ,: Speaker A:I'm one of your hosts, Anne Mazinga.
Speaker B:And I'm Chris Walton and we're here.
Speaker A:Once again to discuss all the top head headlines from the past week, making waves in the world of omnichannel retailing.
Speaker A:Chris, I got a little bit of grief last week from some Omni Talk fans because we had a M's, Brooks and Bryson on that.
Speaker A:We did not say anything about the feud, the beef between Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.
Speaker A:We didn't even bring that up.
Speaker B:We didn't even make that connection between those two.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker B:Yeah, I can.
Speaker B:I kind of have a sense of who that fan might be, too, but they're.
Speaker A:They're like, how could you miss this glaringly obvious.
Speaker A:This glaringly obvious topic to bring up when you happen to have someone named Bryson and Brooks on your podcast at one time?
Speaker B:Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker B:You know why I think that, though, is because they didn't really beef that much.
Speaker B:They didn't.
Speaker B:They.
Speaker B:They were.
Speaker B:They were.
Speaker B:They were kind of.
Speaker B:They were kind of very nice to each other and.
Speaker B:And very conciliatory with each other in their arguments with each other for the most part.
Speaker B:I think I got into a little bit of a.
Speaker B:A little bit of a Ted A Tete with Bryson at one point, if I remember right.
Speaker B:On the Amazon story.
Speaker B:But we'll have to.
Speaker B:But generally, it was not a very contentious debate last week.
Speaker A:Yes, we'll have to find another Chris that is in the golf world.
Speaker B:Yeah, I can't.
Speaker A:I can't think of one beef with Bryson.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think Bryson DeChambeau is kind of like a Beefster anyway.
Speaker A:Like, he's known in the golf community.
Speaker A:I don't think it's called a Beefster, but I think he is kind of.
Speaker B:A Beefster, though, if, you know, I.
Speaker A:Think he stirs up a lot of stuff.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:So we appreciate any feedback that you have for us here at omnitok.
Speaker A:So whether it's related to not covering golf beefs on a retail podcast or anything else that it might be, please feel free at any point in time to submit that feedback to us.
Speaker B:Yeah, I imagine there were quite a few fans that are golf.
Speaker B:Quite a few omnitog listeners that are golf fans that probably made that connection as well.
Speaker B:All right, and the other thing I'd point out, too, is we are at the Miracle Summit.
Speaker B:Yes, we are at the Brookfield place in New York City at the Miracle Summit.
Speaker B:The show just kicked off.
Speaker B:Everyone behind closed doors.
Speaker B:Ann and I are out here recording a fast five live for you.
Speaker B:And stay tuned to our feed, too, because we're gonna have great interviews with people all week long, particularly the SVP of E Commerce, Joe Cano at Lowe's and the founder of Cotapaxi too, which I'm pretty excited about.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:All right, should we do the headlines?
Speaker A:Yes, let's get to it.
Speaker B:All right, in this week's Fast5, we've got news on whatnot, the $5 billion shopping app you probably have never heard of.
Speaker B:Walmart equipping its store associates with mobile AI tools, HEB piloting autonomous deliveries in Austin, Texas, Amazon testing tighter grocery bundling for same day deliveries.
Speaker B:And AWS's Denle Stropa stops by to help us hand out a new award we are giving out each month in partnership with aws.
Speaker B:And we are calling it the Retail Startup of the Month, which we'll be announcing right between headlines three and four.
Speaker B:So wait around for that, everybody.
Speaker B:But we begin today with big news out of Spartan Nash.
Speaker A:And that's right, Chris.
Speaker A:Spartan Ash is merging with CNS Wholesale Grocers.
Speaker A:According to Progressive Grocer, CNS Wholesale Grocers LLC and Spartan Ash Co.
Speaker A:Have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which CNS will acquire Spartan Ash for a purchase price of $26.90 per share of Spartan Nash common stock in cash, representing total consideration of 1.77 billion, including assumed net debt.
Speaker A:The transaction price represents a 52.5% premium over SP Nash's closing price on June 20th.
Speaker A:Chris, do you think the rationale is behind the Spartan Nash?
Speaker A:Chris?
Speaker A:Sorry, what?
Speaker A:Do you think the rationale is behind the Spartan Nash and CNS merger?
Speaker B:Man, I mean, for me, you know, I don't have too much to say on this topic, even though it's a big headline for the week.
Speaker B:You know, probably the biggest one of the week, without a doubt is, I mean, it's gotta be scale, it's gotta be the rationale.
Speaker B:There's always strength in numbers.
Speaker B:The grocery business continues to feel pressure on all sides.
Speaker B:You have two entities basically with similar value propositions, both being wholesalers.
Speaker B:And so, you know, there's going to be operational synergies from this.
Speaker B:This isn't like your typical merger acquisition where you kind of have to jump through a lot of hoops to find out where the value is.
Speaker B:So, I mean, the number, it's telling you the numbers.
Speaker B:I want to make sure I get this right.
Speaker B:In the article, it said that they've got approximately 10, they will service approximately 10,000 retail locations.
Speaker B:So that's a pretty big operation at this stage in the game.
Speaker B:And the wholesale game is all about price and the level of service that you can provide.
Speaker B:So the deal net net should be able to provide CNS and Spartan Nash's customers with better prices and hopefully better execute operational execution over time too.
Speaker B:So that's, that's my take.
Speaker B:It's just purely about scale.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:What do you think though?
Speaker A:I think that the they've got to be both Spartan Nash and CNS have got to be facing increasing pressure from the regional and independent grocery stores that they support because those regionals are not able to withstand things like tariffs, things like constantly fluctuating prices.
Speaker A:The way that some of the larger players in their same markets, the larger competitors like a Walmart or like Albertsons Kroger, they don't have those advantages.
Speaker A:And so for them to stay competitive, these independent and regional grocers, they're going to need to gain efficiencies and lower costs wherever they can.
Speaker A:So I think that's really what's probably driving this.
Speaker A:And I just, I hope that it's as written that this is really doing just that that's helping bring down prices for those independent grocers and their customers and that this will work as as planned.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a great point.
Speaker B:Now to your I think what you're implicitly saying there too is like, does it stave off the continued grab of share by the big guys from the regional grocers?
Speaker B:Time will tell.
Speaker B:It's a big question.
Speaker B:But the other thing about the regional grocers is they don't have the ability to go direct with their own distribution like the big guys do.
Speaker B:So, you know, they need companies like CNS and Spartan Ash to thrive and survive.
Speaker B:So, you know, hopefully this makes sense.
Speaker B:All right, all right.
Speaker B:Headline number two.
Speaker B:This one is all about the wildly entertaining FOMO inducing $5 billion shopping app you've never heard of.
Speaker B:And according to the friend of the show, Jason Del Rey at Fortune, this app is called Whatnot.
Speaker B:Whatnot is a five year old shopping app that quietly climbed App Store charts as one of the leaders of the growing trend of live stream Commerce in the US and currently ranks inside the top 15 most popular free iPhone apps in the United States.
Speaker B:Live streaming on Whatnot, as we are sure Omnitalk fans are aware, offers a new spin on QVC and HSN cable TV shopping channels of yesteryear, marrying some of the auction model and enthusiast appeal of ebay with the camaraderie and communal viewing and euphoria of Twitch.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B: billion in goods in: Speaker B: n gross merchandise volume in: Speaker B: aid, doubling the business in: Speaker B:And this is also the A M put you on the spot question.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:All right, you get this one this week.
Speaker B:All right, here it is.
Speaker B:Video commerce has done very well in China and is starting to get its legs in the US Has Whatnot specifically gained strong momentum because of its focus on collectibles which keeps it fairly niche?
Speaker B:Or could it be the US is ready for well executed live video shopping experiences implying this is extendable to big brands and retailers?
Speaker A:I think we're, we're absolutely in the niche and like for the now of video commerce, I think we're seeing this gain popularity in some of the markets that you talked about, you know, collectibles.
Speaker A:I, we're starting to see a ton of like luxury consignment.
Speaker A:Independent retailers starting to spin up video commerce because it gives people that confidence in the purchase.
Speaker A:Like video can that.
Speaker A:No, like a single post on, you know of a picture of a trading card or a picture of a Louis Vuitton handbag.
Speaker A:Like it can't, you can't do the same kind of business when you just have a static image.
Speaker A:So yes, yes, I absolutely think Whatnot's finding success because of the niche markets now.
Speaker A:But what I think about as we think about the future, what A&M's asking about when this hits more mass adoption in the U.S.
Speaker A:i think it what's really important for retailers listening to focus on is what we talked to at Commerce next yesterday to Sarah Henry at Walmart, head of influencer and content marketing and then also the SVP of E Commerce and digital at cost was talking about how important it is to have these relationships with the content creators, but even more so to make sure that the platforms that these content creators are able to work on are easy for them to use.
Speaker A:It gets them on camera and gets the product in front of people quickly, easily and there and also allows the customers to shop more easily from these platforms.
Speaker A:That's what I'm focused on here with the popularity of the Whatnot app.
Speaker A:Not so much like it's going to be everywhere and every retailer is going to be having live stream commerce right now.
Speaker A:I think it's more about focusing that energy on how you're building the platform that's right to support you and your Customers.
Speaker B:Do you think Whatnot will have success extending this into other categories beyond collectibles?
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I don't know that I see Whatnot doing that specifically.
Speaker A:I think this is a great platform for them.
Speaker A:I don't know that I see like a major retailer taking on the whatnot platform, though, or conducting business through this.
Speaker A:I think they'll be much more focused on creating it themselves or working with a larger enterprise partner.
Speaker B:What about the influencers, though?
Speaker B:Do you think they could tap into the influencers like they're doing the collectibles market to get this into fashion, get this into accessories, shoe wear?
Speaker B:All those things are starting to populate on the app.
Speaker B:Do you that they'll be successful in that over the long run?
Speaker A:I think.
Speaker A:I think you'll see retailers trying to do it themselves.
Speaker A:I don't see them.
Speaker A:I really don't see.
Speaker A:I think for a lot of retailers, they're still getting over the hurdle of, like, quality of content.
Speaker A:And this is like, if you watch these live streams on whatnot, it's very raw.
Speaker A:It's not very raw.
Speaker A:There's a lot of these independent retailers that are doing this right now.
Speaker A:And I think if I'm a brand and I'm looking at that, I want something that I have a little bit more control over.
Speaker A:The look, the feel and the functionality of that particular app.
Speaker A:But what are your thoughts?
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean, my thoughts are.
Speaker B:Which doesn't necessarily preclude what not what not from finding success in that arena.
Speaker A:Think.
Speaker B:You know, for me, I look at this kind of as eBay 2.0 in a lot of ways.
Speaker B:And live streaming come to us.
Speaker B:So, you know, I think, yes, the niche market for sure with collectibles is where it starts.
Speaker B:And especially if you go back to the ebay analogy in the late 90s.
Speaker B:But, you know, ebay showed that you can go into other businesses too.
Speaker B:And it's funny, I was.
Speaker B:I was doom scrolling the other night and I found this clip of Phil Rosenthal, the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond.
Speaker A:And Every and somebody feed Phil and somebody feed Phil.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:And he was talking to Simon Sinek and what he said in terms of one of his big, big lessons from developing content over the years was be as specific as you can be.
Speaker B:Because when you try to be too generic and you try to appeal to the masses, you end up not meeting anyone's needs.
Speaker B:You don't create any nostalgia in their minds.
Speaker B:And I think that is essentially what Whatnot is hitting on here, is there's a very specific niche across every category of people that are just enthusiastic about the products.
Speaker B:So that makes me actually think that they could have success in the long run continuing to extend this out if they allow it to be organic and natural and authentic to the way it has been with collectibles.
Speaker B:You know, I, you know, this, it's, it's not that dissimilar to, you know, what's happening on TikTok in a lot of ways, just a different platform.
Speaker B:So, you know, where does this all congeal in the long run?
Speaker B:It's hard to say, but I don't see them slowing down really, given those numbers.
Speaker B:Those numbers are crazy too.
Speaker A:The numbers are impressive, I think, I think it gets back to also, like, where are you and where are you heading to the platform?
Speaker A:Like, we're seeing a lot of buzz with this, you know, because it's new and newish and upcoming.
Speaker A:But are people going to download another app or is this stuff going to move to TikTok or, you know, even or to other retailers platforms where they're, they're able to take this content and project them into those social feeds that people are already spending time in.
Speaker A:Like, that's where I think the real hurdle is for me and as a brand, I'd be focused on how do I create this content in one and then distribute it out to places where people already are.
Speaker A:So that's where I think the success of, of the live streaming or the proliferation of live streaming in the US is going to continue.
Speaker A:But all right, let's go to headline number three.
Speaker A:Walmart is equipping its store associates with mobile AI tools.
Speaker A:According to ChainStorage, the discount giant is providing a new suite of AI tools to store employees via its associate app.
Speaker A:Initially available for overnight stocking, this technology is designed to provide associates with clear guidance on where to focus their efforts.
Speaker A:Based on early results, Walmart says its team leads and store managers estimate that the AI solution has reduced the the time team leads spend Planning shifts from 90 minutes down to 30 minutes.
Speaker A:The suite is now in pilot for other shifts in select locations.
Speaker A:Chris, are you pro or con Walmart deploying mobile AI to help with restocking?
Speaker B:Oh, a hundred percent.
Speaker B:A hundred percent.
Speaker B:And it and particularly overnight restocking too, because, you know, having been a store manager, the one thing I can tell you, if you've got a store that's running an overnight logistics process, that is the number one thing you have to get right in that store.
Speaker B:If it gets wrong, you can be backed up for days, months, you can even be backed up for years.
Speaker B:Quite honestly.
Speaker B:And until you get somebody in there that fixes the whole process and overhauls everything so, you know, as a place to test this and really work out the kinks, I think a hundred percent makes sense and I give kudos to Walmart for trying it.
Speaker A:So I think what, what I think is impressive here is when you think about when you have an extra hour for a team lead.
Speaker A:Now we don't know if that's an hour a day, an hour per week, three hours per week, but I think when you think about where that team lead can now be focusing their time one on their associates and just checking in on the health and well being of their associates, how are things going?
Speaker A:How much more can they do?
Speaker A:Can that team lead start helping unload trucks at night or helping doing stocking?
Speaker A:Like, can they fill in the gaps if they need to?
Speaker A:I think that's where the value is going to come from this, that Walmart's going to see is how much more productive and healthy can the strength of those teams be as a result of deploying technology like this.
Speaker A:Is it as sexy as the gen AI?
Speaker A:Like, you know, where do I, how do I return a product that doesn't have a receipt?
Speaker A:Like, no, but I think that this is going to be the most, one of the most successful applications of AI that Walmart will see.
Speaker A:And it's clearly working if they're rolling it out to this many locations.
Speaker B:Yeah, the only caveat I have is, you know, the proof's in the pudding in terms of how you actually do this, because at the end of the day, the overnight logistics teams are executors.
Speaker B:They're ones that take the orders and they get it done.
Speaker B:And so you've got to figure out the right rub between directing them on what to do versus asking them to read and interpret too much data as well.
Speaker B:But you know, if they come in and they're like saying, hey, here's where you need to deploy your workforce today.
Speaker B:And that's saving them time from a planning perspective, that's super valuable.
Speaker B:And then the other key point is you've got to measure the actions that are being told against what the actions that are that are being taken.
Speaker B:There's a lot of these people in the roles too, have a lot of experience and have been doing these jobs a very specific way and they know some shortcuts to things that the organization doesn't.
Speaker B:And so you got to still be able to allow that to happen or at least track it to understand, you know, whether the recommendations you're making are actually beneficial in the long run.
Speaker A:What, what kind of revenue do you think that they're going to see from just like, number one, just having more product out on the shelves because they're prioritizing this?
Speaker A:I mean, that's got to be pretty significant for Walmart.
Speaker A:I would think once they are stopped, like they're able to restock and have more product out, which essentially would be the outcome of this, I would think.
Speaker B:Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker B:It depends.
Speaker B:I actually think it's probably more of a workforce efficiency application here versus like a restocking or a being able to get more product on the floor.
Speaker B:I'm sure getting more product on the floor.
Speaker B:And there's all kinds of numbers that talk about that in terms of the value of getting product on the floor, which I'm always kind of questioning too.
Speaker B:But, you know, the fact that you're saving time in the planning, that means you can redeploy.
Speaker B:You can redeploy that workforce to something else.
Speaker B:You can get things done more quickly.
Speaker B:So maybe you don't need as many people on overnight logistics.
Speaker B:And again, that's the biggest expense line for a retailer.
Speaker B:So I think it's more about that.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And it's part and parcel than sales.
Speaker B:Sales will come, provided that everyone's operating better.
Speaker B:But, you know, I think it's probably both at the end of the day.
Speaker B:All right, before we go on to headline number four, let's welcome Danielle of AWS onto today's program.
Speaker B:Today we are introducing a new monthly segment where each month we will bring on AWS's Danele Stropa onto our program to hand out a new award we are calling Omnitalk's Retail Tech Startup of the Month.
Speaker B:And the first award winner, let me tell you, folks, could not be more timely and apropos.
Speaker B:But before we award this month's winner, let's first introduce Danele.
Speaker B:Danele is a worldwide technical leader for AWS Partners in Retail at Amazon Web Services, where he drives the technical strategy for AWS Partners in Digital Commerce, Customer Engagement, and Generative AI.
Speaker A:Danielle, welcome to amitalk.
Speaker A:We're so excited to have you.
Speaker A:Let's start first by just giving our audience a little bit of your background before we get into this month's award winner.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, thanks.
Speaker C:Thanks for having me.
Speaker C:I'm really, really excited to be here.
Speaker C:Really looking forward to these segments and these awards as well.
Speaker C:So my role @AWS has two folds right on one side.
Speaker C:I look at the industry trends, market signals, our customers feedback to drive that strategy, define the strategy, but then we go and implement with our partners in terms of what kind of solutions, what kind of challenges are our customers seeing and how can we best help them solve those.
Speaker C:And then on the other side, I also work closely with our customers and our sales teams to then connect them, being able to advance the use of these partner solutions with their customers.
Speaker C:I've been with Amazon now for a bit over 11 years and in this particular role for the last three and a half and as I said, really, really excited to be here.
Speaker C:Really looking forward to these sessions.
Speaker B:I can't think of a better person to partner with on this award each and every month.
Speaker B:All right, so I baited the hook.
Speaker B:I teased it at the outset.
Speaker B:Who is this month's inaugural retail tech startup winner?
Speaker C:So really excited to share that.
Speaker C:That would be Botify.
Speaker C:Botify is an enterprise platform that helps brands, retailers really maximize their visibility across search platform and search engines and different platforms.
Speaker C:And really what that means today in this changing environment is that they are able to be seen everywhere or able to be found everywhere.
Speaker A:Why is that so important in your mind right now?
Speaker A:Daniele like what sets them apart from other providers?
Speaker C:What we are seeing is a change in consumer behaviors, meaning that when consumers look for products, they start their shopping journey.
Speaker C:They don't necessarily start that anymore on a traditional search engine, but they rely more and more on generative engines like the perplexity or ChatGPT or Claude.
Speaker C:And these platforms or brands need to be able to be visible on these platforms as well.
Speaker C:And what Botify does that is different and quite unique is the fact that they go beyond the SEO and keyword tracking, meaning that they are able to not only understand what bots agents are doing on a brand's website, what kind of content they access, what kind of products they may be looking at, what kind of page they are trying to access.
Speaker C:But then they're also able to give customers an understanding of what content is valuable, what content is visible and not visible, especially so brands, then they can act on that and make sure that the content that they want to be seen is actually seen is actually discoverable.
Speaker B:And Daniela, what are the long term implications of this technology when we step back and think about it across retail?
Speaker B:And why do you think it's so important to highlight this particular star as our first retail tech startup of the month?
Speaker C:Yeah, I think there's two aspects here.
Speaker C:One obviously is for the brands to be able to be seen so brand recognition, but also increase revenue, increase profitability as the traffic keeps on coming, keeps on coming to the brands and to the retailers.
Speaker C:On the second aspect is also optimizing the cost, optimizing the operational cost.
Speaker C:Botify also allows you to serve content in a more serve optimized content to the bots so that your infrastructure cost is also optimized and is also reduced.
Speaker C:So these two are important aspects, important impact on businesses that Botify is enabled.
Speaker B:All right, thank you Daniela and thank you to and congrats to Botify for being named our first retail tech startup of the month.
Speaker B:Headline number four.
Speaker B:HB is piloting autonomous vehicle delivery in Austin.
Speaker B:According to Grocery Dive.
Speaker B:H E B has partnered with autonomous vehicle maker Avride, which is headquartered in Austin for the pilot.
Speaker B:The bots have a delivery radius of roughly 1 mile and service customers living in the Austin Mueller district of the city.
Speaker B:Hopefully I said that right.
Speaker B:Mueller or Miller, I don't know.
Speaker B:And you know, with the pilot customers, I don't know that much about Austin.
Speaker B:Believe it or not, with the pilot, customers can get 10 small items delivered by the bots between 11am to 7pm daily.
Speaker B:The bot uses sensor sensors, lidar and cameras to navigate and has cameras that blur sensors.
Speaker A:The combination of lidar and it is.
Speaker B:Yeah, we should just call that sensors.
Speaker B:It has copyright 25 and the cameras blur faces and license plates to ensure privacy according to the company.
Speaker B:Wow, who knew that that was even a thing?
Speaker B:The robots travel up to 5 mph and can cover 31 miles on a single charge.
Speaker B:And on past shows you haven't been the biggest proponent of small lot autonomous robot delivery.
Speaker B:Does the fact that H E B is now trying this change your opinion at all?
Speaker A:I mean it definitely caught my attention is why I thought this headline was worthy of being in the Fast five.
Speaker A:I mean it's not often we hear a retailer, especially a conservative retailer when it comes to technology innovation like H E B testing autonomous vehicles.
Speaker A:Like it's this is like an Amazon or a Walmart story for sure.
Speaker A:And while I don't know much about Austin, I did do a deep dive on Google Maps into the surrounding community around, around this particular H E B store.
Speaker A:And this particular location for them does make sense.
Speaker A:There's a hospital, there's a giant sports complex, there's a small residential neighborhood, there's hotels, there's retirement communities.
Speaker A:So within a one mile radius, yes, an autonomous, you know, vehicle that can deliver 10 items or less makes complete sense.
Speaker A:I don't know how this scales to the rest of the H E B locations because when I First read the mile radius.
Speaker A:I was like, does that even get you out of the parking lot of H E B?
Speaker A:Like, they're so massive and they're in these like, right out, like suburban locations.
Speaker A:So that part to me is, is still a little mystifying.
Speaker A:But I think from HBS perspective, like, if it makes sense for you to test this out in a smaller, more urban, you know, environment around your stores, go for it.
Speaker A:I don't think they're going to see any long term.
Speaker A:Like, I don't think we're going to see these rolling out of HBs everywhere.
Speaker B:So you think this is like a one and done?
Speaker B:This is a flash in the pan?
Speaker A:I think so.
Speaker A:I think so.
Speaker A:I mean, I think it's just, it's a, it's H E B getting in the news for doing something innovative.
Speaker A:So that's worth noting to me, which.
Speaker B:H E B doesn't necessarily need to do either.
Speaker B:That's what's so interesting about this.
Speaker B:I mean, ETB is like one of the best run grocers, if not the best in the country.
Speaker B:But I mean, I kind of, I kind of think this is silly.
Speaker B:I think it, I think this is just got through the media, you know, got out in the media.
Speaker B:And it was probably just the benefit of some hard work of some individual inside HCB that got someone to approve this test.
Speaker B:Because I just don't see it in the long run.
Speaker B:You've got drone delivery as an option.
Speaker B:You've got the limitations of this.
Speaker B:Like we've talked about on the show a lot of times, one to one delivery just doesn't always make that much sense.
Speaker B:Even with drones, it's an issue.
Speaker B:And then you've got like the autonomous, you know, vehicles in general, you know, growing in usage, both from taxis.
Speaker B:So if we get taxis online and then we get delivery vehicles online and we figure that out, like, it seems like that's a better way to go in the long run.
Speaker B:So this just, I, I came up the word garminized and this feels like it's going to be Garmin out at some point, you know, like Garmin, the Garmin GPS systems, you know, like it's.
Speaker A:Going to go the way, it's going.
Speaker B:To go the way of Garmin, you know, because like, it's just something that doesn't feel, you know, ultimately that valuable in the long run.
Speaker A:What do you think they were thinking?
Speaker A:Like, how does somebody approve this?
Speaker A:Like, do you see any potential for like an H E B future of using these in real life?
Speaker B:I don't know, my, my hunch is maybe that the, the, the avride came in and said hey, we'll give you a smoking deal if you start piloting us.
Speaker A:As we said, they're an Austin based company, right?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:We need a place to test this and prove out the model.
Speaker B:So this is the, yeah, kind of the inside baseball and potentially how some of this works we have no idea.
Speaker B:But I don't know.
Speaker B:That's, that's just my take.
Speaker A:All right, let's head on to headline number five.
Speaker A:Amazon is testing tighter grocery bundling for same day deliveries.
Speaker A:According to Geek Wire, Amazon is making a more concerted effort to get customers buying groceries online as they shop on the tech giants main shopping storefront.
Speaker A:After loading up an online cart on Amazon.com and clip clicking Proceed to checkout instead of taking shoppers to checkout, Amazon shows a page with more than 100 grocery items that can be delivered same day.
Speaker A:Amazon told GeekWire quote, We're currently iterating on new experiences that make it easier for customers to shop for fresh groceries alongside the millions of items available for same day delivery.
Speaker A:End quote.
Speaker A:Chris, do you think this tactic will convert more shoppers to Amazon Grocery?
Speaker B:Oh man, I'm dying to hear what you think on this one.
Speaker B:I, I, I don't think so.
Speaker B:I don't think there's any chance in hell and I, I, I don't think this is how people actually shop for groceries.
Speaker B:It may take a chunk out of the convenience store market to a degree.
Speaker B:You know, like hey, I need a quick add in but, but being a long term bridge for making Amazon the primary grocery destination for many shoppers, that's just a quote unquote bridge too far for me I think and is what I'd say because like in the, the author of the article's example, he like did this when he bought an SD card.
Speaker B:Like that's just not how I shop for groceries.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:You know, and I'm so that's not gonna actually make me go oh maybe I should just get all my groceries from Amazon.
Speaker B:I don't think so.
Speaker B:It's, it's just a hard thing to disrupt.
Speaker B:Especially with that local grocery trip habit that we all make to the stores and that the pandemic showed we all really wanna make at the end of the day.
Speaker B:So that's my thing.
Speaker B:I don't, I think this is just more like okay, yeah, whatever Amazon, try it as much as you want.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean I think there's the intent issue, like what are you going to Amazon to get and people, it's rare that they're like, I need apples and an SD card at the same time.
Speaker A:Like, that's just not natural behavior.
Speaker A:Now do I think this costs Amazon anything to try?
Speaker A:Like they're putting up an interstitial page.
Speaker A:Like, okay, I guess you can collect data from that.
Speaker A:But I think you look at even how hard Walmart's trying just to get people to realize, like with the whole who Knew Campaign.
Speaker A:Yeah, we have groceries, Same day delivery, one hour delivery.
Speaker A:We have TVs, saunas, like whatever you need.
Speaker A:Like, like you're, I think you're totally right in saying, like, that's just not the mindset and intent that people are in when they're going to Amazon.
Speaker A:And I think, you know, Walmart here is just much better positioned because people are already going there for groceries and, and it makes sense at that point to be like, oh yeah, I need toilet paper or paper towels or whatever.
Speaker A:So I, I, I think poor Amazon.
Speaker A:You still have a, you still have.
Speaker B:A grocery, Amazon's grocery.
Speaker B:We haven't had a, we haven't bought at Amazon about grocery store.
Speaker B:You're right though.
Speaker B:I mean it's basically just they've changed the recommendation engine to serve up cucumbers and apples.
Speaker B:That's basically what I took from this article.
Speaker B:And you're right, like Walmart has a much better likelihood to win in that recommendation engine battle and it's not going to change the habits over time.
Speaker B:That's a great point.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:All right, well, let's go to the lightning round.
Speaker A:Question number one.
Speaker A:Chris Olipop partnered with Amazon Ads to drop 5,000 exclusive VIP boxes for 5 cents each on Amazon starting June 30th.
Speaker A:Each box includes seasonal Olipop flavors and branded merchandise, which Olipop is hoping that they can give people in exchange for social posts from their regular everyday consumers instead of influencers.
Speaker A:If you were to influence for free for one brand, if they sent you a box of their greatest products, what brand would you choose?
Speaker B:Oh man, I'm not aiming very high on this one, but I think I'd pick Twix because it's only candy with the cookie crunch.
Speaker B:Like I just love the cookie crunch of a Twix bar.
Speaker A:So you would fresh Twix bar give content for like a $twix bar?
Speaker B:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker B:No, not a dollar, but like a gross annual caseload 100.
Speaker A:Okay, so you're checking.
Speaker A:This is not, you're not doing the 5 cent box full of Twix on Amazon you're just.
Speaker B:I probably still would do it.
Speaker B:And I mean, I'm a cheap date, you know.
Speaker B:All right, the next one.
Speaker B:This one comes courtesy of Omnitox superfan John Sedevy.
Speaker B:And this summer, Jimmy John is turning up the heat and serving up the ultimate beachside pairing.
Speaker B:A satisfying sandwich in one hand and a steamy story in the other.
Speaker B:With any sandwich or wrap purchase.
Speaker B:With the use of promo code, Beachhead fans can unlock access to the Blade and the Brine, a custom two part Romantasy audiobook narrated by none other than White Lotus Star and Heartthrob.
Speaker B:I guess he's a heartthrob now.
Speaker B:Walton Goggins.
Speaker B:It will make you toss your paperback aside and order faster than you can say meet cute.
Speaker B:All right, and what is the steamiest romance novel you've ever read?
Speaker A:I mean, wait for a second, like I'm supposed to order a mayonnaise filled sandwich in one hand and then be thinking of reading a steamy romance novel.
Speaker A:That sounds disgusting to me.
Speaker A:I can't get past it.
Speaker B:Ever seen Nine and a Half Weeks?
Speaker A:No, no, no, no.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I'm not really one for the steamy genres, so I know there's a lot of really good ones out there, but the last ever read one.
Speaker A:Yeah, I used to read them when I worked at the corn stand because that was all that we had, were like old Danielle Steele novels.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But the last one I probably read was like the Twilight series and that was probably as racy as I get.
Speaker A:I'd rather I get more turned on by books about business startups than I do about, about.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's not even steamy.
Speaker B:That's like a.
Speaker B:That's not even like a boil.
Speaker B:That's like a simmering pot of water.
Speaker B:The Twilight series.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So, all right.
Speaker A:Chris Unilever just acquired Dr.
Speaker A:Squatch, the bar soap and male grooming products company that's very popular with Gen Z.
Speaker A:Are you more of a bar soap or a body wash guy?
Speaker B:Oh, interesting question.
Speaker B:You know, I used to for years be 100% the bar soap guy, but I think like 3.
Speaker A:Like soap on a rope inside something or just straight up?
Speaker B:No, straight up bar soap.
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, like Dove, Ivory, Irish Spring.
Speaker B:You know, they've all gone through the turntable here, the shower turntable, over the course of years.
Speaker B:But now I think three or four years ago, I made the permanent switch to body wash.
Speaker A:Okay, what's your body wash brand of choice?
Speaker B:I use like the dove sensitive skin and because, you know, I got really sensitive Skin that I have to protect.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:You know, it's.
Speaker B:It's very important to me.
Speaker B:No, I don't have a loofah.
Speaker A:So you're just squirting the body wash in your hand and you're not lathering or anything?
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, no, I got to get some lather.
Speaker B:Like, you got to lather it up.
Speaker B:You know, you got to get a good lather going.
Speaker A:So you're going through body wash like crazy.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, probably.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, I probably shower two or three times a day.
Speaker A:Just no loofah.
Speaker A:You don't want.
Speaker B:No, no, no, no loofah.
Speaker B:No loofah.
Speaker B:No, that's.
Speaker B:That's too.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:That reminds me of Caddyshack with the loofah scene.
Speaker B:But anyway, Tombstone is launching a french fry style crust pizza with a crispy potato based crust.
Speaker B:It's available in two varieties and loaded bacon, cheddar, and chili cheese.
Speaker B:Two questions for you to end the show.
Speaker B:Why has no one ever thought of french fry pizza before?
Speaker B:And which of the two varieties are you most likely to try first?
Speaker A:Is this like a gluten free play or something?
Speaker A:Like they're trying to come up with an alternative gluten free crust.
Speaker B:It may be.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm surprised.
Speaker A:I mean, there's been tachos, Tater tot nachos.
Speaker A:I mean, you've got baked potato pizza, like, I don't know why Cauliflower pizza, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Put it in the base.
Speaker A:I would probably say the.
Speaker A:The bacon and cheddar.
Speaker A:One chili cheese just never.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:Unless it's a homemade chili.
Speaker A:I don't ever want chili cheese anything.
Speaker A:I think that's.
Speaker A:That scares me.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Do you like pizza and french fries as a combo?
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I don't ever.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker B:It's like one of my favorite.
Speaker A:Like, you put the french fries.
Speaker B:No, just like eating them side by side.
Speaker B:So I feel like you're now mashing it up and it tastes.
Speaker A:It potentially has a lot of potential I'm aware of.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, it's full of carbs.
Speaker B:And then if you get beer, it's like, good night.
Speaker B:Good.
Speaker B:Game over.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's going to be a heavy, heavy load in your.
Speaker A:In your stomach for sure.
Speaker B:In your stomach.
Speaker B:Quarter the show there.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Happy birthday today to Ricky Gervais, Carly Simon and to John Benjamin Hickey, AKA Becca's dad from Pitch Perfect.
Speaker B:And remember, if you can only read or listen to one blog in the business, make it on Me Talk, the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top 10 US retailer.
Speaker B:Our Fast Five podcast is the quickest, fastest running 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.
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Speaker B:You can follow us today by simply going to YouTube.com omnitalkretail so until next week, on behalf of all of us here at Omnitalk Retail, as always, be careful out there.
