Amazon Ads, Best Buy’s Marketplace & Macy’s Ever-Changing Strategic Narrative | Fast Five
In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, and Scratch Event DJs, Chris and Anne discussed:
- Macy’s shuttering some of its small format stores (Source)
- Amazon $11 Billion AI investment in the great state of Georgia (Source)
- Best Buy launching a new marketplace with Mirakl (Source)
- Amazon allowing online retailers to use its advertising tools (Source)
- And closed with a look at the 1 + 1 = 3 partnership between eBaby and Facebook’s marketplace (Source)
There’s all that, plus Todd Robinson of Blue Yonder also stopped by for Five Insightful Minutes on combatting returns and a NYC-style lightning round, replete with long cab ride discussions about horseshoes, bad mice, and Anne’s brief stint at a tiara model.
To read Blue Yonder's comprehensive report on returns, head here: https://chat.blueyonder.com/reimagine-returns?utm_medium=paid&utm_source=omnitalk&utm_campaign=jan25&utm_content=tim
Music by hooksounds.com
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy
Transcript
The OmniTalk Fast5 is brought to you with support from the A and M Consumer and Retail Group.
Anne Bazinga: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.
Anne Bazinga: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.
Anne Bazinga:Miracle is the global leader in platform business innovation for E commerce.
Anne Bazinga:Companies like Macy's, Nordstrom and Kroger use Miracle to build disruptive growth and profitability through marketplace, dropship and retail media.
Anne Bazinga:For more visit Miracle.com that's M I R A K L.com and Symbi Simbee powers the most retail banners in the world with today's only multimodal platform for in store intelligence, see how Albertsons, BJ, Spartan Nash and Wake firm win with AI and automation at simbirobotics.com and Ocampo Capital Ocampo Capital is a venture capital firm founded by retail executives with the aim of helping early stage consumer businesses succeed through investment and operational support.
Anne Bazinga:Learn more@ocampocapital.com and finally, Scratch Event DJs Scratch Event DJs tap into its unrivaled network of top local DJs to provide brands with high quality curated in store experiences anytime, anywhere.
Anne Bazinga:Find out more@events.scratch.com youm are listening to Omnitox 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.
Anne Bazinga:The Retail Fast Five is a podcast that we hope makes you feel a little smarter, but most importantly, a little happier each week too.
Anne Bazinga:And the Fast 5 is just one of the many great podcasts that you can find from the Omnichot 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.
Anne Bazinga: ,: Anne Bazinga:I'm one of your hosts, Anne Bazinga.
Chris Walton:And I'm Chris Walton and we are.
Anne Bazinga:Here live from NR New York City once again to discuss all the top headlines from the past week making waves in the world of omnichannel retailing.
Anne Bazinga:Chris, I'm giving this podcast every last ounce of energy that I have.
Chris Walton:I can hear it in your voice, Dan.
Chris Walton:You can probably hear it in mine too.
Chris Walton:I mean, I'm.
Chris Walton:I'm hoarse.
Chris Walton:I'm Hanging in there, man.
Chris Walton:I joked in the Retail Daily minute this morning, I used the quote from Escape from New York with Snake Plissken, and I was like, this is exactly how I feel.
Chris Walton:I want to escape from New York.
Chris Walton:I want to get home, take a bath, get my bed, you know, the whole nine yards.
Anne Bazinga:I love how you paused after Escape from New York by whoever Lipkin or whatever you just said.
Anne Bazinga:Like, I knew what the quote you were talking about.
Anne Bazinga:So, yeah, I was like.
Anne Bazinga:And continue.
Anne Bazinga:You're gonna have to explain that one for me as you always have to.
Chris Walton:Par for the course.
Chris Walton:And I've actually not even seen that movie, believe it or not.
Chris Walton:But anyway, that's.
Chris Walton:That's another story.
Chris Walton:And we've got a lot of NRF stuff to get to, and we got a flight to catch in a couple hours.
Chris Walton:We don't have ideal video conditions here.
Chris Walton:We're both in our.
Chris Walton:In our hotel room at the Four Points.
Chris Walton:Sheridan.
Chris Walton:Right?
Chris Walton:And it's a Sheridan.
Chris Walton:Is that what you're saying?
Anne Bazinga:But I mean, can we shout out to these people?
Anne Bazinga:They are amazing.
Anne Bazinga:I mean, I kind of don't want to share it with anybody because it is the hidden gem of hotels, I think, when you're going to nrf.
Anne Bazinga:But they are such a great team.
Anne Bazinga:I'm sure they're definitely not listening, so I don't know why I took the time to do that.
Anne Bazinga:But.
Chris Walton:But our fans are.
Chris Walton:And they will take up and snack up, snatch up the hotels.
Chris Walton:In fact, I want to give a shout out because I.
Chris Walton:I ran into a fan in the elevator and I have no idea what his name is.
Chris Walton:I just know he was at booth 3, 4, 5, 6.
Chris Walton:I can't remember the company's name, but he's like, you're Chris from Omnitok.
Chris Walton:And I was like, I had just gotten my shirt on.
Chris Walton:I just gotten down to get coffee.
Chris Walton:Didn't have a badge or anything.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah, yeah.
Chris Walton: s booth number because it was: Chris Walton:So shout out to him.
Chris Walton:Hope he's still listening.
Chris Walton:I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to stop by because we were just so busy at the show.
Chris Walton:But.
Chris Walton:But yeah.
Chris Walton:And should we.
Chris Walton:Should we get going?
Anne Bazinga:Yes.
Anne Bazinga:Thank you to everybody who stopped by to.
Anne Bazinga:@ nrf.
Anne Bazinga:We just can't tell you enough how much we appreciate everybody coming up and saying hello and sharing your.
Anne Bazinga:Your own Omnitok experience.
Anne Bazinga:So we love it so much.
Anne Bazinga:But, yeah, let's get to the show.
Chris Walton:All right.
Chris Walton:And, well, believe it or not, we're sitting here in New York and it's time to start talking about our next big conference in New York City.
Chris Walton:Before we get to today's headlines because coming up this June 24th and 26th, when hopefully it'll be much warmer here because it was freaking cold here in New York, you can come join anime at the Commerce Next Growth show.
Chris Walton:You can discover actionable insights from industry leaders and take your e commerce and retail strategy to the next level.
Chris Walton:With 2,700 plus industry leaders and 75 plus action packed sessions, skilled retailers and brands qualify for a free ticket.
Chris Walton:That's free folks.
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Chris Walton:That's omnitalk all one word for 10% off and secure your spot today.
Chris Walton:So today's headlines are of course brought to you by Commerce Next.
Chris Walton:And in today's Fast5, we've got news on Amazon's $11 billion investment in AI in the Great state of Georgia.
Chris Walton:Best Buy launching a new revamped marketplace with miracle Amazon again, this time for letting online retailers use its ad tools meta allowing listings from ebay on its marketplace.
Chris Walton: ink about handling returns in: Chris Walton:But we begin today with what feels like what feels like to me and I'm curious what you think More bad news out of Macy's.
Anne Bazinga:Oh, we might have a discussion on this one.
Anne Bazinga:Let's go to headline number one.
Anne Bazinga:All right, Chris.
Anne Bazinga:Macy's last Thursday revealed that the revealed the first 66 locations that it plans to close as part of its plans announced nearly a year ago to shutter about 150 stores according to Retail D.
Anne Bazinga:The 66 locations span 22 states and many are mall anchor locations.
Anne Bazinga:Several are also standalone furniture stores that in some cases will shift operations to nearby full line stores.
Anne Bazinga: ll farm openings announced in: Anne Bazinga:Six out of the nine of the retailers freestanding off price backstage locations will also close.
Anne Bazinga:Chris, are you surprised at all by details surrounding Macy's store closure news?
Anne Bazinga:I think I might know the answer to this.
Chris Walton:Yeah, I, I think I am, I am somewhat surprised.
Chris Walton:I'm not, I'm not, I'm like, I'm not like on the shocked level.
Chris Walton:Like if 1 through 10 with 10 was shocked, I'm probably like a 5 here.
Chris Walton:Like I'm, I'm surprised that this is what they're saying because Particularly that it looks like it's in a, it's an about face on their small format stores, you know, and like it's 100%, it's about face.
Chris Walton:And, and I think, I think that about face is important to call out for two reasons.
Chris Walton:First, we visited these stores in Texas, I think one of which is closing now, if I'm not mistaken from reading the article.
Chris Walton:And we were not impressed.
Chris Walton:In fact, I think my joke at the end of that video tour was if it walks like a Macy's and quacks like a Macy's, it's still a Macy's because.
Chris Walton:And I still for the life of me can't understand why the world needs a scaled down Macy's.
Chris Walton:I've just never bought into that idea.
Chris Walton:So, so, so that's why I'm kind of not surprised by this.
Anne Bazinga:Sure, sure.
Chris Walton:Then two, and this is the more important point here, it tells me that they don't have a new path to growth upon which they can rely with any great certainty right now.
Chris Walton:And that is, that is fricking scary.
Chris Walton:I think everything they've been telling the media and the analyst community could soon blow up in their face.
Chris Walton:And while Macy's.
Chris Walton:Here's the other point.
Chris Walton:While Macy's is reporting supposedly good news about their bold new chapter strategy in their 50 stores.
Chris Walton:Like, I'm always skeptical when I hear about 50 store tests because the entire executive team is right around those.
Chris Walton:The entire store operations team is right around those.
Chris Walton:They're getting the resources to be successful.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah.
Chris Walton:So yeah, they're going to work in the short term.
Chris Walton:But at some time, at some point, those types of pilots revert back to the mean.
Chris Walton:And so.
Anne Bazinga:Right.
Chris Walton:That's why I'm just like, wow, I don't see you've got a lot here going on, Tony Spring.
Chris Walton:And so I'm, I'm very skeptical again about your growth trajectory and whether department stores are still going to exist.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah.
Anne Bazinga:It's like having 50 flagship stores.
Anne Bazinga:Right.
Chris Walton:I mean, it is.
Chris Walton:That's, that's the thing.
Chris Walton:If you know retail like we do, like, yes, these are going to be successful because by crook or by Nook or whatever the hell the expression is, Tony Spring gonna make sure that's not right.
Chris Walton:I know, but by hooker, by crook, that's what.
Tim Robinson:Yeah, right.
Chris Walton:Tony Spring is gonna make sure that these things work because his reputation depends on it.
Chris Walton:Right.
Chris Walton:So, so, so, yeah.
Chris Walton:So, I mean, I don't know, but.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah, it diverts media attention.
Anne Bazinga:It diverts media attention.
Anne Bazinga:I mean, no, I guess My whole point is that I actually think this is the most sensible thing that they can do.
Anne Bazinga:I mean I think that what Tony Spring is doing is trimming the fat here.
Anne Bazinga:Like this is just Macy's is making sensible moves about, you know, you got to, you got to start shutting some of these down because they're having a huge impact on the bottom line.
Anne Bazinga:And you know our sources that we've talked to at Macy's, you know, like, like it was mentioned in the article, like a lot of these mal the only ma.
Anne Bazinga:Like the only store that's still in a dead or dying mall and no one's going to come there.
Anne Bazinga:There's no other reasons to get them there.
Anne Bazinga:So it just doesn't make sense.
Anne Bazinga:It's a bad experience because like I think you said in a conversation we were having here, like there's nobody that wants to work there.
Anne Bazinga:Like it's just, it's, it's a bad experience.
Anne Bazinga:It's souring your experience with the brand immediately.
Anne Bazinga:So I think there and it makes sense.
Anne Bazinga:And you know, honestly Chris, I kind of give them kudos for shutting down these small format stores because I think a lot of other retailers would have.
Chris Walton:KE stuck their guns.
Anne Bazinga:I think they would have tried to push it.
Anne Bazinga:And you're 100% right.
Anne Bazinga:Like small format Macy's, I don't hate the idea but it can't just be Macy's shoved into a smaller box.
Anne Bazinga:And I, that was a big problem for me was that there's a glut of inventory.
Anne Bazinga:Like it just the, you know, the sales experiences weren't consistent.
Anne Bazinga:Like it just, it didn't make sense.
Anne Bazinga:So I think I'm actually, I'm kind of impressed.
Anne Bazinga:I'm going to give me a, give Tony Spring a little bit of a boost here and say like this is a very Amazon move of them.
Anne Bazinga:Like this isn't working.
Anne Bazinga:We're cutting it out.
Anne Bazinga:Even though we invested a bunch of money, we told everybody we were going to.
Anne Bazinga:This was our strategy.
Anne Bazinga:Like we can't make money off the backstage stores.
Anne Bazinga:The small format Macy's isn't working.
Anne Bazinga:Like they're, they're going to have to try to course correct and make those tough decisions right now if they want to survive as a brand.
Anne Bazinga:So yeah, not surprised, I guess.
Chris Walton:Yeah, you're right, you're right.
Chris Walton:It's kind of, it's probably a smart move but it's not a move that makes me feel any better about the trajectory.
Anne Bazinga:That's, that's, that's 100 agree.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah, like there's, there's got to be more going.
Anne Bazinga:I, I still like, I think that there, you know, I really think that Macy's just needs to sit down, take a hard look at what, what the future of Macy's needs to be and then start acting on it and even, even start consolidating I think some of the larger Macy's footprints to, to, to really figure out what makes the most economical sense, what the new customer wants.
Chris Walton:It's interesting too because he came out yesterday and said, he said, I think on stage at nrf even he said like we believe in having three brands.
Chris Walton:He doesn't want to spin them off.
Chris Walton:You know, he wants it when, when.
Chris Walton:And I actually think we've talked about before, but I think Bloomies as a smaller strategy makes a ton of sense.
Chris Walton:But.
Chris Walton:Yeah, but the other point I make too, and before we move on is we interviewed Joe Call, their head of assets protection and great guy, learned a ton.
Anne Bazinga:So brilliant, great interview.
Chris Walton:To hear his perspective, particularly on putting products behind glass was really interesting to listen to.
Chris Walton:But the thing I got listening to him, I was just like, man, department stores are just so hard and so outdated.
Chris Walton:You've got multiple entrances, you've got a guard, you've got split levels at most of these stores.
Chris Walton:Like it's just, it's just the, it's just kind of the dinosaur in a lot of ways.
Chris Walton:But anyway, all right, headline number two.
Chris Walton:According to Reuters, Amazon said last week that it's cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services plans to invest about $11 billion to expand its infrastructure in Georgia to support cloud computing and AI technologies.
Chris Walton:Quote the investments in Butts and Douglas counties are expected to create hundreds of jobs and enhance Georgia's position as a hub for cutting edge digital innovation.
Chris Walton:End quote.
Chris Walton:And yes, I'm still getting over Butts County.
Chris Walton:How should the rest of retail.
Anne Bazinga:How has that gone?
Anne Bazinga:Unknown.
Anne Bazinga:I've never did you about Butts County.
Anne Bazinga:I didn't know.
Chris Walton:I mean this county, this is the.
Anne Bazinga:This is the overtired like three year old sense of humor right now coming out in me.
Anne Bazinga:Where Butts County?
Anne Bazinga:Who knew?
Anne Bazinga:Okay, you were asking me a very professional, important question.
Chris Walton:Let's try, let's get back to keep this, this podcast classy.
Chris Walton:And how should the rest of retail be reacting to Amazon's $11 billion AI investment in the Peach State?
Anne Bazinga:I think everybody should be paying very close attention to this.
Anne Bazinga:Nvidia, their CEO was speaking at CES earlier, whatever week we're in right now.
Anne Bazinga:And then we had Azita Martin on Stage with John Furner here at nrf, just talking about even more.
Anne Bazinga:Like, we know Nvidia is huge.
Anne Bazinga:We know that they're the key to all of the continuous AI development that's going to be happening.
Anne Bazinga:But, Chris, what they were showing on stage at nrf, rough, it's just like, it's even beyond, I think, what we can even comprehend.
Anne Bazinga:So I think the fact that Amazon's investing $11 billion in continuing to bolster their AI capabilities, especially, you know, everybody's got to get their piece.
Anne Bazinga:And right now is the time that you got to be doing it, because you know it.
Anne Bazinga:It's going to be impossible to catch up to people like Nvidia.
Anne Bazinga:But if you're not doing anything to think about this, like, you got to figure out how you're going to set yourself up for the structure or the foundation to have successful pieces in place to really succeed with AI, because there's.
Anne Bazinga:There's just no way that you cannot use this.
Anne Bazinga:There's no way that if you are a technology company, you cannot be making these types of investments right now.
Anne Bazinga:Especially the agentic AI stuff.
Anne Bazinga:Chris, like, for those in our audience.
Chris Walton:Yeah, explain what agentic AI, this was a.
Chris Walton:Relative to interpret agentic AI.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah.
Anne Bazinga:So like I was telling you, like when.
Anne Bazinga:When we, you know who we were.
Anne Bazinga:Oh, Keith.
Anne Bazinga:Keith Mercier from Target or from Microsoft.
Chris Walton:Microsoft.
Anne Bazinga:On our podcast leading up to nrf, he was talking about agentic AI.
Anne Bazinga:And I think that for a lot of people, that was like the first, kind of, the first place that we were hearing about it.
Anne Bazinga:I immediately assumed agentic AI, like an agent, a call center agent, a bot that you're interacting with on the website.
Anne Bazinga:Oh, God, no.
Anne Bazinga:This was like Azita and John were on stage, they were showing like a complete transformation of a DC where agentic AI just basically means, in my understanding, it's just these are the jobs that AI is doing a thousand times better than people, and they are just going to catapult every single industry.
Anne Bazinga:And so that's where this $11 billion investment in Georgia, you're just like, yeah, this is the kind of money that we're going to have to be throwing at this.
Anne Bazinga:This is kind of infrastructure we're going to have to be building for this to be successful.
Anne Bazinga:It's.
Anne Bazinga:It's beyond what I think we can even comprehend right now.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Chris Walton:Or said another way, all those inventory planning and allocation jobs that are the starting grounds, Right.
Chris Walton:Most retailers, those are going to become, you know, AI agents in the long run is basically what is How I would read into that.
Chris Walton:Yes, what you just said.
Chris Walton:So, I mean, and I don't have much to add here.
Chris Walton:I mean, I just thought of a way to put this in perspective for our audience.
Chris Walton:11 billion, 11 in $11 billion investment is more than twice the market cap of Macy's which we just talked about.
Chris Walton:Macy's market cap is $4 billion.
Chris Walton:So $11 billion is more than twice the value of Macy's right now.
Chris Walton:Yeah, that's the scale of the resources that we're talking about here with which Amazon has to win and forge its trail in the next generation of AI based commerce.
Chris Walton:That's crazy when you think about it.
Chris Walton:And so other retailers are not going to stand a chance.
Chris Walton:So I'm a little more like, like doomsday tinfoil hat here and going back.
Anne Bazinga:To understandable machine we used to use.
Chris Walton:Like three or four years ago because it's gonna be impossible to keep up with them.
Chris Walton:I'm not even sure Walmart can keep up with this, you know, at the end of the day.
Chris Walton:So the only path I see here is that Amazon either gets bigger and bigger and puts more retailers out of business, Right?
Anne Bazinga:Yeah.
Chris Walton:Or gobbles them up too, maybe acquires them, you know, who knows?
Chris Walton:Or the government gets involved and breaks up aws because yeah, the, the combination of those two is just making Amazon so powerful in this landscape that there's no way it's going to be a fair playing field, you know, with, with them being able to, you know, have that in their back pocket to dominate the space.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah, that's a great point.
Anne Bazinga:And not just Amazon.
Anne Bazinga:I mean, you look at all of these companies like Nvidia even like, I think there's going to be legislation changes that have to happen because people like Nvidia, people like Amazon that have these deep pockets are investing so much money and being able to do like no one's going to be able to, to catch up with them.
Anne Bazinga:It's just, it's impossible.
Anne Bazinga:Well, let's go on to headline number three, Chris.
Anne Bazinga: marketplace in the US in mid-: Anne Bazinga:CEO Corey Berry told investors about the new marketplace on an earnings call in November, saying it would give its customers access to a larger assortment and new categories.
Anne Bazinga:It will also give sellers and advertisers a new avenue on which to increase their reach and build their brands.
Anne Bazinga:She said the new platform is a partnership with Miracle, a software company that also powers third party marketplaces for Macy's, Nordstrom and Kroger, which you've definitely heard me say before.
Anne Bazinga:Because Miracle is also a sponsor of this podcast.
Chris Walton:Yes.
Chris Walton:Full disclosure.
Anne Bazinga:Yes.
Anne Bazinga:And that complement this traditional e commerce sites with a larger selection from third party sellers.
Anne Bazinga: , from: Anne Bazinga: rson told E commerce bites in: Anne Bazinga:Chris, this is also our A and M put you on the spot question.
Chris Walton:Wow, I'm on a roll with these questions.
Anne Bazinga:Yes.
Chris Walton:All right, let's do it.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Anne Bazinga:Chris.
Anne Bazinga:Marketplaces continue to thrive and multiply.
Anne Bazinga:Call them the new retail media network.
Anne Bazinga:To that end, we'll.
Anne Bazinga:Marketplaces like Best Buy stand on their own long term.
Anne Bazinga:Or will this proliferation of independent retailer marketplaces end up significantly consolidating?
Chris Walton:Interesting.
Chris Walton:Interesting.
Chris Walton:I don't know.
Chris Walton: ey're the new retail media of: Chris Walton:I think, I think they're a little bit different here.
Chris Walton:And, and to answer that question, I don't really see any, I don't really see any consolidation.
Chris Walton:I think, you know, some marketplace efforts will be more successful than others and some will get the traffic, therefore, and others won't.
Chris Walton:But at the end of the day, running them has gotten so much more efficient because of the platforms that are out there that I think it makes it easier for people to try to do this and see to what degree a marketplace works for them.
Chris Walton:But yeah, I don't see consolidation of marketplace efforts happening.
Chris Walton: e thing I'd call it, it's not: Chris Walton: You know, it's not, it's: Chris Walton:And you know, just to call it out, you know.
Chris Walton:Yeah, and, and retail and Best Buy have both changed a lot in the last 10 years.
Chris Walton:Like, I think this 10 years has seen the most change in retail that I can ever remember.
Chris Walton:Yes.
Chris Walton: erent than, you know, back in: Chris Walton:One, platforms like Miracle just make it easier.
Chris Walton:Like I said already, like, they make it easier.
Chris Walton:And you know, there's a lot of platforms you can do this with.
Chris Walton:But, but you know, they're using Miracle, they're our sponsor and it just makes it easier to do second, the Omnichannel sophistication with rich retailers are operating is far greater than it ever was.
Chris Walton:So the idea of returns being the hamstringing factor here isn't as large of a concern as it probably was before.
Chris Walton:I think people have started to figure out how to do things around that.
Chris Walton:Different business models, different technology solutions have come up around solving that problem and it will continue to get better and better.
Chris Walton:And then here's the last point I'd add too, or no, second to last point.
Chris Walton:Actually, I've got another point after this.
Chris Walton:Third, I think subscriptions are a bigger part of the game here.
Chris Walton:Yeah, so, and loyalty.
Chris Walton:And we learned from Christian Revo yesterday at the Reva Group that loyalty is a key piece of my fourth point, which is going to be retail media.
Chris Walton:So teased.
Chris Walton:But Best Buy has a pretty robust loyalty program with lots of great benefits.
Chris Walton:So I could see customers going on their site, on their site wanting to purchase other items from Best Buy given their loyalty and the fringe benefits that come with being a member.
Chris Walton:And fourth, of course, the retail media landscape is way different.
Chris Walton:We've talked about this a lot on our show.
Chris Walton:But retail media, the marketplaces extend the reach of retail media.
Chris Walton:And Best Buy is one of those retailers that has a national retail media reach.
Chris Walton:So for all those reasons, those four reasons, I think, I think this is a great move by Best Buy.
Chris Walton:Salute Corey Berry and hope we can get them on the show to talk about it more.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah, I agree.
Anne Bazinga:I mean, you kind of hit on all the points, Chris, that I, I, I agree with.
Anne Bazinga:I think, you know, it's a search game.
Anne Bazinga:If you, if you can show up to more people, you have more access.
Anne Bazinga:And like you said, you know, Best Buy has a great loyalty program.
Anne Bazinga:They also, I think have things like that they can tie in down the road.
Anne Bazinga:That makes sense, like Geek Squad support for those items.
Anne Bazinga:I do also think that the returns issue can be solved.
Anne Bazinga:I mean, you take a look at what Walmart's doing with their, Walmart, you know, with Walmart plus and what they' with their marketplace, like they've got it figured out.
Anne Bazinga:The solution is out there.
Anne Bazinga:Best Buy is an intelligent retailer.
Anne Bazinga:They can definitely figure that out.
Anne Bazinga:And that's a great value to Best Buy's customers.
Anne Bazinga:The other thing too, that I'm also curious to see if Best Buy starts to bring into this.
Anne Bazinga:You know, they built that platform where you can go on bestbuy.com and you can click the button and do a live demo with a blue shirt right then and there.
Anne Bazinga:I mean, if they can expand that capability to offer that to their marketplace vendors too, where, like, hey, you want to use our technology in order to, like, have a conversation with this person about the patio set that they're about to buy from Best Buy like this, this is a great opportunity.
Anne Bazinga:And I think you're 100 right in that this isn't a one and done thing.
Anne Bazinga:Best Buy is coming back to this with new strategic measures in place to make sure that this is successful.
Anne Bazinga:So I, I salute the move as well.
Anne Bazinga:I think it's a great, great, great revisiting of the marketplace and definitely picking the right partner in Miracle.
Anne Bazinga:We've, we've worked with them quite a bit and I think they, they've seen a lot of the retailers they're working with are seeing a lot of success from that.
Anne Bazinga:So good job.
Chris Walton:All right, well, well, great segue here too.
Chris Walton:And because it just so happens that we have Tim on to talk about returns, let's bring Tim onto the show.
Chris Walton:Joining us now for five insightful minutes is Blue Yonder's corporate vice president, Tim Robinson.
Chris Walton:Tim is here to take us through Blue Yonder's most recent consumer returns survey.
Chris Walton:Tim, first question may be obvious, but I want to get your take on it.
Chris Walton:Why should retailers be reimagining returns?
Tim Robinson:Hi, Chris here.
Tim Robinson:Thank you.
Tim Robinson:So, I mean, there are probably three key areas.
Tim Robinson:I think the first thing is it's easy to forget that returns are inventory.
Tim Robinson:You know, up to 15% of items that are fulfilled across the US come back as returns, and 95% of those items could be resold or full price.
Tim Robinson:This is inventory, you know, so they should be treating them like inventory with the same level of urgency and priority.
Tim Robinson:I think the second thing is the customer experience angle now that E commerce, online shopping is such a big part of the retail experience.
Tim Robinson:You know, looking at the deed, understanding the details around returns, what consumers want, you know, have the sort of experiences they want.
Tim Robinson:But also thinking about your profitability and sustainability is very important in that regard as well.
Tim Robinson:And I think, like lots of facets of E commerce as it's evolved over the years, you know, the Buy Net, buy it now, one click experience, or, you know, new payment methodologies that have grown, help grow E Commerce.
Tim Robinson:I think returns can be a differentiator.
Tim Robinson:I think, you know, unique returns experiences, the technology you deploy, the experience that provides consumers, can set you apart from the rest.
Anne Bazinga:Well, Tim, I can imagine a few reasons, having been a retailer myself, but what are you hearing from retailers are making returns so complex these days?
Tim Robinson:Yeah, I mean, that is the killer question.
Tim Robinson:For us, it ultimately comes down to the fact that returns are by their nature multi channel.
Tim Robinson:They come at you from all different directions.
Tim Robinson:You remember when you were in retail, some of those returns come from digital returns platforms where you have some insight and information.
Tim Robinson:Others, a customer has just ripped a label off of a parcel and filled out a form and sent it back to you.
Tim Robinson:Some returns go back to the store and store colleagues may or may not capture reasons as to why that return is coming back.
Tim Robinson:It's truly, truly multi channel.
Tim Robinson:One of our customers in Europe describes returns as their worst supplier.
Tim Robinson:So 15% of all my SKUs come from this supplier.
Tim Robinson:I don't have any visibility about when they're coming.
Tim Robinson:I don't know what's coming and I don't know what condition it's in.
Tim Robinson:And I think that kind of, that phrase really kind of describes why it's so complex.
Chris Walton:So Tim, I'm curious, from the chair top which you sit, how are you seeing the best retailers address returns and how does that ultimately benefit their end consumer, their end customer?
Tim Robinson:So I mean, I would say over the last 10 years, lots of time, money and effort has gone into digitizing like the consumer front end.
Tim Robinson:So, and there's been some great businesses are born out of this desire to digitize the consumer experience.
Tim Robinson:And that feels like in many, many cases, particularly in more mature E commerce markets, you know that the job is done at that end of the experience.
Tim Robinson:Now it's all about what to do with that information.
Tim Robinson:You're now getting more and more information about returns than you ever were before.
Tim Robinson:Who's returning?
Tim Robinson:Where are they returning?
Tim Robinson:Why are they returning?
Tim Robinson:What are they returning?
Tim Robinson:The best retailers in this space take that information and tailor both the choices and the options they give consumers.
Tim Robinson:Do you get a refund?
Tim Robinson:Do you get a full refund?
Tim Robinson:Might get the partial refund.
Tim Robinson:Where can you take it in order to drop it off?
Tim Robinson:And they're also using that data to make the best supply chain decisions.
Tim Robinson:How quickly can I get this back into inventory and sell it for price?
Tim Robinson:You know, how can I avoid this item going to landfill and ultimately having the value ripped out of it?
Tim Robinson:Because the system required me to.
Tim Robinson:So I think it's going to be about, it's now about differentiation and use of data and tailoring both under the hood logistics solutions and supply chain solutions to suit but also those downstream customer experiences.
Anne Bazinga:Well, Tim, you brought something up just now that I think is really important to highlight.
Anne Bazinga:In the Blue Yonder survey that you did, 55% of consumers that were Pulled said they were somewhat concerned about the environmental impact when doing a return and only 27% though would continue a returns process if they knew that their item would go to a landfill.
Anne Bazinga:How do you expect circularity and recommerce to kind of affect how we as consumers look at returns?
Tim Robinson:I mean, I hope all the signs, the macro signs are that this whole return space will ultimately evolve into a sales channel.
Tim Robinson:That is the signs we're seeing.
Tim Robinson:The speed at which consumers are adopting C2C pre loved recommerce experiences in different parts of the world is really encouraging in that regard.
Tim Robinson:It kind of highlights that there is no kind of old world, old school, stuffy stuffiness around buying something that was ultimately pre loved.
Tim Robinson:I think one of the key things that the industry is going to need to provide consumers with in the not too distant future is absolute visibility of where your return is going.
Tim Robinson:I think the idea that these items go back into a black hole and you don't see it is something which society is going to rally against as time goes on.
Tim Robinson:But it's like Chris's question earlier on about differentiation.
Tim Robinson:I think the brand that gets there quickest provides visibility and transparency about the second life of that item.
Tim Robinson:I think could differentiate and could win.
Tim Robinson:They could get ahead of the game really, really quickly.
Chris Walton:That's a really, really interesting point that I've never thought about giving visibility to what happens when you return an item and that being a point of differentiation for a retailer.
Chris Walton:So, Tim, we always love to end with predictions and you just kind of made one there.
Chris Walton:But I'm curious, do you have any other predictions in terms of how you seeing how you see returns evolving over the next say five to ten years?
Tim Robinson:Yeah, I've got one which I've clung on to for a while which is starting to starting to play out, which is generally in most cases, retailers apply a one size fits all approach to returns policies.
Tim Robinson:You know, it's 30 days return policy for everything.
Tim Robinson:It's 30 days returns policy for every consumer regardless of whether you're a consistent spender, a loyal customer.
Tim Robinson:It just is a blanket policy and it's 30 days and full refund whether it's a $10t shirt or a $2,000 handbag.
Tim Robinson:The thing that I think the biggest move is going to be around using data.
Tim Robinson:You understand every sku.
Tim Robinson:You understand its price, you understand its value, you understand every customer, you understand their value, you understand their behavior.
Tim Robinson:The idea that we can't use that data to offer tailored returns, policies and rules and experiences to consumers is nuts, really.
Tim Robinson:And that's where I think it will go.
Tim Robinson:I think we're having some fascinating conversations with retailers, particularly in the US at the minute, about using that data to tailor the rules, the returns rules, the policies for you, the consumer, based on what you're buying.
Chris Walton:Wow.
Chris Walton:Great stuff.
Anne Bazinga:Tim, thanks for joining us.
Chris Walton:All right, headline number four.
Chris Walton:Amazon aims to expand its advertising business by letting retailers use its ad tools in their stores.
Chris Walton:According to cnbc, Amazon is letting other retailers use its homegrown advertising tools to run sponsored ads across their own websites.
Chris Walton:The new offering, called Amazon Retail Ad Services, allows companies to show, quote, contextually relevant ads in the right place at the right time, end quote, in search results, product pages and other areas of their site.
Chris Walton:Amazon said with Amazon Retail Ad service, users will be able to customize the design, placement and number of ads shown across their sites, as well as use Amazon's ad measurement and reporting tools.
Chris Walton:The service operates on systems that are separate from its own retail business and retailers manage their data, no surprise, via AWS accounts.
Chris Walton:And what do you think of Amazon's new retail ad service?
Anne Bazinga:I think this is a smart pivot for Amazon.
Anne Bazinga:I actually really like this and the reason is because we had Robert.
Anne Bazinga:Joe, will you help me pronounce his last name?
Anne Bazinga:Joe?
Anne Bazinga:I want to say Joe Jose is the basketball player that I cannot.
Chris Walton:Basketball player, yes.
Anne Bazinga:Who's my eternal enemy.
Anne Bazinga:Also, side note, my brother texted me last night and said that I, I said Jackson Smith.
Anne Bazinga:I said Najiba and it's.
Anne Bazinga:I did not pronounce it right.
Anne Bazinga:He's like Ann, you've got to get your sports people's names right.
Anne Bazinga:You said what Jackson Smith and Najiba in the Seattle Seahawks video we did at Lee and Field.
Anne Bazinga:I did not pronounce his name right.
Anne Bazinga:Thank you for fact checking me a month later.
Anne Bazinga:And Jokic is the next one that I'm going to get fact checked on.
Anne Bazinga:I am certain.
Anne Bazinga:But anyway, back back to the Schwarz Group.
Anne Bazinga:So we were talking to Robert yesterday and I thought it was so, so eye opening for me how he explained retail media networks.
Anne Bazinga:I think he's still one of my favorite interviews.
Anne Bazinga:But the thing that he said is to be successful at retail media, you cannot just take your like advertising or media buyers from your retail environment and then make them in charge now of your retail media network, which I think a lot of retailers were doing early on.
Anne Bazinga:You have to operate as a retailer and a media company.
Anne Bazinga:You are essentially replacing, you know, inline media that these media buyers used to to buy and not all companies are designed to do this or agile enough gets back to what you're talking about.
Anne Bazinga:Macy's like, they're just not agile enough to do both of these things.
Anne Bazinga:So I think Amazon is providing a solution here that allows retailers like that to get into some of this advertising revenue.
Anne Bazinga:No, it is not ideal because, yes, you're still working with Amazon and they're getting some of this information, even if they say it's a separate business unit.
Anne Bazinga:But I think that this is still a good place for people to start to see the value that they can get from advertising like this Amazon, this Amazon ads capability and then figure out like, can we build this on our own?
Anne Bazinga:Do we need to find a partner?
Anne Bazinga:Do we need to join another network in order to be successful?
Anne Bazinga:Because there is revenue, a lot of revenue to be made here if you can do this in the right way.
Anne Bazinga:But what do you think about this, Chris?
Chris Walton:Yeah, I mean, your point, your point about retail media is really interesting because going back to the, you know, I think about what A M said, like drawing the comparison to marketplaces, I feel like the analogy I would use is marketplaces is more akin to a retailer like, like, you know, say you're a crossfitter and you want to become a marathoner.
Chris Walton:Like, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's not a bridge to, it's not, it's not that different of a muscle use.
Chris Walton:But like the, the idea of standing up a retail media business in a lot of ways for retailers is like, you know, being a marathoner and wanting to become a gymnast.
Chris Walton:Right.
Chris Walton:It's just.
Chris Walton:Right, it's just a whole nother thing that you've got to learn how to do.
Chris Walton:And so, yeah, I don't have much to add on this story.
Chris Walton:I mean the thing to me is just going back to what we said in the second headline, the, the, the flywheel just keeps on spinning.
Chris Walton:Yeah, I mean this is, this is, this is a, a page from the playbook we've seen a thousand times with Amazon selling its tax.
Chris Walton:So, you know, which in turn generates more cloud usage.
Chris Walton:The flywheel gets going which just keeps making Amazon more and more powerful with every single user.
Chris Walton:So, so if I was Amazon, I, I mean net net, I, I absolutely 100 be doing the same thing.
Chris Walton:And that's all I say.
Chris Walton:I mean it's no brainer.
Chris Walton:Yeah, no, help out all the online retailers that need to place ads on their site because they want to place ads on their site and they want to do it effectively.
Chris Walton:And they want to get money for it.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah, Right, right, right.
Anne Bazinga:Oh, all right.
Anne Bazinga:Well, Chris, let's go to headline number five.
Anne Bazinga:EBay shares soared last week after Meta allowed listings on Facebook's Marketplace in the US and Europe.
Anne Bazinga:According to CNBC, shares of eBay jumped 9% on Wednesday as Meta said it will allow some listings to show up on Facebook Marketplace.
Anne Bazinga:The rollout will begin with a test in Germany, France, and the U.S.
Anne Bazinga:the partnership could provide a boost to ebay's marketplace business, which has struggled to compete with e commerce rebels like Amazon, Walmart, and Temu.
Anne Bazinga:Chris, do you agree with the market's reaction to ebay selling through Facebook Marketplace?
Chris Walton:Yeah, I do.
Chris Walton:Yep.
Chris Walton:100.
Chris Walton:I do.
Chris Walton:I don't have a lot to say on this one either.
Chris Walton:I'm going to keep it quick and turn.
Chris Walton:Turn the microphone over to you.
Chris Walton:But I think it's.
Chris Walton:I think this is a really smart move on both sides.
Chris Walton:I think, you know, on.
Chris Walton:On ebay side, it extends their reach very nicely.
Chris Walton:And for Facebook Marketplace, too, I think it brings more trust and credibility to the platform.
Anne Bazinga:And me, too.
Chris Walton:And also you get additional items, too, which in a marketplace, having additional items and, you know, catches more people, catches more eyeballs.
Chris Walton:So I think it's clearly a case of one plus one equals three in my mind.
Chris Walton:I think this is really smart.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah, I agree.
Anne Bazinga:I think this opportunity really has legs, especially to, I guess, bring people back to ebay.
Anne Bazinga:I don't know if that makes sense, but, like, I, as.
Anne Bazinga:As consumers, like, or introduce, even, like.
Chris Walton:I still don't really ever use ebay.
Anne Bazinga:I've never really used it.
Anne Bazinga:Exactly, though.
Anne Bazinga:Exactly.
Anne Bazinga:And again, this gets back to, like, the search game that we were talking about with Best Buys Marketplace.
Anne Bazinga:Like, you know, it.
Anne Bazinga:If I'm going on Facebook Marketplace, which is widely used now by so many people to find everything from furniture to collectibles, you name it.
Anne Bazinga:You know, to be able to have ebay's items plugged in, like, that's.
Anne Bazinga:This is already happening so much.
Anne Bazinga:Like, I don't know how much time you spend at Facebook Marketplace, but I go there first for most.
Chris Walton:As little as possible ad as possible.
Anne Bazinga:Fair, fair.
Anne Bazinga:I go there for most things, especially, you know, having just.
Chris Walton:I know you do.
Anne Bazinga:And so I.
Anne Bazinga:I'm telling you, there's already people who are, you know, doing the palms.
Anne Bazinga:Have you heard that that acronym, like palms posted on multiple sites.
Anne Bazinga:So, like, you already posted on multiple sites.
Anne Bazinga:So, like, you.
Anne Bazinga:The person is posting it on Facebook Marketplace, but they're also posting it on Craigslist they're also posting it on ebay.
Anne Bazinga:They're also posting like, this is already happening.
Anne Bazinga:Think of all of the products you could have access to if you're just uploading all of your stuff now to ebay and it's just being shot out.
Anne Bazinga:It's like podcasting.
Anne Bazinga:Like, you put your.
Anne Bazinga:You upload your one piece of media, and now you can put it out to all these channels where all these people can find you.
Anne Bazinga:Like, it's brilliant.
Anne Bazinga:It just makes so much sense.
Anne Bazinga:Ebay's already got this whole system locked in and ready to go, and you already have easier accessibility to things like shipping and shipping labels, taking that work out of it for you.
Anne Bazinga:So.
Anne Bazinga:So I think the most important thing here is just, you know, making sure that that infrastructure is in place so that the customer experience is seamless, because people are going to, you know, be one and done with this if it's not working the right way the first time.
Anne Bazinga:So that's the only thing that I think is the watch out here is.
Chris Walton:Is that people get angry on those Facebook groups.
Chris Walton:Right?
Chris Walton:We were talking about that at dinner yesterday.
Chris Walton:Yeah, those Facebook groups look out.
Chris Walton:Especially those Facebook bomb groups.
Chris Walton:They.
Chris Walton:Yeah, they get a hold of something, they're gonna tear it apart.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Anne Bazinga:Oh, my God.
Anne Bazinga:I did make some notes for you, Chris, on other things that they're talking about.
Anne Bazinga:Handyman recommendations.
Anne Bazinga:There's a lot of things we can talk about.
Chris Walton:Oh, God.
Chris Walton:I don't.
Chris Walton:I don't even want to know.
Chris Walton:I don't even want to.
Chris Walton:Maybe I do, but I don't.
Chris Walton:I don't, but I do.
Chris Walton:Yes.
Chris Walton:That's the power of social media.
Chris Walton:You don't want to know, but you really do.
Anne Bazinga:Right.
Anne Bazinga:Okay, Chris, let's go to the New York City themed lightning round.
Anne Bazinga:Chris, question number one for you.
Anne Bazinga:We had a lengthy debate in the cab about why horses have horseshoes, resulting in another lengthy discussion around how weird the words hoof, hoof, hoof, and hooves.
Anne Bazinga:Chris and I had to look up how to pronounce these words.
Anne Bazinga:And hooves are.
Anne Bazinga:What other word have you always found sounds weird to you?
Chris Walton:Oh, my God.
Chris Walton:That's so funny that, yes, we did have a conversation about this in the cabin.
Chris Walton:It was a long conversation.
Chris Walton:I mean, we probably spent 15 minutes on this whole thing.
Chris Walton:But I.
Chris Walton:The.
Anne Bazinga:The.
Chris Walton:The word that I think sounds weird is onomatopoeia.
Chris Walton:See what I did?
Anne Bazinga:Oh, I love that word.
Anne Bazinga:I do love.
Chris Walton:See what I did there?
Chris Walton:Because it's a word that sounds like it is.
Anne Bazinga:Yes.
Chris Walton:And yes.
Chris Walton:What word Sounds weird.
Chris Walton:Onomatopoeia.
Chris Walton:Yes.
Anne Bazinga:Oh, my God.
Anne Bazinga:Oh, my God.
Chris Walton:Bad Bunny and Jimmy Fallon held a surprise concert in the New York City subway station this week.
Chris Walton:Bunnies notwithstanding, what is the baddest animal in your mind?
Anne Bazinga:Mice.
Chris Walton:Oh, yeah.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Anne Bazinga:I just feel like they're run into.
Chris Walton:Some badass mice in your.
Anne Bazinga:Diane, you just can't.
Anne Bazinga:They're like.
Anne Bazinga:Even my sister in law was like, we had a mouse kind of cute.
Anne Bazinga:And I was like, no, that's what they want you to think.
Anne Bazinga:They want you to think they're like sneaky bad animals and they will just find a way.
Anne Bazinga:And they freak me out so much.
Anne Bazinga:I hate them.
Anne Bazinga:Them.
Anne Bazinga:So that would be my.
Anne Bazinga:The baddest animal.
Anne Bazinga:What's your baddest animal?
Anne Bazinga:Oh, geez.
Chris Walton:I hadn't thought about it.
Chris Walton:I think I.
Chris Walton:I think I probably go with mice too.
Chris Walton:I hate mice.
Chris Walton:Like, mice.
Chris Walton:Mice are.
Chris Walton:Mice are just terrible, terrible, terrible creatures.
Chris Walton:I don't like cats.
Chris Walton:Either end.
Chris Walton:I don't like.
Anne Bazinga:Oh, God.
Anne Bazinga:You're gonna.
Anne Bazinga:You gotta be careful.
Anne Bazinga:You can't get into domesticated animals.
Anne Bazinga:Mice are like, you're.
Anne Bazinga:That's okay, you're.
Chris Walton:But I scratch me one time.
Chris Walton:It was.
Chris Walton:It was.
Chris Walton:It was disastrous.
Chris Walton:It was.
Anne Bazinga:You get a fever.
Chris Walton:So cats are bad animals.
Chris Walton:They're badass animals too, Ann.
Chris Walton:Yes, I did get a fever after the cat scratch.
Chris Walton:I got a cat scratch disease.
Chris Walton:There's a little disease called cat scratch disease, and I got it.
Chris Walton:Jesus.
Anne Bazinga:You definitely did.
Anne Bazinga:You definitely did.
Anne Bazinga:I did surprise it all.
Chris Walton:I don't remember what it's called.
Chris Walton:Somebody can look it up.
Chris Walton:But yeah, Cat scratch disease.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah.
Anne Bazinga:Okay, Chris, if you had to stand in without warning as an extra with an ensemble dance number in a Broadway musical, would you rather do that?
Anne Bazinga:Or 30 minutes of open mic stand up at a comedy club without warning?
Anne Bazinga:They're just like, chris, go.
Chris Walton:Oh my God.
Chris Walton:I mean, you know, you know the answer.
Chris Walton:30 minutes is a long time.
Chris Walton:But I'm definitely choosing the stand up because.
Chris Walton:Are you, you know.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Chris Walton:I mean, as bad as my dad jokes are, they are nowhere near as bad as my dancing skills.
Chris Walton:And so being like Broadway dance number, like, no, no, no one wants.
Anne Bazinga:But you can hide.
Anne Bazinga:Like, that's the thing.
Anne Bazinga:Like, you can.
Chris Walton:No, you can't.
Anne Bazinga:You could, like kind of be in the background of the dance ensemble dance number and singing like, stand up.
Anne Bazinga:You're just under the light, man.
Chris Walton:Hey, that's okay.
Chris Walton:I like to be in the light.
Chris Walton:But as Shakira once said, and my hips don't Lie.
Chris Walton:I'm not hiding.
Chris Walton:I'm not hiding.
Chris Walton:All right.
Chris Walton:The famed Governor's Ball is coming up soon, and its lineup includes the likes of Tyler the Creator, Olivia Rodrigo, and I think it's pronounced Hosier.
Chris Walton:I have no idea.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah.
Chris Walton:When was the last time you bawled out Cinderella style?
Chris Walton:Have you ever ball.
Chris Walton:Gone to a ball, Anne?
Anne Bazinga:I guess so.
Anne Bazinga:I, like, had to go to a gala.
Anne Bazinga:Is that like a.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah, yeah.
Chris Walton:Gala will qualify as.
Anne Bazinga:I guess that would be the closest thing, but no gala.
Chris Walton:What kind of gala was it?
Anne Bazinga:A regatta gala.
Anne Bazinga:It was a fundraiser.
Chris Walton:Friend's joke.
Anne Bazinga:What's a regatta gala?
Chris Walton:It's a friend's joke.
Chris Walton:It's from friends.
Chris Walton:I think they go to a regatta gala or something.
Chris Walton:Remember that?
Anne Bazinga:Oh, yes.
Anne Bazinga:Oh, my God.
Anne Bazinga:I thought you said it had a French joke.
Anne Bazinga:And I was like, you've been hanging out with a lot of French people this week.
Chris Walton:We have.
Chris Walton:We spent a week in a French booth.
Anne Bazinga:Yes, but I don't know that term.
Anne Bazinga:Yes, yes, the regatta gala.
Anne Bazinga:Okay, now I remember, but yes.
Anne Bazinga:No, I think it was, like a fun.
Anne Bazinga:I don't even remember what the fundraiser was for, but I had to dress up.
Chris Walton:What did you wear?
Chris Walton:Did you wear a flowing gown?
Chris Walton:Did you know?
Chris Walton:Was it like one of those where you wear a corset and the.
Anne Bazinga:Oh, God.
Chris Walton:Underneath you is really big?
Anne Bazinga:No, if we're talking.
Anne Bazinga:That's a gala.
Chris Walton:That's.
Anne Bazinga:Or that's a ball.
Anne Bazinga:No, I haven't.
Anne Bazinga:No, it was just like a.
Anne Bazinga:A.
Anne Bazinga:I don't know, like a.
Chris Walton:Did you wear a tiara?
Anne Bazinga:I did wear a tiara because one of the times.
Chris Walton:Oh, my God.
Anne Bazinga:Not.
Anne Bazinga:Not as, like, an attendee, but we were like.
Anne Bazinga:Some friends and I were volunteers.
Anne Bazinga:So, like, we walk.
Anne Bazinga:There was like, a little.
Anne Bazinga:One of the jewelers had, like, a little headbandy dime, like an actual diamond thing that I got to, like, wear around, and then people bid on it and then.
Anne Bazinga:Yeah.
Chris Walton:Wow.
Chris Walton:Wow.
Chris Walton:You're a Tierra model and.
Chris Walton:Was a Tierra model.
Anne Bazinga:It was a tiara model.
Anne Bazinga:At once.
Anne Bazinga:One time in my life.
Anne Bazinga:It was fleeting.
Anne Bazinga:It'll never happen again.
Anne Bazinga:But that's amazing.
Chris Walton:Wow.
Chris Walton:Who knew those things even existed?
Chris Walton:All right, happy birthday today to Regina King, Ernie Reyes Jr.
Chris Walton:And the man who played the super hottie tag to Jennifer Aniston's Rachel on Friends.
Chris Walton:Eddie Cahill.
Chris Walton:Do you remember Tag Ann?
Anne Bazinga:No.
Anne Bazinga:I need to watch Friends again.
Anne Bazinga:I think I was like.
Anne Bazinga:I watched it religiously when it was.
Chris Walton:Out, but I'm guessing you would remember him.
Anne Bazinga:I think oh, I'm gonna look him up after.
Chris Walton:Don't worry.
Chris Walton:All right.
Anne Bazinga:Don't worry.
Chris Walton:And remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business, make it Omniton, the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top 10 US retailer.
Chris Walton:Our Fast Five podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week's top news.
Chris Walton:And our daily newsletter, the Retail Daily Minute, tells you all you need to know each day.
Chris Walton:So stay on, on top of your game as a retail executive and also regularly, regularly and regularly feature special content that is exclusive to us and that Ann and I take a lot of pride in doing just for you.
Chris Walton:Gotta get out of New York.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Chris Walton:Thanks so much for listening in.
Chris Walton:Please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcast or on YouTube.
Chris Walton:You can follow us today by simply going to YouTube.com omnitalkretail so until next week, on behalf of all of us at Omnitok Retail, as always, be careful out there.
