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Today it's December 18, 2024. I'm one of your hosts, Sam Mazinga. And I'm Chris Walton and we're here. Once again to discuss all the top headlines from the past year. Chris making waves in the world of omnichannel retailing because it's our annual awards show episode and today Chris, we are joined by the one and the only David Ritter and filling in as a last minute understudy. Thankfully for David Brown, we have Chad Lusk, the Lusker of the Alvarez and Marcel Consumer and retail group. Welcome.
Welcome to you both. Dave Ritter, it's been a minute since we've seen you. What have you been up to? You know, I have been consulting and consulting and consulting but as our practice has grown we've, we've intentionally had more partners come on, come on your show and flex our collective muscle in a different way. So it's caused me to not kind of step back and not be as, not be as forward but, but you. Need to take a minute to introduce yourself to our audience.
For those who might be joining us, we've had, we've got a lot of new subscribers since the last time you were on but you really kicked this off this partners between amitok and A and M. So give the listeners a quick background on why you are our go to for the end of the year award show. David. Well, I have the green jacket. I think I've been on this show six, seven, maybe even eight. This might be my eighth time without a doubt.
Obviously when I joined A and M about five years ago, I kicked off the partnership with you and Chris and it's been a wonderful partnership. Do all my work in retail. I tend towards fast moving consumables, grocery drug kind of if you can buy it fast and eat it, I tend to help my clients sell it. So look forward to the discussion today. And Chris, I forgot to mention Dave's nickname.
Dave also has a nickname on the show, Lumberjack Dave because he always comes festively prepared in his finest flannel for this end of year award show. He fits apart today. He fits apart today. He did a good job with that ad. In other apparel news, we have the Lusker Chad Lusk back on the show. And Chad, you are for not being prepared for this podcast and just filling in last minute. You look very holiday ready right now. How are you doing today Chad?
Well, speaking of dressing the part, yes I am, I am geared up. And you are Batman ready. I am Batman, the dark knight of retail. So I am ready to, ready, ready to engage here. You know I feel like I'm, I'm stepping all over a bit of tradition based on Dave and David having done this show over the last couple years. But in true good consulting, consulting fashion, David got hung up on a few uh, few plane reroutes and, and is in the air and couldn't do it.
So you know, at the Oscars people accept awards on, on someone's behalf. Today I will be giving awards on, on someone's behalf. So I will be doing my desk. David Brown. And what do you call these? Do you call these the, do you call these the Omnis? Do you call them the what, what is the name of these awards? We have a name for them yet, Chad? I don't think we have a name for it. We just call them the Omni Talk Awards. You know, that seems like a missed opportunity.
Yeah, I'm gonna go with the Omniscient, but I will say so. So David did expedite and send me his award envelopes. Oh my God. That's right. So I will be opening these sealed envelopes on behalf of the Omnis. Oh my God. No one has seen these except for a small collection of A and M auditors. And so we'll be revealing these real time. Hopefully not the Macy's auditor. Right. I mean that's, that's not somebody we want in charge of our, our envelopes. Well, Chad, thank you for coming prepared.
Thank you David Brown, for making sure that they get, they get to Chad so that he can open them live in front of an audience. Chad, quick background on you for those who might be meeting you for the first time too. Yeah, absolutely. So I've been with A and M now for about four years. Partner, managing director out of Chicago, diverse background in both consulting and industry, multi time chief strategy officer, chief marketing officer in CPG and retail environments.
And now spend most of my time kind of at that intersection between consumer and commercial transformation. Amazing. Again, thanks to both of you for joining us. Chris, I think it's time to get to the award. Time to get this show started and. I feel like it is. Yeah. And I can't think of two better people to share the stage with to hand out this year's awards. And this year's show is always a big thank you to everyone that's followed us as well. We try to have a lot of fun.
We try to bring the insights. But of course, like Ann said at the outset, we try to make everyone feel a little bit happier too. All right, so before we get started, a quick, quick read here. The countdown is on to Manifest. Manifest. The future of supply chain and logistics is just around the corner. You can join an and me along with 350 plus top speakers across 150 sessions in Las Vegas in February at the Venetian Resort and Casino. What is everyone waiting for?
And you can save 200 on the current registration rate which is 600 off the on site rate by visiting manifest vegas.com save with OmniTok. Yes, if you're going to the show and trying to register at the show and paying those fees. That's insane. Don't do that. Save money with omnitok. All right, let's get to it, guys. All right, I'm gonna go to Ritter first, since he's the incumbent here on the award show. This is his third year in a row doing it. 8th time he thinks on the show.
We're gonna start off with retailer of the year. David. David Ritter, who was your 2024 retailer of the year. Drumroll, please. So I think what all the rest of you are gonna say is Walmart and Costco, and I want it to be interesting. So I'm going to pivot and I'm going to say publix supermarkets. Whoa. Dark horse. What? Why? In a world where grocery has just been a bit in upheaval with the Kroger Albertsons deal, Publix has put their heads down and really just focused.
They achieved a 49 increase in net earnings. They reached $4.3 billion in sales. They are rocking a 24 market share in the areas where they operate. And they've opened 45 new stores in 2024, including markets like Kentucky in places that are slightly underserved. So they're thought of as the southeastern grocery magnet, but they're expanding beyond it. And it's not just the subs and the sandwiches they're rocking. So they're my vote for this year. That's right.
They kicked, and they kicked Kroger's digital play out of the state too. Right. That's a good pick. All right. All right, Chad, who is your pick? You seem to be very appreciative of that choice by David there. I saw you. All right, here we go. You've got the envelope. If I were voting, I love. I love the grocery space. I really like that call and what they've done to stave off a lot of competitive threats in the. In the southeast. So one wonderful play on that one person too.
Remember Carson when he put the envelope? Yes, exactly. Oh, you know, I'll say so before I read this. Right. You do have to remember that David Brown is our resident kind of luxury apparel fashion beauty expert. So I have a feeling that things are going to slant in that direction. Right. So first off the bat here for retailer of the year, we have. Wow. Wow. So here's. Here's what I'd say to supplement his choice. Right.
So first, you know, first choice in my closet, obviously, for my fashion get up today. But, you know, Dave mentioned kind of grocery a segment and upheaval, like, certainly here this is really one of the very few luxury fashion brands and players doing well. You know, they have a nice secret sauce that they understand luxury differentiation, personalization, customer intimacy in a way, you know, way more than kind of max max luxury players like LVMH and others are kind of doing.
So. Talk about a dark horse. But yeah, David in with French luxury. Yeah, the luxury of the luxury. Okay, wow. We've got some, two very different picks here so far. And where are you going to go this year? I had to give it to Walmart this year. I did talk. I think, I think the real tipping point for me, Chris, was when we signed up for our Walmart plus membership.
Uh, and I started to see firsthand the value that a retailer that I, I didn't, I wasn't really, it wasn't my go to before, but the value that it's bringing to my life and how much has changed it personally. And then all of the headlines, obviously them bringing in a higher income demographic. They did the fashion reboot this year. They've got Scoop New York and all the stuff they did for New York Fashion Week. They were first on the scene with Jenny.
I search the first big retailer I'm seeing back in, in January. Launching that you got the merging supply chains with Sam's Club this year, the StockX partnership, increasing salaries for store managers to $400,000 a year. Commerce Technologies, that whole division in the store assist they're doing. Plus like gotta love the Buster rhymes creative this holiday. If anybody hasn't seen it already.
I highly encourage you to watch anything on your streaming services because you'll see that commercial about a billion times. But I, I just think there's so much that Walmart has done this year to just totally launch it off and be even more of a household name than they already were for people. So Walmart hands down, got to give it to them. Walmart wins it, huh? Yeah, go ahead. Where do you. What about you? Like what do I. Yeah, yeah. So I think all three.
I thought this was the toughest year that we've ever done this show to hand out the retailer of the year. Like I thought you could give it to Abercrombie, you could give it to Walmart. Tractor Supply could be in the mix. Even Dick Sporting Goods and Dave mentioned Costco too. But for me, actually my winner is Sprouts. Sprouts stock price was $48 at the beginning of the year. It peaked at 155, now stands at 147. They've doubled down on their smaller More productive format. I think opening.
I think they opened 35 new stores, and we got to see one of those smaller stores when we toured, toured their stores in Phoenix with their real estate team. And we were really impressed with that. It was. Yeah, yeah. And the other crazy thing about Sprouts is they're only in 24 states. So Jack Sinclair and his very strong leadership team, both on the merchandising and the real estate side, can take this small format, format, prototype and put it in a lot more places.
So I think the growth here is still. There's still a lot more to come. So that's why they get my vote this year as the retailer of the year. Sprouts. Congrats. Sprouts. That's a great pick, Chris. You're totally right. I. I mean, Sprouts, like, when you look at. We talked about last week, tractor supplies, you know, total addressable market here in rural communities. Sprouts has so much further to go, too. So I love that pick. Well done. Food's just been dropping the ball, too.
Oh, God, don't even. We'll save that for later in the show. All right, let's go next to headline of the year. And Chad, you get to start this one. Open the envelope, please, sir. Here we go. Headline of the. Very intrigued in what. I love the sound effects we've got going on for this show. We've got actual envelopes opening. All right, interesting. Okay, so US retail store closures up almost 70% this year. Wow. Yeah. Kind of like a collection of headlines versus a singular one.
Yeah. This year has had an alarming number of retailers continue to de store in the U.S. you know, according to Coresight, which was footnoted on. On this envelope. Right. There's been over 3,100 store closures through. Through end of November. That's up, you know, almost 70% versus last year. 45 retailers have filed for bankruptcy. There were 25 last year.
And a lot of these companies, you know, had years of just store proliferation only to see their value proposition threatened by a lot of channel blurring occurring in retail more broadly and. And are now scaling back in order to reset and really align on kind of strategically where they're going to compete. So you have discount players like Family, $99 cents, Big Lots, the whole pharmacy retail space. Right. CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid all alone.
Even the convenience store chain, you know, 7 11, to a lesser extent, Circle K, and then, you know, some fashion brands, Route 21, among others. Right. Those are really the areas kind of Driving it. So it's a, it's a real sign of, of struggle but, you know, indicative of this cumulative retail network which is, you know, very overstored and is going through some, you know, level of course correction.
Yeah, that's a really interesting one especially because I feel like we're also starting to hear about more, more stores rethinking or reinvesting for 2025 in their store experiences. So, yes, closing some down, but really getting hyper focused on what they're going to do to make the stores itself still exist. Really worth driving traffic to. Great pick. Chad and David, let's go to you, Dave Ritter. What's your headline of the year?
My headline of the year is that Walgreens is in talks to sell itself to private equity firm Sycamore. Ooh, it's a good one. Why? About a decade ago, Walgreens was worth $100 billion and had 12,000 stores. Earlier this year, they announced that over a quarter of its stores are unprofitable. Between headwinds from PBMS and slowing retail sales, its stock has slid 70%.
I think if this is a follow on to Chad's point about the kind of winds of change in certain segments of the industry, but for Walmart or for Walgreens to offer themselves up for sale to a private equity firm is pretty insane. Yeah, definitely kind of indicative of what we were talking about earlier with store closures. Just, you know, the times for those businesses are changing, especially with a lot of retailers moving into online pharmacy this year to stealing some of that share.
That's a, that's a great one, Dave. Chris, I want to hear yours next. You want to hear mine? Yeah. Of the year? Yeah, I don't think mine's as good as Dave's actually. So. And I've actually been wondering if we should vote at the end of like who had the best pick. But, but right. So right now Dave gets my vote, but I'll share mine just in case, you know, somebody else likes it. They want to, they want to pick it over days.
But mine is that Amazon walked away from its just walk out technology in its grocery stores and in place of smart cards too. I think that's an interesting angle to the story. You know, the computer vision system, it held so much promise and it still does in my opinion. But, but the walkout angle, just consumers don't care about it. You know, that's what we learned about it. They just, it's not that big of a differentiator to make the investment in the technology.
Work, you have to get something else out of it, which I think we'll start to see. But we'll start to see it come through different manifestations of it, like robots in store or other applications of cameras throughout, throughout the store. It's just, but it, you know, it's just, it's for Amazon. It's going to work in stadiums, like the video you just shot out at Lumen Field and you just released this weekend. For those that haven't seen it, it's going to work in environments like that.
Environments that are high throughput, hard to staff, but at the end of the day, no one cares about just walking out in a grocery store. Yeah. Chris, who are we talking to this year? I remember we did an interview with somebody and I remember you specifically calling out like if they change the name from just walk Out Technology to just strictly Computer vision for Inventory accuracy, like that would be that, that in itself is like, that's the technology angle.
It's just the wrong focus or wrong emphasis. Right. Yeah, right. I think, I think it was a fast five weekly Fast five. Might have been with Ben Miller, Joe Laszlo too, I don't remember. But yeah, no, that was the point. Yeah, I was like, I think they just marketed this thing the wrong way, honestly, you know, because. And then you don't, you don't also need the degree of accuracy that you need to actually make sure that the transactions are happening the right way too.
So that's got to be cheaper as well if you were to pitch it that way. But I don't know. And what was yours though? Well, no one's going to be shocked if they've ever listened to our show on my retail headline of the year because it is the Google Shopping Updates. I think that this is a huge thing because it's changing the way that it's. I think we saw this year the beginning of a waterfall of events that change how we start shopping and how we search for products online.
And yes, you have other retailers, Walmart's doing this. You have other AI platforms like Perplexity and OpenAI that are also, you know, really enabling language based search. But I think that Google still owns so much of search. They're still the first place that we go as consumers when we're looking to find something. And then now you add in Google Lens as a secondary option using the visual search and large language based search.
I think this is a huge, huge component to how we're going to be shopping in 2025 and beyond. Plus you also add in some of the other things that they, they've added like tracking information at the top of your Google or your Gmail inbox to know exactly when products are coming and real time pricing, display and availability on that first search page when you're searching for something.
I just, I think we have to give huge kudos to Google this year for the, these strides that they've made in shopping. All right. So, so I think so. I don't. I. So that's a pretty good one too. I think it's between David and Chad. You get the tiebreaker here. Who wins retail headline of the year. Anna always wins. Anna always wins. Yeah. The thing I love about my partner, she's. She's nothing if not dyed in the wool. Consistent with her, with what she loves and talks about. So yes.
All right, let's keep moving. So next one up, retail technology of the year. Ann, let's go back to you on this one. Oh boy. I was not ready. I will, I did cover Jenny in my last two headlines. So I'm going to go away from that this year. So I have my, my retail technology of the year. You mentioned it earlier, Chris. In Store Robotics. I think you have everything from the robotics that are happening, help with automation and picking and back of house.
We talked about with Dometics Kim Beaudry early on just about how that's really getting smaller and smaller to simbi raising another $500 million to presumably kind of support the expansion for more retailers of tally in stores.
Even our visit last week, Chris, we went to SPS Commerce here in Minneapolis and we went into their DC and that was a really big light bulb moment for me not having spent a ton of time in DCs but just to see the room for error in packing facilities, especially when you and I are in charge.
But really just understanding like this is the real place where robotics, you know, in the back of a grocery store or something where they really can help speed things up and make make things safer for the employees that are in the back of house. So that robots, Robots are my robots is our. See I've been saying robots is 20, 25. And so you're preempting me. You're kind of coming in early on the robot headline. That's interesting. Interesting play there, my friend. Chad, what about you?
Well, let's go to the envelope. So let's go to the envy of the year. Let's see what David had to say. Doesn't get old, Chad. Doesn't get old. I'm really glad there's like seven More of them, so I hope. All right. Invisible barcodes. Oh, that was close. On my list too. Me too. Really interesting. I mean still, still early stage being piloted. Right.
But I think what digimark and Walmart have been putting together as a combination in order to speed up checkout and you know, stem shoplifting as a, as an ancillary benefit could be really, really game changing. Right. You know, for, for an n of 1, I still hate self checkout. My wife can't believe it. But like going in and like the, the way of scanning every single item at checkout, like I actually think a cashier can do it faster than me. Right.
It's the, it's the cue is the only reason I would use it. But this mechanism to, to create speediness in that, in that self checkout delivery could really, really amplify that. And any element in order to be able to, you know, stem that, that theft, loss of people not SC in their pocket, whatever, you know, just avoiding everything we can do to lock up the store has the potential to be a real game changer. So there you go. Tech tech announcement of the year. Yeah, that's a good one.
That's a good one. It also has a lot of backroom applications too, as you think about finding product quickly for employees too over time. So yeah, that's an interesting one to keep an eye on. All right, I'll go next. So for mine, mine this year was, I thought the easy one to do was like a generative AI play, you know, like you could easily do something like that, but I didn't want to do that either.
Plus I didn't know the exact application yet, which I think is something we've been talking a lot about on the show. The retailers don't know exactly what application is the best one yet. So for me, this one might surprise you. 3. I'm going with marketplaces. Marketplace platforms. Walmart is killing it with their marketplace. Like it's driving a ton of their retail media growth. And then you saw companies like Lowe's, Macy's, Nordstrom's, they've all started to build their own versions.
And all for the very same reason. Right. You can expand the assortment, but it also gets you the ability to scale your retail media ad doll much more efficiently. So with all the first party data that retailers have out there, I think you're starting to see that marketplaces are going to be the way that you help scale that retail media effort. So that's why marketplaces wins for me. David, close us out. All right, so Mine devstell is on chats.
Shrink is one of the biggest issues retailers are facing today. And frankly, shrink in many situations is one of the reasons they're closing stores because they just can't control the shrink. And when your shrink is higher than your sales, it just becomes untenable. So this, this technology has not yet been fully rolled out. But the most effective way to prevent shrink is to lock stuff up. But locking stuff up is an awful consumer experience.
In comes Walmart with if you have the app and you are a loyalty customer, you can open it yourself. I don't know exactly what it's called the loyalty phone unlock for locked up goods. In terms of theft prevention is I think the wave of the future, especially in high theft areas and will enable some stores to stay open if we get widespread adoption. That's my tech of the year. Wow. Wow. So you like that idea, David, huh? That's interesting.
And just for clarification too, Walmart so far for those listening is only testing that with employees. They haven't rolled it out to customers yet, but people are hypothesizing that they could do that. But David, do you like that from a customer experience standpoint and an overall retail sales standpoint? Well, I think there's just places where you have to lock stuff up. There's organized retail crime.
Yeah. The only real way that has been proven to reduce that, you can't have a security guard like it is locking this stuff up. So in a world where that has to happen, I think having an app where the customer can do it themselves rather than wait for someone to come from the back room to do it for them is a much better customer experience.
I also think there's a secondary benefit of driving people to your loyalty program because if you do it once or twice, waiting on someone suddenly that if it's your corner store or the store that you shop the most, you're incentivized to join their loyalty program. So I think it's a two prong, reduce shrink but also drive additional customers to your loyalty plan.
Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it's a great, that's a great, great call because yeah, we see a lot, we and I see a lot of companies that are really talking about detection, but prevention is a whole nother ball game. So you like this on the prevention angle? All right, Chad, who, who won, who won the award here? Who takes home retail technology of the year? Oh, man. I continue to be the. You guys on your toes today. I mean, I like, I like David's David Brown. All Right.
So go with, go with the invisible barcodes. All right, all right, Very nice. I love Marketplaces, though. That is not, that's not an angle that I thought of for this question or. I know, I know. That was a good pick, Chris. Okay, well, next award is Retail CEO of the Year. And Chris, we're just going to get it over with, so I'm going with you first. Who is for the eighth year in a row, your retail CEO of the year, Doug McMillan. And honestly, there isn't even a close.
There isn't even a close stacker, like, I'm not even going to say him and somebody else. I'm just, I'm giving it to him for the simple fact that 75% of Walmart share gates are coming from households that make over $100,000. That is staggering and a credit to him and his leadership team. And it all comes down to the story. I've told this story before, but I'm going to tell it again. I was at my reunion, my college reunion, 20 year college reunion with a friend of mine. He's a CFO in Vegas.
And he told me that he's like, chris, I love Walmart plus because I never have to go into a Walmart store. And he's kind of hoody toity. He won't mind me saying that. But now he shops via Walmart plus regularly and sees the benefit just like you did and in the beginning of the show. So that's why McMillan wins it for me. And yeah, and he'll give it next year too, probably. But yeah, I love the guy. Hard not to pick Doug this year. I actually, Chris, I also picked him.
I know, I know, Chris, I'm telling you, like from actually, you know, another point when Walmart, when somebody from Walmart picked up a return for me the other day that, you know, something didn't work, like in I could pick somebody that day. They came to my house because they have Walmart plus they picked up a return. I didn't have to box it or anything. I was like, this is changing the game.
And probably for the reason that you just mentioned with your, your college friend who's like, I don't have to deal with that errand at all. And that is a huge, huge time savings. And I think people are going to become even more loyal to Walmart this year because of that. But the reason also, Chris, that I picked him that you didn't ment is because I think he made the very bold decision to bring teams back to Bentonville this year. Yes. And I think that that's going to have a huge impact.
That's a really difficult decision to make as a CEO and he's doing it. And I think that it's going to really continue to help Walmart be the biggest retailer of, of the year probably next year and years forward because he is bringing people in. It's an action focused culture, minimal bureaucracy when you're all in person and you're making those decisions quickly. And he is, I think, the ex of a fearless, humble leader who's pushing his team to take risks in the right way.
So I got to give it to him. Yeah. And that's a great point on the return to office because, you know, I wrote an op ed for the Star Tribune this week about Target and whether it's losing its mojo. And the number one question I got in response to that article was how much do you think Target's return to office policy is hurting them from a merchandising and inventory planning standpoint in terms of the training and tutors that they need to give the to the people working in those areas?
And so I. Great call, Great call out. Okay, Dave Ritter, your next Retail CEO of the year, is it going to be. This is a little bit out of character for me. Oh, with Fran Horowitz. Yeah, she was my runner up. Yeah, she's my runner up too. To be honest. There's not that many fashion brands that have gone from hot to not and then have gone from not too hot. And she has managed to make them credible and cool again with a totally different demographic.
Like they were cool with the four of us probably when we were, you know, teenagers and maybe into college. And now like five years ago they're cool with us. Like five years ago. No, but now they're cool again with, with teens. And you know, I, I think that is, that's almost a case study of one. I think it would be really tough to, to come up with other examples of a brand that has struggle that and I think she's done a wonderful job.
Yeah. Especially with the allegations against the former CEO this year and all the other challenges that she's faced dealing with. Like, and it's not just teens. Dave Ritter, I am a new Abercrombie fan. This year I've spent, I'm a loyalty member. I've spent lots of money at that store this year. It's not just for teens anymore. But that's a fantastic pick. Chad, we're wrapping it up. Open the envelope and tell us who the retail CEO of the Year is. Please.
I peaked already because this one I, I had heard from the Academy that David had a couple nominations, including Tarang Amin from Elf Beauty, who is just kind of nailed marketing on TikTok and Roblox to attract audiences. Their shares are up some ridiculous like 1600% in five years. David likes to play oddball lifestyle person. So he actually had some consideration from Mark Zuckerberg for integration of AI into advertising.
Plus just kind of always great for a headline and how he's changed his whole image with his like gold chain wearing wrapping, custom cars, kickboxing. Yeah, yeah, just kind of nerdy chill, right? But I had to edge David over and I'm glad that to, to say that the Omni goes to nickel and Brian gets a two. Wow. He gets, he gets a twofer because you know what he's done with Chipotle. Incredible, right?
His, his track record in kind of building growth there through innovation and delivering exceptional customer experience. Just absolutely nailing mobile ordering and pickup, just crushing it. And now he's come in and laid out a plan very clearly for Starbucks, right? And we've talked about this before in the podcast, like what Starbucks needed was investor confidence, right? There wasn't acknowledgement of there being problems, why they existed, what they do to fix them.
And like after two months Brian was very clear, right? It's about speed, it's about great product, but at the right value, it's about a great in store experience for those who want it. Yes, proof will be in the results. So you know, if he does it and he can, you know, win the OMNI again in 2025, but the stock's up like 25, 30% since his appointment. So he's given that investor confidence that Starbucks needed.
And yeah, that's only a few months in and Brian Nichols already getting your award, CEO of the year. Yeah, yeah. Talk about tailwind. And yeah, yeah. But I gotta think, because he, because two of the four picked up, I think Doug wins and. Right, Doug wins. I think so. You know, I mean, two of them. Four. Give it to your guy. Give it to your guy. I'm no math guy, but I think that means he wins. But. All right, all right, let's keep rolling. Most. This one's great. This one's fun every year.
Most overhyped retail technology of 2024, David Ritter. Just to be clear, it was retail technology or trend. And I'm going with trend as opposed to technology in this case. Yeah, I actually think tariffs and it's not because I think tariffs are not going to be a big deal. I think that retailers have not adjusted their, their cogs have not adjusted, their prices have not yet truly adjusted based on these tariffs.
And I think we've got two years of tariff negotiations before any thing is truly implemented. So in some ways I think, I think tariffs are a bit of a overstated in terms of their immediacy of importance. Got it. So tariffs is a red herring. Yes, that's right. And good call out. Yes, it's retail technology or trend? Most over hyped retail technology or trend. And what was yours? You know mine's still the caper cart. Chris.
I have to say like I still feel like this year we, I definitely saw a grocery shop more use cases for it, but I still feel like it's very cost prohibitive for the majority of grocers. I think it's going to be a lot longer rollout than we, we even anticipate. I just, I don't see a lot of retailers investing the money in caper carts especially like chain wide. I think it's still experimental and they're still too cost prohibitive. So that's mine. Interesting. Interesting.
Chad, I might, I might want you to rebut on that one a little bit. I actually think they're properly rated at this point, especially with the retail media play. I don't, I don't think they're as overhyped as we used to think they are. But, but Chad, what was yours? And if you want to comment on any of the things that Ann said about smart cards because I know you're a big fan with a lot of personal experience in the space, I'll let. Dave Stack down at Schnucks provide the, the rebuttal.
All right. Over hype tech, let's see what David had to say here. He said okay, interesting. He said device AI. Which is, which is, which is, which is an interesting one. Right? I mean I think we all, we all know that AI and gen AI is going to be huge, but it's just not, it's just still not ready on consumer devices. Right. I mean Apple intelligence isn't really useful yet. Same with Gemini. Like the hype train is early.
You know, it's like spending fantasy football draft capital on, you know, rookie Jonathan Brooks this year. You know it's gonna be good but just 2024 is just a little too early. But anyway, that's, that that was David's. I mean honestly I, I wrote on the back of the envelope it was, you know, just walk out technologies. You know, I I, you know, personal vote on that one to, to, you know, compliment what you said earlier. Chris. Nice. Nice. Well, mine's just a quick one.
Mine was, mine was Target's CarPlay integration, which I think in general, you know, people would be like, yeah, whatever. But Target actually singled that out in their earnings call as one of their key achievements in the third quarter, which I just thought was laughable, especially considering their, their digital growth was 11% against Walmart's 20% and Costco's 13%.
So to say that CarPlay is what you're talking about technologically is just hilarious to me because if it's true, like, why are you still lagging behind in those. Against those competitors? So that, that was mine. And. But what's the next. What's the next category? And retail headline of the year that you most want to see turned into a movie. Chad, since you're wearing a Batman sweater, I'm going to go to you first on this one. All right. Headline to movie. So David likes good character play.
There's no doubt about it. I already talked earlier about his, you know, kind of image overhaul for, for Zuckerberg. And yeah, he's, he's, he, he likes the thread of the Jeff Bezos story, you know, and, and here he is again with what he's calling. I don't know if you can read it, Jeff Bezos from geek to mob boss mentality, which is, you know, kind of like a Walter White to Heisenberg transformation, maybe even. Yeah. Should play him. I don't know. I'm not going to explore that one too deeply.
Personally, I'd love to see an action comedy about a gang of porch pirates and how one neighborhood community with an NFL player as their leader decided to strike back. You know, kind of, kind of like Shaun of the Dead meets the Purge meets the Burbs, you know, something like that. I think that could be really a good one. Yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I. Chad, you've thought that through. The screenplay is being written currently, so Chad will be accepting offers from any major studios.
Chris, this is your favorite category, so I'm going to you next. What. What was your pick? It is my favorite category. It's my favorite answer of today's show that I personally came up with. And mine goes back to what Chad said before, and the title of the movie is Four Minutes or Less, the Story of what It Took to Bring Back the Starbucks Brand with the role of Brian Nichols, played by. Yes. Being played by Jason Bateman. I think, I think that would Be so great.
And, and, and you know, too, both, all y'all. You know what I went into? I went into the Starbucks store this weekend and ordered a coffee. And old style, like, you just. Yeah, old style, like, I went up to the cashier, ordered a coffee. Like, I ordered an Americano. Not just a. Not just a drip coffee because that always comes out quick. But I ordered Americano. I got my order in less than a minute and way before all the other people that were waiting there for their mobile order.
So my hunch is they're prioritizing in store ordering over mobile ordering based on my experience, which is what we have long said they should do on this show. So, yes, four minutes or less. The Brian Nichols story, that's my. That's my magic is already happening for you. And you just want to see this in an AMC in the next year or so, is what you're saying. Yeah. Or it could just come direct to Netflix. I'm fine with that, too. And you're not just streaming. Okay. Okay, Dave Ritter.
Where what's yours. Where what's your. What's your retail headline you most want to see turned into a movie? Okay, so this is a true headline off of the BBC and I want to read it first. Just so you know, I'm not making this up. I love it. Over $200 million of cocaine in banana boxes. So the way I want this, I want this turned into a movie. Colombia, the Medellin cartel meets Sainsbury's, Morrison's executives in a global banana cocaine thriller. And the takedown by Interpol. Oh, my gosh.
That is. Seems like it's made up. I can't believe that's a real thing. It's probably in production already. Oh, my God. He said banana cocaine thriller. Yes. That's the first time that. Is there any other kind? That's hard. Even we've seen cocaine bears. Now we're doing banana cocaine thrillers. Okay, I'll close this up here. Mine was a movie about the Macy's auditor that somehow swindled $1.5 million and nobody caught this individual.
And then now Macy's coming out just a couple weeks ago and be like, yeah, we figured it out. It's not a big deal. Nothing was impacted. Nothing. I think there's so much more to that story. So to me, it's like maybe a true crime documentary more than it is a thriller. But I still think that we're going to.
I can already see the, like, blurred out faces and the altered voices with all the people in the Macy's organization that definitely knew what was going on and what this person was doing with all this money that they, they swindled. So we'll see, we'll see who wins, though. Chris, you're. I'm gonna give you this. The say. Oh, you can't make me pick my favorite category. And yes, that's why I'm making you pick it. It. I'm going with, I'm going with the. What was it? The coke. Banana.
Banana what it tastes. Thriller. Cocaine Banana thriller. The cocaine banana thriller. Because those are just three words that I've never said in my life together. And we'll never say again. All right, let's keep rolling. So next one, best strategic move from a struggling retailer. Or if you want to just go, best strategic move that you saw in retail this year, that's okay, too. And why don't you go first this time? Mine was Kohl's and Babies R Us.
I think if something's going to help get, bring a younger demographic into Kohl's, like you've already got them coming for Sephora and I think Babies R Us and creating a baby registry for Kohl's shoppers, I think that was, that was a smart move. We don't have any data on what kind of lift that's providing yet from what I could tell, but I'm, I'm excited to look to that in 2025 and see if that's been helping bring more people into the stores and into Kohl's online properties. Awesome. Awesome.
That's a good pick. Yeah, we've always been, always been curious to see what impact that's going to have. Yeah, like you said, we haven't seen any yet. Mine actually, real quick, was she in the children's place? I love that move. I think it's a different distribution point for Children's Place and one that also potentially changes the economics of your DTC model long term and particularly in a category where delivery speed just isn't that important to you.
And so I think that's an option that a lot more people should start to take a look at here. And it honestly could be a threat to a lot of retailers should it start to take off as that option. But David, what about you? So mine's the non traditional retailer, but Carvana. So in 2022, the company stock had dropped 99% and there was a lot of talk that they were going to go bankrupt since pretty low 99% has rebounded from a low of $4 and now it's $230.
And the strategy behind the turnaround was streamlining and cutting costs. It was improving customer experience. And then the last thing is they got smart and they went into ancillary services, so financing vehicle auctions. They just expanded the business model, and they've rebounded. I mean, in a pretty darn impressive way. Yeah, that's a great pick. Wow. Yeah. Kind of off the radar screen for us, too, here at the show. All right, Chad, what about you? All right.
I had to redefine the category for David. So this is. You guys are just adding. This is. I love how you're just taking it into your own hands. The Omnis will be the amazing, and Chris and I will be the guests. Yes. I love this. Keep going. That envelope looks like the end of the Departed too, where he, like, scrapes out his name or whatever, you know, if you know that reference. But anyway, best strategy from a rebounding retailer. Rebounding retailer.
Okay. Okay. And we've talked about this one already, so no need to mine it too much deeper. But. But it is Abercrombie and rebounding because they are coming off, obviously, a really good 23 as well. They were up 16 last year, up another 12 to 13 this year. We talked about kind of abandoned, abandoning the legacy image and, you know, now creating, you know, accessible product designs. Feel good marketing from America's most hated retailer to being cool and hot again.
And obviously, the fashion retail market's not posting those numbers overall. Well, I can't disagree with that one. That's a good call, I think. Abercrombie, like I said, just go. Go give it a visit, people. Go check it out and see why. Why it's been to so talked about in today's award show. All right, let's go to the next category, Best new partnership of the year. Chad, back to you for this one, sir. Let's get your envelope ready and tell. Us new partnership is all right.
And the Omni goes to David. Staying within again, the fashion and apparel space. But it is Skims with North Face, so interesting one, right? So Skims has. Has developed, you know, kind of a series of partnerships, most recently here with. With North Face and, you know, kind of take Kim Kardashian's influence here. And they. They've done these with brands like, in the past like Fendi and. And Swarovski, and they've also taken to sports with the WNBA and Summer Olympics.
And these partnerships have really helped Skims kind of break away from just pure shapewear exclusively and create a real brand. Right. And so the North Face partnership kind of brings them into outerwear, specifically pointed to skiing and snow sports. And when you look at great partnerships, it draws on the strengths of each brand. Right here it's North Face. With their well known designs, functionality and quality. And outerwear, Skims brings that kind of base layering.
It's sculptive and compressive fit with its classic color palette. So, so, so this combination really makes both recognizable and in particular, Skims really wins here because of the category expansion. So, Chad, what is the sculpt. What's the. Your favorite sculpting component of the skims? Do you have a preference? Is it a top layer, a base, a bottom layer? Like, do you have a preference? Personally, I'm just curious. Yeah, no, I always believe in a good sculpting base. Yes. Really?
Kind of even out the hips and the, the upper thighs. Good foundation. I really. But yeah, no, absolutely. Especially for something like skiwear, you know, it's really important to get that mobility. Yeah. While. While looking sleek, you know, on the slopes. And thank you for asking. I do, I do love that pick though, Chad, because I think it's really important to call out too, that there's a quality component to that partnership. Like Skims is not just Kim.
I think people think Kim Kardashian's brand. No, the quality of that product in each and the quality of the North Face product too. Like they both hold their own and so together they're even better. But I think that's a great pick. Dave Ritter. So mine's a little non traditional. It's more of a collab than a partnership. But that's okay. We take collabs here. Collab partnership. I think those are cooler than everybody. Sarah V with Michael Cera.
So I just think that that collaboration has been wonderful. So their kind of tagline in the marketing campaign was just to clear things up once and for all. CeraVe is developed by dermatologists, not by Michael Cera. Read here for the full story and to shop Sarah V products. I just think it's creative. I love it. I love it, I love it. Chris, where do you land? What was yours best partnership? Yeah, I liked. I did.
I did like Chad's because, you know, I've personally moved away from shapewear around the age of 45, but. Moved away? Yeah. Away from shapewear. Yeah. Okay. You just want it all hanging out. Just doesn't work anymore, you know, I think most people would attest that, but mine, mine, I'm going back to Starbucks and doordash yeah, we talked about this a couple months ago. You know, Starbucks is now white labeling delivery via DoorDash directly through their app.
And I love this because there's one probably a market for it. I think that's a key thing. There's people that are willing to pay for it, which is a new, new, new market to get more coffee into more people's mouths.
And the other part I love about too, which I talked about on the show, it creates more slack for Starbucks operations in store because it gives them more time to prepare orders because delivery timing is not as, you don't need to be as fast for delivery as you do when you're ordering serving up coffee in store like we talked about before. Well, I think that DoorDash won the year for partnerships, Chris.
So I'm already gonna give this category to you and I because I also picked but a different partnership with Lyft. Actually that was my, my partnership of the year. Yeah, that was a good one too. They, they now DoorDash members can get max subscription Starbucks like you said. But I think that there's a lot of opportunity to for again, what they'll learn with Starbucks is really important.
But I also think that what they'll learn with Lyft about delivering people and goods at the same time, I think really will lock it down for them. They've made really smart strategic partnerships this year. So. So DoorDash wins, Chris. End of, end of category. I think so. That's two out of four again. And I think that's the math. Right? That's the math we're going on here.
All right, my next, the next headline is again one of my personal favorites and it's most laughable headline of the past year. David Ritter, would you do the honors please? Certainly. So the most laughable retail headline of 2024 is Coach Springs Spring 2024 Collection to Roblox. Guys, the hype behind the Metaverse has disappeared. I think it's really hard to imagine the small number of people that are still on Roblox. Mostly a younger demographic shopping a high end Coach release in the spring.
I really don't think they're gonna go buy a $500 bag off that they found on the metaverse. And the reason that it's not the metaverse that makes it, it is the, it is literally how you allocate your resources. And for a company like Coach that has a limited amount of resources, I just think there's a much more pragmatic and cost effective way to deploy their resources. To actually really drive digital awareness. It's just.
It's the last place that I would invest if I was thinking about digital marketing or branding for a smaller apparel firm. Amen, brother. Amen. I love that you just said that. I love that you called that out. And what's yours? Mine was the Amazon headline about ordering Pepsi from the middle of a whole food store. Oh, my God, how did I forget about that? I just cannot get over the idea that. I mean, there were a lot of Amazon grocery headlines this year that have me.
That had me just in disbelief, but this is really the one for me. That's tops. Like, I just cannot imagine somebody doing that. That just put it in the damn aisle. I mean, at that point in time or. Or wreath. I don't know. It was ridiculous. Put it in the damn aisle. Like, throw me the damn ball. Put it in the damn aisle. Good one. That's a good one. Chad. Chad was like, Chad either has that same one or was thinking, that's a good one. What? What is it? That's it.
That's a. That's a very good one. I remember when that one popped up and it was just so immaculately confusing. All right, so laughable headline. Let's see what we got here. Entry from David. This is good. All right. Macy's closes underperforming stores and some still stay open. Oh, my God, that's a good one. Whatever does David Brown mean there, Chad? I mean, listen, struggle issues here, you know, the, the.
The. The momentum continues to work against them to the point earlier around store closures. Right. Macy's another victim. And you know, while we inherently believe in the. Sometimes you have to get smaller in order to grow. The. The search for the value proposition there is still, you know, met. Met with peril. And, you know, it just seems like a continual downward spiral. Yeah, right. That might actually, that. That topic might come up later here in our last award too, just as a tease.
All right, so. And I. And I. I think you won. I'll just give mine really quickly, but I think you won again. This one as. As making that authority. Authoritative decision here. But mine was actually. And it technically happened like December 22nd of last year, which was absolutely recorded last year's award show. So that's okay, right? Yeah. Fits the statute of limitations, right?
Yes. Okay. Okay, so my winner then is Wayfair's CEO's end of the year email gaff where he encouraged people to work longer hours. And here's the quote for those that may not remember and you can decide for yourself, quote, working longer hours, being responsive, blending work in life is not anything to shy away from. There's a lot, there's not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success. Hard work is an essential ingredient in any recipe for success.
I embrace this and most successful people I know do as well. End quote. That was from Wayfair CEO and that sparked a hell of a lot of controversy on, on social media and I think rightly so too, in my opinion. Oh my gosh. Yeah, man, I cannot believe that. Okay, well, let's see what happened for him. That'd be, it'd be good to look at, at the, the employment stats after that one of how many people were like, and I'm out. Okay, let's go to the Last award of 2024.
Tomorrow's Headlines Today, what is one headline that you predict will happen in 2025? Let's go to you, Dave Ritter, close us out. What's the headline? All right, Amazon launches another new grocery format. Amazon can't quit grocery and they can't get grocery. Right. It is just, it happens every year. And I think it's a good bet that in the headlines next year they'll have some slightly different variants of what they've tried and failed several times before.
Yeah, it's bad because they have such a logistical prowess, but they just seem to not be able to nail grocery. And, and I have all the faith in the world that they will continue to try. Maybe we can buy Pepsi at that grocery store. Who knows, Dave, anything is possible. Chad, let's go to you. What retail headline do you think we're going to see in 2025? It also would have been a good one, Dave, for most laughable 2024 headline. Another format. Okay, early 2025 headline, see 2024. Interesting.
So in my last minute research on this, I went back to what you guys predicted for 2024. Oh, in last year's show, right. And David Brown said, you know, he called it the bloodbath to boom projection. That while in 2023 we're going to push retailers toward a breaking point, right. He thought in 2024 consumers are going to start spending again and that kind of the retail, especially luxury area rebounded really well.
I will say Dave Ritter called it much better that there was going to be belt tightening, more saving versus spending, trading down. And 24 is a little too early to call for the recovery. So David Brown's going back to the well again. He's saying, listen, easing monetary policies, lower interest rates, Rates high, stock market high end Chinese consumers coming back. That's been missing for a few years. He's calling for the boom.
I actually think this might be a little bit of a la la land moment, you know, where maybe the Omni's been, been, been given differently. Here's what I'll say and I'm gonna kind of flashback moment. I'm gonna go back to what you said last year, Chris, where you expected some shake up in Target's leadership in 24. Okay. Didn't happen. But let's look at what happened this year. The difference between Walmart and Target could not be more palpable this year. Right.
Target stock has recovered a little bit from its 52 week low in November, but it's still down 6 or so percent on the year. Amazon's up 50, Walmart's up 88 0. Right. McMillan's the CEO of the year. You know, it's like giving it to Michael Jordan every year. You're looking for other folks, but, you know, counter that with what's happening at Target. And Brian Cornell, like, like you figure something has to be up in 2025. Yeah. He'll be on stage at NRF early in 2025.
So I'll be curious to hear what he has to say. Their plans are too, Chris. Yeah, yeah. If he makes it through the fiscal year too. So the year is not over yet either. That's the other thing here that we got to factor in. But yeah, I think it, I think that prediction could come true to some degree. Mine, mine goes back to. I kind of alluded to it before. I think this might be the actual year that we see activists win their battle to take Macy's private.
I don't know that Macy's can hold on very much longer, particularly since they're already now in another activist battle just after getting out of the last one. So. And you know, strategically it just seems like a really hard ship to turn around. So. And the real estate does seem very valuable within that activist play relative to other activist plays we've seen in the past. So I think this might be the year that comes to fruition. And that's mine.
Okay, well, I'll close it out with mine, which is that I think we're going to start to see some regional, especially grocers, start to converge their retail media networks. I think that we're going to start to see fewer or less value in every single grocer having their own retail media network. I think it's going to be too much for the brands.
So I think we're going to start to see more of them coming together to, to pool pull their retail media networks into one to really be more appealing to brands and to compete with the likes of, you know, the bigger ones out there, the Albertsons, the Krogers and the Walmarts and others. So, yeah, that's, that wraps us up. That's it. It's a great point to end on and yeah, it's a great point to end on because they kind of have to. Right? I mean, they kind of have to get into that position.
You think this will be. Feels like it. All right, all right. But David, Chad, any parting thoughts? Anything you guys want to add here before we wrap up the show? David? No. Great show. Thank you all. And Chad, I know you wear underwear or underwear underneath your Batman costume. You don't have to hide from it. Don't know where to go with that. He's speechless. As I gallivant about the second city here in Chicago is the dark night of retail. You know, skims are always a part of my, my success.
Yeah, it's the skims. I want to see Chad in an actual cowl. That, that's, that's, that's my, that's my go forward for you, Chad. A cow. Put on the cow. All right, well, that closes us up. Happy birthday today. This is like the best birthday day ever. Happy birthday today to Steven Spielberg, Billie Eilish, and to the most perfect man ever created, Brad Pitt. Yeah, how's that for a trifecta, my friends? All right.
And remember, if you can only read or listen to one retail blog in the business, it was actually hard to pick who to give the birthday to. If you can only listen to one retail blog in the business, Make It Omnitok the only retail media outlet run by two former executives from a current top 10 US retailer. Our Fast Five podcast is the quickest, fastest rundown of all the week's top news. And our newsletter tells you everything you need to know each day.
And it always features special content that we do exclusively for you and that Ann and I take a lot of pride in doing. So thanks as always for listening in. Please remember to like and leave us a review wherever you happen to listen to your podcast or on YouTube. You can follow us today by simply going to YouTube.com omnitalkretail Chad, one final question.
If people want listening, want to get in touch with you, David, Anyone at the A and M consumer in retail group, what's the best way for them to do that? Yeah, absolutely. If you want to talk to us about your, your company's opportunities and have a few laughs along the way, you can, you know, check out our website at Alvarez and marcel-crg.com. you could also find us in LinkedIn, Alvarez and Marcel, Consumer and Retail Group.
And we'll just part with one more prediction for 2025 headlines, where OmniTalk continues to dominate the retail podcast space. You guys are awesome. Thank you. Thanks, Chad. Thanks to all of our listeners. That's why, that's why you all make it happen. So thank you so much. And we hope you have a safe and happy New Year. Right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Happy holidays, everyone. On behalf of David, Chad, Ann and myself, have a wonderful new year. And of course, as always, be careful out there.