Grocery Guru Podcast | Episode 10 - Good Riddance 2020! Our Predictions for 2021...

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith from MBMB in the tenth episode of Grocery Guru about 2021 Predictions.

You Can Read the Full 2021 Predictions Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to episode 10, with the Grocery Guru that is Andrew Grant. How are you?

Andrew Grant:

Hello Darren. Yes, Merry Christmas.

Darren A. Smith:

Merry Christmas to you. We're the 17th December, not long until the big one, until the big, fat man comes.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. One week, one week, six nights, seven nights, something like that. Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

Seven nights. All right. In this episode we said that we would talk about predictions for '21, trying to put 2020 behind us with a big boo and a mask.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. No. Absolutely. I mean, obviously, it's been a pretty horrible year... everybody around the planet. We won't be doing this again until it is 2021. So yeah, farewell 2020, won't be missed. What's 2021 going to look like? I've been thinking of a few things that may or may not happen. I don't know about you if you have any predictions?

What are your predictions?

 

Darren A. Smith:

Well, I've got a few predictions, so I'm going to share my first one with you. I've got a few and I'm sure you have too. I'm going to predict that the title of the national account manager is going to be wiped. What I mean by that is national account managers traditionally looked after the account, looked after the buyer, did the negotiations. I think they're all going to be turning into shopper insights managers, insights managers, category managers. I think it's going to go.

Andrew Grant:

And NAM becomes a SIM.

Darren A. Smith:

And NAM becomes a SIM, yes.

Andrew Grant:

I think we talked about that last week, didn't we? Absolutely. I think you said that any national account manager that's been [inaudible 00:03:19] months and maybe is slightly worried about his or her future, the future gets on top of the data. Become an expert at turning that data into insight so that you can sit on Zoom with your supermarket buyers and show them that you know their shoppers better than they do.

Darren A. Smith:

Like it, like it. All right. That's my first prediction, call me Nostradamus. What's yours?

Andrew Grant:

Mine, I think this is a very, very safe bet of £10 of your money, Darren. I know you don't like spending your money on bets. But Amazon gets added to GSCOP, so the Grocery Code Adjudicator makes Amazon the 14th, I think I would be right, the 14th retailer to be covered by the code. With all this COVID stuff Amazon's business has just skyrocketed this year, and possibly almost under the radar. But I think 2021 will be the year when the new adjudicator goes, "This is a massive, massive food business now." We're also going to have the first Amazon ghost stores, the checkout-less, completely checkout-less electronic stores. They'll probably open first quarter. And probably just the publicity [inaudible 00:04:39] publicity over those will raise the awareness. So yeah, Amazon to be added to GSCOP.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. All right. I think you're right, to make 14. So that will be Mark White, the new GCA Groceries Code Adjudicator.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. If you're him you're just coming into that fabled first 100 days, what's the thing that you can say you've done in your first 100 days?

Darren A. Smith:

Very true. Very true. All right. All right. My prediction-

Andrew Grant:

I think that's a good headline.

Darren A. Smith:

Sorry, go on. A good headline?

Andrew Grant:

No, a good 100-day headline for him is, "Yeah, I've added Amazon to the list of covered retailers."

Darren A. Smith:

Very true. Very true. All right. So currently 39% of us buy our groceries online. So that's 39%, so let's call it 40%, 4 out of 10 of us are buying groceries online. I'm going to make an easy prediction, 2021 that's going to topple above 50,