In this episode:

• OpenAI's first pass at agentic shopping proved the idea is real but the workflow is still brittle.
• Project Kobe points to Amazon's next retail act: blending big-box physicalretail, fulfillment, warehouse automation, and AI. 
• Walmart and Target Want to Be Your AIShopping Buddy​.
• Consumer sentiment fell to a three-month low in March, with the Universityof Michigan index hitting 53.3 as war-driven energy prices and inflation fearshit confidence broadly across incomelevels and age groups.
• Retail sales rose 0.6% month-over-monthin February, the largest monthly gain inseven months, led by motor vehicles,department stores, and apparel. 
• Unilever's food carve-out and merger with McCormick creates a combinedentity valued at roughly $65 billion, anchored by brands like Hellmann'sand French's, and structured as a Reverse Morris Trust for tax efficiency.
• Supermetrics found that only 17% of retail, e-commerce, and CPGmarketers use AI for campaign optimization, the lowest adoption of any AIuse case, despite 70% naming spend optimization as a top priority.
• Circana's latest read shows private label has become structural, notcyclical, reaching $330 billion in U.S. CPG sales with a 24% unit share.