Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl.

In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses:

• Saks Global exits Chapter 11 as "Exemplar Luxury Group," emerging with a dramatically smaller store footprint, sharply reduced debt, and a new strategic bet on full-price luxury.
• Amazon Prime Day 2026 logged $26.4 billion in U.S. online spend across four days — a new record — but Numerator data reveals declining average order sizes and household spend, even as AI-driven traffic and influencer commerce posted striking gains.
• Rhode Island becomes the first U.S. state to mandate a 1-to-3 worker-to-machine staffing ratio for self-checkout lanes in grocery stores, setting a regulatory precedent that a half-dozen other states are already moving to follow.

The Retail Daily Minute has been rocketing up the Feedspot charts, so stay informed with Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, your source for the latest and most important retail insights.

In this Retail Technology Spotlight series, Chris Walton sits down with Soroosh Seyhoon, Chief Revenue Officer at Zello, to explore how capturing and analyzing frontline voice data is transforming the way retailers understand and manage store operations. From AI-powered in-ear assistants to real-time operational intelligence, Soroosh explains why the conversations happening on the sales floor represent an untapped goldmine of data that most retailers are completely ignoring.

Drawing from deployments across hundreds of store locations, Soroosh shares how Zello is helping retailers move beyond measuring outputs like sales and throughput to finally measuring the inputs, the frontline communications that drive those results. The conversation covers everything from reducing associate turnover and accelerating onboarding to auto-reporting safety incidents and uncovering hidden staffing inefficiencies hiding in plain sight.

From digitizing push-to-talk communications to replacing two-device workflows with a single-pane-of-glass solution, this episode offers a practical roadmap for retailers ready to stop flying blind on what's actually happening on the floor and start building the connected store of the future.

Key Topics Covered:

• 00:01:44 - The friction points plaguing store operations today and why "hearsay" is running retail
• 00:05:40 - How voice data transforms store operations from outputs to inputs
• 00:08:38 - Meet Ella: Zello's AI agent that answers associate questions in real time
• 00:16:20 - Real-world examples: price check patterns, safety incidents, and broken buttons
• 00:21:19 - Where retailers should start to get the biggest bang for their buck
• 00:24:16 - What's next: proactive AI agents, PBX integration, and push to connect

Over 8 years and nearly 200 episodes, the Retail Technology Spotlight Series has featured some of the biggest names and boldest thinkers in retail. Explore the full archive here: https://omnitalk.blog/category/spotlight-series-podcast/

Sponsored Content

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by Duvo and Mirakl.

In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses:

• Lowe's integrates its third-party marketplace into its My Red Vest associate software, putting thousands of marketplace products directly in the hands of store employees at over 1,700 locations.
• Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Keurig Dr Pepper roll out QR codes linking consumers to the American Beverage Association's Good to Know database.
• REI gets roasted online after Meta's AI ad tool auto-generated an image of a physically impossible two-handlebar bike, prompting the retailer to unenroll from the tool and issue an apology.

The Retail Daily Minute has been rocketing up the Feedspot charts, so stay informed with Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, your source for the latest and most important retail insights.

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five lightning round covers a little bit of everything, from the passing of legendary Fed chairman Alan Greenspan at age 100 and the question of who deserves the title of favorite economist, to whether Chris and Jenn are Prime Day shoppers (spoiler: neither is exactly hitting refresh at midnight).

They also weigh in on Jersey Mike's overtaking Chick-fil-A as Florida's favorite fast food chain and Jenn makes a strong case for the family-sized sub. Plus, in honor of the Fourth of July weekend, Chris shares his pick for favorite historical U.S. figure, and it involves one of the all-time great presidential nicknames.

A fun, fast, and slightly chaotic end to another great episode of the Omni Talk Fast Five.

⏩ Tune in for the full episode here: https://youtu.be/k2JviUlR0-Q

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment reacts to Target's decision to name fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi as its first-ever Creative Director at Large, a brand new role in which Mizrahi will advise on product design, mentor Target designers, and help the retailer reclaim its iconic cheap chic identity.

Chris Walton and Jenn Hahn aren't exactly wowed. While they agree that creativity never hurts, both question whether a lack of design vision is actually what's holding Target back right now or whether the real issues are operational, from store execution to service to merchandising. Chris draws on his Target background to push back on the nostalgia play, invoking the legendary Missoni sellout as a reminder that you can't go back to the well and expect the same magic twice.

They also wonder aloud where Mizrahi's influence will begin and end across a portfolio this broad and whether this headline is more about buzz than genuine strategic direction.

⏩ Tune in for the full episode here: https://youtu.be/k2JviUlR0-Q

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment covers Bed Bath & Beyond's Legendary Coupon Hunt, a 21-day nationwide sweepstakes inviting customers to dig out their old iconic blue 20% off coupons for a chance to win a $100,000 home refresh.

Chris Walton and Jenn Hahn don't hold back. With only around 22 Bed Bath & Beyond branded stores still open and a grand prize that signals the brand isn't exactly betting the house on this one, the duo rates this squarely at a 99 out of 100 on the gimmick scale. They also compare it to Jeep's equally eyebrow-raising George Washington World Cup giveaway and debate whether buzz-worthy stunts like these can ever translate into real, lasting customer loyalty or whether they're just noise.

⏩ Tune in for the full episode here: https://youtu.be/k2JviUlR0-Q

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment tackles Kroger's Q1 fiscal 2026 earnings, where the grocery giant posted $46.1 billion in total sales and announced that its e-commerce business turned a profit for the very first time, ahead of schedule.

Chris Walton and Jenn Hahn give credit where it's due, but push back hard on the feel-good narrative. With identical sales missing expectations, e-commerce growth lagging the broader market surge discussed in the previous headline, and CEO Ron Ferens admitting that only two out of five stores are in very good condition, the duo asks whether Kroger's digital milestone is a genuine turning point or a shiny distraction from deeper operational challenges.

They also weigh in on what a real turnaround looks like, how much runway a new CEO deserves, and why the store experience still has to be at the center of any recovery story.

⏩ Tune in for the full episode here: https://youtu.be/k2JviUlR0-Q

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment breaks down the explosive June 2025 e-grocery data from Brick Meets Click and Mercatus, which showed a 28% year-over-year surge to $9.8 billion, with delivery, pickup, and ship-to-home all posting gains of 25% or more.

Chris Walton and Jenn Hahn dig into what's really driving the growth, from the rise of the free delivery era to why time-starved consumers are leaning on online grocery harder than ever. Chris makes the case that regional grocers shouldn't just benchmark against Walmart and Amazon. They should be looking to Sweden, where grocers are making e-grocery profitable despite $35-an-hour starting wages.

They also discuss why Walmart is quietly gobbling up grocery market share, what hard discounters like Aldi are doing right, and why Jenn's 80%+ online grocery habit might be the canary in the coal mine for traditional supermarkets everywhere.

⏩ Tune in for the full episode here: https://youtu.be/k2JviUlR0-Q

This Omni Talk Retail Fast Five segment examines Ahold Delhaize's decision to appoint former Amazon Fresh executive Claire Peters as CEO of Ahold Delhaize USA and what the hire could mean for one of the largest grocery retailers in the U.S.

Chris Walton and Jenn Hahn discuss why Ahold Delhaize looked beyond traditional grocery talent, what Claire Peters' experience at Amazon, Woolworths, and Tesco brings to the role, and whether an unconventional leadership hire is exactly what the company needs.

They also explore the growing trend of retailers recruiting executives from outside their core industry, why fresh perspectives can spark transformation, and whether taking a chance on nontraditional talent is worth the risk.

⏩ Tune in for the full episode here: https://youtu.be/k2JviUlR0-Q

In this Omni Talk Retail interview, recorded live from the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit 2026 in Vienna, Chris Walton sits down with Wesley Wilson, Regional Director, North America at the Consumer Goods Forum, to discuss the biggest trends shaping the future of retail and consumer goods.

One year into his leadership role, Wilson reflects on how the Consumer Goods Forum is expanding its innovation initiatives ahead of the 2027 Global Summit in San Francisco. He explains why AI is becoming an essential tool for managing complexity, how GLP-1 medications are accelerating consumer demand for better nutrition, and why pre-competitive collaboration is becoming increasingly important as retailers and manufacturers navigate industry-wide challenges together.

Key Topics Covered:

• Wesley Wilson's first year leading the Consumer Goods Forum in North America
• Why innovation has become a major priority for CGF
• What to expect from the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit 2027 in San Francisco
• The growing importance of AI across retail and consumer goods
• How AI helps retailers manage personalization and operational complexity
• Why open-source technology is becoming a strategic business advantage
• The role of pre-competitive collaboration in driving industry innovation
• How GLP-1 medications are reshaping consumer expectations around nutrition
• The industry's shift toward nutritional quality over quantity
• Why health outcomes are becoming central to retail strategy
• Serving customers through collaboration across the consumer goods ecosystem
• How CGF is helping retailers and manufacturers prepare for the future

Special thanks to the CGF Leadership Studio sponsored by Vusion for supporting Omni Talk Retail's coverage from the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit 2026 in Vienna.