Joining us for another interview recorded live in the Bambuser remote podcast studio at Shoptalk Fall event is Joe Megibow, Casper Sleep's CEO. Joe is a veteran of both more traditional companies as well as disruptor brands, and he helps us understand the evolution of digitally-native brands, the trials and tribulations of trying to reinvent the mattress category, and how he hopes to reinvent Casper and set it on a path of profitable growth.

As usual we open by dissecting the most important news of the week including making sense of last week's US monthly retail sales report, news that the Tapestry/Capri merger is off and that 7-Eleven is looking to fend of Couche-Tard by taking the company private. We also discuss Amazon's debut of Haul, its response to Temu, before a quick dip into quarterly earnings reports from Shopify, On Running, and Home Depot. The it's deals, deals, deals as before  Vuori receives a big new investment and BNPL leader Klarna looks to go public. We wrap up with the unfortunate news that Advanced Auto will close some 700 stores after another rough quarter.

Richard Kestenbaum episode.

Joe Kudla interview

About Us

Steve Dennis is a strategic advisor and keynote speaker focused on growth and innovation, who has also been named one of the world's top retail influencers. He is the bestselling authro of two books: Leaders Leap: Transforming Your Company at the Speed of Disruption and Remarkable Retail: How To Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Disruption. Steve regularly shares his insights in his role as a Forbes senior retail contributor and on social media.

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fourth year in a row, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.