We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Here’s an interesting fact: 1.6 million tradespeople trust their friends over impersonal brands. And here’s why: Most workwear brands claim they understand their customers, but they're designing products by committee in the boardroom and based on their P/L.  Join Shelley and Eric Gerard who discuss how he built his BRUNT Workwear brand with the people who actually wear the work gear.  They reveal how BRUNT was launched with the encouragement of childhood friends who were brought up in a blue-collar manufacturing town. Unlike Eric and his colleagues, the workwear industry has forgotten who it serves and would be better served by paying attention to what happens when customers help design their own products.  BRUNT eliminated PFAS from water-resistant fabrics before regulations required it, positioning the brand ahead of market demands while legacy competitors are still scrambling to reformulate. BRUNT stays close to its customers, outfitting the New England Patriots field crew this season, partnering with unique talent like Diesel Dave who tricks out trucks and professional motocross athlete Travis Pastrana. It’s also a mainstay in rally racing, NASCAR, and automotive stunt performance. BRUNT’s Bucket Talk is “a monthly podcast that takes listeners across America to meet the “most badass tradespeople, industry leaders and personalities.” Growing from an initial 110 stores to 858 doors nationwide while maintaining its brand integrity proves that authentic products are relevant and can scale when you understand your local communities and customers. 

Guest: Eric Girouard, Founder + CEO at BRUNT Workwear

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

We’ve all read the real estate headlines, both positive and otherwise. So, what’s really next in retail real estate? There's nowhere left to expand: Occupancy in quality centers is running 96 to 97 percent in desirable locations. It’s a landlord’s market with store openings continuing to outpace closures by roughly 2:1. And capital is still flowing into retail real estate and property tech despite negative headlines. Join Shelley with real estate experts Stephanie Cegielski, Vice President, Research and Public Relations of ICSC and Steve Morris, Founder of ASG as they reveal how retail real estate is operating from a position of strength driven by limited supply, disciplined development, and sustained demand for high-quality space. They discuss how retailers are competing aggressively for high-quality space, consolidating footprints, leveraging data-driven site selection, and designing stores to support omnichannel convenience rather than pure browsing. While landlords currently hold leverage, lease structures are becoming more flexible and collaborative. Mixed-use, wellness, value retail, and data-enabled decision-making are defining the next phase of physical retail growth. Listen and learn what to expect in real estate as developers up their game in delivering the services and experiences customers want.

Special Guests: Stephanie Cegielski, Vice President, Research and Public Relations of ICSC and Steve Morris, Founder of ASG

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Most grocery retailers are chasing a $1.6 trillion market but Sprouts Farmers Market is deliberately ignoring $1.3 trillion of it. Join Shelley and Nick Konat, President and COO of Sprouts, as they reveal why the retailer has a laser focus on the $300 billion health enthusiast segment. Marching to a different drummer, Sprouts is driving 8 to 10 percent annual store growth while competitors struggle with more conventional strategies. That alone makes Sprouts a 2025 Crave Retail Radical! Learn how the retailer is expanding from 23 states to coast-to-coast while maintaining a smaller, more intimate format that runs countertrend to the superstore orthodoxy dominating the industry. The company's counterintuitive approach celebrates the fact that customers will shop elsewhere. Sprouts is banking on solving the friction points that plague being a healthy eater: limited access to product, high costs, confusing claims, and mediocre taste. Sprouts is a model in retaining talent with a 30 percent internal promotion rate, and its purpose-driven ethos translates into solid bottom-line results. Nick explains why Sprouts is perfectly aligned with the explosive growth in the health food category among Gen Z and millennials. This strategy isn't about trends but rather about supporting longevity-focused consumption behavior that will reshape grocery. 

Special Guest: Nick Konat President, and Chief Operating Officer of Sprouts Farmers Market 

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Traditional fashion and automotive industries are wedded to a leather supply chain that requires 20 toxic processing steps and plastic coatings, while they simultaneously claim environmental leadership. The uncomfortable reality executives don’t acknowledge is that traditional leather production isn't just environmentally destructive—it's becoming economically obsolete. Join Shelley and Stephanie Downs, a biomaterials pioneer and CEO of Uncaged, as they have an honest conversation about how fashion executives who use natural leather are caught between mounting environmental pressure to change and legacy suppliers who resist touching alternative materials. Brands are being forced to choose between tradition and transformation. Meanwhile, major automotive brands including Jaguar and Land Rover are already piloting leather alternatives, responding to reputational risk from environmentally conscious consumers. To strengthen public awareness of leather alternatives, Uncaged just announced a new partnership with Oscar winning actress Natalie Portman who is a longtime vegan activist.

Special Guest: Stephanie Downs, CEO, Uncaged Innovations

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Full disclosure: Don’t ever underestimate the power of weather and its impact on retail. There is no other external driver that influences the consumer as frequently, meaningfully, and continuously as the weather. In fact, it influences more than a trillion dollars in retail sales on an annual basis. Join Shelley and Evan Gold of Planalytics as they discuss the fact that the weather is more volatile now than it ever has been before with extreme weather events occurring in the U.S. every three weeks. Evan explains that retailers need to proactively plan with demand forecast accuracy that can increase overall profitability up to 30 percent. Smart retailers incorporate weather analytics into their planning, so they are more weather aware and proactive instead of being reactive with flexible strategies in place as simple as putting weather-driven items in more prominent locations and ensuring the right staffing levels. The holiday selling season is subject to the weather since many retailers do 20% or even more of their annual sales in the month of December. Evan says the good news is that the first few weeks of December in the U.S. are going to continue with persistent, cold temperatures that are going to keep customers in that winter holiday mindset. Listen and learn why weather's a very emotional topic and when retailers can get all functions of their business on the same page by proactively strategizing weather’s complex nature, the outcome is more profitable. 

Special Guest: Evan Gold, EVP, Global Partnerships & Alliances, Planalytics

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Sometimes it takes tenacity combined with fearless confidence to launch a retail brand. That’s how Hulken achieved what most brands consider impossible: Pitching Target in June and landing their rolling totes on the shelves by November. Join Shelley and Hulken co-founder Alex Schinasi to learn why the most successful omnichannel strategies aren't about being everywhere, but about identifying the few channels significant enough to actually move the needle on revenue. Alex shares how a lean team of six full-time employees operates with surgical precision, why they spent two years perfecting the product before spending a dime on marketing, and how their industrial packaging background created a competitive moat that fashion-forward competitors can't replicate in Hulken’s popular rolling totes. One key lesson for D2C brands? The shift from 95 percent direct-to-consumer selling to physical retail-focused growth requires brands to make sure that the margins and distribution can support the scaled business model. Alex shares that selecting the right retail partners is essential for D2C brands to scale by navigating complex vendor requirements and operational standards.

Special Guest: Alex Schinasi, co-founder, Hulken

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

A look back at retail 2025 reveals that consumer behavior volatility has reached unprecedented levels, with shopping patterns shifting hour-to-hour rather than seasonally. Most C-suite leaders are woefully unprepared to handle this level of velocity. Join Shelley and RJ Hottovy from Placer.ai as they discuss a range of consequential retail shifts. Holiday promotions now start in September as retailers panic to lock in sales before consumer confidence erodes. Mobile commerce will capture 56.5 percent of ecommerce sales, fundamentally altering the role of physical stores. AI's real retail impact isn't chatbots—it's transforming in-store sales associates into product experts. And an anticipated $1 trillion holiday season arrives as retailers face flattish foot traffic but rising online fulfillment center visits. They also weigh in on leadership succession at Walmart. Incoming CEO John Furner faces opportunities to scale Walmart’s retail media business; attract more younger millennials and Gen Z families, not just traditional bulk buyers; and serve higher-income consumers who are increasingly shopping at Walmart. Listen and learn how 2025 will preview another unpredictable retail year.

Special Guest: R.J. Hottovy, Head of Analytical Research, Placer.ai

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

The retail frontline sales staff is often an untapped, but highly valuable resource.  Everyone wants to know that they matter and can make a difference. So, how do retailers empower their store associates, their most critical customer-facing ambassadors? In an increasingly tech-driven business, new digital tools are designed to create lasting customer relationships that match loyalty with employee job satisfaction. This is especially powerful in small retail businesses where personal loyalty is the gateway to beating the competition. Join Leigh Sevin, co-founder of Endear, and Shelley as they discuss how modern CRM platforms transform data into authentic customer connection. They explore how AI in partnership with employees can enhance personal outreach and make a brand relevant and meaningful. They also discuss the future of personalization that pairs the message with the individual, informed by sales associates who know their customers best. Their conversation reveals how software, analytics and data can propel a retail business through the insights of its frontline sales ambassadors. Learn from this actionable discussion how tech empowers and inspires store associates to level up service, play a more positive strategic role, and find renewed purpose by using AI to make their jobs easier and strengthen their customer relationships. 

Special Guest: Leigh Sevin, Co-Founder of Endear

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Here’s a stark warning for beauty executives: Brands that cling to traditional manufacturing models are already obsolete—they just don't know it yet. The challenges facing beauty CMOs are hitting critical mass: It's not just driving growth, it’s how to get to market at the speed of culture shifts and keep up digitally and socially. Lauren Thermos is General Manager of Atelier, an Australian product innovation studio dedicated to bringing new products to market faster and better, and a self-described disrupter. Join Lauren and Shelley as they reveal the weak spots of a trendy business where many beauty brands are off trend out of the gate to meet the demands of savvy customers. They discuss the antiquated 18-to-36-month product development cycle, agentic AI (Chat GPT) marketing that shrinks the time between researching and making a decision to buy and will eliminate the need for traditional advertising; and the rise of TikTok as the marketing and product launch platform of choice for young consumers. They also pull back the curtain on why fast-tracked indie creators and celebrity-founded beauty brands are eclipsing many traditional beauty behemoths. Listen in on this provocative conversation about the next frontier of the beauty business.

Special Guest: Lauren Thermos, General Manager at Atelier

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us!

Big brands in the food industry face a double-edged challenge: Make snacks healthy and deliver duller colors and unfamiliar tastes. Eliminating dyes and reducing preservatives and sugar are consumer demands that are forcing food manufacturers to reformulate decades-old products that those consumers have developed taste preferences for. Join Shelley and Misty Skolnick, Co-owner of Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels as they discuss how this company in rural Pennsylvania has been producing handmade, 100% natural pretzels as healthy snack options for decades. The conversation covers more than commercial food trends; it explores the challenge from consumers who demand product transparency certification that is resulting in reformulating products that transform familiar food tastes in deference to healthy ingredients. Will this movement collapse when visual appeal and familiar flavors disappear from well-loved products? The food industry is facing an existential crisis balancing wellbeing with familiarity. Unlike food giants scrambling to re-engineer their formulations at scale, smaller producer Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels figured this out 40 years ago.

Special Guest: Misty Skolnick, Co-Owner of Uncle Jerry's Pretzels

For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com, where you can read, watch, and listen to content from Robin Lewis and other retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.