On this week's Modern Retail Podcast, we're looking back at some of the best episodes from the last year. Host Cale Guthrie Weissman walks us through some of the most interesting conversations he's had with the most exciting retail executives. They include executives from Walmart, Tecovas, Celsius, Violife and more.

Walmart's chief product officer, Jon Alferness, for example, spoke about the retailer's approach to AI. Similarly, buzzy startups also explained their growth playbooks. Olga Osminkina-Jones, chief brand officer of the plant-based cheese brand Violife, spoke about how the company approaches marketing like other big names in the space like Oatly.

Below are the full episodes we feature in this episode:

Tecovas CEO David Lafitte

Celsius CEO John Fieldly

Violife Chief Brand Officer Olga Osminkina-Jones

Walmart Chief Product Officer Jon Alferness

Babylist Chief Growth Officer Lee Anne Grant

On this week's Modern Retail Rundown: November saw the U.S.'s monthly retail revenue grow by 0.7%, with solid holiday sales expected to come. Meanwhile, Big Lots said it is planning to close all its remaining stores in 2025 after the company failed to strike a sale deal. Lastly, DTC athleisure brand Vuori now has a $5.5 billion valuation coming off of a major fundraising round. The latest update has Wall Street once again predicting the startup to go public sometime soon.

Puma may be a legacy brand, but it's not scared to test out new technologies.

Indeed, if there's a buzzy update, it's likely the company has launched some sort of beta with it. Puma launched a Roblox experience in 2022, it's tested out NFTs and other Web3 programs and has dabbled in augmented reality. Most recently, the sports apparel brand launched a generative AI tool that allows anyone to design a kit for Manchester City.

According to the person leading the charge of these emerging technologies, the hope is to make sure the brand stays on the cutting edge. "A big part of this is just making sure that we are innovating," said Ivan Dashkov, Puma's head of emerging marketing tech. "And, as these technologies become a larger part of everybody's day-to-day life, that we're not straggling behind."

Dashkov joined this week's Modern Retail Podcast and dove into the company's approach to new types of technology, as well as the way it analyzes the success of nascent campaigns.

Dashkov knows a thing or two about testing out new programs. His background was in social media before it was ubiquitous. "I was there for the early days of social at the NBA, and I kind of feel like it's a very similar place now with these new emerging technologies," he said. Now, social media is a dominant force -- and Dashkov believes that's going to happen with some of these programs.

The challenge for him is figuring out where to invest time and resources, as well as sussing out what the next big thing is. Some of that involves keeping an ear to the ground. "A crazy thing that was happening with a lot of the executives at the company [was]: they were asking their kids what they wanted for Christmas, and instead of saying like a toy or video game, they were actually asking for Robux to spend in Roblox," he said. This is what led Puma to test out the Roblox platform.

Similarly, with generative AI, the company has seen people wanting to design their own kits for their beloved teams, but Puma has been unable to make a program at scale. "With AI, you can really scale that," he said. "Like, anybody can kind of go in and use this tool."

On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses a new lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission of Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, which alleges the alcohol distributor has favored large chains over independent retailers in its pricing practice. Also this week, a new report from the Wall Street Journal claims that Walgreens is in talks with PE firm Sycamore Partners to take the struggling drugstore chain private. Lastly, we discuss a Bloomberg report about Amazon actively cracking down on paid product reviews by reaching out to their creators on social media.

Better-for-you snack brand Chomps has big plans to take the convenience store space by storm. But it's being choosy about which stores it expands into.

Chomps, which is best known for its high-protein meat sticks, has been around since 2012 and has been slowly expanding. Its first major retail deal was with Trader Joe's in 2016. The company was small and, at the time, most sold online. But it knew that a major wholesale partnership could take it to the next level.

"That was a game changer for us," co-founder and co-CEO Pete Maldonado said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "I mean, literally overnight, you've got millions of new customers and people trying the product for the first time -- and it really just snowballed from there."

Maldonado spoke about Chomps' growth over the years as well as its new approach to convenience stores. It recently launched in both Wawa and Sheetz and is figuring out how best to showcase its products to those shoppers. Currently, its products are available in over 20,000 retail doors.

"We just want to make sure that when customers see it -- especially in a new channel -- they can see it and, within two seconds, they understand what it is," he said. A lot of that requires smart packaging as well as in-store displays that explain Chomps' products.

While C-stores are now a big focus, Maldonado said that product isn't perfect for every type of store.

"We're a premium product," he said. "It's got to be an area where people actually understand the value proposition and are willing to pay for it."

On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses the state of mall traffic, including Simon's big marketing-fueled boost on Black Friday weekend. Additionally, we dive into a Wall Street Journal report that PE firm Gryphon Investors is eyeing an acquisition of sparkling water brand Spindrift worth $650 million. Moreover, Foot Locker lowered its holiday quarter guidance as it struggles, some of which the retailer blamed on slowing Nike sales.

E-bikes are becoming more popular in the U.S. and Upway is trying to capitalize on this demand.

The secondhand e-bike platform launched at the end of 2021 and has expanded beyond its Europe home into the United States in early 2023. The France-based company's model controls the entire supply chain -- buying used bikes directly from the source, inspecting them in its warehouses and then shipping to customers.

In Europe, Upway is available in France, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands, but the U.S. is a major focus, said Toussaint Wattinne, the company's co-founder and CEO.

"Clearly, the e-bike market is not at the same maturity level in the U.S. versus Europe," he said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "As a European company, it was super important for us to actually make sure we were looking at the U.S. as a standalone and from a blank sheet of paper approach, rather than try to copy/paste what has worked in Europe."

This approach meant that Upway had to understand the needs of the U.S. e-bike shopper -- which differed from state to state. Some geographies buy e-bikes for more leisurely rides, others use them for urban commutes. And while delivery people on e-bikes may be widespread in major cities like New York, "in the U.S. today, couriers actually represent probably sub-15% if not sub-10% of that total volume," Wattinne said.

As a result, Upway has been focused on figuring out a unique marketing strategy that speaks to the U.S. market. The first task was gaining bottom-of-funnel awareness via channels like Google.

Now, the company is looking at other ways to grow its U.S. presence. This includes a new warehouse in Los Angeles. It also means the company can begin thinking about other types of brand marketing.

"As we grew and as we grew confident about understanding our audience," Wattinne said, "we were able to start going a little closer to the middle of the funnel."

On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses big box retailers' outlook on their end-of-year quarter, including Walmart's upbeat forecast and Target's less optimistic expectations. Moreover, Shein and Temu pose an additional threat to U.S. retailers this year, with more shoppers planning to buy from these China-based marketplaces. Finally, Modern Retail's research team highlights data from brands and their holiday revenue forecast.

Holiday shopping is in full swing and that means there are endless retail topics to discuss.

That's why this week on the Modern Retail Podcast, we brought on our colleagues at the Glossy Beauty Podcast to talk about the major retail narratives we're observing.

Modern Retail's editor-in-chief Cale Guthrie Weissman joined Glossy's West Coast correspondant Lexy Lebsack and senior reporter Sara Spruch-Feiner and dove into the major shopping trends dominating this holiday season.

They discussed holiday sales forecasts and what that means for brands. "People will be spending a little bit more than last year," said Lebsack. 'We're set to spend almost a trillion dollars in the last two months of the year."

Other topics include the rise of chaos shopping alongside new plaforms like Temu and Amazon's Haul. "I think there's a lot of high-income people spending in a very chaotic way on Tiktok Shop, and potentially that might be what Amazon is going for [with Haul]," said Spruch-Feiner.

They also talked about brands marketing their products for self-gifting. "I do think that there are a lot of brands that are doing specific marketing for self-gifting," said Weissman. "And I do think that it is fitting with where we are culturally right now in the United States."

On this week's Modern Retail Rundown, the staff discusses major retail strategy shifts. First, Target reported a less-than-stellar third-quarter earnings. Next, REI announced plans to crack down on serial returners. Last up, the team dives into reports that Starbucks is considering selling its Chinese business.