The Retail Podcast

Quick commerce now decides who survives in India: 7-Eleven is shutting around 60 stores because convenience without 30-minute delivery is no longer enough.

Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF, joins Alex Rezvan on the UK sales slump, Primark and Morrisons.

What is quick commerce? It is everyday shopping delivered in minutes from stores and warehouses close to the customer. In India the quick commerce business model has changed what shoppers expect from a corner shop. This week's Five Things Friday INTL edition asks what that means for convenience retail everywhere.

In this episode:

1. 7-Eleven India shuts stores without quick commerce. Reliance Retail and 7-Eleven have ended their five-year India deal, and most of the nearly 60 stores are expected to close.

2. UK retail sales slump deepens in September. The CBI retail sales volume balance fell to -55%, down from -48% in August. Online fell to -68% from -43%, the weakest reading since October 2023.

3. Primark launches a post-surgery breast care range and will donate more than £1m to cancer charities across Europe and the US, including £300,000 to Breast Cancer Now.

4. Primark expands into Mexico and the Gulf.

5. Morrisons supermarket trials refrigerated grocery lockers.

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open

00:23 Five Things Friday, INTL edition

00:55 7-Eleven India shuts stores without quick commerce

02:06 UK retail sales slump deepens in September

03:35 Primark launches post-surgery breast care range

05:11 Primark expands into Mexico and the Gulf

06:02 Morrisons trials refrigerated grocery lockers

08:00 Wrap

Hosts: Alex Rezvan, Host, The Retail Podcast. Jill Dvorak, SVP Content at NRF.

Get Five Things Friday in your inbox every week: https://theretailpodcast.com/newsletter

Sources:

- Economic Times via Retail Insight Network, 5 Oct 2026

- CBI, Distributive Trades Survey release, 25 Sep 2026

- Primark corporate news release, Sep 2026

#QuickCommerce #RetailNews #TheRetailPodcast

Walmart is dropping a patent that would have let Scan & Go personalise prices at the point of scan, while ASOS confirms a cyber attack that reached customers through its own app. Today's briefing shows retail leaders that pricing and customer data are now where trust is won or lost.

00:00 Intro

00:06 ASOS confirms cyber attack

00:32 Just Eat robots move to Cambourne

01:02 T.M.Lewin opens two more stores

01:18 Cotswold Outdoor takes retail media in-store

01:31 Walmart drops Scan & Go pricing patent

01:53 Albertsons accuses Kroger of destroying notes

02:10 CarMax puts AI on every store call

02:26 Analysts warm to Target's turnaround

02:50 Giant Company runs GLP-1 store tours

03:02 ASOS app used for extortion message

03:25 Belgium weighs three VAT rates

03:44 Governments plan state-owned supermarkets

Sources:

- InternetRetailing: ASOS Confirms Cyberattack; Customer Personal Data May Have Been Accessed https://internetretailing.net/hackers-target-asos-with-unusual-pop-up-extortion-attempt-2/

- Retail Times: Just Eat and Morrisons Extend Autonomous Delivery to 12,000+ Customers in Cambourne https://retailtimes.co.uk/just-eat-expands-autonomous-delivery-with-morrisons/

- Retail Gazette: T.M.Lewin Opens Two Stores in November, Taking Estate to Seven https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2026/10/t-m-lewin-high-street-comeback/

- Retail Gazette: Cotswold Outdoor Rolls Out In-Store Advertising Network Across Full Estate https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2026/10/cotswold-outdoor-expands-retail-media-network-with-in-store-advertising-push/

- Retail Dive: Walmart Abandons Scan-and-Go Pricing Patent Under Activist Pressure https://www.retaildive.com/news/walmart-defends-dynamic-pricing-practices-again/832248/

- Supermarket News: Albertsons Accuses Kroger of Shredding Key Merger Evidence https://www.supermarketnews.com/mergers-acquisitions/shred-gate-albertsons-accuses-kroger-of-destroying-key-piece-of-evidence-in-merger

- PYMNTS: CarMax Scales AI Voice Agents to Every Inbound Store Call https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2026/carmax-lets-ai-take-the-call-not-the-sale/

- Retail Dive: Target's Turnaround Gains Analyst Support Ahead of Critical Q4 https://www.retaildive.com/news/target-retail-holiday-season-performance/831858/

- Grocery Dive: Giant Company Opens GLP-1 Store Tours at Six Locations https://www.grocerydive.com/news/the-giant-company-glp1-tours-weight-loss-grocery-supermarkets/832234/

- RetailDetail EU: Hackers Send Extortion Message to ASOS Customers Via Official App https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/fashion/hackers-hijack-asos-app-to-post-extortion-message/

- RetailDetail EU: Belgian VAT Reform Risks Higher Grocery Bills Despite Zero-Rate Headline https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/food/belgian-vat-reform-threatens-to-make-groceries-more-expensive-despite-the-zero-rate/

- RetailDetail EU: Australia, New Zealand and New York Advance Plans for State-Owned Supermarkets https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/food/the-government-as-a-supermarket-owner-nationalization-is-becoming-a-new-trend/

Doug Stephens, Founder of Retail Prophet, argues that AI in retail will never be a competitive advantage. Customer trust, earned through fairness to shoppers, staff and suppliers, is the edge that lasts.

Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast, and Doug cover why only 15% of Americans had confidence in big business in 2025 (Gallup), why Warren Buffett treated trust as hard business capital, what Walmart's $1bn investment in pay and training in February 2015 teaches CEOs under pressure, and how to measure every quarterly decision by what it costs in business trust.

00:00 Cold open

00:34 Introduction

02:24 Why chasing trends leads retailers astray

03:44 No company can thrive in a society that is failing

08:33 Trust is the most valuable capital a business holds

14:30 What Walmart’s turnaround teaches CEOs under pressure

21:56 AI will never be your competitive advantage

26:46 Put a price on the trust you lose

30:29 Being a good business is a superpower

33:49 Wrap

Five Things Friday, our weekly retail briefing: https://theretailpodcast.com/newsletter

TikTok is keeping checkout and customer data inside the app with Buy Direct, and TikTok Shop's UK sales are heading for close to €5 billion this year. Add retailers' very different rules on AI shopping agents, and today's Decoding Retail shows who is taking control of the sale, alongside Lidl passing £13 billion and Aldi going live on Deliveroo.

Sources:

- Retail Gazette: Lidl pushes annual sales past £13bn and prepares to open more than 50 stores https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2026/10/lidl-sales-hit-13bn-as-it-gains-ground-on-aldi-with-50-store-push/

- Retail Times: Aldi launches rapid delivery via Deliveroo, starting at eight stores with around 2,000 products https://retailtimes.co.uk/aldis-new-rapid-delivery-service-with-deliveroo-launches-tomorrow-6th-october/

- Talking Retail: AF Blakemore grows its Snappy Shopper estate from 95 to 167 Spar stores in two months https://www.talkingretail.com/featured/af-blakemore-expands-snappy-shopper-partnership-05-10-2026/

- Talking Retail: Convenience sales grew 0.6% against 2.9% inflation. Real volumes are falling. https://www.talkingretail.com/opinion/talking-points/what-symbol-groups-and-suppliers-can-do-for-independents-on-a-0-6-year-viewpoint-riddhi-parekh-05-10-2026/

- Grocery Gazette: Sainsbury's launches a drive for 17,500 Christmas seasonal roles across its estate https://www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2026/10/05/sainsburys-set-to-recruit-17500-christmas-roles/

- PYMNTS: Retailers Are Drawing Lines on AI Agent Access, and the Lines Are Very Different https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2026/ai-agents-knock-retailers-decide-how-wide-to-open-the-door/

- PYMNTS: TikTok Launches In-App Checkout and AI Shopping Assistant as First Moves in an Agentic Commerce Stack https://www.pymnts.com/commerce/social-commerce/2026/tiktok-kicks-off-agentic-commerce-push-with-ai-shopping-assistant/

- Modern Retail / Grocery Dive: Albertsons Media Collective Loses Its SVP After One Year https://www.modernretail.co/marketing/brian-monahan-exits-albertsons-media-collective-amid-leadership-shake-up/

- Retail Dive: GLP-1 Adoption Is Rewriting Consumer Behaviour Across Apparel, Sizing, and Online Shopping https://www.retaildive.com/news/glp1-users-apparel-retailers-rethink-everything-returns-davids-bridal/831835/

- Retail Dive: Gap Launches Conversational Shopping Agents Across Three Banners Simultaneously https://www.retaildive.com/news/gap-ai-assisted-shopping-three-decades-after-website/832070/

- RetailDetail EU: Rising incomes, falling retail spend: Europe's purchasing power paradox https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/general/europeans-earn-more-but-spend-less-in-stores/

- Retail Insight Network: Aldi posts 5% sales growth as operating profit slips https://www.retail-insight-network.com/features/aldi-sales-rise-5-as-operating-profit-slips/

- ESM Magazine: Salling Group acquires Proshop to close the Nordic e-commerce gap https://www.esmmagazine.com/retail/salling-group-to-acquire-online-retailer-proshop-323026

- Ecommerce News Europe: TikTok Shop's UK lead over Europe is widening, not closing https://ecommercenews.eu/tiktok-shop-still-much-bigger-in-the-uk-than-elsewhere-in-europe/

- RetailDetail EU: GLP-1 drugs are rewriting fashion retail's size assumptions https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/fashion/how-weight-loss-medications-are-changing-the-buying-behavior-of-fashion-shoppers/

What happened to Nike this week is a second round of job cuts and a $2.5 billion cost saving target, as Boots nears a £7bn sale and world food prices hit a near four-year high.

For retail leaders the signal is clear: shoppers are working harder for every basket, and retailers will need to work just as hard to earn it.

00:00 Intro

00:22 US shoppers stretch every dollar

00:42 Nike cuts jobs again as China drags

01:08 IKEA closes three Plan and Order stores

01:30 Reliance and 7-Eleven end India franchise

01:56 Food prices hit a near four-year high

02:29 Weston family closes in on £7bn Boots deal

02:53 Brazil ends sports betting: grocers to gain

03:19 Morrisons pilots multi-temperature lockers

03:46 Costco overtakes H-E-B in ChangeUp ranking

03:55 Co-op appoints Alex Dower as Retail MD

Sources: - US consumer: Bloomberg News via PYMNTS, 4 Oct https://www.pymnts.com/consumer-insights/2026/consumers-tap-reserves-and-charity-to-manage-inflation/ - Nike job cuts: RetailDetail, 2 Oct https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/fashion/nike-continues-to-cut-back-jobs-lost-after-sharp-decline-in-china/ - Nike China and NikeSkims: Inside Retail Asia, 3 Oct https://insideretail.asia/2026/10/03/uphill-climb-why-is-nikes-turnaround-still-struggling/ - IKEA: Retail Dive, 2 Oct https://www.retaildive.com/news/ikea-shutters-three-small-format-plan-and-order-stores/832021/ - Reliance and 7-Eleven: ET Retail, 5 Oct https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/food-entertainment/personal-care-pet-supplies-liquor/reliance-retail-7-eleven-end-a-five-year-india-franchise-deal-as-convenience-stores-struggle/134684029 - Food prices: ESM Magazine, 2 Oct https://www.esmmagazine.com/supply-chain/world-food-prices-near-four-year-high-in-september-un-says-322931 - McCormick: ESM Magazine, 2 Oct https://www.esmmagazine.com/a-brands/mccormicks-price-hikes-spice-up-quarterly-results-despite-sluggish-demand-322921 - Boots: Retail Gazette https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2026/10/weston-family-closes-in-on-7bn-boots-takeover/ - Boots: City AM https://www.cityam.com/billionaire-weston-family-closes-in-on-7bn-boots-takeover/ - Brazil betting: Valor Investe, 2 Oct https://valorinveste.globo.com/mercados/renda-variavel/noticia/2026/10/02/fim-das-bets-deve-ajudar-varejo-e-consumo-veja-quais-acoes-mais-ganham.ghtml - Morrisons lockers: Grocery Gazette, 2 Oct https://www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2026/10/02/morrisons-launches-uk-supermarket-first-grocery-collection-lockers/ - Costco and H-E-B: Supermarket News https://www.supermarketnews.com/grocery-trends-data/costco-overtakes-h-e-b-on-customer-retail-ranking - Costco and H-E-B: The Shelby Report, 29 Sep https://theshelbyreport.com/2026/09/29/costco-unseats-h-e-b-atop-changeups-2nd-experience-report/ - Co-op appointment: Grocery Gazette, 2 Oct https://www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2026/10/02/md-of-co-op-retail/

Asia-Pacific's older shoppers, JD Sports' franchise move into Mexico, Fabletics' first store in India, Boots on TikTok Shop and JD.com's new home store in Shanghai. Alex Rezvan and Jill Dvorak of NRF cover the five international retail stories leaders need this week.

This week:

(01:08) WGSN on Asia's silver generation; South Korea is now 20% aged 65+

(02:57) JD Sports enters Mexico with Grupo Axo, 140+ stores from 2027

(04:37) Fabletics opens its first India store with Reliance Brands

(06:16) Boots launches on TikTok Shop with a No7 pilot

(07:55) JD.com opens its first 101HOME store in Shanghai

Five useful signals, every Friday. Get them in your inbox: https://theretailpodcast.com/newsletter

Costco's digital sales just passed $33 billion, Toys R Us is opening 120 stores, and Best Buy is taking 10,000 products to TikTok Shop. Alex Rezvan and Jill Dvorak of NRF cover the five retail stories US leaders need this week.

This week:

(00:44) Costco digital sales top $33 billion, up more than 20%

(02:43) Toys R Us opens 120 holiday stores with creator studios and cafés

(04:50) Best Buy joins TikTok Shop with nearly 10,000 products

(06:57) 53% of shoppers won't let an AI assistant buy for them (ACI Worldwide)

(08:58) Record $13.5B Halloween and August core retail sales up 3.47% (NRF)

Five useful signals, every Friday. Get them in your inbox: https://theretailpodcast.com/newsletter

Retail brands still hire creators for one post. Jade Beason says that era is over.

Recorded at YouTube Festival 2026 at the London Palladium, this short conversation covers what retailers are missing in how they work with creators, how trust is actually earned, and what a shoppable YouTube does to the customer journey.

In this episode:

- Why a single sponsored post is the least valuable way to use a creator

- Campaigns across paid, owned and earned media, and creators at in-person events

- Know, like, trust: why the story behind the product matters more than awareness

- "I don't think the funnel's dead. I think it's collapsing": discovery, education and purchase in one viewing

- Why long-form content sells, and what YouTube Shopping changes

- Why B2B is becoming as relevant as B2C for creators

Context: Oxford Economics, in research for YouTube, found that YouTube creators contributed £2.8bn in GDP to the UK in 2025.

Guest: Jade Beason, YouTube creator. jadebeason.com

Host: Alex Rezvan, Host of The Retail Podcast

Weekly retail intelligence: theretailpodcast.com/newsletter

Boots’ creator-commerce push raises a practical question: whose advice helps customers buy? Alex Rezvan and Simone Oloman examine that question alongside virtual try-on, circular textiles, service-led retail, and Vogue World’s runway robots.

Five Things Friday, UK edition. Recorded 25 September 2026.

Alex Rezvan and Simone Oloman discuss five connected retail stories:
• Tesco’s reported F&F virtual try-on pilot at Sandhurst, alongside Simone’s Swap demonstration experience featuring Albaray.
• M&S, New Look, Sainsbury’s, Oxfam, and Circle-8’s plans for The Circuit.
• Boots, No7, and creator-led shopping, including Alex’s observations from YouTube Festival and his interview with Jade Beason.
• Halfords’ “For all wheelkind” platform, the do-it-for-me economy, and Currys as a service-led retail reference.
• Vogue World: Milano’s robots and the hosts’ debate about human craftsmanship.

The commercial thread: make the customer’s decision easier, and be clear about where technology actually helps. Conversion benefits and future consumer behaviour discussed here are the hosts’ assessments, not measured results from this episode.

Clarifications:
Boots’ TikTok Shop pilot was scheduled for 28 September 2026, after this recording. The Circuit’s first phase is planned for January 2027. The 1.4 million tonnes textile figure refers to the UK in 2024. Halfords’ £17bn estimate covers motoring services alone; motoring products are a separate £4bn estimate. Boots’ campaign is “Give it Some Boots”; the song is “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”. Jade Beason’s spoken follower count was not independently verified.

Follow The Retail Podcast for retail intelligence:
https://www.theretailpodcast.com

CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome: UK retail intelligence
00:51 Tesco F&F and virtual try-on
03:09 The Circuit: circular textiles
04:30 Boots, No7 and creator commerce
06:48 Halfords and do-it-for-me services
08:44 YouTube Festival and Jade Beason
10:31 Vogue World: robots on the runway
14:16 Closing thoughts

SOURCES
Retail Gazette, 24 September 2026
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2026/09/tesco-trials-virtual-try-on/
Marks & Spencer, 23 September 2026
https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/newsroom/press-releases/new-look-ms-sainsburys-and-oxfam-join-forces-boost-uks-circular-textile
Boots UK, 23 September 2026
https://www.boots-uk.com/newsroom/news-item/boots-launches-on-tiktok-shop-bringing-trusted-beauty-expertise-to-a-new-generation-of-social-shoppers/
Boots UK, 9 September 2026
https://www.boots-uk.com/newsroom/news-item/boots-launches-new-brand-platform-give-it-some-boots-with-high-impact-campaign/
Halfords, Our marketplace; checked 25 September 2026
https://www.halfordscompany.com/what-we-do/our-marketplace/
Jade Beason official biography
https://jadebeason.com/about
Vogue, 23 September 2026
https://www.vogue.com/article/the-story-behind-the-runway-robots-at-vogue-world-2026-milano

Nine retail companies pitch their solutions at NRF Europe 2026. Host Alex Rezvan then asks what makes each worth choosing over a competitor, before an audience challenge on patents and lasting differentiation.

Recorded at the Innovation Stage in Paris, the session moves from short product propositions to a practical buying question: what makes this company different from the next supplier?

The pitches cover crowdshipping, charitable cookie consent, AI-supported retail decisions, unified payments, bottle protection, assortment planning, agentic commerce, market intelligence, and marketing activation. The Q&A tests the case for choosing a supplier, then explores how physical loss prevention can preserve self-service shopping.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome and Shopopop: crowdshipping

01:21 Gimii: cookies and charitable giving

02:43 MARQL: AI for retail decisions

04:06 Aurus: unified payments

05:29 Saekor: physical loss prevention

06:49 Clair: buying and merchandising

08:03 Veliu: agentic commerce

09:32 InTribe: DigitalMatch intelligence

10:49 Sift Lab: customer activation

12:29 Q&A: why should a retailer choose you?

16:18 Audience question: beyond patents

17:35 Saekor: protecting self-service

SPEAKERS IN THIS RECORDING

Host: Alex Rezvan, Founder & Host, The Retail Podcast

Shopopop — Antoine Truong, Global Head of Retail

Gimii — Thomas Gicquel, CEO

MARQL — Evan Kazakov, CEO & Founder

Aurus — Rishi Soni, Vice President, Client Relations

Saekor — Raphael Tirone, CEO

Clair — Eerika Savolainen, Co-founder & CEO

Veliu — Gianmaria Monteleone, CEO

InTribe — Mirna Pacchetti, CEO & Co-founder

Sift Lab — Linda Hellström, CEO

Originally aired: Thursday, 17 September 2026, according to the supplied event programme. The event’s one-minute pitch format includes contributions of varying length; stage handovers and Q&A are retained.

The recording contains nine pitches. Additional companies on the published programme are not presented here as recorded participants. Product capabilities and results discussed on stage are vendor claims, not independent tests or endorsements.

Event resources: https://www.nrfbigshoweurope.com/en

Follow The Retail Podcast for retail intelligence: https://www.theretailpodcast.com