Retail insights at the intersection of now and next. Unfiltered. Unbiased
With the possible exception of Greg Abel following Warren Buffet, there’s probably been no tougher succession with more pressure than what Tim Cook faced when he took over Apple from Steve Jobs 15 years ago. Cook has done a magnificent job leading Apple and doing it in a totally different way than Jobs did.
Join Haley and Maria as they dig into her journey of developing bio-based engineering and design with tech advanced tools. Maria describes her passion to change an industry and find alternatives to fossil-fuel based fibers, expendable apparel that pollutes unregulated environments, and unsafe clothing manufacturing conditions. Listen, learn, and be inspired.
From selling cheeseburgers to Lego sets, the modern vending machine has evolved into a convenient storefront in the retail world. Wait until you see what’s next.
The reinvigorated Luddite movement (after 216 years) has some clear messaging to business leaders. The retail industry has a new, unavoidable question: If software is being engineered as an addictive consumer product, how much responsibility falls on digital platform advertisers––the biggest share of which are retailers––to mitigate consumers’ exposure to these addictive devices?
T’s professional journey has been spontaneous: “I would say that if you look at my career trajectory, no one could say it was well planned. I got out of the army, went to school, got a fellowship, moved to Syria on an academic fellowship, and came back and never finished school. Then I ended up working for some tech dudes.”
AI assistants could do what retail media networks promise but often fail to deliver: increase basket size without making shoppers feel relentlessly barraged by transactional ads. The macro-opportunity for any retailer is to connect a shopper to information that changes a purchase decision and deliver a better customer experience. If an AI assistant can do that, the tool is an asset, not a gimmick.
We don’t usually call out a company twice in a month, but honestly this deserves it. We recently cited Buc-ee’s ridiculous lawsuits against companies with what they thought were similar names or animal logos.
Join Shelley and David Wachs, founder of Handwrytten, as they reveal why personal attention beats personalization. They unpack what scalable tools retailers can use to keep customers feeling valued.
And just like that, we seem to be at war with our closest neighbor, best ally, and first or second-biggest trading partner (depending on how you do the math). Now who’s to blame?
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