Stay ConnectedOmni Talk Retail provides news, analysis, and commentary on the latest trends and issues in the retail industry. Created by a retailer, Chris Walton, for retailers, Omni Talk Retail covers a wide range of topics related to retail, including e-commerce, technology, marketing, and consumer behavior.
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Live from the Vusion podcast studio at Groceryshop 2026 in Las Vegas, Chris Walton sits down with Myron Frazier, Chief Merchandising Officer at Sam’s Club, to explore what value means for today’s increasingly deliberate consumer and how Sam’s Club builds its assortment around that idea.
Myron discusses the history behind Sam’s Club, the role of Member’s Mark, and why a curated assortment can be an advantage even when consumers have access to virtually unlimited choice. He also dives into the technology supporting the member experience, from scan-and-go and exit arches to one-hour delivery, and how those capabilities fit into Sam’s Club’s long-term strategy.
In this episode:
• How Sam’s Club defines value for its members
• What the company’s history can teach today’s merchants
• The role of Member’s Mark in the Sam’s Club assortment
• Why offering less can create an advantage
• How scan-and-go and exit arches support the member experience
• The role of one-hour delivery from Club
• What’s ahead for Sam’s Club’s merchant team in Q4
🎧 Subscribe to Omni Talk Retail for more conversations with the leaders shaping retail.
Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by R&S Logistics, ZenlineAI, and Mirakl.
In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses:
The Retail Daily Minute has been rocketing up the Feedspot charts, so stay informed with Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, your source for the latest and most important retail insights.
Live from the Vusion podcast studio at Groceryshop 2026 in Las Vegas, Chris Walton catches up with Mark Williamson, AVP of Retail Media at Costco, to discuss the evolution of Costco’s retail media capabilities and how the business is balancing advertising with its core membership experience.
Mark looks at Costco’s rebuilt ad server, clean room, offsite measurement and search integrations, while explaining how retail media connects to a business where much of the shopping still happens inside the warehouse. The conversation also turns to the next phase of digital discovery as AI agents increasingly enter the shopping journey.
In this episode:
• The progress of Costco’s retail media technology stack
• Building retail media around the Costco membership experience
• How Costco connects ad exposure to in-warehouse sales
• The role of membership in Costco’s retail media strategy
• Why the warehouse remains central to Costco’s advertising proposition
• How AI agents could change search, discovery and advertising
• What it means to reach a shopper when the shopper is an AI agent
🎧 Subscribe to Omni Talk Retail for more conversations with the leaders shaping retail.
Fresh off the Groceryshop 2026 mainstage, Ben Miller sits down with Yael Cosset, EVP & Chief Digital Officer at Kroger, live from the Vusion podcast studio at booth 913 in Las Vegas, to unpack Kroger’s AI strategy and what comes next as the company moves from experimentation toward more advanced AI applications.
Yael discusses the foundations behind Kroger’s AI strategy, the launch of its AI Shopping Assistant and how the company is thinking about the progression from assisted to augmented to autonomous AI. The conversation also explores governance, the role of humans as AI becomes more capable and how AI can help simplify the business and give associates more time with customers.
In this episode:
• Kroger’s AI strategy and the foundations needed to scale it
• What Kroger is learning from its new AI Shopping Assistant
• The evolution from assisted to augmented to autonomous AI
• Where human oversight fits into an increasingly autonomous future
• How AI can simplify work for Kroger associates
• The potential impact of AI across customers, associates and the business
• What AI could mean for the future of Kroger’s 84.51 proposition
🎧 Subscribe to Omni Talk for more conversations with the leaders shaping grocery and retail.
Live from the Vusion podcast studio at booth 913 at Groceryshop 2026 in Las Vegas, Chris Walton sits down with Brian Monahan, SVP of Retail Media at Albertsons Media Collective, to explore how the retail media business has evolved since their last conversation and where AMC is headed next.
Brian breaks down Albertsons’ focus on “collective growth” beyond advertising revenue, including category growth and household penetration, while discussing how retail media increasingly connects merchandising, stores, digital and operations. He also shares his perspective on why new shopping experiences may be more important than traditional programmatic targeting and where the creator economy could intersect with retail media.
In this episode:
• How Albertsons Media Collective has evolved over the past year
• Why new shopping experiences may be underhyped in retail media
• Measuring retail media success beyond ad revenue
• Connecting merchandising, stores, digital and operations
• Where the creator economy and retail media could intersect
• What Albertsons Media Collective could look like in the years ahead
🎧 Subscribe to Omni Talk Retail for more conversations with the leaders shaping retail.
In this episode, sponsored by Instacart Enterprise, Portager, Vusion, and Sifter Solutions, Ben Miller is joined by Lauren Livak Gilbert, Executive Director of the Digital Shelf Institute, live from Las Vegas on the eve of Groceryshop 2026, to unpack the latest grocery news and trends shaping the global grocery and CPG industry.
This week, they discuss:
• UK concerns over autonomous delivery robots, following a YouGov poll and the end of Starship Technologies’ Sheffield pilot. (Source)
• Target naming Mark Weinstein as its new Chief Marketing and Guest Experience Officer, and what his appointment could mean for the shopper experience. (Source)
• Morrisons rolling out “Shop to Light” across more than 200 stores, and whether the ESL use case adds real value for shoppers. (Source)
• Kroger removing Red Bull from its stores and fuel centers, amid its push to challenge suppliers on pricing. (Source)
Plus, Lauren joins us to preview Groceryshop 2026, including the key themes to watch and her one must-see session, and of course, she shares a global grocery story in GrocerTalk Grab & Go.
A few things worth checking out from this week’s episode:
Follow along with Omni Talk’s coverage from Groceryshop 2026, including exclusive interviews with executives from Kroger, Sam’s Club, Hy-Vee, Costco, Albertsons, Instacart, Ahold Delhaize and more. Catch the interviews across the Omni Talk LinkedIn page, podcast channels and YouTube.
Episode 006. Welcome to GrocerTalk.
P.S. Be sure to check out all our other podcasts from the past week here, too: https://omnitalk.blog/category/podcast/
Music by hooksounds.com.
Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by R&S Logistics, ZenlineAI, and Mirakl.
In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses:
The Retail Daily Minute has been rocketing up the Feedspot charts, so stay informed with Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, your source for the latest and most important retail insights.
Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, sponsored by R&S Logistics, ZenlineAI, and Mirakl.
In today's Retail Daily Minute, Omni Talk's Chris Walton discusses:
The Retail Daily Minute has been rocketing up the Feedspot charts, so stay informed with Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, your source for the latest and most important retail insights.
The Fall retail conference season is officially underway, with NRF Paris having just wrapped and Groceryshop, Shoptalk Fall, NACS, and many others just weeks away. Omni Talk figured what better way to get ready for the upcoming season than to put together our primer of the must-see tech that has caught our attention this year.
This episode features Mirakl’s section of our Fall Conference Season “Must-See” Tech Preview, where Justin Samakow, Head of Platform Strategy at Mirakl, explores what it takes for retailers to build and scale successful marketplace and platform business models.
The conversation covers the continued shift toward marketplace-driven e-commerce and the opportunity for retailers to build new sources of revenue beyond traditional trade. Justin breaks down the organizational and strategic foundations required to launch a marketplace, from executive sponsorship and dedicated cross-functional teams to creating a focused “minimal viable ecosystem” that delivers value for both shoppers and third-party sellers.
Be sure to check out the rest of our podcasts this past week and the next few to catch exclusive content from some of the biggest retail conferences!
We can’t think of a better way to get a bird's eye view into the tech shaping the retail of tomorrow, today!
P.S. To explore more conversations from the Omni Talk Ask an Expert Series, head here.
Music by hooksounds.com
Sponsored Content
The Fall retail conference season is officially underway, with NRF Paris having just wrapped and Groceryshop, Shoptalk Fall, NACS, and many others just weeks away. Omni Talk figured what better way to get ready for the upcoming season than to put together our primer of the must-see tech that has caught our attention this year.
This episode features Portal’s section of our Fall Conference Season “Must-See” Tech Preview, where Oliver Leigh, CEO & Co-Founder of Portal, explores how CPG brands can gain greater visibility into what happens after shoppers click on off-site digital advertising.
Brands investing in platforms like Meta, TikTok and Google often lose visibility once shoppers leave the ad and head to a third-party retailer. Oliver explains how Portal captures critical e-commerce funnel metrics such as bounce rates, add-to-cart activity and conversion performance, giving CPG brands a clearer picture of how their off-site media is translating into retail outcomes while maintaining privacy and compliance.
Be sure to check out the rest of our podcasts this past week and the next few to catch exclusive content from some of the biggest retail conferences!
We can’t think of a better way to get a bird's eye view into the tech shaping the retail of tomorrow, today!
P.S. To explore more conversations from the Omni Talk Ask an Expert Series, head here.
Music by hooksounds.com
Sponsored Content
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