Podcasts about wholesale club

In this episode of the Indianness Podcast, we sit down with Anjana Harve, EVP & CIO at BJ's Wholesale Club, to explore the intersection of leadership, innovation, and digital transformation. With a career spanning multiple industries, she shares insights on navigating AI advancements, leading global teams, and fostering an inclusive tech culture.

Details Trust is the foundation of any high-performing team, but in today's fast-paced, uncertain business environment, building and maintaining trust has become more challenging than ever. Research shows that trust isn't just a “nice-to-have”—it's a leadership behavior that impacts everything from team collaboration to overall business performance. So, how can organizations create a culture where … Continued The post Episode 157: Team Trust at BJ's Wholesale Club with Scott Schmadeke first appeared on ZENGER FOLKMAN.

What if creating frictionless digital experiences isn't just about making things easier, but finding the perfect balance between ease and profitability?Join hosts Chuck Moxley and Nick Paladino as they talk with Adam Candela, former Director of Digital Retail and Digital Marketing at Dunkin' Brands. With over 25 years of digital experience including roles at BJ's Wholesale Club and Staples, Adam shares insights on balancing frictionless experiences with business objectives, building effective digital teams, and avoiding the pitfalls of over-automation.Lessons from this episode:1. Balance customer convenience with profitability by maintaining strategic friction points that create opportunities for additional value and sales.2. Encourage innovation within teams by practicing humility as a leader and creating safe spaces for all team members to contribute ideas.3. When implementing digital initiatives, focus first on solving the right problem rather than rushing to quick solutions that might miss the mark with customers.Want more tips and strategies to create frictionless user experiences? Subscribe to our newsletter!https://www.thefrictionlessexperience.com/frictionless—Adam's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamcandela/Chuck's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckmoxley/Nick's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/npaladino/Chapters:(00:00) Introduction(02:15) Defining Frictionless Digital Experiences(04:45) Challenges of Order-Ahead Technology(07:15) Balancing Convenience with Business Needs(08:45) Location-Based Notifications and Personalization(12:15) Social Engineering in Digital Design(15:45) When Frictionless Hurts Profitability(21:15) Balancing Automation and Personalization(27:00) Internal Friction and Team Dynamics(32:00) Avoiding the "Hippo" Effect in Meetings(35:00) Common Misconceptions About Digital Experiences(38:30) Conclusion

Seven & i pulls the trigger on several "transformational" initiatives, including a 7-Eleven IPO. BJ's Wholesale Club continues to thrive following a strong fourth quarter. And Casey's General Stores has a talking bean-to-cup coffee machine.

Happiness Solved with Sandee Sgarlata. In this episode, Sandee interviews Gina Iacovone,. 35 year career with BJ's Wholesale Club, a member centric retailer, as the Senior VP of Field Operations. Lead the expansion of the brand into the SE corridor of the US focusing on growing market share through a foundation of operational excellence, member experience and leadership development. Connect with Gina:Website: https://relivehealth.com Connect with Sandee: Website: www.sandeesgarlata.comPodcast: www.happinesssolved.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/coachsandeesgarlataTwitter: www.twitter.com/sandeesgarlataInstagram: www.instagram.com/coachsandeesgarlata

The Pooya and Liana Lounge is back to deliver entertaining, humorous conversations about life's trending topics and everyday experiences. This week, Pooya and Liana discuss their origin story, yogurt, Bill Nye, BJ's Wholesale Club, Moo Deng falling off, and so much more! Have questions or comments? Leave them here --> bit.ly/PooyaLianaLounge

Plus: Nvidia shares climb a day after the chipmaker reported strong sales and profits. Shares of BJ's Wholesale Club rise following the bulk retailer raising its earnings outlook. J.R. Whalen reports. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Anjana Harve serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer of BJ's Wholesale Club, where she leads technology innovation at the high-frequency club store. In this episode, Harve joins us to talk about the BJ's member experience, how the company is leveraging AI, her personal career journey and what's on the horizon for tech and retail.(00:00:00) Introductions(00:01:28) Anjana's Career Journey (00:05:45) The Membership Model (00:08:27) How BJ's Is Leveraging AI(00:16:10) Women's Representation In STEM Leadership Roles (00:21:00) What's Next For BJ's? (00:25:04) Anjana's Career Advice (00:26:44) The Exciting Future Of Tech And RetailThe National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association.Every day, we passionately stand up for the people, policies and ideas that help retail succeed.Resources:• BJ's Wholesale Club• Get ready for Retail's Big Show in NYC• Become an NRF member and join the world's largest retail trade association• Learn about our retail education platform, NRF Foundation, at nrffoundation.org• Learn about retail advocacy at nrf.com/advocacy• Find more episodes at retailgetsreal.comRelated:• BJ's Chris Baldwin on what keeps this CEO up at night• NRF Retail Leadership Series: Chris Baldwin, Executive Chairman, BJ's Wholesale Club• Value, partnership and peanut M&M's: BJ's Wholesale Club aligns with MarsProduced by Crate Media.

Anjana Harve serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer of BJ's Wholesale Club, where she leads technology innovation at the high-frequency club store.  In this episode, Harve joins us to talk about the BJ's member experience, how the company is leveraging AI, her personal career journey and what's on the horizon for tech and retail. (00:00:00) Introductions (00:01:28) Anjana's Career Journey (00:05:45) The Membership Model (00:08:27) How BJ's Is Leveraging AI (00:16:10) Women's Representation In STEM Leadership Roles (00:21:00) What's Next For BJ's? (00:25:04) Anjana's Career Advice (00:26:44) The Exciting Future Of Tech And Retail The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association. Every day, we passionately stand up for the people, policies and ideas that help retail succeed. Resources: • BJ's Wholesale Club • Get ready for Retail's Big Show in NYC • Become an NRF member and join the world's largest retail trade association • Learn about our retail education platform, NRF Foundation, at nrffoundation.org • Learn about retail advocacy at nrf.com/advocacy • Find more episodes at retailgetsreal.com Related: • BJ's Chris Baldwin on what keeps this CEO up at night • NRF Retail Leadership Series: Chris Baldwin, Executive Chairman, BJ's Wholesale Club • Value, partnership and peanut M&M's: BJ's Wholesale Club aligns with Mars Produced by Crate Media.

Robert Williams has 18 years of experience in retail, with a passion for people leadership at the heart of everything he does. Currently, he serves as a District Manager for Starbucks Coffee Company, where he was promoted to District Manager Trainer within his first year. Throughout his career, Robert has co-created the Happy to Help theme for Sam's Club and Walmart and pioneered the HBCU Retail Leadership Challenge for Target. He's also known for opening new stores and launching company pilots for major retailers, including Sam's Club, Target, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Starbucks.One of his proudest accomplishments is helping over 30 friends, family members, and mentees get promoted, using his ability to authentically connect with the leaders he serves and provide tangible value quickly.On a personal note, Robert made the best decision of his life on August 21, 2021, when he got down on one knee and asked Tiesha to marry him. Now, over two years into marriage, they're building a beautiful life together. They love traveling, especially to Grand Paraiso near Cancun, and enjoy working out at Orange Theory. While both are great in the kitchen, Tiesha holds the title of kitchen master.Robert is also passionate about memorializing his ideas through his collection of books under the title Raw Guidance. His first book, TITO: Turning Interviews to Offers, is expected to be wrapped up by the end of the year and serves as a comprehensive guide to acing interviews. His second book, Keeping Her Excited, focuses on nurturing and strengthening relationships through acts of service.A fan of being read to, Robert's top recommendations include The Gap and The Gain, Black Privilege, and The Power of Vulnerability. At the end of the day, Robert's legacy is about helping others succeed, making his nieces and nephews proud to call him “Unc,” and hearing his wife Tiesha say, “I'm so proud of you” with her beautiful smile.

Chuck Zodda and Mike Armstrong wonder why voters love policies that economists hate. Why do some economists want to pay a gas tax? Comedian John Mulaney brutally roasts SF techies at Dreamforce conference. BJ's Wholesale Club eyes expansion far beyond New England. We get either a 4% mortgage rate or a stable job market.

In episode 99 of The Payments Show Podcast, I spoke to Das Pattathil who is the Co-Founder & Head of Product at Nextuple.Nextuple helps retailers transform their legacy Omnichannel Order Management systems using microservices.VIDEO and PDF Transcript:- click here https://thepaymentsshow.substack.com/p/99 Summary of topics discussed:(00:36) - Guest Introduction: Das and Nextuple(01:03) - Understanding Nextuple's Mission(01:42) - Challenges in Retail Fulfilment(02:12) - Importance of Accurate Delivery Promises(03:56) - Real-World Example: Early Delivery(05:08) - Impact of Precise Delivery Promises(06:12) - Microservices in Order Management(07:40) - Internal Fulfilment Challenges(09:11) - Legacy Systems vs. Microservices(12:45) - Case Study: BJ's Wholesale Club(15:07) - Ideal Customer Profile(16:30) - Retail Challenges: Self Checkouts and Returns(19:59) - Expanding Beyond Retail: B2B and Wholesale(22:42) - Nextuple's Core Philosophy and Community(24:12) - Future Trends in Retail and Fulfilment(30:05) - Conclusion and Final ThoughtsDetails:- Recorded on 18 Jul 2024- Host: Satwant Phull- Guest: Das Pattathil, Co-Founder & Head of Product, NextupleNext Steps:- Nextuple: nextuple.com | @NextupleInc

Sandy Greenberg is co-founder of Terri & Sandy, an award-winning independent creative agency. She has led the development of iconic work for brands such as The Walt Disney Company, Freshpet, Nutella, and BJ's Wholesale Club. We discussed all of this and more this week on the On Brand podcast. Enjoy This Episode Now Download Episode Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify About Sandy Greenberg After rising through the ranks at DMB&B, JWT, and FCB, Sandy Greenberg founded Terri & Sandy in 2010 with her long-term creative partner, Terri Meyer, with diversity and independence in its DNA. Named Ad Age's Best Small Agency in North America and ranked the EFFIE'S #1 Most Effective Independent Agency in the US, Terri & Sandy services an impressive client roster that includes iconic brands such as The Walt Disney Company, Freshpet, Nutella, and BJ's Wholesale Club. Sandy has been the creative firepower behind some of the most notable campaigns for brands like Oreo, Peeps, Planters, Disney, and Gerber, and her work has permeated popular culture — generating feature stories across Conan, CNN, The View, and more, and winning numerous industry awards including EFFIES, Clio's, and Webby's. From the Show What brand has made Sandy smile recently? “I'm going to share a brand I didn't expect to make me smile — Special K,” Sandy said, noting their recent cereal box featuring pregnant cookbook author Molly Baz. Connect with Terry on LinkedIn and the Terri and Sandy website. As We Wrap … Listen and subscribe at  Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon/Audible, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn, iHeart, YouTube, and RSS. Rate and review the show—If you like what you're hearing, be sure to head over to Apple Podcasts and click the 5-star button to rate the show. And, if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review to help others find the show. Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you'd like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. On Brand is a part of the Marketing Podcast Network. Until next week, I'll see you on the Internet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Dallas school board approved a roughly $1.9 billion budget Thursday that cuts hundreds of central staff and campus-based positions; Housing costs price families out of neighborhood schools, straining Richardson ISD budget; BJ's Wholesale Club is coming to Texas, land of Costco and Sam's; Traveling NBA and NHL fans will add to the packed flights over Memorial Day weekend Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This report contains an analysis of the latest financial reporting from BJ's Wholesale Club - BJ. The earnings report is for the first quarter of 2024, and the report was shared on an earnings call on May 23, 2024.Company Report & OutlookComp Sales Reporting in Q1 2024 Earnings CallDuring BJ's Wholesale Club's Q1 2024 earnings call, the company reported the following regarding comparable (comp) sales:Comp Sales Growth:* Comparable club sales, excluding gas sales, grew by 0.6% in the first quarter. This performance was noted as particularly significant given the tough comparison to last year's high inflation dynamics.Traffic Contribution:* Strong traffic was a major driver, contributing 3 percentage points to the comp sales in the quarter, maintaining a trend similar to the fourth quarter of the previous year.Inflation and Unit Volume:* Inflation was about flat during the quarter.* There was growth in unit volumes, especially in the perishables, grocery, and sundries divisions.Performance in Perishables, Grocery, and Sundries:* The perishables, grocery, and sundries division experienced comp growth of over 1%.* The strongest growth within this division was in perishables, particularly in unit volumes, led by categories such as fresh produce and dairy.General Merchandise:* The general merchandise segment delivered a slightly negative comp in Q1.* Weather-sensitive categories had a significant impact, with about a 10-point variance in performance across markets with different weather conditions.* Despite these challenges, specific categories like consumer electronics, apparel, and home textiles showed positive comp growth. Home categories, including home textiles, experienced nearly 7% comp growth, turning positive for the first time in a while.Overall, BJ's Wholesale Club highlighted continued momentum and strong comp sales growth, supported by robust traffic, unit growth, and strategic initiatives despite a challenging retail environment.AnalysisCurrent State of BJ's Wholesale ClubMembership and Market Share Growth:* Membership Fees: The company saw robust growth in membership fees by 8.6% year-over-year.* Market Share: Continued growth in market share, particularly in perishables, grocery, and sundries.* Renewal Rate: Exceptionally strong at 90%.* New Memberships: Growth was driven significantly by digital platforms.Sales and Traffic:* Comp Sales: Comparable club sales excluding gas grew by 0.6% in Q1 despite difficult comparisons due to last year's inflation.* Traffic and Unit Growth: Strong traffic trends contributed positively to sales, with a noted increase in unit growth particularly in perishables like fresh produce and dairy.* General Merchandise: Faced challenges due to weather-sensitive categories but reported positive comps in consumer electronics and apparel, with a notable 7% growth in home categories.Digital Engagement:* Digitally Enabled Sales: Continued double-digit growth in digital sales, with a 21% year-over-year increase in digitally enabled comp sales.* Convenience Initiatives: Enhanced digital capabilities like buy online, curbside pickup, and inventory management improvements to further assist shopping convenience.Gasoline Business:* Traffic Driver: Gas promotions and value offerings drove traffic, leading to a 6% growth in comp gallons sold, outpacing the down-trending broader U.S. market.* Profit Margins: Faced margin headwinds in Q1 due to rising costs, but expected to recover in Q2.Financial Performance:* Gross Margins and SG&A: Merchandise gross margin rate slightly decreased. SG&A increased year-over-year due to new openings and strategic investments.* Overall Financial Health: Ended the first quarter with strong inventory management, balancing new unit growth and strategic investments.Future OutlookStrategic Priorities:* Member Loyalty: Focus on increasing the quality and quantity of memberships, with an emphasis on high-spending, high-loyalty segments.* Shopping Experience: Continuous improvement through initiatives like Fresh 2.0 to enhance the quality and selection of fresh produce.* Digital and Convenience: Further development of digital tools to streamline shopping and increase member satisfaction.* Footprint Growth: Aggressive expansion with 11 new clubs expected in H2 of fiscal 2024 in both new and existing markets.Growth Projections:* Comp Sales Guidance: Expect comp sales growth to range between 1%-2% for fiscal 2024 with improved performance in the back half of the year.* Gross Margin Expansion: Anticipates a 20 basis point improvement in merchandise gross margin rate for the year driven by cost management and own-brand growth.* Membership Fee Income: Although Q1 showed high growth, the company expects a moderate but steady increase throughout the year.Industry and Economic Context:* Consumer Sentiment: Acknowledgement of consumer discretion in spending and a focus on high value and essential items.* Competitive Landscape: Awareness of competitive pricing actions but confidence in BJ's intrinsic value proposition and strategic promotional efforts.GuidanceThe leadership team at BJ's Wholesale Club provided the following specific guidance for investors regarding their business:* Comparable Sales: They expect fiscal 2024 comparable sales, excluding gas, to range from 1% to 2%. They anticipate an improving performance as the year progresses, with a particularly strong performance expected in the back half of the year.* Inflation: They are assuming a slightly inflationary year, with a robust consumable business led by traffic, units, and market share.* Membership Fee Income: The company noted that the year-over-year membership fee income increase of 8.6% in the first quarter will probably be the highest growth rate for the year. However, they anticipate it will continue to grow but at a more moderate rate.* Merchandise Gross Margin: They forecast an improvement in the merchandise gross margin rate by approximately 20 basis points for fiscal 2024, driven by strong cost management and continued growth in their own brands.* SG&A: Continued SG&A deleverage is expected as they invest in growth initiatives, particularly in unit growth as new club sales ramp up over a multi-year period. They are also lapping variable compensation tailwinds from fiscal 2023.* Tax Rate: They are planning for an effective tax rate of approximately 28% for the remaining three quarters of the fiscal year.* EPS Guidance: The company continues to expect to deliver adjusted earnings per share (EPS) in the range of $3.75 to $4.00.* Expansion: BJ's plans to open 11 more clubs in the back half of the fiscal year 2024 in both new markets like Louisville, Knoxville, Southern Pines, and Myrtle Beach, as well as existing markets like New York metro and Florida. They also mentioned ongoing investments into their existing footprint with upgrades and remodels.* Gasoline Business: While the first quarter faced margin headwinds due to rising costs, they expect the gasoline business to recover somewhat in the second quarter. They remain confident in the overall profitability and growth potential of this segment on an annual basis.This guidance provided the investors with a clear outlook on how BJ's Wholesale Club expects to perform financially in the coming months and outlined the strategic initiatives they are pursuing to ensure continued growth and return on investment.Change Since Last QuarterComparative Analysis of BJ's Wholesale Club Earnings ReportsThe recent earnings report shows continued growth in membership, digital sales, and market share, with a particular emphasis on digital engagement and convenience improvements. Challenges in general merchandise and gasoline margins were noted, but the outlook remains positive with strategic expansions and new club openings. The previous report emphasized membership growth and long-term value, with concerns about disinflation affecting perishables. Both reports highlight investments in digital capabilities and a steady focus on member loyalty and expanding the company's footprint.Analyst ResponseAnalysisKey Topics from Analysts' Questions* Membership Fee Income (MFI) Growth:* Analyst: Peter Benedict (Baird)* Topic: Why MFI growth is expected to step down after Q1 and whether BJ's leadership is considering increasing membership fees given the strong performance.* Inventory and Merchandising Margins:* Analyst: Peter Benedict (Baird)* Topic: Efforts in getting inventory in line, its progress, and expectations for merchandising margins through the year.* Promotional Environment and Pricing Actions:* Analyst: Kate McShane (Goldman Sachs)* Topic: Current promotional environment and how BJ's is addressing competitive pricing actions to maintain their competitive price gap.* Discrepancy between MFI Growth and Club Growth:* Analyst: Simeon Gutman (Morgan Stanley)* Topic: Drivers behind the high MFI growth and its sustainability, especially with new club openings throughout the year.* New vs. Existing Member Spending:* Analyst: Simeon Gutman (Morgan Stanley)* Topic: Comparison of spending habits across different product categories between new and existing members.* New Market Clubs Performance:* Analyst: Robby Ohmes (Bank of America)* Topic: Performance of new market clubs versus expectations and reasons behind any observed differences.* Fresh 2.0 and Coolers Initiative:* Analyst: Robby Ohmes (Bank of America)* Topic: Details about the Fresh 2.0 initiative and the impact of placing coolers at the front of clubs.* General Merchandise and Seasonal Categories:* Analyst: Chuck Grom (Gordon Haskett)* Topic: Dynamics within the general merchandise segment and the impact of seasonal categories, including services and ancillary products.* Gross Margin Expansion Drivers:* Analyst: Chuck Grom (Gordon Haskett)* Topic: Future drivers of gross margin expansion including inventory management, SKU rationalization, and own brand efforts.* Gasoline Segment Profits:* Analyst: Greg Melich (Evercore ISI)* Topic: Decline in gas profit margins and expectations for improvement.* Impact of Credit Card Transition:* Analyst: Greg Melich (Evercore ISI)* Topic: Effects of last year's credit card transition on current margins, overall sales, and SG&A.* Monthly Sales Trends:* Analyst: Michael Baker (D.A. Davidson)* Topic: Monthly sales trends within the quarter and their relationship to comp expectations throughout the year.* Income Cohort Performance:* Analyst: Edward Kelly (Wells Fargo)* Topic: Performance of different income cohorts, especially the improvement in spending among lower-income members.* Unit Improvement and Own Brands:* Analyst: Chuck Cerankosky (Northcoast Research)* Topic: Unit sales improvement indicating overall club performance and impact of own brand sales on comps and margins.Key ThemesHere are the key terms and phrases used by the BJ's Wholesale Club executives in the earnings call:* Membership fee income (MFI) - This refers to the revenue BJ's earns from membership fees, which is a key driver of their business.* Comparable club sales/comps - This measures the sales growth at stores open for at least 13 months, excluding the impact of gas sales.* Perishables, grocery and sundries - This is a key division of BJ's business focused on food and everyday household items.* General merchandise - This refers to the non-grocery/household items like electronics, apparel, home goods etc.* Fresh 2.0 initiative - This is a program to improve the quality, selection and presentation of BJ's produce offerings.* Own brands (Wellsley Farms, Berkley Jensen) - BJ's private label brands which they are focused on growing as they offer higher margins.* Digitally-enabled sales - Sales driven through online/app ordering and services like curbside pickup.* Merchandise gross margin - The profitability on the merchandise BJ's sells, excluding the gas business.* Strategic priorities - The four key focus areas for BJ's: member loyalty, unbeatable shopping experience, value convenience, and footprint growth.The executives highlighted the company's strong membership growth, gains in market share, improvements in merchandising, and continued investment in digital capabilities as key drivers of their business performance.Financial Reporting Summary* Net Sales: Approximately $4.8 billion, growing 4% over the prior year.* Comparable Club Sales: Up 1.6% year-over-year, led by gallons sold.* Merchandise Comp Sales (excluding gas sales): Increased by 0.6% year-over-year and by 6.3% on a two-year stack.* Digital Sales: Digitally enabled comp sales for the first quarter grew 21% year-over-year and 40% on a two-year stack.* Membership Fee Income (MFI): Grew 8.6% to approximately $111.4 million.* Gross Margins:* Merchandise gross margin rate (excluding gasoline) decreased by approximately 50 basis points year-over-year.* Expected merchandise gross margin rate improvement of approximately 20 basis points for fiscal 2024.* SG&A Expenses: Approximately $721.8 million, with a year-over-year increase attributed to new unit growth and other investments.* Adjusted EBITDA: $236.4 million for the first quarter.* Effective Tax Rate: 24.4% for the quarter.* Adjusted Earnings Per Share (EPS): $0.85, flat year-over-year.* Inventory: Ended the first quarter with inventory about flat year-over-year.* Net Leverage: Ended the first quarter with 0.6 turns of net leverage.* Share Repurchases: 405,000 shares for $30.2 million, with $159 million remaining under the current authorization.* Guidance for Fiscal Year 2024:* Comp sales, excluding gas, expected to range from 1% to 2%.* Merchandise gross margin rate expected to improve by approximately 20 basis points.* Effective tax rate of approximately 28% for the remaining three quarters of the fiscal year.* Adjusted EPS expected in the $3.75 to $4 range. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theearningscall.substack.com

Doug Weich, the Founder and CEO of Sophelle and Connecter for the Retail AI Council, and Shirley Gao, the Chief Digital and Information Officer of PacSun and member of the Executive Leadership Committee of the Retail AI Council, add their page to the Marketing Playbook. Hear how to embrace AI (Artificial Intelligence), follow your passions, watch out for shiny object syndrome, Doug's family ties to BJ's Wholesale Club, and Shirley's favorite use cases for AI. Connect with Doug and Shirley on LinkedIn and at RetailAiCouncil.com

864: In many cases, companies develop systems with a primary focus on efficiency and begin to address their impacts on the customer late in the process. At BJ's Wholesale Club, CIO Anjana Harve looks to flip this around with the customer experience in mind at the beginning and end of the process. In this episode of Technovation, Anjana joins Peter in a discussion on improving the digital customer experience at BJ's Wholesale, optimizing revenue, and boosting efficiency. With extensive experience as a CIO in the healthcare industry, Anjana brings a unique perspective to the retail sector, focusing on customer centricity and the application of technology to serve and improve the member experience at BJ's. She delves into her strategy for a member-centric architecture that provides a 360-degree view of the customer and fosters hyper-personalization at scale. Finally, Anjana shares her perspective on how companies can uplift and support women in tech, the trends and intersections in technology she keeps her eye on, and the secrets to her continued career success.

864: In many cases, companies develop systems with a primary focus on efficiency and begin to address their impacts on the customer late in the process. At BJ's Wholesale Club, CIO Anjana Harve looks to flip this around with the customer experience in mind at the beginning and end of the process. In this episode of Technovation, Anjana joins Peter in a discussion on improving the digital customer experience at BJ's Wholesale, optimizing revenue, and boosting efficiency. With extensive experience as a CIO in the healthcare industry, Anjana brings a unique perspective to the retail sector, focusing on customer centricity and the application of technology to serve and improve the member experience at BJ's. She delves into her strategy for a member-centric architecture that provides a 360-degree view of the customer and fosters hyper-personalization at scale. Finally, Anjana shares her perspective on how companies can uplift and support women in tech, the trends and intersections in technology she keeps her eye on, and the secrets to her continued career success.

Welcome to Omni Talk's Retail Daily Minute, where we unveil today's top headlines reshaping the retail landscape.In today's headlines:Trader Joe's adjusts its iconic banana prices for the first time in over 20 years, raising individual banana prices to 23 cents.Academy Sports + Outdoors announces plans to open 160 to 180 new stores over the next five years.BJ's Wholesale Club expands its footprint with a dozen new club openings across the Southeast and Midwest regions.GameStop implements job cuts as part of its cost-reduction efforts following declines in fourth-quarter and full-year sales.Stay tuned for more transformative developments in the retail industry, brought to you daily by Omni Talk. Be careful out there!

In der heutigen Folge von „Alles auf Aktien“ sprechen die Finanzjournalisten Daniel Eckert und Holger Zschäpitz über die drei Kaufideen der besten Analysten, den wohl teuersten Satz von Apple-Boss Tim Cook und eine Schmähkritik am Highflyern Super Micro Computer. Außerdem geht es um Rheinmetall, Vonovia, Crowdstrike, Nike, BJ's Wholesale Club, Hertz, Nvidia, Yandex, Sixt, Volkswagen, Porsche AG, Continental, Mercedes-Benz Group, BASF, BMW, Allianz, Commerzbank, Airbus, Deutsche Bank, Continental, Daimler Truck, DHL, Münchener Rück, Beiersdorf, VanEck's Semiconductor ETF (WKN: A2QC5J), Wisdomtree Copper ETC (WKN: A0KRKR), WisdomTree Copper 3x Daily Leveraged (WKN: A1VBKQ), Global X Copper Miners ETF (WKN: A3C7FZ), Lunding, Ivanhoe, Antofagasta, Southern Copper, Freeport McMoRan, Glencore, BHP, Aurubis, MMG Limited. Wir freuen uns an Feedback über aaa@welt.de. Ab sofort gibt es noch mehr "Alles auf Aktien" bei WELTplus und Apple Podcasts – inklusive aller Artikel der Hosts und AAA-Newsletter. Hier bei WELT: https://www.welt.de/podcasts/alles-auf-aktien/plus247399208/Boersen-Podcast-AAA-Bonus-Folgen-Jede-Woche-noch-mehr-Antworten-auf-Eure-Boersen-Fragen.html. Disclaimer: Die im Podcast besprochenen Aktien und Fonds stellen keine spezifischen Kauf- oder Anlage-Empfehlungen dar. Die Moderatoren und der Verlag haften nicht für etwaige Verluste, die aufgrund der Umsetzung der Gedanken oder Ideen entstehen. Hörtipps: Für alle, die noch mehr wissen wollen: Holger Zschäpitz können Sie jede Woche im Finanz- und Wirtschaftspodcast "Deffner&Zschäpitz" hören. Außerdem bei WELT: Im werktäglichen Podcast „Das bringt der Tag“ geben wir Ihnen im Gespräch mit WELT-Experten die wichtigsten Hintergrundinformationen zu einem politischen Top-Thema des Tages. +++ Werbung +++ Du möchtest mehr über unsere Werbepartner erfahren? Hier findest du alle Infos & Rabatte! https://linktr.ee/alles_auf_aktien Impressum: https://www.welt.de/services/article7893735/Impressum.html Datenschutz: https://www.welt.de/services/article157550705/Datenschutzerklaerung-WELT-DIGITAL.html

Listen in podcast app and follow below for the podcast topic arc.* Open Ai Saga completes* The supply chain of the new AI industry* How to approach your career path and ladder climbing* New short term rental policy changes from CRA* Recommendations and LinksListen on Apple, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.Market Update

BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. recently conducted their Earnings Call, during which CEO Bob Eddy affirmed the company's dedication to long-term value. Eddy underscored a myriad of encouraging performance markers, such as membership growth, amplified traffic, market share expansion, and steady unit trends all noticed in the recent financial period. With a focus on longevity, these factors are perceived by the company leadership to contribute positively to the corporation. Nevertheless, Eddy also brought up an area of concern in the form of climbing disinflation affecting perishable food products. The company had anticipated this trend and foresees that it may persist, leading to unpredictability and potential volatility in pricing. Eddy, alongside this, reassured investors that the company remains steadfast in its commitment to value provision and member support. The company's priorities include boosting member loyalty, providing an unmatched shopping experience, digital business growth, and market footprint enlargement. The strategies to realize these goals involve investment in pricing strategies, proprietary brands, and digital features aimed at facilitating convenience and personalized member experiences. In regard to future plans, the company is set to inaugurate five more clubs within the next quarter. This action will bring the number of newly introduced clubs for the current financial year to nine. Furthermore, BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. is willing to invest in automation, enhancing the general merchandise sector, and continuation of innovation to drive growth and optimize shareholder returns. In summary, as claimed on the company's earnings call, BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. is prepared to address potential obstacles while profiting from market growth opportunities. BJ Company info: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BJ/profile For more PSFK research : www.psfk.com  This email has been published and shared for the purpose of business research and is not intended as investment advice.

BJs Wholesale Club's Q3 2023 earnings call, unedited

One convenience store retailer has received an investment to fuel its expansion. Sales were flat during the recent quarter at BJ's Wholesale Club. And the FDA is investigating whether shipments of cinnamon have been contaminated with lead.

We cover a couple of interesting local disputes on this week's Access Louisville podcast.First off, Reporter Michael L. Jones tells us about a copyright infringement lawsuit involving the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels and the Kentucky Colonels International. The HOKC won a judgement against the KCI but it looks like an appeal is in the works.After that we talk about a bankruptcy case for Louisville restaurant chain Green District. And after that, we talk about the closure of the Fern Valley Strike and Spare, which comes after a land sale but not without a bit of social media discord.After that we switch gears and talk a possible IPO by Louisville health tech firm Waystar. And we go over a few restaurant and retail stories involving a new taco joint — Bakersfield coming to the Highlands; and a new retailer, BJ's Wholesale Club, coming to Jefferson Mall.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and more. 

In this episode, we will explore the different wholesale options available on Shopify. Whether you're a seasoned wholesaler or just starting out, Shopify can be a powerful tool for your business. We'll discuss three main options for using Shopify for wholesale, including creating discount codes for your retail site, using an app like Wholesale Club, or setting up a separate wholesale store. We'll dive into the pros and cons of each method, considering factors like customer experience, cost, and the need for additional apps.In this episode, we will cover:- The three main wholesale options on Shopify- Pros and cons of each option- Considerations for customer experience and cost- The host's guest interview on Wholesaleinabox.com- A positive review of the DIY Shopify courseThank you for joining us on Product Powerhouse. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast for more actionable strategies to supercharge your product-based business. And remember, you're not alone in this journey - we're here to help you become a true product powerhouse. Support the showCONNECT WITH ERIN ALEXANDER: UNFILTERED - New subscriber only podcast for $3/month Facebook Community Instagram YouTube DIY Shopify Course Product Powerhouse Website

Walmart is opening a new robot-powered fulfillment center. TravelCenters of America is adding new leadership. And BJ's Wholesale Club posted a record quarter.

Bet you didn't know that your wholesale club has a travel department!  Use it and save!  Plus, the loophole that may still allow you to qualify for the $7,500 tax credit on Evs and consider taking a new job if you've been at your current one for ten or more years. This is the 98.5 KTK Morning Show recap for Thursday, May 18, 2023. 

BJ's Wholesale Club names a new chairman, Parkland turns in mixed Q1 results, and Hy-Vee introduces a wellness subscription program.

Tyler Sperry is an experienced e-commerce specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the retail and publishing industries. As the Director of E-commerce and Affiliates at America's Test Kitchen, he oversees the presentation of products across e-commerce, physical retail, and third-party distribution. Tyler is skilled in procurement, merchandising, social media, online marketing, and project management. He previously worked as a Buyer for BJ's Wholesale Club and as a Sales and Events Manager at KarmaLoop. In this episode… Are you an e-commerce company considering a change to your commerce platform? It's essential to weigh your options and pick one that fits your needs. Selecting the right e-commerce platform can be tricky. Not only is it difficult to know which is best, but it is hard to know if it will stay that way. Companies change over time, and some platforms lack the flexibility to adapt alongside your business. Adobe Commerce is a popular option, but it may not be perfect for every shop. So what are some of the key advantages and limitations of the platform? On this episode of the Ecommerce Wizards Podcast, Guillaume Le Tual talks with Tyler Sperry, the Director of E-commerce and Affiliates for America's Test Kitchen, to discuss his experience with Adobe Commerce. Tyler touches on the company's first platform, why they changed to Adobe, and some of their experiences with it. They also offer advice to those considering making a transition. 

Earlier this season, we talked with positive leadership expert Kim Cameron, and purpose-driven leadership expert Bob Quinn, both from the University of Michigan. This week on the podcast, we're talking to a guest who lives and breathes these values as a business leader.   Erin Mara is the Vice President of Talent Management at BJ's Wholesale Club, a $17 billion per year retailer, where she oversees learning and talent development for 35,000 people. Before that, she spent 19 years at Staples, ultimately becoming their Senior Director of Learning and Development.   And importantly, she's also a mother to a daughter. We talk about how being a positive and purpose-driven leader can help navigate the world of business and parenthood. Learn more about Udemy Business at https://bit.ly/udemy-podcast.

BJ's Wholesale Club had a record quarter. The FDA is sending out warning letters to vape manufacturers. And one c-store chain has plans to dominate Detroit.

About ChetanChetan Venkatesh is a technology startup veteran focused on distributed data, edge computing, and software products for enterprises and developers. He has 20 years of experience in building primary data storage, databases, and data replication products. Chetan holds a dozen patents in the area of distributed computing and data storage.Chetan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Macrometa – a Global Data Network featuring a Global Data Mesh, Edge Compute, and In-Region Data Protection. Macrometa helps enterprise developers build real-time apps and APIs in minutes – not months.Links Referenced: Macrometa: https://www.macrometa.com Macrometa Developer Week: https://www.macrometa.com/developer-week TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: Forget everything you know about SSH and try Tailscale. Imagine if you didn't need to manage PKI or rotate SSH keys every time someone leaves. That'd be pretty sweet, wouldn't it? With Tailscale SSH, you can do exactly that. Tailscale gives each server and user device a node key to connect to its VPN, and it uses the same node key to authorize and authenticate SSH.Basically you're SSHing the same way you manage access to your app. What's the benefit here? Built in key rotation permissions is code connectivity between any two devices, reduce latency and there's a lot more, but there's a time limit here. You can also ask users to reauthenticate for that extra bit of security. Sounds expensive?Nope, I wish it were. tail scales. Completely free for personal use on up to 20 devices. To learn more, visit snark.cloud/tailscale. Again, that's snark.cloud/tailscaleCorey: Managing shards. Maintenance windows. Overprovisioning. ElastiCache bills. I know, I know. It's a spooky season and you're already shaking. It's time for caching to be simpler. Momento Serverless Cache lets you forget the backend to focus on good code and great user experiences. With true autoscaling and a pay-per-use pricing model, it makes caching easy. No matter your cloud provider, get going for free at gomomento.co/screaming That's GO M-O-M-E-N-T-O dot co slash screamingCorey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. Today, this promoted guest episode is brought to us basically so I can ask a question that has been eating at me for a little while. That question is, what is the edge? Because I have a lot of cynical sarcastic answers to it, but that doesn't really help understanding. My guest today is Chetan Venkatesh, CEO and co-founder at Macrometa. Chetan, thank you for joining me.Chetan: It's my pleasure, Corey. You're one of my heroes. I think I've told you this before, so I am absolutely delighted to be here.Corey: Well, thank you. We all need people to sit on the curb and clap as we go by and feel like giant frauds in the process. So let's start with the easy question that sets up the rest of it. Namely, what is Macrometa, and what puts you in a position to be able to speak at all, let alone authoritatively, on what the edge might be?Chetan: I'll answer the second part of your question first, which is, you know, what gives me the authority to even talk about this? Well, for one, I've been trying to solve the same problem for 20 years now, which is build distributed systems that work really fast and can answer questions about data in milliseconds. And my journey's sort of been like the spiral staircase journey, you know, I keep going around in circles, but the view just keeps getting better every time I do one of these things. So I'm on my fourth startup doing distributed data infrastructure, and this time really focused on trying to provide a platform that's the antithesis of the cloud. It's kind of like taking the cloud and flipping it on its head because instead of having a single region application where all your stuff runs in one place, on us-west-1 or us-east-1, what if your apps could run everywhere, like, they could run in hundreds and hundreds of cities around the world, much closer to where your users and devices and most importantly, where interesting things in the real world are happening?And so we started Macrometa about five years back to build a new kind of distributed cloud—let's call the edge—that kind of looks like a CDN, a Content Delivery Network, but really brings very sophisticated platform-level primitives for developers to build applications in a distributed way around primitives for compute, primitives for data, but also some very interesting things that you just can't do in the cloud anymore. So that's Macrometa. And we're doing something with edge computing, which is a big buzzword these days, but I'm sure you'll ask me about that.Corey: It seems to be. Generally speaking, when I look around and companies are talking about edge, it feels almost like it is a redefining of what they already do to use a term that is currently trending and deep in the hype world.Chetan: Yeah. You know, I think humans just being biologically social beings just tend to be herd-like, and so when we see a new trend, we like to slap it on everything we have. We did that 15 years back with cloud, if you remember, you know? Everybody was very busy trying to stick the cloud label on everything that was on-prem. Edge is sort of having that edge-washing moment right now.But I define edge very specifically is very different from the cloud. You know, where the cloud is defined by centralization, i.e., you've got a giant hyperscale data center somewhere far, far away, where typically electricity, real estate, and those things are reasonably cheap, i.e., not in urban centers, where those things tend to be expensive.You know, you have platforms where you run things at scale, it's sort of a your mess for less business in the cloud and somebody else manages that for you. The edge is actually defined by location. And there are three types of edges. The first edge is the CDN edge, which is historically where we've been trying to make things faster with the internet and make the internet scale. So Akamai came about, about 20 years back and created this thing called the CDN that allowed the web to scale. And that was the first killer app for edge, actually. So that's the first location that defines the edge where a lot of the peering happens between different network providers and the on-ramp around the cloud happens.The second edge is the telecom edge. That's actually right next to you in terms of, you know, the logical network topology because every time you do something on your computer, it goes through that telecom layer. And now we have the ability to actually run web services, applications, data, directly from that telecom layer.And then the third edge is—sort of, people have been familiar with this for 30 years. The third edge is your device, just your mobile phone. It's your internet gateway and, you know, things that you carry around in your pocket or sit on your desk, where you have some compute power, but it's very restricted and it only deals with things that are interesting or important to you as a person, not in a broad range. So those are sort of the three things. And it's not the cloud. And these three things are now becoming important as a place for you to build and run enterprise apps.Corey: Something that I think is often overlooked here—and this is sort of a natural consequence of the cloud's own success and the joy that we live in a system that we do where companies are required to always grow and expand and find new markets—historically, for example, when I went to AWS re:Invent, which is a cloud service carnival in the desert that no one in the right mind should ever want to attend but somehow we keep doing, it used to be that, oh, these announcements are generally all aligned with people like me, where I have specific problems and they look a lot like what they're talking about on stage. And now they're talking about things that, from that perspective, seem like Looney Tunes. Like, I'm trying to build Twitter for Pets or something close to it, and I don't understand why there's so much talk about things like industrial IoT and, “Machine learning,” quote-unquote, and other things that just do not seem to align with. I'm trying to build a web service, like it says on the name of a company; what gives?And part of that, I think, is that it's difficult to remember, for most of us—especially me—that what they're coming out with is not your shopping list. Every service is for someone, not every service is for everyone, so figuring out what it is that they're talking about and what those workloads look like, is something that I think is getting lost in translation. And in our defense—collective defense—Amazon is not the best at telling stories to realize that, oh, this is not me they're talking to; I'm going to opt out of this particular thing. You figure it out by getting it wrong first. Does that align with how you see the market going?Chetan: I think so. You know, I think of Amazon Web Services, or even Google, or Azure as sort of Costco and, you know, Sam's Wholesale Club or whatever, right? They cater to a very broad audience and they sell a lot of stuff in bulk and cheap. And you know, so it's sort of a lowest common denominator type of a model. And so emerging applications, and especially emerging needs that enterprises have, don't necessarily get solved in the cloud. You've got to go and build up yourself on sort of the crude primitives that they provide.So okay, go use your bare basic EC2, your S3, and build your own edgy, or whatever, you know, cutting edge thing you want to build over there. And if enough people are doing it, I'm sure Amazon and Google start to pay interest and you know, develop something that makes it easier. So you know, I agree with you, they're not the best at this sort of a thing. The edge is phenomenon also that's orthogonally, and diametrically opposite to the architecture of the cloud and the economics of the cloud.And we do centralization in the cloud in a big way. Everything is in one place; we make giant piles of data in one database or data warehouse slice and dice it, and almost all our computer science is great at doing things in a centralized way. But when you take data and chop it into 50 copies and keep it in 50 different places on Earth, and you have this thing called the internet or the wide area network in the middle, trying to keep all those copies in sync is a nightmare. So you start to deal with some very basic computer science problems like distributed state and how do you build applications that have a consistent view of that distributed state? So you know, there have been attempts to solve these problems for 15, 18 years, but none of those attempts have really cracked the intersection of three things: a way for programmers to do this in a way that doesn't blow their heads with complexity, a way to do this cheaply and effectively enough where you can build real-world applications that serve billions of users concurrently at a cost point that actually is economical and make sense, and third, a way to do this with adequate levels of performance where you don't die waiting for the spinning wheel on your screen to go away.So these are the three problems with edge. And as I said, you know, me and my team, we've been focused on this for a very long while. And me and my co-founder have come from this world and we created a platform very uniquely designed to solve these three problems, the problems of complexity for programmers to build in a distributed environment like this where data sits in hundreds of places around the world and you need a consistent view of that data, being able to operate and modify and replicate that data with consistency guarantees, and then a third one, being able to do that, at high levels of performance, which translates to what we call ultra-low latency, which is human perception. The threshold of human perception, visually, is about 70 milliseconds. Our finest athletes, the best Esports players are about 70 to 80 milliseconds in their twitch, in their ability to twitch when something happens on the screen. The average human is about 100 to 110 milliseconds.So in a second, we can maybe do seven things at rapid rates. You know, that's how fast our brain can process it. Anything that falls below 100 milliseconds—especially if it falls into 50 to 70 milliseconds—appears instantaneous to the human mind and we experience it as magic. And so where edge computing and where my platform comes in is that it literally puts data and applications within 50 milliseconds of 90% of humans and devices on Earth and allows now a whole new set of applications where latency and location and the ability to control those things with really fine-grained capability matters. And we can talk a little more about what those apps are in a bit.Corey: And I think that's probably an interesting place to dive into at the moment because whenever we talk about the idea of new ways of building things that are aimed at decentralization, first, people at this point automatically have a bit of an aversion to, “Wait, are you talking about some of the Web3 nonsense?” It's one of those look around the poker table and see if you can spot the sucker, and if you can't, it's you. Because there are interesting aspects to that entire market, let's be clear, but it also seems to be occluded by so much of the grift and nonsense and spam and the rest that, again, sort of characterize the early internet as well. The idea though, of decentralizing out of the cloud is deeply compelling just to anyone who's really ever had to deal with the egress charges, or even the data transfer charges inside of one of the cloud providers. The counterpoint is it feels that historically, you either get to pay the tax and go all-in on a cloud provider and get all the higher-level niceties, or otherwise, you wind up deciding you're going to have to more or less go back to physical data centers, give or take, and other than the very baseline primitives that you get to work with of VMs and block storage and maybe a load balancer, you're building it all yourself from scratch. It seems like you're positioning this as setting up for a third option. I'd be very interested to hear it.Chetan: Yeah. And a quick comment on decentralization: good; not so sure about the Web3 pieces around it. We tend to talk about computer science and not the ideology of distributing data. There are political reasons, there are ideological reasons around data and sovereignty and individual human rights, and things like that. There are people far smarter than me who should explain that.I fall personally into the Nicholas Weaver school of skepticism about Web3 and blockchain and those types of things. And for readers who are not familiar with Nicholas Weaver, please go online. He teaches at UC Berkeley is just one of the finest minds of our time. And I think he's broken down some very good reasons why we should be skeptical about, sort of, Web3 and, you know, things like that. Anyway, that's a digression.Coming back to what we're talking about, yes, it is a new paradigm, but that's the challenge, which is I don't want to introduce a new paradigm. I want to provide a continuum. So what we've built is a platform that looks and feels very much like Lambdas, and a poly-model database. I hate the word multi. It's a pretty dumb word, so I've started to substitute ‘multi' with ‘poly' everywhere, wherever I can find it.So it's not multi-cloud; it's poly-cloud. And it's not multi-model; it's poly-model. Because what we want is a world where developers have the ability to use the best paradigm for solving problems. And it turns out when we build applications that deal with data, data doesn't just come in one form, it comes in many different forms, it's polymorphic, and so you need a data platform, that's also, you know, polyglot and poly-model to be able to handle that. So that's one part of the problem, which is, you know, we're trying to provide a platform that provides continuity by looking like a key-value store like Redis. It looks like a document database—Corey: Or the best database in the world Route 53 TXT records. But please, keep going.Chetan: Well, we've got that too, so [laugh] you know? And then we've got a streaming graph engine built into it that kind of looks and behaves like a graph database, like Neo4j, for example. And, you know, it's got columnar capabilities as well. So it's sort of a really interesting data platform that is not open-source; it's proprietary because it's designed to solve these problems of being able to distribute data, put it in hundreds of locations, keep it all in sync, but it looks like a conventional NoSQL database. And it speaks PostgreSQL, so if you know PostgreSQL, you can program it, you know, pretty easily.What it's also doing is taking away the responsibility for engineers and developers to understand how to deal with very arcane problems like conflict resolution in data. I made a change in Mumbai; you made a change in Tokyo; who wins? Our systems in the cloud—you know, DynamoDB, and things like that—they have very crude answers for this something called last writer wins. We've done a lot of work to build a protocol that brings you ACID-like consistency in these types of problems and makes it easy to reason with state change when you've got an application that's potentially running in 100 locations and each of those places is modifying the same record, for example.And then the second part of it is it's a converged platform. So it doesn't just provide data; it provides a compute layer that's deeply integrated directly with the data layer itself. So think of it as Lambdas running, like, stored procedures inside the database. That's really what it is. We've built a very, very specialized compute engine that exposes containers in functions as stored procedures directly on the database.And so they run inside the context of the database and so you can build apps in Python, Go, your favorite language; it compiles down into a [unintelligible 00:15:02] kernel that actually runs inside the database among all these different polyglot interfaces that we have. And the third thing that we do is we provide an ability for you to have very fine-grained control on your data. Because today, data's become a political tool; it's become something that nation-states care a lot about.Corey: Oh, do they ever.Chetan: Exactly. And [unintelligible 00:15:24] regulated. So here's the problem. You're an enterprise architect and your application is going to be consumed in 15 countries, there are 13 different frameworks to deal with. What do you do? Well, you spin up 13 different versions, one for each country, and you know, build 13 different teams, and have 13 zero-day attacks and all that kind of craziness, right?Well, data protection is actually one of the most important parts of the edge because, with something like Macrometa, you can build an app once, and we'll provide all the necessary localization for any region processing, data protection with things like tokenization of data so you can exfiltrate data securely without violating potentially PII sensitive data exfiltration laws within countries, things like that, i.e. It's solving some really hard problems by providing an opinionated platform that does these three things. And I'll summarize it as thus, Corey, we can kind of dig into each piece. Our platform is called the Global Data Network. It's not a global database; it's a global data network. It looks like a frickin database, but it's actually a global network available in 175 cities around the world.Corey: The challenge, of course, is where does the data actually live at rest, and—this is why people care about—well, they're two reasons people care about that; one is the data residency locality stuff, which has always, honestly for me, felt a little bit like a bit of a cloud provider shakedown. Yeah, build a data center here or you don't get any of the business of anything that falls under our regulation. The other is, what is the egress cost of that look like? Because yeah, I can build a whole multicenter data store on top of AWS, for example, but minimum, we're talking two cents, a gigabyte of transfer, even with inside of a region in some cases, and many times that externally.Chetan: Yeah, that's the real shakedown: the egress costs [laugh] more than the other example that you talked about over there. But it's a reality of how cloud pricing works and things like that. What we have built is a network that is completely independent of the cloud providers. We're built on top of five different service providers. Some of them are cloud providers, some of them are telecom providers, some of them are CDNs.And so we're building our global data network on top of routes and capacity provided by transfer providers who have different economics than the cloud providers do. So our cost for egress falls somewhere between two and five cents, for example, depending on which edge locations, which countries, and things that you're going to use over there. We've got a pretty generous egress fee where, you know, for certain thresholds, there's no egress charge at all, but over certain thresholds, we start to charge between two to five cents. But even if you were to take it at the higher end of that spectrum, five cents per gigabyte for transfer, the amount of value our platform brings in architecture and reduction in complexity and the ability to build apps that are frankly, mind-boggling—one of my customers is a SaaS company in marketing that uses us to inject offers while people are on their website, you know, browsing. Literally, you hit their website, you do a few things, and then boom, there's a customized offer for them.In banking that's used, for example, you know, you're making your minimum payments on your credit card, but you have a good payment history and you've got a decent credit score, well, let's give you an offer to give you a short-term loan, for example. So those types of new applications, you know, are really at this intersection where you need low latency, you need in-region processing, and you also need to comply with data regulation. So when you building a high-value revenue-generating app like that egress cost, even at five cents, right, tends to be very, very cheap, and the smallest part of you know, the complexity of building them.Corey: One of the things that I think we see a lot of is that the tone of this industry is set by the big players, and they have done a reasonable job, by and large, of making anything that isn't running in their blessed environments, let me be direct, sound kind of shitty, where it's like, “Oh, do you want to be smart and run things in AWS?”—or GCP? Or Azure, I guess—“Or do you want to be foolish and try and build it yourself out of popsicle sticks and twine?” And, yeah, on some level, if I'm trying to treat everything like it's AWS and run a crappy analog version of DynamoDB, for example, I'm not going to have a great experience, but if I also start from a perspective of not using things that are higher up the stack offerings, that experience starts to look a lot more reasonable as we start expanding out. But it still does present to a lot of us as well, we're just going to run things in VM somewhere and treat them just like we did back in 2005. What's changed in that perspective?Chetan: Yeah, you know, I can't talk for others but for us, we provide a high-level Platform-as-a-Service, and that platform, the global data network, has three pieces to it. First piece is—and none of this will translate into anything that AWS or GCP has because this is the edge, Corey, is completely different, right? So the global data network that we have is composed of three technology components. The first one is something that we call the global data mesh. And this is Pub/Sub and event processing on steroids. We have the ability to connect data sources across all kinds of boundaries; you've got some data in Germany and you've got some data in New York. How do you put these things together and get them streaming so that you can start to do interesting things with correlating this data, for example?And you might have to get across not just physical boundaries, like, they're sitting in different systems in different data centers; they might be logical boundaries, like, hey, I need to collaborate with data from my supply chain partner and we need to be able to do something that's dynamic in real-time, you know, to solve a business problem. So the global data mesh is a way to very quickly connect data wherever it might be in legacy systems, in flat files, in streaming databases, in data warehouses, what have you—you know, we have 500-plus types of connectors—but most importantly, it's not just getting the data streaming, it's then turning it into an API and making that data fungible. Because the minute you put an API on it and it's become fungible now that data is actually got a lot of value. And so the data mesh is a way to very quickly connect things up and put an API on it. And that API can now be consumed by front-ends, it can be consumed by other microservices, things like that.Which brings me to the second piece, which is edge compute. So we've built a compute runtime that is Docker compatible, so it runs containers, it's also Lambda compatible, so it runs functions. Let me rephrase that; it's not Lambda-compatible, it's Lambda-like. So no, you can't take your Lambda and dump it on us and it won't just work. You have to do some things to make it work on us.Corey: But so many of those things are so deeply integrated to the ecosystem that they're operating within, and—Chetan: Yeah.Corey: That, on the one hand, is presented by cloud providers as, “Oh, yes. This shows how wonderful these things are.” In practice, talk to customers. “Yeah, we're using it as spackle between the different cloud services that don't talk to one another despite being made by the same company.”Chetan: [laugh] right.Corey: It's fun.Chetan: Yeah. So the second edge compute piece, which allows you now to build microservices that are stateful, i.e., they have data that they interact with locally, and schedule them along with the data on our network of 175 regions around the world. So you can build distributed applications now.Now, your microservice back-end for your banking application or for your HR SaaS application or e-commerce application is not running in us-east-1 and Virginia; it's running literally in 15, 18, 25 cities where your end-users are, potentially. And to take an industrial IoT case, for example, you might be ingesting data from the electricity grid in 15, 18 different cities around the world; you can do all of that locally now. So that's what the edge functions does, it flips the cloud model around because instead of sending data to where the compute is in the cloud, you're actually bringing compute to where the data is originating, or the data is being consumed, such as through a mobile app. So that's the second piece.And the third piece is global data protection, which is hey, now I've got a distributed infrastructure; how do I comply with all the different privacy and regulatory frameworks that are out there? How do I keep data secure in each region? How do I potentially share data between regions in such a way that, you know, I don't break the model of compliance globally and create a billion-dollar headache for my CIO and CEO and CFO, you know? So that's the third piece of capabilities that this provides.All of this is presented as a set of serverless APIs. So you simply plug these APIs into your existing applications. Some of your applications work great in the cloud. Maybe there are just parts of that app that should be on our edge. And that's usually where most customers start; they take a single web service or two that's not doing so great in the cloud because it's too far away; it has data sensitivity, location sensitivity, time sensitivity, and so they use us as a way to just deal with that on the edge.And there are other applications where it's completely what I call edge native, i.e., no dependancy on the cloud comes and runs completely distributed across our network and consumes primarily the edges infrastructure, and just maybe send some data back on the cloud for long-term storage or long-term analytics.Corey: And ingest does remain free. The long-term analytics, of course, means that once that data is there, good luck convincing a customer to move it because that gets really expensive.Chetan: Exactly, exactly. It's a speciation—as I like to say—of the cloud, into a fast tier where interactions happen, i.e., the edge. So systems of record are still in the cloud; we still have our transactional systems over there, our databases, data warehouses.And those are great for historical types of data, as you just mentioned, but for things that are operational in nature, that are interactive in nature, where you really need to deal with them because they're time-sensitive, they're depleting value in seconds or milliseconds, they're location sensitive, there's a lot of noise in the data and you need to get to just those bits of data that actually matter, throw the rest away, for example—which is what you do with a lot of telemetry in cybersecurity, for example, right—those are all the things that require a new kind of a platform, not a system of record, a system of interaction, and that's what the global data network is, the GDN. And these three primitives, the data mesh, Edge compute, and data protection, are the way that our APIs are shaped to help our enterprise customers solve these problems. So put it another way, imagine ten years from now what DynamoDB and global tables with a really fast Lambda and Kinesis with actually Event Processing built directly into Kinesis might be like. That's Macrometa today, available in 175 cities.Corey: This episode is brought to us in part by our friends at Datadog. Datadog is a SaaS monitoring and security platform that enables full-stack observability for modern infrastructure and applications at every scale. Datadog enables teams to see everything: dashboarding, alerting, application performance monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, UX monitoring, security monitoring, dog logos, and log management, in one tightly integrated platform. With 600-plus out-of-the-box integrations with technologies including all major cloud providers, databases, and web servers, Datadog allows you to aggregate all your data into one platform for seamless correlation, allowing teams to troubleshoot and collaborate together in one place, preventing downtime and enhancing performance and reliability. Get started with a free 14-day trial by visiting datadoghq.com/screaminginthecloud, and get a free t-shirt after installing the agent.Corey: I think it's also worth pointing out that it's easy for me to fall into a trap that I wonder if some of our listeners do as well, which is, I live in, basically, downtown San Francisco. I have gigabit internet connectivity here, to the point where when it goes out, it is suspicious and more a little bit frightening because my ISP—Sonic.net—is amazing and deserves every bit of praise that you never hear any ISP ever get. But when I travel, it's a very different experience. When I go to oh, I don't know, the conference center at re:Invent last year and find that the internet is patchy at best, or downtown San Francisco on Verizon today, I discover that the internet is almost non-existent, and suddenly applications that I had grown accustomed to just working suddenly didn't.And there's a lot more people who live far away from these data center regions and tier one backbones directly to same than don't. So I think that there's a lot of mistaken ideas around exactly what the lower bandwidth experience of the internet is today. And that is something that feels inadvertently classist if that make sense. Are these geographically bigoted?Chetan: Yeah. No, I think those two points are very well articulated. I wish I could articulate it that well. But yes, if you can afford 5G, some of those things get better. But again, 5G is not everywhere yet. It will be, but 5G can in many ways democratize at least one part of it, which is provide an overlap network at the edge, where if you left home and you switched networks, on to a wireless, you can still get the same quality of service that you used to getting from Sonic, for example. So I think it can solve some of those things in the future. But the second part of it—what did you call it? What bigoted?Corey: Geographically bigoted. And again, that's maybe a bit of a strong term, but it's easy to forget that you can't get around the speed of light. I would say that the most poignant example of that I had was when I was—in the before times—giving a keynote in Australia. So ah, I know what I'll do, I'll spin up an EC2 instance for development purposes—because that's how I do my development—in Australia. And then I would just pay my provider for cellular access for my iPad and that was great.And I found the internet was slow as molasses for everything I did. Like, how do people even live here? Well, turns out that my provider would backhaul traffic to the United States. So to log into my session, I would wind up having to connect with a local provider, backhaul to the US, then connect back out from there to Australia across the entire Pacific Ocean, talk to the server, get the response, would follow that return path. It's yeah, turns out that doing laps around the world is not the most efficient way of transferring any data whatsoever, let alone in sizable amounts.Chetan: And that's why we decided to call our platform the global data network, Corey. In fact, it's really built inside of sort of a very simple reason is that we have our own network underneath all of this and we stop this whole ping-pong effect of data going around and help create deterministic guarantees around latency, around location, around performance. We're trying to democratize latency and these types of problems in a way that programmers shouldn't have to worry about all this stuff. You write your code, you push publish, it runs on a network, and it all gets there with a guarantee that 95% of all your requests will happen within 50 milliseconds round-trip time, from any device, you know, in these population centers around the world.So yeah, it's a big deal. It's sort of one of our je ne sais quoi pieces in our mission and charter, which is to just democratize latency and access, and sort of get away from this geographical nonsense of, you know, how networks work and it will dynamically switch topology and just make everything slow, you know, very non-deterministic way.Corey: One last topic that I want to ask you about—because I near certain given your position, you will have an opinion on this—what's your take on, I guess, the carbon footprint of clouds these days? Because a lot of people been talking about it; there has been a lot of noise made about, justifiably so. I'm curious to get your take.Chetan: Yeah, you know, it feels like we're in the '30s and the '40s of the carbon movement when it comes to clouds today, right? Maybe there's some early awareness of the problem, but you know, frankly, there's very little we can do than just sort of put a wet finger in the air, compute some carbon offset and plant some trees. I think these are good building blocks; they're not necessarily the best ways to solve this problem, ultimately. But one of the things I care deeply about and you know, my company cares a lot about is helping make developers more aware off what kind of carbon footprint their code tangibly has on the environment. And so we've started two things inside the company. We've started a foundation that we call the Carbon Conscious Computing Consortium—the four C's. We're going to announce that publicly next year, we're going to invite folks to come and join us and be a part of it.The second thing that we're doing is we're building a completely open-source, carbon-conscious computing platform that is built on real data that we're collecting about, to start with, how Macrometa's platform emits carbon in response to different types of things you build on it. So for example, you wrote a query that hits our database and queries, you know, I don't know, 20 billion objects inside of our database. It'll tell you exactly how many micrograms or how many milligrams of carbon—it's an estimate; not exactly. I got to learn to throttle myself down. It's an estimate, you know, you can't really measure these things exactly because the cost of carbon is different in different places, you know, there are different technologies, et cetera.Gives you a good decent estimate, something that reliably tells you, “Hey, you know that query that you have over there, that piece of SQL? That's probably going to do this much of micrograms of carbon at this scale.” You know, if this query was called a million times every hour, this is how much it costs. A million times a day, this is how much it costs and things like that. But the most important thing that I feel passionate about is that when we give developers visibility, they do good things.I mean, when we give them good debugging tools, the code gets better, the code gets faster, the code gets more efficient. And Corey, you're in the business of helping people save money, when we give them good visibility into how much their code costs to run, they make the code more efficient. So we're doing the same thing with carbon, we know there's a cost to run your code, whether it's a function, a container, a query, what have you, every operation has a carbon cost. And we're on a mission to measure that and provide accurate tooling directly in our platform so that along with your debug lines, right, where you've got all these print statements that are spitting up stuff about what's happening there, we can also print out, you know, what did it cost in carbon.And you can set budgets. You can basically say, “Hey, I want my application to consume this much of carbon.” And down the road, we'll have AI and ML models that will help us optimize your code to be able to fit within those carbon budgets. For example. I'm not a big fan of planting—you know, I love planting trees, but don't get me wrong, we live in California and those trees get burned down.And I was reading this heartbreaking story about how we returned back into the atmosphere a giant amount of carbon because the forest reserve that had been planted, you know, that was capturing carbon, you know, essentially got burned down in a forest fire. So, you know, we're trying to just basically say, let's try and reduce the amount of carbon, you know, that we can potentially create by having better tooling.Corey: That would be amazing, and I think it also requires something that I guess acts almost as an exchange where there's a centralized voice that can make sure that, well, one, the provider is being honest, and two, being able to ensure you're doing an apples-to-apples comparison and not just discounting a whole lot of negative externalities. Because, yes, we're talking about carbon released into the environment. Okay, great. What about water effects from what's happening with your data centers are located? That can have significant climate impact as well. It's about trying to avoid the picking and choosing. It's hard, hard problem, but I'm unconvinced that there's anything more critical in the entire ecosystem right now to worry about.Chetan: So as a startup, we care very deeply about starting with the carbon part. And I agree, Corey, it's a multi-dimensional problem; there's lots of tentacles. The hydrocarbon industry goes very deeply into all parts of our lives. I'm a startup, what do I know? I can't solve all of those things, but I wanted to start with the philosophy that if we provide developers with the right tooling, they'll have the right incentives then to write better code. And as we open-source more of what we learn and, you know, our tooling, others will do the same. And I think in ten years, we might have better answers. But someone's got to start somewhere, and this is where we'd like to start.Corey: I really want to thank you for taking as much time as you have for going through what you're up to and how you view the world. If people want to learn more, where's the best place to find you?Chetan: Yes, so two things on that front. Go to www.macrometa.com—M-A-C-R-O-M-E-T-A dot com—and that's our website. And you can come and experience the full power of the platform. We've got a playground where you can come, open an account and build anything you want for free, and you can try and learn. You just can't run it in production because we've got a giant network, as I said, of 175 cities around the world. But there are tiers available for you to purchase and build and run apps. Like I think about 80 different customers, some of the biggest ones in the world, some of the biggest telecom customers, retail, E-Tail customers, [unintelligible 00:34:28] tiny startups are building some interesting things on.And the second thing I want to talk about is November 7th through 11th of 2022, just a couple of weeks—or maybe by the time this recording comes out, a week from now—is developer week at Macrometa. And we're going to be announcing some really interesting new capabilities, some new features like real-time complex event processing with low, ultra-low latency, data connectors, a search feature that allows you to build search directly on top of your applications without needing to spin up a giant Elastic Cloud Search cluster, or providing search locally and regionally so that, you know, you can have search running in 25 cities that are instant to search rather than sending all your search requests back in one location. There's all kinds of very cool things happening over there.And we're also announcing a partnership with the original, the OG of the edge, one of the largest, most impressive, interesting CDN players that has become a partner for us as well. And then we're also announcing some very interesting experimental work where you as a developer can build apps directly on the 5G telecom cloud as well. And then you'll hear from some interesting companies that are building apps that are edge-native, that are impossible to build in the cloud because they take advantage of these three things that we talked about: geography, latency, and data protection in some very, very powerful ways. So you'll hear actual customer case studies from real customers in the flesh, not anonymous BS, no marchitecture. It's a week-long of technical talk by developers, for developers. And so, you know, come and join the fun and let's learn all about the edge together, and let's go build something together that's impossible to do today.Corey: And we will, of course, put links to that in the [show notes 00:36:06]. Thank you so much for being so generous with your time. I appreciate it.Chetan: My pleasure, Corey. Like I said, you're one of my heroes. I've always loved your work. The Snark-as-a-Service is a trillion-dollar market cap company. If you're ever interested in taking that public, I know some investors that I'd happily put you in touch with. But—Corey: Sadly, so many of those investors lack senses of humor.Chetan: [laugh]. That is true. That is true [laugh].Corey: [laugh]. [sigh].Chetan: Well, thank you. Thanks again for having me.Corey: Thank you. Chetan Venkatesh, CEO and co-founder at Macrometa. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, along with an angry and insulting comment about why we should build everything on the cloud provider that you work for and then the attempt to challenge Chetan for the title of Edgelord.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.Announcer: This has been a HumblePod production. Stay humble.

Gas prices keep falling. Schnucks is getting into the ultra-fast delivery business. And BJ's Wholesale Club is expanding its footprint. Read the full articles on our websites: Winsight Grocery Business and CSP Daily News

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing a public health alert for Perdue's frozen ready-to-eat (RTE) chicken breast tenders “gluten free” that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically small pieces of clear plastic and blue dye. Products affected: 42 oz. plastic bags containing “PERDUE CHICKEN BREAST TENDERS GLUTEN FREE” with a “Best if Used By: 07 12 23” and a lot number of 2193 above the use by date.The products bear establishment number “P-33944” immediately below the “Best if Used By:” date on the back of the plastic bag. These items were shipped to BJ's Wholesale Club retail locations nationwide.Read the full alert here Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wholesale Clubs are excellent investments in today's climate. Especially when it comes to gas, groceries, and household items. Purchase products and brands that you and your family already use, love, and know will be consumed  on a regular basis. Set up a Wholesale Club overflow space in your home -- ideally your pantry, or a dedicated closet -- organize with wire shelves to keep it flowing and regularly rotated. Always remember to check the CPU, because not every item will necessarily be cheaper just because it's purchased in bulk. And yes, there is an annual membership fee, however the gas savings alone will more than pay for itself. Wholesale Club gas stations are typically $0.50-$0.70 less expensive than your local gas station!Here are shelf-stable items I typically purchase from Costco: ShampooToothpastePull-UpsGranola BarsCheeriosGoldfishDiced and Crushed Canned TomatoesKidney BeansBlack BeansChickpeasRicePastaMac & CheesePeanut ButterNutellaBread & RollsFlour SugarNutsChoclate Baking ChipsVanillaEggsFrozen BerriesSaltPepperOlive OilVinegarsCoffeeTrash BagsLaundry DetergentDryer SheetsOxiCleanDish SoapPaper TowelsToilet PaperTissues

#Rogaine #BJs Don't forget to like & subscribe to our Youtube Channel --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/nayze-media/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/nayze-media/support

First-time jobless claims hit 218,000 last week. BJ's Wholesale Club reports earnings. Plus, Under Armour's CEO will step down. Host: Shaina Mishkin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wholesale retailers, such as BJ's, proved crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did the pandemic attract customers, but it also necessitated the hiring of new employees and the need to retain current ones. Mark Griffin, Chief Human Resources Officer of BJ's Wholesale Club, discusses the ways in which the company retains and grows its employee base and maintains customer loyalty. Griffin also discusses how the company prioritizes the safety, health, and well-being of its workers and customers. Some Questions Asked:How was BJ's able to support employees and serve the public at the beginning of the pandemic? (4:31)BJ's recently acquired the assets and operations of four distribution centers. From an HR standpoint, how do you prepare for merging operations? (10:20)To what extent does BJ's invest in its employee culture? (13:22)In This Episode, You Will Learn:How BJ's retains its employees through cultivating an environment of belonging.About actively listening and initiating change around employees' needs.How BJ's plans to transition their employees from remote to a hybrid work environment with new, progressive offices.Links:Mark Griffin - BJ's company profileMark Griffin - LinkedInBJ's Wholesale Club - LinkedInMichelle Labbe - LinkedInThe Talent Economy podcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Supermarkets are increasingly becoming testing grounds for some of the latest technology. At Walmart’s subsidiary, Sam’s Club, customers can use an app to scan and pay for items while in the grocery aisle. Last month, Walmart sued BJ's Wholesale Club, alleging the company infringed on patents for its Scan and Go technology. As checkout tech gets more advanced, it’s getting more competitive. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Don Apgar, merchant practice director at Mercator Advisory Group, about innovations in the space.

Supermarkets are increasingly becoming testing grounds for some of the latest technology. At Walmart’s subsidiary, Sam’s Club, customers can use an app to scan and pay for items while in the grocery aisle. Last month, Walmart sued BJ's Wholesale Club, alleging the company infringed on patents for its Scan and Go technology. As checkout tech gets more advanced, it’s getting more competitive. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Don Apgar, merchant practice director at Mercator Advisory Group, about innovations in the space.

Sylvain Perrier is the President and CEO of Mercatus Technologies, a company that empowers grocers to create exceptional shopping experiences for their customers. He is the lead inventor of more than 75 granted intellectual property patents in over 15 legal jurisdictions. Sylvain has a record of architecting and building complex solutions for notable retailers like Smart & Final, Weis Markets, Brookshire's, Piggly Wiggly, Save Mart, BJ's Wholesale Club, The NFL, and Barnes & Noble. He is also featured at conferences and various speaking engagements addressing audiences and regularly interacting with the print, radio, TV, and digital media as a subject matter expert. In this episode… Entrepreneurs often find themselves becoming emotionally attached to the first products they create. In the process, they may fail to make changes where necessary and prevent their businesses from scaling more rapidly. Sylvain Perrier uses four principles that help him become a better business owner and leader. These revolve around being clear on what he wants to achieve, approaching everything like a student, falling in love with the process as opposed to the products created, and allowing himself to stretch in order to grow. In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget is joined by Sylvain Perrier, the President and CEO of Mercatus Technologies, to detail the four rules entrepreneurs need to build their businesses. Sylvain also talks about the importance of being curious and asking questions, shares his advice on focusing on the important things, and explains why entrepreneurs should never be emotionally attached to their products. Stay tuned.

This week's episode of 'Advancing ALL Women' with Sarah Alter, is 'Women in Transition.' Our guests this week are Melody Abedinejad, Diversity & Inclusion Manager, UNFI; Nancy Dewar, Trusted Advisor, Executive Coach, Master Facilitator, and author; and Megan Rand, Personal Care Category Merchant, BJ's Wholesale Club. Sarah and our guests will discuss how to know it's time to make a career change, and managing your way through the complex challenges that come with it.

This week's episode of 'Advancing ALL Women' with Sarah Alter, is 'Women in Transition.' Our guests this week are Melody Abedinejad, Diversity & Inclusion Manager, UNFI; Nancy Dewar, Trusted Advisor, Executive Coach, Master Facilitator, and author; and Megan Rand, Personal Care Category Merchant, BJ's Wholesale Club. Sarah and our guests will discuss how to know it's time to make a career change, and managing your way through the complex challenges that come with it.

In this Episode Scott shares his Husband fail at the grocery store. Chris shares that he loves BJ's.....Wholesale Club, which brings us down a super funny road. We discuss check engine lights and more about BJ's........Wholesale Club. Finally, Scott and his father are going to Disney's Hollywood Studio. This episode is marked Explicit for strong Sexual innuendos. Please connect with us, check out our merch, or join our Patreon. www.nonewfriendspodcast.com. #BJswholesale #costco #shoppinginbulk #checkenginelight #hollywoodstudios. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/scott-maffei6/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/scott-maffei6/support

US equity futures are indicating a higher open as of 05:00 ET after paring overnight losses. European equity markets are mostly higher, following broad losses in Asia. Bond yields are extending the recent move higher; US 10-year yields are at 1.89%, while the German Bund yield is positive for the first time since 2019. Companies mentioned: Zogenix, UCB, BJ's Wholesale Club, Alliance Data Systems, Capital One Financial

In the debut episode of the How I Made It In Marketing podcast, Daniel Burstein talks to Whitney Hill, Co-Founder and Head of Business Operations & Development, Snap ADU (https://snapadu.com/).Whitney shares key lessons from what she's made – ranging from Excel data tools to a transparent website to a memorable brand name – in a career that has spanned Yale, an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, Seamless.com, Bain & Company, and more. We discussed:Winning on execution: using real-time data to intrinsically motivate a warehouse fulfillment team (and reduce headcount by 20 percent)Scaling to a $15 million company in 18 months with the help of Excel tools, pricing transparency, focusing on the ideal customer, and morePromoting transparency to gain trust: being an information source for an industry (whether or not people buy from you) – including clear, upfront pricing – to help attract 75% of the company's business through organic searchBeing memorable and pithy: rebranding from a traditional construction company name (Moore Construction) to a name that better communicates the value proposition and helps with SEO (Snap ADU)She also shares lessons she gained from influential mentors and managers in her career:Wiley Cierlli, CEO and Founder, Good Uncle – honing an elevator pitchAndrew Benoit, Founder & CEO, ZoneJump – building a legacy Paul Cichocki, EVP & Chief Commercial Officer, BJ's Wholesale Club – managing a data teamMike Moore, Co-Founder & Head of Production, SnapADU – nurturing business relationshipsArticles mentioned in this episode:Sales Funnel: 3 case studies with tips on how to say “no” to customers and improve marketing results – https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/sales-funnel-3-case-studies-with-tips-on-how-to-say-no-to-customers-and-improve-marketing-results  (Quick Case Study #1 in this article shows how Whitney helped improve proposal close rate by 55 percent)14 Strategies for Hiring and Retaining Marketing Professionals – https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/marketing-hiring  How to Win Friends and Influence People (book by Dale Carnegie) – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people-dale-carnegie/1100370318  Hospitals Hide Prices on Web, Undermining Disclosure Rule. – https://www.wsj.com/articles/hospitals-hide-pricing-data-from-search-results-11616405402  Is Your Company Embracing ‘Fear-Based' or ‘Fear-Less' Marketing in 2012 and Beyond? – https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/marketing/fear-less-marketing/ (Marcus Sheridan shares how transparent pricing information on River Pools & Spas website helped generate 124,000 page views over two years)To receive future episodes of how I Made It In Marketing, sign up to the MarketingSherpa email newsletter at https://marketingsherpa.com/newslettersThis podcast is not about marketing – it is about the marketer. It draws its inspiration from the Flint McGlaughlin quote, “The key to transformative marketing is a transformed marketer” from the Become a Marketer-Philosopher free digital marketing course –  https://meclabs.com/course/&l

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/QbEwYt_4Lcc   The CPSC and Royal Sovereign have recalled Royal Sovereign/Royal Centurian portable air conditioners.  These portable air conditioners have defective drain motors that run hot and may ignite the product's plastic enclosure creating a risk of fires, burns, and possible toxicity from inhaled organic compounds.  About 33,570 of these air conditioners have been sold nationwide by Sears, Costco, Home Depot, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Best Buy stores and online at amazon.com.  Stop using these recalled air conditioners and contact Royal Sovereign at 1-833-947-3699 to arrange a prorated refund depending on the age of the unit.  They will ask you to severe the power cord of unit.   https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2022/Royal-Sovereign-Recalls-Portable-Air-Conditioners-Due-to-Fire-and-Burn-Hazards-One-Death-Reported   #royalsovereign #airconditioners #overheating #fires #burns #recall  

Ventas al por mayor Tú puedes vender para ambos tipos de clientes con un mismo inventario, a través de una aplicación de un tercero. Si bien dentro del ecosistema existen varias que te pueden ayudar a dar este paso, nosotros te recomendamos Wholesale Club. En este podcast hablaremos de los beneficios de trabajar con ella, y cómo es que al integrarla tendrás mejor manejo de tu inventario, de los niveles de precios según los clientes y las ventas de negocio a negocio (minimizando también los conflictos entre aplicaciones) entre muchas otras bondades. ¿Estás listo para dar este paso?  RecursosAndrés Alvarez, ED DigitalComparte tu opinión.Únete a nuestro grupo de Facebook: eCommerce con Shopify - en Español.No te pierdas ningún episodioSuscríbete en iTunesSíguenos en FacebookAuspiciadoresRewind - Instala el app de Rewind y menciona el podcast eCommerce con Shopify en cualquier de los correos electrónicos que recibirás para que obtengas tu primer mes gratis.AfiliadosShopify - Prueba Shopify gratis por 14 días. Sin riesgos y sin agregar la información de tu tarjeta de crédito.Klaviyo - Prueba Klaviyo gratis hasta 250 contactos.

Today's Leadership Conversation features CapitalCIO Member and ORBIE Winner: Shamim Mohammad, CIO at CarMax and President of InspireCIO, Jonathan Frye. CarMax is the nation's largest retailer of used cars and one of the FORTUNE “100 Best Companies to Work For” for 15 consecutive years. Shamim has over 20 years of leadership experience in helping organizations drive competitive advantage through technology. Prior to joining CarMax in 2012, Shamim was the vice president of IT for BJ's Wholesale Club and held senior IT leadership positions for Blockbuster, TravelCLICK and Wyndham Hotels.

Lori Hall is the SVP of Assortment, Planning, & Allocation, for BJ's Wholesale Club. She joined BJ's in 1990 as an entry-level replenishment specialist and held various positions within merchandising and supply chain, advancing to her current role. Lori has now worked for BJ's for 31 years, transforming the supply chain as the company has grown from 22 clubs to 222. Kathryn Hall is a current MBA student at Bryant University. Kathryn has participated in multiple internships at both BJ's Wholesale Club and CVS Health. In September, Kathryn will be pursuing a full-time career at CVS as a Supply Chain Consultant. Both Lori and Kathryn received their undergraduate degrees from Bryant University. Today, they will be sharing their story on how Lori's career success has impacted Kathryn's ambition to pursue a career in leadership. Both women are passionate about empowering others to achieve their goals and build confidence.

BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc Q1 2021 Earnings Call --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/earningspodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/earningspodcast/support

Our interview guest is Anthony Waelter, vice chairman at Deloitte LLP and Deloitte's U.S. consumer industry leader, who joins us to discuss their most recent Global State of the Consumer Tracker data. Specifically, we talk with him about consumer anxiety levels (and risk tolerance) as well as why consumers might buy more—or less—online post-pandemic. In news, we get a rare update from Meijer regarding sales trends in the past year, and we note sad news by way of BJ's Wholesale Club.

BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc Q4 2020 Earnings Call --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/earningspodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/earningspodcast/support

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/rt-ZPyuz1vk   The CPSC and Jakks Pacific have recalled the Morfboard®Skate and Scoot Scooters with Y handlebars.  The Y handlebar joints on the scooter are unstable, may break, and this creates a fall hazard. These scooters have been sold at Walmart, Target, Toys R Us, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and Meijer stores as well as online by amazon.com. Take this scooter away from children and contact the company to receive a replacement T handlebar.  For more information, reach Jakks Pacific at 1-895-602-5464.   https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2021/Jakks-Pacific-Recalls-to-Repair-Morfboard-Skate-Scoot-Scooters-Due-to-Fall-Hazard   #scooter #handlebar  

Today Business Property Pro Mike Gioioso heads to the "City of Brotherly Love" for a Retail Market update from Commercial Real Estate thought leader, Rob Samtmann. Rob Samtmann has been active in the commercial real estate industry as a Tenant Representation Broker or Landlord Representation Broker in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area since 1995. At present, he is now a managing Principal with Equity Retail Brokers - www.equityretailbrokers.com In Rob's career at Equity Retail Brokers he has been fortunate to work with retailers including ShopRite Supermarkets, Shoe Carnival, Gander Mountain, BJ's Wholesale Club, Babies R Us/Toys R Us, Lowe's Home Improvement, Starbucks, Friday's, Party City, Sleep Number Beds, Vitamin Shoppe, Pep Boys, Firestone, FedEx, Pet Supplies Plus, Quaker Steak & Lube, Wendy's, PDQ, Wells Fargo, Travinia, Ten Thousand Villages, Thirsty Lion, Rite Aid, Alton Lane, Capriotti's, Empire Beauty, Arby's, PNC Bank, Verizon Wireless, Sleep Number, Lou Lou Boutique, Pet Valu, Primrose Schools, Red Robin, Rumble Boxing, Applebee's, Lime Fresh, Pancheros, Outback Steakhouse, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Friday's, STS Tire, Banfield Pet Hospital, Blue Pearl Pet Hospital, C2 Education, Oportun, Rumble Boxing, Noah's, and Kindercare. Rob and Mike frequently collaborate through their participation in the Retail Brokers Network (RBN) - www.retailbrokersnetwork.com , an association of 60+ Independent Commercial Real Estate firms throughout the United States and Canada. In today's episode we chat about what's on trend in the retail drive through and pad universe, what Rob witnesses working in the current Pandemic-hobbled state of Retail, and we collect some beginner tips on Rob's favorite tech toy.... his DJI Drone! For more Business and Commercial Real Estate insider insight, please subscribe! or follow me on social @businesspropertypro. www.businesspropertypro.com Business Property Pro is the blog of Mike Gioioso, Vice-President of Brokerage at MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services. Mike is committed to serving clients in hopes of achieving their customized goals, whether or not those goals require brokerage assistance. IT'S ALL ABOUT FULL SERVICE MacKenzie's seven firms provide clients a competitive, full-service platform of offerings in leasing, sales, investment sales, tenant and landlord advisory services, corporate and business consulting, development, general construction, property and asset management, multifamily management, debt and equity capital placement, and GIS/data analytics. With more than 225 employees, MacKenzie is one of the largest, non-affiliated full-service commercial real estate firms in the Mid-Atlantic. Together, our associates prove time and again why we are the company you keep. Let's chat : hello@businesspropertypro.com

Cortes v. BJ Wholesale Club

The past few months have seen supermarkets and other grocery retailers implement multi-pronged strategies to protect customers and employees from COVID-19. But what do shoppers think of retailers’ efforts, and how well are stores adhering to these safety steps? Global market research firm Ipsos aims to help answer those questions with the Consumer Health & Safety Index, a new benchmarking tool to evaluate how retailers across seven sectors — including grocery — are operating during the coronavirus pandemic. The study includes a poll of 2,000 U.S. shoppers to find out which COVID-19 safety practices they deem most important, followed by “mystery” shopping trips at thousands of stores across 45 major U.S. brands to gauge compliance with health and safety measures. Nick Mercurio, executive vice president and service line head of U.S. channel performance at Ipsos, told Supermarket News in a podcast that grocery rated highest among retail sectors in coronavirus health and safety. Whole Foods Market, Costco Wholesale and Trader Joe’s were the top overall retail performers. “These three brands clearly outperformed among the 45 brands across the seven industries by a significant margin. In fact, grocery was the highest-performing industry in total, when you look at the composite scores for the index and also the individual behaviors,” Mercurio explained. “Across all of the brands, grocery represented three of the top five and seven of the top 10 [performers]. Brands that sell food — including clubs and big-box stores — were among the top 10 performers, really head and shoulders above the other industries.” Also rated highly were Walmart, Aldi, Publix, Sam’s Club, Safeway, Target and Albertsons. Other grocery retailers examined included Giant Eagle, Stop & Shop, BJ’s Wholesale Club and dollar stores, all of which also performed well. “Across the board, there was consistency and high performance from grocery retailers,” Mercurio said. Still, among all the retail sectors studied by Ipsos, there’s room for improvement in COVID-19 health and safety, particularly when individual store locations and different geographies are taken into account, he noted. For example, the “mystery shops” uncovered shortfalls in employees wearing face coverings and/or gloves, availability of hand sanitizer or handwashing solutions, plexiglass shields at checkout lanes, staff actively cleaning areas of the store, and shopper capacity limits in stores. Why does this matter? Ipsos found that 61% of consumers are still delaying returning to brick-and-mortar stores on a regular basis for fear of catching the virus. “In the research we conducted, 62% of shoppers said they would stop shopping at a retailer if they were not taking health and safety seriously. So there’s a really high potential defection rate and very little margin for error if you don’t get it right,” Mercurio said. “But if you do, there’s definitely a chance to not only grow your market share, but also your share of wallet and profitability.”

The U.S. Leveraged Finance and Recovery team is producing a monthly podcast series entitled “The Upgrade.” This series focuses on leveraged finance issuers that have upward rating potential, providing listeners with concise insights from the primary analyst along with relevant CLO market implications. In the time of Covid-19, other timely topics are also being discussed. In episode 3 of “The Upgrade”, we discuss why retailer BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings was upgraded in the midst of the sharp downturn from COVID-10 containment measures and prospects for further improvement. Also discussed is CLO investor exposure to BJ's before and after the upgrade.

Out of caffeine! Lori forgot to tell me we are out of Earl Grey tea! After the show a trip to BJ's Wholesale Club for another box of 100! Burgers with mushrooms and onion and a side of buttered steamed broccoli for dinner tonight. The Music Authority LIVE STREAM Show & Podcast...recorded and on Tune In, Podcast Addict, Cast Box, Radio Public, and Pocket Cast, APPLE iTunes, AND Google Play Music! AND NOW IN CANADA! https://s1.citrus3.com:2000/public/HCRRadio Hamilton Co-Op Radio! Follow the show on TWITTER JimPrell@TMusicAuthority! Are you listening?   April 21, 2020, Tuesday, chapter two…The Beatpunkers - JulieThe Crushing Violets - Ocean of Tearsphonograph - 01 She Knows It [phonograph Vol 1]glowfriends - Holda [Eyelash – EP]The Bishop's Daredevil Stunt Club - Delusional in Love [End Over End]Whitney Road - Deep Dark Places [The Road So Far]Steve Keller - TMALinerBest Supporting Actor - Looking Glass@Miss Ludella Black & The Masonics - 11 11-Wait [Miss Ludella Black Sings Till You Lie In Your Grave And Other Favourites] (Damaged Goods Records)Sugar Snow - 08 The Word Yes [Wood Face Re-Imagined]John Larson and the Silver Fields - 04 Madison Valley Road [Glimpses]Pop Co-Op - 05 Catching Light [Factory Settings] (Futureman Records)Nervous Eaters - Voluntary Solitary [Record 10]Johnny Jetson - Hang Around With You [Make Your Move]@The TM Collective - 09 Spellbound [Green Thoughts - The TM Collective]Nick Eng – Reminiscing@Strand - 01 - Best Laid Plans [Can't Trust The Rain] (koolkatmusik.com)@The Routes - 06 Tune Out, Switch Off, Drop In [Tune Out, Switch Off, Drop In]The Successful Failures - 10 Everywhere She Goes It's Raining [Saratoga](@FDR Records)

Less than 24 hours later I have a BRAND NEW Episode 42 Podcast for You!Costco Line Wrapped Around the storeCoronavirus Edition of Sounding Board TheaterDark Side of the Ring Season 2JUST NATE PERFORMING LIVE FROM THE BASEMENT AT 7PM TONIGHT! YOU NEED TO TUNE IN!BRAND NEW CALL from Grandma Klif, Uncle Klif, Macho Man Kliffy Savage and Kliffy Baseball, who are Pandemic Shopping at the Wholesale Club, and Kliffy forgot to pick them up!

Went again to BJ's Wholesale Club this morning at 9AM ET to see what was available. ALL TP & Paper Towels were gone in under 6 minutes! People were lined up at 6AM ET to get in there for paper wares! I was there for organic whole milk. While in line the lady in front of me freaked out when it was time to pay because she had to touch the card payment screen...she then reached for and used the touch screen pen...mayhaps she thought that the pen was impervious to the disease de jour! Would NOT touch the screen but in her mind the pen was SAFE! People are weird! Not a weirdness to be found in hour's one list of GREAT songs! The Music Authority LIVE STREAM Show & Podcast...recorded and on Tune In, Podcast Addict, Cast Box, Radio Public, and Pocket Cast, APPLE iTunes, AND Google Play Music! Follow the show on TWITTER JimPrell@TMusicAuthority! Are you listening?  March 18, 2020, Wednesday, first act…Orbis 2.0 - TMA SHOW OPEN THEMEVan Duren - Grow Yourself UpThe Morning Line - 07 Sickness [North (koolkatmusik.com)]Peter Watts– Promo TMASpygenius - 01 If You Go A-Roving [Big Stir Singles The Second Wave] (Big Stir Records)@Dress Code - SorrySoulBird - Starry Skies [Fly Fast - Leaves From Our History Book]@Jimbo & The No Shows - Butterflies [Do Your Thing!]Jason & the Scorchers - Ghost TownLisa Mychols Music - I've Run All Out Of Tears (To Cry Over You) [Girlville!: New Songs In The Style Of Yesterdays Hits]@Papa Schmapa - Precious Time [Bela Mystic Music]John Howard - It's Not Over Yet@Stepford Knives - I Don't Want Her Anymore (Blue Vinyl) (@Loaded Goat Records)Richard X Heyman - In A Sunlit Room [Pop Circles] (Turn Up Records)The Rogue Electrics - 06-Uncharted Territory [In Between Black And White]Michael Simmons - 01 (This Could Be) The Last Time [It's The End Of The World As We Know It And I Feel Fine]The Speedways - Number 7Ronnie Dark - Love Will Break Your Heart [Sky]

LP Magazine's contributing writer Adam Paul takes a close look at BJ's Wholesale Club with Vice President of Asset Protection Charles Delgado and Executive VP of Club Operations Cornel Catuna. The discussion centers around the company's successful balance of excellent customer service, exemplary community relations, and extremely low inventory losses.

Kalen Bruce of Money Mini Blog shares his biggest money mistakes that he's glad he made. Episode 1079: My Biggest Money Mistakes (That I'm Glad I made) Part 2: Wholesale Club by Kalen Bruce of Money Mini Blog Kalen Bruce is the founder of MoneyMiniBlog. His story is simple… he and his wife were $24,000 in debt and became a student of finances to get out. They are now debt-free and building wealth. Kalen shares everything he has learned on his blog, writing informative, entertaining, mini blogs to help you with your finances. Finances can be intimidating, so he keeps his posts short, sweet, and simple. The original post is located here: http://moneyminiblog.com/make-money/money-mistakes-wholesale-club/ Please Rate & Review the Show! Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com and in The O.L.D. Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kalen Bruce of Money Mini Blog shares his biggest money mistakes that he's glad he made. Episode 1079: My Biggest Money Mistakes (That I'm Glad I made) Part 2: Wholesale Club by Kalen Bruce of Money Mini Blog Kalen Bruce is the founder of MoneyMiniBlog. His story is simple… he and his wife were $24,000 in debt and became a student of finances to get out. They are now debt-free and building wealth. Kalen shares everything he has learned on his blog, writing informative, entertaining, mini blogs to help you with your finances. Finances can be intimidating, so he keeps his posts short, sweet, and simple. The original post is located here: http://moneyminiblog.com/make-money/money-mistakes-wholesale-club/ Please Rate & Review the Show! Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com and in The O.L.D. Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kalen Bruce of Money Mini Blog shares his biggest money mistakes that he's glad he made. Episode 1079: My Biggest Money Mistakes (That I'm Glad I made) Part 2: Wholesale Club by Kalen Bruce of Money Mini Blog Kalen Bruce is the founder of MoneyMiniBlog. His story is simple… he and his wife were $24,000 in debt and became a student of finances to get out. They are now debt-free and building wealth. Kalen shares everything he has learned on his blog, writing informative, entertaining, mini blogs to help you with your finances. Finances can be intimidating, so he keeps his posts short, sweet, and simple. The original post is located here: http://moneyminiblog.com/make-money/money-mistakes-wholesale-club/ Please Rate & Review the Show! Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com and in The O.L.D. Facebook Group --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/optimal-finance-daily/support

Kalen Bruce of Money Mini Blog shares his biggest money mistakes that he's glad he made. Episode 1079: My Biggest Money Mistakes (That I'm Glad I made) Part 2: Wholesale Club by Kalen Bruce of Money Mini Blog Kalen Bruce is the founder of MoneyMiniBlog. His story is simple… he and his wife were $24,000 in debt and became a student of finances to get out. They are now debt-free and building wealth. Kalen shares everything he has learned on his blog, writing informative, entertaining, mini blogs to help you with your finances. Finances can be intimidating, so he keeps his posts short, sweet, and simple. The original post is located here: http://moneyminiblog.com/make-money/money-mistakes-wholesale-club/ Please Rate & Review the Show! Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com and in The O.L.D. Facebook Group

Orlando Sentinel Now afternoon update for Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. Rebeccaa Fierle, disgraced Orlando guardian at center of statewide scandal, arrested on abuse, neglect charges (1:21) Lawmakers are voting to weaken your access to Florida’s public records | Editorial (10:03) Discover which wholesale club is right for you? (24:00)

EP205 - CES and NRF 2020 Recap CES 2020 was in Las Vegas Jan 7th - Jan 10th. NRF Big Show 2020 was in New York Jan 11-14th. Scott Galloway (ProfG) hosting a 2020 Tech Prediction lecture the evening of Jan 14th. PSFK Future of Retail 2020 event on January 15th. We recap them all with a lens on what's relevant to retailers and digital shopper marketers. Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 205 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Wednesday, January 23nd, 2020. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, Chief Commerce Strategy Officer at Publicis, and Scot Wingo, CEO of GetSpiffy and Co-Founder of ChannelAdvisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. Google Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:24] Welcome to the Jason and Scot show this is Episode 205 being recorded on Wednesday January 22nd 2020 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scot Wingo. Scot: [0:39] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners well those of you that are regular listeners have probably realized we has been a little while since we put out a show and the reason why is my colleague Jason here has been traveling like a crazy man. Jason: [0:55] This is true I have my annual fun start to the year with the whole CES in RF Marathon which I just got back from. Scot: [1:06] I thought this year you weren't doing CS what what what happened we had a client call and Russia. Jason: [1:11] Did end up yes having to go for a shorter than usual stay at CES but I did end up having to make an appearance. Scot: [1:18] What happens when you're the chief digital retail e-commerce strategist goes goes that way. Jason: [1:25] Yes when you yes it's true when you have that many words in your title like unplanned trips are part of the bargain. Scot: [1:33] Coco we thought would use most the show to kind of catch up on that and then try to work some news in there too let's start at CES in the first of all big question did you get any new gadgets. Jason: [1:45] You know a disappointing year for me personally and part of that may be because it was a shorter trip the, the stuff like the stuff I tend to discover that like I personally want is maybe deeper in the CES catalog and I maybe didn't get to all of those booths this year I kind of had to hit the main. Main Milestone booths so yeah nothing super excited I got I maybe have a little. Personal problem hoarding Chargers and cables and so there are some nice new, um third-party chargers for the Macbook so I did get a new anchor and the new hyper juice hundred watt charging systems. Yeah no no super important purpose but yes I have some new Chargers that I have to hide from my wife I don't think she even cares about the spending I think she just cares about all the space that the unused. Chargers take up in our life. Scot: [2:50] Yeah there's a drawer there where they all could live. Jason: [2:52] Yeah in my workshop it's more of a a system of drawers for. Scot: [3:01] They buy hcf like the 1985. Jason: [3:05] I mean people people laugh at me but then we need to find a 30 pin Mac charger for iPhone 3 I have one. Scot: [3:14] Boom I got it yeah. Jason: [3:18] Yeah so yeah got some new Chargers and I did this is kind of CES adjacent but I did get all new networking hardware for my home office so I think you and I both did internet connection upgrades. For the holidays and I added a fancy new firewall router access point and switch. Scot: [3:44] Furcal are you gigabit. Jason: [3:46] I am so so Comcast just add a gigabit in my neighborhood so we upgraded to gigabit and then I'm using, this cool new device called the unify dream machine, which is from I want to say it's a Ubiquiti networks and they do a lot of. Commercial Wi-Fi equipment for like schools and institutions and things and so this is a a. A Wi-Fi access point a firewall and and said a managed switches that are all controlled from their commercial software. Way overkill for a home network but fun for tinkering. Scot: [4:35] Yeah I think I've seen one of those is it a it looks like a little cylinder. Jason: [4:39] It exactly so historically like they met they mostly make rack-mounted equipment and this is the first time they've, they've made an all-in-one that that is supported by their sort of, business level software and it looks like a cylinder and in fact it reminds people a lot of, discontinued Apple Wi-Fi access point and so there's some people from that we're big fans of that, that I forget what that was called like they are. Scot: [5:11] I had one I can't remember it's called him. Jason: [5:16] So yeah so people people think it's the spiritual successor to the Apple. Scot: [5:23] Cool what else any interesting Commerce news is he yes. Jason: [5:27] Yeah I actually thought it was a reasonably important year for Commerce, like the Super Readers Digest version on this show it's the consumer electronic show I personally have been attending for 32 years it's the largest trade show in the u.s. like 200,000 people, attend, many years ago it was a buying show where people from retailers would go to figure out what they're going to carry for the year now it's mainly a PR show where they try to generate Buzz for new products to, sell more new technologies but it's where a lot of consumer Technologies where watch for the first time so like the DVD player and the if you go back far enough the VHS. [6:10] Tape system in the whole VHS beta War played out at CES, and stuff like that in the Apple the Apple iPhone was famously launched during CES but not at CES as a Steve Jobs sort of did some clever counter-programming, so people go, both to like sort of do trend-spotting and see if there's any major new consumer electronics platforms that are coming down the path and from that standpoint I would like there's one big one that had the buzz I'll save for the end, but there was a lot of smaller more tactical stuff that I think is going to have a meaningful impact on, retail in particular digital merchandising it retailgeek. So most of the listeners of this show are probably familiar with e-ink if you ever had a currently have a Kindle book reader it uses e-ink, and it's a it's an important digital display technology because it's Dynamic you can change the image that's on it, it's reflective so it works in super bright sunlight and it basically takes no power to display an image so you need electricity to change the image but once the image has changed. It literally is moving ink around on the display and then you could turn off the power in the ink stays where. [7:26] Where it was and so it's great for for not using a lot of power in an electronic book reader it, great for having high visibility even in bright sunlight but a very common retail use case is it's the main display technology that used for all the digital fact tags that I talk about all the time. [7:45] And one of the big drawbacks of e ink has historically been that it's only black and white or only black red and white or only black yellow and white so very limited, color palette and so you couldn't do really pretty, just blaze you couldn't use it for really pretty signs and this was the first year that they were showing full color E Ink that look very vibrant and High Fidelity and so. You know we'll see you that. You know maybe we'll have some color book readers in the near future and I suspect we'll see it trickled down to a new generation of electronic. Price labels and fact tags for retail stores. So that was an interesting technology and a way cooler display technology was released by Delta Airlines of all people. And and so this is a new technology to sort of replace a. Video monitor in a public area and it's called parallel reality and so Delta Airlines found this technology and invested in the company and they've announced that the first commercial deployment will be. In the Delta lounges at the Detroit airport later this year. And what this technology does is it lets a hundred people stand in front of a TV screen and have each of them get a different Custom Image that they see. [9:13] So so very precisely depending on where you stand you see a completely different image so the use case for Delta in this Lounge is all the customers stare at the flight status display and they all, see a display that only has their flight information or prominently highlights their flight information. Scot: [9:32] Okay how does it know who's looking and we're there. Jason: [9:36] So first of all as soon as you describe this to someone they're like this sounds like it's going to be some kludgy gimmick and I was super skeptical so two halves of this problem the first half is, can you really display an image that that is high fidelity and looks like discrete for each person, and I went in with very low expectations and I was kind of Blown Away like it it totally works, the the demo they had their like there's like the pixels weren't tiny so you could kind of see the pixels and, the display is made up of a bunch of. Of multiple smaller displays so you could kind of see the frame the internal frames so I'd say it wasn't, but they were super open to saying yeah we know those are the visual flaws like we already have more advanced prototypes that solve those problems and what we deploy in Detroit later this year is going to. Not have any of those those visual artifacts but basically what it's using is, beamforming where they're essentially like each pixel is a projector and they can fire different color lights at different angles so by knowing exactly where your eyeballs are relative to the screen, they can send you an image that's different from everyone else so that's the display technology as it's kind of like a projector inside of a television or. [10:57] Thousands of projectors inside of a television and it works remarkably well and then you're very, pertinent question how do they know who and where those eyeballs are to decide what to show each person and the answer to that is, a combination of Wi-Fi RFID and your mobile phone so this is not, this won't work for an anonymous use case in the Delta model the reason they're doing it in the lounge is everyone has to check into the lounge and show that they're a member so when you walk into the front desk, you scan your mobile app they're using cameras similar to an Amazon go set up to track where you are in the lounge, and they know who you are because you were holding a mobile phone with your unique ID on it to check in and then they're able to deliver your your unique flight information to you so it. It's a kind of a combination of Amazon go for the identifying the person and their location and this new parallel reality display technology for, for beaming the different messages and so it. [12:07] It works better than I expected it seems pretty darn close to real we'll see if they're really able to get this in a while, lateral out in an airport this year but like if it all works it's pretty easy to imagine a number of use cases for public displays and checkout systems and things like that and retailgeek, what it would be really handy to be able to show different images to different customers on the same monitor. Scot: [12:30] Very cool was this the big one we're waiting for or know there's more to come. Jason: [12:36] No no more to come so the another interesting technology that like was kind of spooky as Samsung was showing this. These avatars did they call neon life into these artificial humans, and so you walk up to all these five or six foot tall monitors and if there's like a person in each Monitor and they can talk to you interact you with you and they look like. [13:04] Completely real people like in so you would assume this was a video but these are computer generated people that are extremely lifelike, and so the idea is that you could potentially walk into a retail store and you know there might be a artificial intelligence help agent. That looks like a real sales associate that you're basically looking at through a glass window that can talk to you in, and be more human that was the kind of use case that Samsung was pitching the the more interesting use case to me is like an you, render different shapes and sizes of people and put apparel on them so you know could you could this be kind of like, a digital mannequin scenario for retail stores and. It was scary life like in the one thing I would say is they would call this an advanced science project so these avatars apparently took a super long time to build and they say that this technology is still three or four years away from being completely. Scot: [14:09] They have natural language parsing like kids or talk to them and. Jason: [14:12] They did but that wasn't part of the the magic so they were using that were using other Samsung artificial intelligence like in fact Bigsby is their artificial intelligent agent too like decide what the Avatar was saying and to interpret what you were saying and so they weren't claiming any like. You know new new Evolution there what was new about this neon life, technology was how lifelike they could make the visual representation of a person and essentially you know it's, it's like the next step to like not paying actors to be in the movie and instead having these these digital avatars that. That will be acting in all the movies and stuff. But I you know if it gets commercialized I can imagine a retail use case for that the next product that really caught my eye in this got a lot of Buzz at the show and I think this was a, a darn impressive product came from L'Oreal and it's called perso, Scot you may have followed this because I know you try to stay close to the beauty and cosmetics base. Scot: [15:24] I do. Jason: [15:25] But so the idea here is, personalized beauty and cosmetic products that are formulated at home, so so they initial concept has three different products there's a liquid lipstick product there's a, liquid foundation product and there's a moisturizer so each of these is kind of a. A metal cylinder like like one of those Yeti mug type things a metal cylinder and using an app you say I want this color lipstick, and you know out of a set of holes in the top of this mug, that exact shade of lipstick or several lipsticks come out that when you then blend them together with a in applicator or your finger like mixed to the particular color that you ordered. And so the foundation comes out in a color custom color that you ordered the lipstick comes out in a custom color that you ordered and the moisturizer comes out in custom formulation that you ordered so it may be has. [16:34] You know more moisturizing or sunscreen depending on the environment you're in or the the weather and a particular day and so the to me the one that made the most sense in the kind of you know coolest use case is the lipstick they do things like you can point your camera at your outfit, and it will recommend shades of lipstick that go well with your particular outfit and then it can produce, that lipstick for you and so the reason I thought this was pretty impressive as it seemed to work really well people that tried it were seem to think it was, not a gimmick that it was you know that they were quality products and they were totally legitimate and you know I've spoken to lots of women that think that the, the custom shade of lipstick on demand would be, total useful and I've smoked I've spoke to some women that think the custom foundations would be useful and I just think we're at this inflection point when more and more products are going to be customized for each individual user so whether that means they're fabricated custom at a factory and quickly shipped to you or they have the ability to be customized in your own home this is essentially a 3D printer for Cosmetics or an inkjet printer for cosmetics and so I it to me it seemed like one of the first viable, custom products in this category and one little Nuance that I thought was really clever about the whole thing. [18:01] That the cylinder like could totally sit on your makeup counter at home and it seems like it would fit just fine but what happens when you want to take your lipstick with you and put it in your purse like that wouldn't work very well so it turns out the top of all of these cylinders, is removable and it's magnetically attached to the cylinder so after you specify a color and it mixes some of that color up you can just take the top of the cylinder off which is kind of the size of a makeup compact throw it in your purse and take your custom color with you so, pretty clever and then you buy refill cartridges just like you'd buy refill ink for an inkjet printer. Scot: [18:39] That's where all the money is. Jason: [18:40] Yeah oh for sure but so I thought that was super interesting when you get into the Health Pavilion, there were a number of players like one that caught my eyes was called DNA nudge and these guys are essentially doing a DNA test and then they're helping you select, Foods diet nutrition that match your unique DNA so again going back to this notion of customization that like, you know the diet you select the foods you buy should all be predicated based on your your underlying DNA that they help you help you find. Scot: [19:20] Did you just come back and say error you are 99% an espresso beverage. Jason: [19:26] That is funny so I have. Carefully avoided doing any of these DNA because I actually think there's some like significant privacy concerns and I like I don't know maybe I'm I'm. Overly cautious but like I haven't wanted to just give my DNA to one of these for-profit companies with like dubious privacy policies. Scot: [19:53] Cool. Jason: [19:55] I don't know what about you Scott are you totally in on 23andMe do you do it like every month to see if your DNA is changing. Scot: [20:01] I've done both yeah it's pretty interesting. Jason: [20:03] Okay yeah I will be honest I would be totally. Scot: [20:06] Hi I don't have any murders out there I'm worried about. Jason: [20:09] Yeah well I read too much of a boring life to be very worried but I but here's the thing you could have an interesting relative that you're throwing under the bus by doing this. Scot: [20:18] Yeah they shouldn't do their crimes. Jason: [20:20] My fair enough, yeah so again I can see it I might be being a little silly on that but I haven't wanted to do that so then you know it's the car thing is a big thing here they are, like the car car tech now tends to get launched at CES not at the auto show. So you know there's there's you know some interesting electronic prototype cars that may or may not ever see the light of day. The huge thing I noticed this year in the car Pavilion is that every car seemed to have an Alexa integration like that seemed like that was. Taking over as the like. New cabin Tech that everybody was marketing and so I think Amazon announced that they're now over a hundred thousand consumer electronic devices that have Alexa embedded. From more than 9,500 unique Brands and of course the new device with Alexa in it that I imagine you're going to need is the Lamborghini. Scot: [21:28] Yes absolutely. Jason: [21:29] I think that will round. Scot: [21:31] Finally took me over the edge. Jason: [21:33] Yeah that around out your stable just fine they're like speaking of am Amazon Integrations I Amazon has a couple booths at the show they have a booth that's primarily focused on the Alexa and a lot of third party you know, demos with that they have a booth in the home automation section dedicated to key and all the last mile Solutions and things but in the Amazon Booth one of the interesting ones was. This this cpg company Reckitt beckon sir. Commonly called RB they make a bunch of products like baby formula and finish is their big brand of dishwashing detergent. And so they have upgraded all of their packaging to have Dash replenishment built in. So when you get low on baby formula the box that you bought your baby formula in just recognizes that and automatically reorders more baby formula and when you get low on those. Those PODS of finished dishwashing liquid the package automatically orders more for you. Scot: [22:47] The saw the Lamborghini thing in the it was funny there was like a poster which had like some amazingly handsome Brad Pitt of time looking dude and he said Alexa I'm hot, and then she said she she knew to turn on the air conditioner. Jason: [23:05] Yeah yeah context. Scot: [23:07] So maybe wonder how often is Jason uttering Alexa I'm hot to his devices. Jason: [23:13] Yeah I feel like that's not even the most concerning thing you need to worry about me saying to Alexa. I mentioned Samsung Bigsby earlier computer vision was a big thing I felt like half the booths were doing facial recognition for some nefarious purpose but Samsung built it in a refrigerators so, in the past they've had these smart fridges that for example had a webcam in them so you could kind of like when you're in the grocery store and couldn't remember if you had eggs you could turn on a webcam and see the inside of your refrigerator. Which I was like to point out probably wouldn't help you because your eggs are probably in a in an opaque car turn it Carton and you can't see how many are in there, but that pesky detail aside they're now using Bigsby to do image recognition and take an inventory of your refrigerator so the smart refrigerator knows like, that you have a quart of milk and how many times you've taken it out and likely how much milk is left in that core. [24:16] So that was interesting there were a thousand Last Mile solutions that at CES so lots of people like with, clever approaches and not clever approaches to porch piracy to delivering to your refrigerator to delivering to your garage to your car trunk drones and robots, um Kind of improved efficiency for for bow pass orders for store pick up orders and a lot of technology for like building mail rooms, notify residents when they have packages all sorts of stuff like that so this is not really a retail show and so it's just interesting to me how, booths were there like specifically solving a Commerce problem around the last mile. Um so all those were interesting tactical things that I saw at CES that I think May, may I make an appearance in the future of retail but by far the biggest platform that that you know was the most strategically important that really had his coming out party at CES this year is the new wireless technology 5G. So they've been talking about it CES for a number of years they've had prototype product but this is the first year that they have. [25:38] Mass-produced products that meet all the certifications and work on networks that are deployed in the real world so this is kind of the the first time that 5G was truly commercialized at CES and you know I I suspect in in the show's heart of hearts, like if there's you know one news cycle that they want to win it's the you know the wave of coming 5G products and that everyone needs to throw out all their wireless devices and by shiny new, new 5G devices and then it's going to magically change the world and there are crazy stats that they you know site about how much faster 5G is than 4G so, you know hundreds to thousands of times faster bandwidth way lower latency way more devices that can hang on the same networks and you listen all this and you go man 5 G's going to change the world it's the most important technology of all times and that's mostly. The articles that are getting written about it but as I talked to more engineers and kind of you know. Really started to understand what was going on I actually am now somewhat bearish on on 5G I think it's overhyped. Scot: [26:56] Yeah yeah they always the one I see that for his hearse like some remote surgery over 5G and you're like I don't think five G's going to solve the dead spots in fact up I have more dead spots because I won't be honest meat hours. Jason: [27:08] I'm not sure I'm going to be an early adopter of remote Robo surgery but if I am I'm gonna insist that they have a wired connection to the robot and if for some reason they can't have a wired connection I would way rather have a Wi-Fi connection to the robot then a 5G connection to the robot. Scot: [27:25] Yeah we're going to belt and suspenders that puppy yeah if we're not yeah. Jason: [27:28] Yeah so it's going to be a long time before you ever going to do surgery on me with 5G but like here's here's the, the huge Wrinkle In 5G that makes it kind of a mess technology for me is. You know all these Wireless signals are over particular parts of the spectrum right and so like cellular signals and most of what we call LTE or 4G is, in the 600 megahertz to 6 gigahertz range depending on which company and what what bandwidth they own and so 5G uses that same bandwidth, and it uses some new band with that the government just sold the carriers that's at a much higher frequency and so it's what they're calling this millimeter wave frequencies and so this is, 20 gigahertz 295 gigahertz a way higher frequencies than the traditional Four G's and all of the, dramatic improvements in bandwidth that they're talking about only happen on those new millimeter-wave frequencies. [28:34] So the the 5G technology works on the 4G frequencies and it is faster but it's kind of incrementally faster in the same way that 4G was faster than 3G, it's so call it twenty to a hundred percent faster and then you get this you know hundreds to thousands of times faster when you get on millimeter wave and so couple problems with millimeter wave number one it's mostly not built out and unavailable like there it's, there are rumors that the the iPhone that comes out this year that will be the first 5G iPhone, may or may not even support millimeter-wave but there's very limited coverage of millimeter wave in the United States like like when you don't company says they have coverage in a city that's probably one block that they cover when this millimeter wave technology and then much bigger deal is that high frequency wave. Is blocked by virtually any kind of structure so not only will it not go through walls it won't go through windows, um so you won't ever get millimeter wave signal inside of a building for example. Scot: [29:45] Think you're gonna have to do your surgery in a tent. Jason: [29:48] Yeah exactly so a legitimate use case is hey T-Mobile can compete with Comcast for internet bandwidth for Scott's home and if you buy it from T-Mobile what they're going to do is put a millimeter wave antenna on the roof of your building and run a cable inside of your house and convert it to a Wi-Fi signal inside of your house and because the millimeter wave can be really fast to that antenna on your roof like they can legitimately compete with your, your cable modem but you are not going to have a phone that you walk around in your office that's you know downloading movies in a second. Scot: [30:32] Nursing so a lot of infrastructure to be built to solve this millimeter wave from. Jason: [30:37] Yeah yeah and those those like they need many more antennas and the antennas need much quote to be much closer together to really build out coverage for millimeter wave so it's a huge National infrastructure problem and it doesn't seem like any of the carriers have really committed to like saturate their Market with millimeter wave yet so again you know most of what the carriers are talking about when they say 5G is 5G over the existing 4G bands and, it's a little better like I'm sure we'll all enjoy it but it it's by no means game-changing so that's that was kind of my, my CES recap I think most people would say oh the big thing that's going to change the face of retails 5G I'm pretty convinced it's actually not but I do think a bunch of these display Technologies are, potentially interesting and I really think that that this trend of more personalized products is super interesting for Commerce. Scot: [31:36] Cool so then you shot straight from Vegas Rider to New York and would a would you see it enough. Jason: [31:42] I did so yeah I got to do a prolonged my New York trip this year so I got there a little earlier, as you know you and I were nominated for an award for best retail media and we were one of the finalists so I actually went to the awards ceremony on Friday night. And I'm sorry to report that we did not win yeah so not a very credible award obviously I'm teasing. Is actually the first year of this particular. In our Enterprise and what they're trying to do is recognize suppliers for the retail Commerce industry because most of the awards are targeted at the retailer so that's kind of appreciate that and that's interesting and it was. Very well-attended event for the first year but that sucked me into New York early so then I did the whole show I got to walk all the show floors, and my limited time recap on all the show floors was, that it was a very incremental year so rather than, dramatically new stuff and new technology that you know didn't exist at the show asked year most of the booths in the main exhibit Halls were. Here's our 10% better version of what we showed you last year. [33:04] And a surprising amount of it was really oriented towards cost reduction and, operations optimization so I would say like, the it was rare to see customer-facing stories and improving customer experiences at retail it was mostly about taking costs out of supply chain and taking costs out of operations and Staffing and. And increase Automation and that you know it things that are important to retail but frankly things I would argue like that's been a play in retail for the last five years and most of the good retailers today have. Taking most of the COS out and you know so now I feel like to really move the needle you need to be thinking about your customer experience and improving, that and I did not see a lot of great solutions for that on the inner F floor this year, the one kind of new use case that showed up in a bunch of booths is what I'll call a smart shelf so this is like Amazon go like technology it's like a shelf that. [34:12] Either using cameras or sensors or cameras and sensors, knows what's on the shelf and it knows what you take off the shelf and it can probably recognize you and so sometimes this is used for self-checkout but way more often it was just used for inventory management, for knowing when something was out of stock or helping navigate customers to the right product or or knowing when a products on the wrong shelf for all these kinds of use cases, so I like frankly didn't think the juice was worth the squeeze walking the two main trade show floors at in RF, the the floor I had the most fun on is this Innovation Pavilion that they've had for the last couple of years but it was much bigger this year and to me like all the exciting interesting stuff was was definitely in this Innovation Pavilion and so this is smaller companies tend to be, startup companies a bunch of companies, from other countries like Israel was particularly well represented and you know here you are seeing a lot of Last Mile Solutions you are seeing a lot of. Like using cameras to solve fitment and returns and things like that so I just I felt like there was a lot more interesting. New approaches to customer experience in The Innovation Pavilion than on the main main interest rate show floors. Scot: [35:39] What was the strangest thing you saw. Jason: [35:42] Strangest thing I saw I probably should have come to rehearsal and gotten that question ahead of time so I could have thought about it. [35:50] Yeah well I'll tell you an odd experience I had so you know I have this weird Affinity / fetish for these digital fact eggs. And I keep predicting that they're going to be a big thing and they never are. So of course I had to visit all of the exhibitors at this boot at the show and there's like six or seven. Big manufacturers and then probably 20 little manufacturers of these things and then RF and so one of the companies I'm not even going to name them, they're noted in my mind because they were the first tags that Amazon used in the four-star store in Amazon has changed vendors and they now use a different vendor but this first vendor um had a lot of interesting tags and some new new technology in their booth in the way I remember what I what I see at the booth in order to kind of type up my show notes is I take a picture of the booth and then I type my notes below the picture in Evernote so I tried to take a picture of this booth and they tackled me and told me that no photos were allowed and I'm like, okay do you have like a brochure something I could take no no we don't have a brochure. So I'm like so wait you have a giant 30 by 30 booth at the show and you paid a bunch of money to come here and like. You don't in any way want anyone to remember who the heck you are or be able to contact you after the show. Scot: [37:13] We were never here. Jason: [37:15] Yes I. Scot: [37:16] They make you delete the picture. Jason: [37:19] No and I mean I could have but I mean I just didn't even want to take a picture at that point I was I just thought that was so funny like ten years ago that was about get super common thing and people are worried you're going to steal their intellectual property but I feel like if you have intellectual property that you don't want anyone to know about don't buy a trade show booth. Scot: [37:38] Weird that is weird see I knew you had one in. Jason: [37:43] So that stuff was all interesting I went to most of the Keynotes and I feel like this is going to be a Captain Obvious comment to you but I mostly went all the key notes which are all these big retail CEOs and I've mostly decided that it's a complete waste of time going to any of these shows and sitting in on the on the CEO Keynotes. Nobody ever said like they're all perfectly media prepped and they mostly Play commercials about their businesses and no you know nobody says anything very like informative or, you know that isn't already on the public record at these things so I don't know why I always get excited to hear you know some retail CEO speak when. Like in reality like it's not bad it's just it's just not valuable or super interesting. Scot: [38:32] Yeah yeah it's tough there at some point their public companies to so they're in their quiet period by the time this show comes out so they can't even really talked about you know anything that's. Jason: [38:43] Oh yeah no I don't even. Scot: [38:44] Air and yeah. Jason: [38:45] I don't even fault them but I just tough right and so you had like Kevin plank who's you know the founder of Under Armour and you know he recently stepped down as CEO but he's like. Like Chief brand evangelists or something. One that got like a little heat Michelle gas is the CEO of coals we'll talk about this later but like you know Cole's kind of underperformed a little bit for holiday and, and so that's that's interesting but she also won the, the internet Gala award as the person of the year and there are people that are pointing out like what's the state of our industry of like the. Person of the year is like a CEO that's like let a company for five years that mostly has been in sales and market cap decline over that entire five-year period. Scot: [39:32] Emma close a bunch of stores they've closed Less stores than a lot of other retailers. Jason: [39:36] No I would say they have performed better than most of their peers and their Peril I think that's true and that's why it's kind of news that their their performances starting to, to soften the the one thing that maybe was newsworthy about her Kina like obviously they get a bunch of Buzz for being the first ones that were all in on like allowing Amazon returns and their store. Um and I don't know why this gets so much coverage I mean it's an interesting tactic but to me it's not a game-changing thing. But you know a big question has been like how valuable is that to Cole's like is it working and and she gave a full-throated defense of the tactic and said that it's working. Quite well and that we're happy we're doing it and that we've expanded it to all stores but then she said like two sentences that didn't like, and I'm like. Scot: [40:38] It was very vague yeah. Jason: [40:39] Yeah so so I don't know so that was a little interesting. Scot: [40:43] It was interesting there's a lot of pictures on social media accompanying that article and they showed Kohl's store and had a tiny little coal sign and it was just surrounded by Amazon promotional materials all throughout the front of the store and then inside the store. Jason: [40:56] Yeah and I think one of the things that's happening is you know Cole's is always been heavily promotional. Like I think when you return something to Amazon you get like a fifty percent off of a Cole's item certificate that you know they're trying to juice you too. To buy something presumably it's super little margins when you're on that visit, so that stuff got a lot of Buzz as you know but listeners may not know a lot of my time as in RF gets booked up with, these these various committee and Council meetings that are going on and so you know we're members of the digital Council which is a big group of. Of people that are primarily focused on digital Shopper marketing. And so you know they have a long meeting at the show and you know I'm still on the board of what used to be called shop dot-org now called the digital Advisory Board. And we have a long meeting during the show and there's usually some interesting content at those meetings so I would say both of those meetings were good and I'm probably biased because I was the speaker the digital council meeting. And I gave a presentation about like what western Brands can learn from China so sharing a bunch of, interesting tactics that are going on in China that my hypothesis is you know that people ought to be trying in in the west and. Scot: [42:22] Is this the salty wait for you tried to get your your prediction of QR codes out there. Jason: [42:28] Potentially I'll do anything I can. Scot: [42:29] Talk about it the Ulta. Jason: [42:30] I'll do anything I can to win the forecasting battle against you just got so yeah. No I did not I did not hit that hard but I got good feedback and I enjoyed doing it it's a scary audience because you know I talk to people all the time but this is like. 50 of my closest work friends that are all like smarter and more digitally savvy than me so like if you say something wrong. They're pretty likely to call you out on it so which is not necessarily as true in my day job. [43:04] So I was pleased that that went well and then in a rare treat for me I stayed for a couple days after an RF this year, and there are a lot of events that other people program to take advantage of everyone being in town for an RF, so PS FK is a research company that does a lot of great retail content they do a bunch of retail tours in New York the week of in our. And they had kind of a direct-to-consumer day where they had a bunch of leaders from direct-to-consumer companies come in and talk and so, I got to send it on that and that was kind of interesting content I think I inadvertently got some Buzz cuz, unlike some of these really polish CEOs for the big retail companies like the CEOs for some of these startups probably share more information than they should and so one of the founders of neighborhood Goods was there there there. [44:00] Kind of new retail concept there are like a retail Marketplace so vendors paid rent space in their store they open one store and, Texas in Dallas there now they just opened a second store in Manhattan and they're about to open a third store in Austin and in our industry via all the Talking Heads I would say they get a ton of Buzz, and, you know the one thing they don't do is disclosed like any sales data so you know you never know how meaningful their sales are but the CEO at one point mentioned that their best-selling skew by volume, by number of units and dollar volume is a t-shirt with their logo on it. [44:42] And so I you know in my mind thinking like that probably says all you need to know about you know how much of the vendors products they're selling that are paying for space in those stores if they're evil logo t-shirts their best. Scot: [44:55] Ouch then he went Savage on social media. Jason: [44:58] I did not mean it to be super- but I just thought that was an interesting data point and then I went into the belly of the Beast, our friend Scott Galloway who loves his predictions as you'll know. He had an event he's a professor at NYU and he gave a lecture at NYU, kind of a couple hours sharing his recap of his 2019 predictions and doing his 2020 predictions so I sat in on that and. I don't think any of the predictions were very new to those of us that follow him regularly like you know he tends to be pretty repetitive and and so these were mostly repetitive, predictions but there was a question and answer session afterwards and I thought the question-and-answer session was really interesting and people people asked him good questions and he had you know insightful answer so that would that part was fun. Scot: [45:56] Yeah he's a very anti Sheryl Sandberg Casper and then he's he's been antitussive for a long time and he's gotten his like face ripped off by Tesla this. Jason: [46:06] Yeah so it's funny. Scot: [46:08] Predicting it will go bankrupt and you know there's crazy and it's fraud and. Jason: [46:13] Yeah yeah he thinks it's way overvalued and he it's kind of funny because he talks about he like he openly talks about this he's like people that agree with me tend to agree with me on most things I got like he's you know philosophically aligned on most things but he's like most of the people that follow me, like Tesla way more than me and they have way more digital privacy concerns than I have so he's like whenever I share my position on those two things I tend to get creamed and so like it almost became a joke like people standing up there were like challenging him on his, Tesla predictions and like you know people came up and like made an argument for the Tesla evaluation and why it was reasonable and stuff and so there were some, pretty funny back and forth on that stuff and he was making fun of the fact that like that's most likely what he'll get murdered for, and then he did a podcast after this event where him and Kara Swisher who generally agree on most things on their podcast like got in a pretty heated argument, on the whole should Apple unlock the terrorists phones and and Scott comes down heavily on absolutely Apple like should, should immediately unlock the terrorists phones in the privacy concerns are kind of, BS in Scott's mind and so and he recognizes that like, that's the other thing he gets a lot of heat for is that most people that follow him don't agree with that position. Scot: [47:43] Wasn't swisher and RF like interviewing the politician or something. Jason: [47:46] She was I don't remember who she interviewed because that was during one of my meeting so I missed it. Scot: [47:53] I think it was Paul Ryan I didn't understand what the heck that had to do with retailgeek. Jason: [47:57] Yeah so there's kind of a tradition that interrupts like a big part of interests job is Lobby is federal lobbying and it that's particularly relevant right now because why. These privacy laws that all the states pass are passing have. Potential major intended and unintended ramifications on retailers like a lot of them like arguably make it illegal to run a loyalty program for example, um so so the lobbying is a big deal in RF it's a lot of their energy as in lobbying and so if you look at the keynote speakers over the last several years in RF they had Bill Clinton shortly after he went out of office they had George Bush Senior shortly after he went out of office and so they tend to have a a big name politician and this year it was Paul Ryan but I didn't get to see it I didn't hear any particularly newsworthy things come out of it but I can't speak to it firsthand. Scot: [48:53] Furcal anything else we need to know about NRF. Jason: [48:56] So that was my in a referee cap that kind of match up with what you followed on social media in the news or did I give you. Scot: [49:03] Was it seemed like kind of the the timing was interesting because you know at the same time you had the Casper S1 filing drop in this kind of, pivoting to General news but kind of overlapped with an RF a fair amount then you had a fair amount of bad news from Q4 some of this it's hard to tell if it was just kind of there's a bunch of retailers that are kind of in that Molly gedan bucket that held on through Q4 is it's kind of crazy to once you make it to August you might as well not close any stores until until January so it's hard to know how much is kind of an overhang kind of a holiday overhang and how much is kind of. The holiday actually wasn't as good as we thought were those some of the topics that NRF. Jason: [49:47] Yeah so not in the formal presentations but in the sort of hallway conversations this this was a big point right and, you know you and I have talked about on the show we were talking about it in December that I sort of felt like it was going to be a soft holiday that you know they were going to be profitability challenges in talking to people at this show one of the interesting things that kind of reaffirms that it was a soft holiday is there is apparently like a ton of excess product in the market which has not been the case the last several holidays and so retailers are getting asked to take a bunch of. You know deeply discounted inventory from manufacturers and what we would call distressed inventory, that there's a glut of that on the market this year and so that's a bad sign it means retailers didn't sell through all their inventory the manufacturer didn't move as many units as they expected and now they're going to liquidate all that inventory at low cost which. You know means consumers closets are going to fill up with with cheap clothes and you know it's going to be longer before they can they can sell new stuff and you know a bunch of more of this like. You know desirable Brands will show up in TJ Maxx and, places like that so there's a bunch of negative ramifications and you know it's. [51:06] The my theory is like it's for two reasons like, that we just did have a soft holiday and people didn't sell as much as they wanted but the last several holidays I feel like retailers have been super careful about constraining their inventory and being really smart and using a lot of, new modern tools to predict demand better and so they actually, we're in really good inventory positions the last couple of years and what's different this year is potential fear of tariffs, and so my my theory which I have no way to validate but my theory is that a lot of manufacturer is particular know they're getting their goods from China. Made more stuff before tariffs kicked in as a hedge against potential tariffs and so they just ended up with higher inventory positions and they've been you know trying to sell that through to retailers, and so as you know we have a glut of product and that that actually bodes, poorly you know for the end of Q4 but also for q1 sales across much of a bunch of retail categories. Scot: [52:12] Yeah. Jason: [52:14] So I during the show or around the show you know there are bunt you know holiday earnings announcement started to come in. Before this show MasterCard released there. Sort of holiday recap and MasterCard has this product called spending pulse where they Aggregate and anonymize all the, the spending behaviors of everyone that carries a MasterCard branded card. And they said holiday retail sales were up 3.4 percent from November 1st to December 24th and the online sales were up almost nineteen percent and so those are decent numbers, that would calm pretty you know favorably with last year I think those are very similar to last year's numbers. And that would imply that everyone had a decent holiday but then the individual retailer started announcing their earnings and nobody has earnings. That seems like they jive with that Master card number right so so not shocking the JCPenney was down but they were down you know lower than expectations so they were down seven and a half percent which is huge, we alluded to this earlier but Cole's was down point two percent and they've been one of the, the you know better performers in the apparel category for a while so the fact that they're down was was alarming and surprising. [53:32] L Brands was down 3% Macy's was down, point seven percent which they had been up the previous quarter so that was a big holiday Miss and then I think to me the one that was most surprising and alarming and kind of triggered some, some stock alarm Bells was Target and their same-store sales were only up 1.4 percent versus, 5.7 percent last year so that was a big mix against their guidance and you know you, you listen to that bloodbath of retailers like almost nobody you know performing above their comps and you try to reconcile that with the whole industry being up 3.4 percent and it just doesn't make sense to me I think, I think that Master Gardener is just wrong or or like there there's something unique about MasterCard carrying people that you know is different than other spending. Scot: [54:27] Yeah yeah the. Jury's out I think until we see how Amazon and they report on the 30th and will be here on the Jason Scott show recapping that for everybody that's going to be really really important and then the second most important going to be Walmart and I'm not sure, you there in Feb 18 kids are in that off-cycle yeah. So it's going to be awesome to see how that goes because if they both didn't do well then it really is a head-scratcher but even if they you know let's say Amazon grew like 25% or something. It's kind of makes the, you can get the e-commerce number to 19 percent but like what the heck happened to the rest of retail who actually grew everyone that we know that reporting didn't it would have to be Walmart or you know. Someone else I don't know, Costco yeah maybe it's the dollar stores there's there has been a bunch of strength and kind of like what we call the value plays the dollar stores the Wholesale Club's the T.J.Maxx has maybe those are the guys that kind of saved the day and there's haven't reported yet. Jason: [55:47] Yeah but I think no matter how you slice it like this is another version of bifurcation that like you know if holiday sales are robust like they were not, robust for everyone that there were you know huge winners and losers and you know if that was the case which it certainly seems like it was you know you're going to see that play out in you know future store closures and bankruptcies and all the other things that you know retailers have to do when they start to get into distressed. Situations and you know along those lines I think we have already seen a bunch of announcements now that they've gone through holiday, the upcoming store closures. Scot: [56:30] Any other news you want to cover. Jason: [56:33] I mean those are the big things like just to recap the store closures real quick like that was like expresses closing a hundred stores JCPenney's closing 6 more stores Pier 1 is closing half their stores Bed Bath & Beyond closing 40 stores, a slightly surprising one of me is bows which had a chain of company-owned stores. Is closing all of their bricks and mortar they're going to be you know a pure brand and Direct online sales only so you know a significant amount of store closures to start the year, so it's kind of falling into your whole you know Mama gettin story that you like to always talk about. And then I guess just a couple of small little news items that are like you know pretty interesting in the Commerce base Google made an acquisition of this company called pointy. [57:25] And I wouldn't expect people to necessarily recognize pointy but pointy is a, a data company that makes it super easy for particularly small retailers to upload their store inventory to Google. So that lets you do local inventory ads where we're like you know you do a search for a coat and Google says oh that coats in stock in this store that's a block from you. And it also you know facilitates the sort of instant purchasing Google and a lot of other things and so it's it was interesting that Google's acquiring this capability to help retailers on board. Their inventory to Google much easier that you know could be the first of a bunch of steps we see in Google trying to get more serious about Commerce, and then you know the Gap had previously announced that they were going to split Old Navy off from the rest of the company, and they kind of had assigned CEOs and then this month announced that they're actually not going to do that they fired that CEO in the, the son of the founder I came back to run the company so so a lot of drama going on at the Gap right now. [58:44] Yeah well I think they were another example like I, I don't know I think it's a high level the story was a bunch of the Gap brands are underperforming the one Gap brand had been performing strongly was Old Navy and you know so there's an argument that like. Old Navy wasn't getting full credit in the public markets because they're being dragged down by these other brands so you split up. The strong brand Old Navy from the weaker brands, and you know maybe you can carve out more value that of course ignores the fact that, like all of these Brands share a shared infrastructure the same it stuff the same e-commerce stuff the same supply chain stuff when you split them up you got to spend a minimum shh money to rebuild that you know. For both companies and and I think the thing that made this untenable was. Old Navy didn't have a great holiday either and so you know they were left with the prospect of potentially splitting up and having two distressed Brands neither one performing very well and. You know they just spent a bunch of money and and you know their employees Focus was all put on this this. Split instead of focusing on on customers and in the right product in the right right brand positioning for that stuff so so I think it became scary and they pulled back. Scot: [1:00:08] Must be frustrating imagine if you were on that team and you probably had to separate all the point-of-sale systems and the customer databases and. Jason: [1:00:18] Yo and I'm. Scot: [1:00:18] Pretty far down the path. Jason: [1:00:19] Like I'll be honest I'm sure there were people that were far down that path and the whole time they were doing it we're saying this is stupid we shouldn't be doing this and now they're pissed that they wasted all that. Because it's yeah it's not going to see the light of day but you know sometimes those are unavoidable things like you know there, there are storied brand I hope they find their way through it. But Scott that's probably going to play be a good place to wrap it up because we have hit our usual 1 hour mark so we've used up more than our allotted listener time, as always if people have a comment or question feel free to drop us a note on Twitter or Facebook and for sure we need to get those iTunes reviews going for the 2020 year fresh reviews are super important so if you haven't written a review for a podcast yet we'd love it if you jump over to iTunes and write us that review. Scot: [1:01:15] And make them five stars thanks everybody. Jason: [1:01:17] Yeah until next time happy commercing.

Michael Billings retired from BJ’s Wholesale Club in Westborough, Massachusetts, after 25 years as vice president of meat and seafood procurement. Roughly four years in, he had no plans to return to work until one day, Billings recalled, “…I got this interesting note on my LinkedIn account that said, ‘Interesting background; need to talk,’ and it was the owner of ButcherBox.” Mike Salguero founded ButcherBox in 2015 using $215,000 he’d raised through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. The online retailer sells and delivers sustainably raised Certified Humane meat and poultry raised by independent family farms. “I met him,” Billings said, “and he’s just an amazing guy. I thought what he was trying to do was pretty interesting.”

$8 billion. That's how much is spent on corporate wellness programs each year in the United States. Sadly, it seems that enormous amount of money doesn't actually improve employee wellness. And it doesn't save companies money either. Most of the time, when businesses add an extra layer of expense, they do so in order to grow their revenue or reduce costs. Theoretically, improving the health of employees would lower healthcare costs, reducing expenses, and improve productivity, improving revenue growth. Many companies have spent a lot of money on that theory, but the research shows that idea is nothing more than theoretical. According to the research, corporate wellness programs: don't reduce healthcare costsdon't reduce medication costsdon't improve measurable markers of individual healthdo cost a lot of money Even though many executives know this already, they feel like having an employee wellness offering is necessary for their brand. Since other companies offer it, they do it as well. It's kind of like "keeping up with the Joneses," corporate-style. Here's why corporate wellness programs don't work, and some thoughts to consider about what might. Recent Study: Effect of a Workplace Wellness Program on Employee Health and Economic OutcomesCorporate Wellness Clinical TrialDisappointing ResultsWhy Don’t Corporate Wellness Programs Work?1. Health and Fitness Isn’t A Foundation Of Company Culture2. Incentives Don't Inspire Action3. Wellness is Weak4. Lack of Employee AccountabilityWhat's The Right Answer For Improving Workplace Wellness? Recent Study: Effect of a Workplace Wellness Program on Employee Health and Economic Outcomes Zirui Song and Katherine Baicker published the results of a recent clinical study in the Journal of The American Medical Association. It's titled Effect of a Workplace Wellness Program on Employee Health and Economic Outcomes. The full paper and related study details is 123 pages. Not as long as the Meueller report on President Trump, but similar in its findings. Where the Meueller report found no evidence of collusion with Russia, Song and Baicker found no evidence of health benefits from an employee wellness program. Corporate Wellness Clinical Trial In the study, Wellness Workdays provided corporate wellness services to a portion of BJ’s Wholesale Club employees who were insured by Cigna. In all, just over 4000 employees were part of the “treatment” group, and another 4000 at other locations served as the control group. The offerings were pretty standard in the corporate wellness space: Personal health assessmentsIn-person screeningsEducational modules on nutrition, weight loss, cardiovascular health, stress management, and exercise, usually led by a registered dietitian. Employees were incentivized with $25-$50 gift cards for completion of various modules. In all, 35% of the employees participated in at least one educational module. Of those who completed one module, 61% completed three or more. I'm sure Wellness Workdays, BJs and Cigna all hoped for a positive outcome from the study. It would have made for great marketing. That's not how things worked out, though. Disappointing Results In the end, those who participated in the corporate wellness program faired no better in measurable health outcomeshealthcare spendingmedication costs Most fascinating to me, though, was that participants' perception was that their health improved, even though it didn't. United Healthcare came to similar conclusions in a 2017 survey. They found that 60% of employees who had access to a corporate wellness program believed the program had a positive impact on their health, even though the programs don't have much of an impact on health. When it comes to making healthier choices, our brains have a funny way of believing we're doing better than we actually are. Of course, some corporate wellness companies will look at the results of the study ...

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Wholesale Club discounts, Park ticket pricing, and Topic Stew (Ingredients: Rider switch, Airline credits & refunds). Thanks for listening! Twitter/Instagram/Periscope @backsideofmagic Facebook www.facebook.com/backsideofmagic Leave us a message: 920-322-5587 To read archived show notes or leave us a widget message visit our blog at www.backsideofmagic.com

You do what you can to get those Free Samples!

BJ’s Wholesale Club is up 50% from its June IPO, with investors encouraged by improving growth and profitability trends. But BJ’s large rival sets a high bar for the industry. We also look at Calavo Growers, which has delivered incredible long-term returns thanks to its main staple - avocados. Stocks: CVGW, BJ, COST

Nike hits an all-time high. Bed Bath & Beyond flounders, as BJ’s Wholesale Club has a surprisingly strong IPO. Amazon moves in on the pharmacy business. McCormick serves up a spicy quarter. And the SEC has a few questions for National Beverage. Jason Moser, Ron Gross, and Matt Argersinger analyze those stories and share why they’ve got their eyes on Lam Research, Snap, and Delta Airlines. Plus, David Gardner reflects on the 25th anniversary of The Motley Fool and shares a few stocks on his radar. Thanks to Blooom for supporting Motley Fool Money. Get a month free with blooom401k.com/fool and use the promo code “fool”.

BJ’s Wholesale Club has 215 stores in 16 states and sells more fresh food per member than any of its club store competitors. CEO Chris Baldwin says his company’s 5 million members shop there frequently and that BJ’s offers them immense value. In this episode, Baldwin discusses what keeps the company competitive in a rapidly changing industry.

EP095- Listener Questions and Amazon Earnings http://jasonandscot.com Amazon Q2 2017 Earnings Summary (PDF from Amazon) Amazon reported a beat on revenue but a miss on earnings Revenue came in at $37.96 billion, beating street estimates of $37.18 billion. EPS was only 40 cents per share, missing street estimates of $1.42 per share. Listener Questions Kiri Masters: I'd love to hear Jason and Scot talk about their global e-commerce outlook. Amazon in particular seems keen to expand aggressively in international markets. Does the growth opportunities match the regulatory / operational complexity for brands? Interested to get your take. Josh Tarasoff: Hi Jason and Scot--What is your take on Amazon's strategy behind buying products at full retail price from marketplace sellers? Here is an article: http://www.cnbc.com/.../amazon-new-fba-program-buys.... Thank you. I love the show. Anup Gosavi Hey guys... love your show. Would love to see your take on when/ if brands will be active on messaging platforms like Messenger, Kik. etc. Is it actually a better channel than email? Is there a signal in all that noise? Opportunities/ risks etc. Thanks! Lauren Quaile Tonkin: I'd love your thoughts on autoreplenishment. Why have other retailers not adopted this tactic broadly (beyond Amazon and Target)? Do autoreplenishment models differ globally? What non-intuitive products/categories do you think can benefit from an autoreplenishment strategy? Thank you! Keep up the great work. Ben Kates: off-price retail offline and online Gareth Hanes (in uk): Hi Jason & Scott, enjoying your podcasts from "the other side of the pond" in the UK. I would be interested in your take on the recent (in the UK anyway) growth of products sold on Amazon by Chinese 3P merchants (presumably manufacturers) using FBA. I have noticed transformational changes in some product groups where new SKUs and brands have gained strong traction very quickly (propelled forward by a combination of agressive pricing, AMS & FBA). There's been a lot of talk on your podcasts about Amazon "own label", but this "manufacturer to consumer" model would appear to be a much more of a imminent threat to incumbent domestic brand owners. Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 95 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday July 27, 2017. Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. New beta feature - Google Automated Transcription of the show Transcript Jason: [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 95 being recorded on Thursday July 27th. 2017 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your co-host Scott Wingo. Scot: [0:40] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason and Scott show listeners Jason imma. I haven't been traveling a lot lately but I think you have been zipping around for you you've kind of been hanging around the coast update listeners on your many travels. Jason: [0:56] Yeah I have been bicoastal this week's. I spent most of the week in my ancestral hometown of San Diego California, I was there for interact Tech which is a great smaller event that the internet puts on every year so that's some. Originally designed for CTO that sort of expanded to include the CMO Council and the digital Council so we had a. A fun couple days of a networking and content there and I got to lead to Workshop which was fun. It was for me probably not for any of the attendees and then flew to New York today to do a workshop with a card tomorrow. Scot: [1:37] Awesome yet so just racking up the miles going to join the eight million Mile Club Pearson. Jason: [1:43] I'm happy to report I hope to never achieve 8 million miles but I do have quite a few and I did get to visit I got to check off another Amazon bookstore on my West cuz there's one in University Town Center in San Diego. Scot: [1:58] Cool so give us a quick update on that and then what was the buzz it in RF take anything that listener should know about. Jason: [2:05] Usher so the the Amazon bookstore like. [2:09] Is not very interesting it was the second one they opened and it's a smaller footprint so it's basically. [2:18] Today in equivalents at our offerings to the. [2:21] The Seattle won that bet in West base so you not if you've been to another Amazon bookstore you don't need to go out of your way to see this one is that mentioned before the. The one in my hometown in Chicago appears to be, the most advanced with the with the coffee shop and a broader assortment of products than any of the other which is sort of interesting. Scot: [2:42] Did you try to return a random Amazon product like you're like you're freaking leader. Jason: [2:47] Because I was traveling for 8 days in a two-day overnight bag I did not have room to bring any test returns with me. [2:56] Yeah that's my shoes and I'm sticking to it but the check was good there was a lot of interesting speakers. [3:06] I definitely would say the theme of the show was preparing for the future and particularly overcoming risk aversion and not being afraid to fail and failing faster with sort of the. A recurring theme throughout the day. Scot: [3:23] So, gelatin and how do some of these 5200 or organizations crank up the the speed. Jason: [3:30] Exactly and I you don't I I think sometimes explicitly stated and sometimes kind of just implied, but you know I'll just leave the boogeyman for most of these these folks as Amazon and and they're particularly good at moving fast and innovating despite the fact that there. A large twenty-year-old company in so you know I feel like the the realization is hit a lot of folks that they have to find ways to be more. More agile and more forward-leaning than than the the innovator's dilemma with typically dictate. Scot: [4:03] And then what was your talk on. Jason: [4:05] So I actually did a workshop on that theme so I am. Presented sort of seven trends that I felt were sort of exponential growth Trends in the industry that would likely affect all of the. The attendees businesses and then I gave them some brainstorming tools that we use to be more forward-looking and sort of divorce ourselves from some of the, the Legacy thinking so I introduced them to a structure that was designed by a guy named Eddie to Bono called six hat thinking and so we went through a six hat thinking brainstorming exercise where we fired everyone from their current companies and had them all work for a new grocery retailer trying to invent a new customer experience in the US, to compete with Amazon Whole Foods. Scot: [4:52] Cool we should do a deep dive on the so don't say too much let's leave listeners just kind of guessing my my big question is did you really wear 6 haven't set a time. Jason: [5:01] Note that when we talk on the thing what you want is you only get to wear one handed a time that's that's the beauty of the the system. Scot: [5:11] So we won't tell listeners why it's called six hats so leave that is as I'm sure they're on the edge of their seat right now. Jason: [5:18] Cliffhanger. Scot: [5:19] What we have a jam-packed show tonight so let's jump into it so the two big topics number one is earlier today Amazon release their earnings for the second quarter and hot take on that and then we have listened or questions it's been quite a while since we did listen to questions we put the call out, and I'm excited report we we have a lot of listen to questions I'm not sure we're going to be able to get to them so let's kick it off with Amazon news which is our hot take on earnings. [6:04] Yeah so today. [6:07] Amazon came out with their Q2 earnings they're usually one of the later companies to report in our world so we already heard from eBay already heard from Google and Facebook and Twitter just kind of summarize those guys eBay was Steady As She Goes. Google did did relatively well the stock was off a little bit. They paid clicks were up but they face somatization challenges that that people kind of scratching her head about a lot of people worried maybe they're just getting a lot of klicks from YouTube that aren't monetizing very well-off out loud concerns over mobile and then, let's see Facebook crushed earnings on every measurable kind of thing they hit some new all-time highs Twitter's results for kind of man you know they're really struggling to add new users so that's kind of the setup is kind of you know. Mixed bad coming into Amazon so let's go through that so. The Top Line got to looking at Revenue that I came in at 38 billion and that topped Wall Street expectations pretty handily and represents 26% year-over-year growth and just remind listeners e-commerce is growing at 15%, and here you have Amazon just kind of pretty easily doubling that. [7:19] Nothing that I was have to remind myself with this quarter is it does not include Prime Dave so Prime day will actually fall into the Q3 results so. So this is this is pretty nice that represents a bit of an acceleration kind of from last quarter so you know Amazon would what amazes me is. [7:38] They seem to defy the rule of large numbers and what kind of talk what about Wyatt a minute that you have to be 38 billion and still posting these kinds of growth numbers is is. Pretty impressive. As you peel the onion on the revenue side North America Revenue was the cause of the reacceleration in that grew 27%. [7:59] There were some concerns about the cloud computing which is AWS because Microsoft had reported a strong quarter there a dubious has been lowering their prices as they kind of compete out in the world with with kind of the commodity storage and things, and AWS topped expectations so people are excited about that International had some currency headwinds but when you take those out it also had a nice showing. Things I watch closely are some of the non-gaap measures so third-party seller Services which is its own Revenue line item now. Groove 40%. [8:33] I should say little footnote for those of you that have followed my Amazon analysis for a while that used to break out media egm and other and they stop doing that unfortunately so. I can no longer kind of see how that egm pieces doing that's always going to want things I really enjoyed I do think this third-party seller service metric now is probably a proxy for that because most third-party sellers are in a GM. So that grew 40% so again you know almost three times the pace of e-commerce which is pretty amazing, third-party as a percentage of units hit a new high water mark of 51% that's the highest that's ever been so the third party Marketplace I know we have a lot of listeners that are either brands that do hybrid or are there are third-party sellers, retailers very healthy growth there. [9:22] The another new segment that Amazon introduced this year in the first quarter that we're now starting to see some Trends on is called retail subscription services, and that's essentially revenue from Prime and Dad grew 53% which the Wall Street notes will come out tomorrow I think we're going to see. People against before Prime day which I think had you know they said record signups I think we're going to see people touch up their number of prime subscribers based on this I think I think. [9:49] Egg while she may have underestimated how many prime subscribers kind of added in the quarter so so that'll be interesting to watch and will report on that, another area I look at is paid unit growth so this is just took kind of a, measure of volume that was up 27% year-over-year and that's its highest level since Q3 of 16 so it's really interesting reacceleration at Amazon going on and that's you know I think if you kind of. [10:16] You think about how Wall Street thinks about that was all super positive the one thing that kind of freak Wall Street out a little bit and this happens. Every cycle with Amazon is they start to show some profit and they reinvest and then a certain set of investors freak out about that. So that's on the bottom line on the expense side so while she was looking for just over billion dollar in in gap profit, and it actually came out to be 600 million so kind of half of what folks are looking for earnings per share that translates into earnings per share of $0.40 while she was expecting like a buck 40 so you'll see this headline to know that. Amazon misses bottom line by you know 77% that kind of thing that's certainly true. But you know when you when you beat revenue and Miss on earnings usually kind of implies some level investment inside of their and. [11:10] We'll see that we'll talk about that in a second and then the thing we. You know yo big public is very much of what have you done for me lately kind of thing it's really, maybe 20% about the quarterly reporting 80% about the next quarter what they're talking about so at Amazon updated their guidance for Q3 and the projected revenues between 39 and about 42 billion which implies, a bracket of 20 to 28% year-over-year growth 24% at the midpoint Amazon has a pretty good history at kind of beating that just like they did this quarter or coming in right at the top of that guy that's so that. That was as kind of that exceeded wall Street's kind of previous thinking about Q3 but where they did not exceed are they contact. Missed where while she was thinking is when they projected the bottom line into next quarter Wall Street was thinking about 950 million and Amazon said no it's me arrange of - 400 million - 300. [12:09] So this is going to raise those questions you and I hear a lot about in Amazon's not profitable it's not fair we just have to kind of wait for them to wash it to wake up. [12:19] And you again. Stock after hours was down 30 or $40 which feels like a lot but you have to remember Amazon is an $1,000 stock Club so that's only a couple points. And I think what we'll see tomorrow it'll be interesting you know it's hard to guess how lost react but I think we'll actually see. [12:40] The set of investors that care about growth and market-share what kind of overcome the industrious that are focused on profitability. [12:48] Last point on profitability Amazon really does not optimized for any of those things I just talked about they optimized for Revenue growth in market share and then. Cash flow and what happens is always accounting rules kind of. Bend that as you report this thing's so just kind of give you some numbers for the quarter Amazon had 17.8 billion dollars of operating cash flow and then 8.2 billion of that goes property equipment in R&D, so that's kind of what's Happening Here is the way I think about it is. [13:22] Amazon where to stop investing for the future and so let's just come. Play that off they wouldn't be making these kinds of Investments and you would have seen no a big chunk of the 17 billion flow to the bottom line. What they're doing is they're investing in R&D they're building fulfillment centers in her building data centers does does your kind of the three biggest legs of investment so for example another four billion went to pay for Lisa's so that's fulfillment centers and then invested another four billion in, new releases in equipment so so you know. [13:58] The losses that you see the way I would argue it and I think a retailer should think about this Wall Street it's kind of Ena. Don't think Howard I think these losses actually are not from the current business is kind of his F you know they're they're making. [14:14] Good investment for an Indies levels you think about the levels I just talked about that's the level of their investing in so so pretty crazy levels investment. Jason: [14:23] Yeah absolutely and you know I tend to think of it pretty simply if they if their profits were going down because their cost of goods were going up or some, some operating expense that was directly related to their sales this quarter were dramatically going up like shipping went way up as a percentage of sales or something like that like then. That would be indicative of a problem in their business model but when they're their profit isn't High because they're investing in, things that are likely to have a much higher future value like capacity or subscribers. [14:59] Like that that's that that's a whole different equation in my mind. Scot: [15:04] Yeah absolutely into that point I didn't talk about it but gross margins were real. About that been relatively the same for the last year or so you know the cost of goods are pretty are very stable and then, this is kind of like in the weed so I'll just kind of leave it as something if listeners are interested Amazon does report kind of segments in then that gives you a little bit better view of how profitable is each business unit if you strip some of this investment out they call it, CSI which I think stands for I know it's segment operating income I forget what the C is for, but they kind of report on retail AWS and that customer segment operating income I think it is that's a really interesting metric if you if you're if you want to get super geeky on this stuff and you have to really dig into their SEC documents their q and in her case can I get that, but it is a Consolidated segment operating income at the kiddos said look for CSI and I think. [16:05] I always find that is a really interesting few that strips out a lot of the things like you know RS use and non-cash pieces and a lot of the accounting stuff that kind of gives you a hard makes it hard to see what's going on inside of their. Jason: [16:19] Yeah I'm I still run into it all the time that you know I hear from some particular from retailers but you know others that oh man Amazon has good at growing Revenue but they but they're not profitable and of course. That just factually untrue and. It was even on Truth escort or even though it was a somewhat down quarter versus Wall Street expectations and then the one of here even more commonly is. [16:44] Only AWS is profitable so were you to take out AWS they they wouldn't be a viable business. Scot: [16:50] Yeah and the CSO actually proves that wrong so it does show AWS is profitable but it also talks about, not combines retail and 3p and it I believe it does a, domestic non-domestic in both of those domestics profitable Internationals losing a little bit on but you can see it's on a path to get there and it's kind of been chewing away at it over time so yeah you know that that's those are just kind of factually wrong Sue. Yeah I guess and NF. Amazon secretly loves it when people think that because they did you know that is not true and they they love misinformation kind of things like that that people are not watching the right. Part of them the ball here to to keep up with it when one thing is happened and we called it here on the Jason Scott show, as the stock has kind of held over $1,000 is kind of in the, thousand $10,020 range so things have happened out there and with Berkshire Hathaway and Microsoft stock and whatnot and the end result is by at least I've read into sources now CNBC in Fortune Bezos is the most rich person in the world at 90 billion dollars so so congrats Jeff whenever you're a big listener so, big pat on the back for that and yeah we know congratulations. Jason: [18:10] Pour yourself a drink with that top shelf a beverage of your choice. Scot: [18:14] Boom get a Diet Coke go crazy. Jason: [18:16] Exactly other I do things gotta actually read that that he hit that Peak based on the stock having a nice little uptick before the earnings were now it's because the, that anticipation was that it was going to be a good quarter, and then I think after the announcement that the stock actually corrected a little bit and I think you might have slipped back under Bill Gates for the time being. Scot: [18:38] Yes it gets it like 10:20 to 10:25 somewhere in there so I'm sure he probably doesn't care what's another. Jason: [18:46] I think if you really cared you would have skipped a year of space exploration and you'd be there. Scot: [18:53] Cool so that's our hot take on Amazon's earnings for Q2 and and if the way I would summarize it is. I think it was really strong and they are just pouring more money into Investments and they're very profitable lots of free cash flow that they are just spending as rapidly as they can into. Things that I think are pretty. Conservative that are going to pay off for them another fulfillment center Prime now launching in Australia launching in Singapore all these things are our kind of no-brainers. [19:28] Soup that is Amazon news and now it is time for. [19:43] Question question question. [19:50] Who's the first wanted to thank all our listeners to most of these come from our Facebook page so as reminder if you just go to Facebook and the search for Jason and Scott show you will be taking there, or if you go to Jason and Scott. we have links to Facebook page there and it's Scott with 1T so our first question Jason comes from Curie Masters so it's also say a blanket statement of I apologize if I say Jason right I say your name wrong, security says I'd love to hear Jason Scott talk about their Global e-commerce out, Amazon in particular seems Keen to expand aggressively in international markets does the growth opportunities matched regulatory operational complexity for Brands interested on your take. Jason: [20:34] Yeah so that that's a great question carry like at a high-level like you know I think certainly we're all bullish about. International e-commerce growth so just kind of. The level set this is a milestone year in 2017 globally e-commerce will surpass 10% of all retail sales across the globe so, we can I hit that inflection point worldwide and Global e-commerce growth is about 23% so even Scott mentioned earlier, we're in one of the more developed markets here in North America and its about 15% so so the worldwide growth prospects are certainly higher. [21:12] But your your question sort of implies the real trick to all of this is you know in those markets where there is considerable growth. [21:23] Is it cost-effective to see that growth either because of the. The individual complexities of those markets it because of language and Logistics in in those sorts of things and in particularly is the growth opportunity constrained. [21:37] That because of rigor Tori issues right and so you know that's the. The sort of equation you have to apply but certainly I think the the conventional wisdom is you know that the super exciting market for most. [21:51] Folks at the moment is India and you know to kind of put that in perspective. In North America about 75% of all the consumers that have access to the internet or online Shoppers in fact I think it's like 76% in Asia. [22:09] It's closer to 2:50 or 60% of of all users. That have internet access are shopping online but where it gets interesting is in North America the overwhelming majority of all users have internet access in Asia only about half of all users have internet access so when you look at. [22:31] The percentage of the total population that are shopping online you don't in in North America where about 65% in Asia were at 25%, so India in particular is even a little lower than that and has a huge population so you have a huge population you have an emerging middle class. And you have very low penetration at the moment so those are certainly. You know all the the favorable characteristics that have caused a lot of big International companies to come in and make big bets in it in India which is why it's. Kind of the the global e-commerce Battleground right now and as you've directly pointed out there some, challenging Logistics and Regulatory environment that make it difficult for for businesses Amazon in particular to sort of. Completely replicate their their North American model in India so so that's that's the barrier. Scot: [23:27] Yeah and um. So I'll specifically can't talk to Amazon a little bit I'm not an expert on regulatory issues but you know so Amazon is growth strategy has been, is it interesting so they start in the US and then they did Europe and then they, the only time Amazon has not kind of. [23:50] Really focused and become number one is China and if anything in China I think they're like number four or five which is pretty interesting and I think they've learned a lot from that experience I think they they realize that. [24:05] They have to really adaptive local market and build a team and maybe acquire a company and, just kind of be more Nimble than they had been since the China was a real big learning and and ever since then you know they have when they going on Market they go guns blazing and, to Jason's Point India seems to be that's really interesting Battle Ground right now between all the big. Global e-commerce companies so so Amazon got a bit of a late start because there is some some regulatory things they had to cross over and India and they. They can only open the third party Marketplace are they Amazon still does not retail so there's some kind of protectionist law that you can't afford company can't be a retailer and India so so you had. [24:50] Flipkart and Snapdeal as kind of the incumbents local companies and then Amazon dinner and they started taking sure then what's happened is Alibaba and eBay of each continent. Southside Bank in so he's really big players have kind of bolstered those anti Amazon companies so Amazon is is, pretty publicly said they can spend billions of dollars in India there's something like I tracked us pretty close 15 to 20 fulfillment centers they're building Justin India so there. Derp derp pretty much betting that the Playbook of getting product close to Consumers can be really important India because it is a very large country. No what is a six billion people in the Diaz Harrison. Jason: [25:34] Yeah I think that sounds about right no maybe like 3 billion. Scot: [25:39] Maybe China sex so. So you have a very populous country spread out lots of cities lots of different ways not a really great career system or delivery system, like a FedEx UPS USPS so I think Amazon is really investing in that so it's been interesting to kind of watch in and they know they've been way more aggressive there than they, did when we went to China I think day and when I read the tea leaves I think they kind of regret not being more aggressive in China and Android building that out better and they got kind of beat by JD with a 1p model and Alibaba other 3p model. [26:12] What kind of stick to Asia pack there they that's been where they've been investing for last 3 years they haven't been, expanding much but now we're starting to hear they're definitely opening Singapore and then Australia and so it's interesting to see them kind of pick up those countries, then just a reminder they did a choir a the top Marketplace in the Middle East called souq souq. Jason: [26:42] Yep exactly. Scot: [26:44] And that's a pretty big market place I think it was like 2 to 5 billion and GMP which is pretty sizable and, that's going to pick up you know Saudi Arabia Qatar Kuwait some of the Middle East countries there and it's a lot like mercadolibre we've had on the show or it's kind of a family of little local marketplaces it's not kind of. Homogeneous Marketplace it's kind of every country has its own rules and regulations and language and currency and careers so they kind of like have built that in each country in the Middle East and then they. Did you have some glue that kind of combines it together so some cross-border trade kind of things payment platform that I think is is kind of somewhere across there and that kind of a thing so so for that gives you a flavor for Amazon is and then the last one I'll talk about is, kind of something America so, so Amazon so South America for long time was one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets yes you would have China so Jason was talking about, Jason did you say Global at 23 or 25. Jason: [27:53] 25 Scot: [27:54] Cuz I didn't you used to see Brazil kind of this 35-40 and China kind of like maybe it 2830 Brazil has come down pretty considerably because just politically rest in the country also have right next door is Venezuela is kind of Hit the skids, do the some currency devaluation things going on there so loud political and currency things in the South American countries have caused the Slowdown I believe in we had mercadolibre, on the show they were talking about kind of 25 28% growth that they were seeing so that used to be like the fastest grower and I think China has kind of supplanted that that kind of what your data shows Jason. Jason: [28:36] Yeah and I I would say like so. Latam is kind of right in between Asia and North America in terms of digital Shopper penetration so there is a lot of Headroom there but is you you rightly pointed out it, it's actually a lot more fragmented so while you can kind of you know list ones q and and reach all in India. You know you you are what you really need to do is West as you know a separate skew and in each country in Latin America are the Middle East which make the the logistics a lot more challenging. Scot: [29:08] Yeah and I've never had the pleasure of meeting Carrie but I see from her LinkedIn that she she always Brands sell on Amazon and other places and you know when when I talked to brands in the US about this. [29:22] It's interesting so. [29:24] Two years ago plus they were they were obsessed with China and like what's our China strategy and I've seen the last 18 months that has cooled down and it's very much. What's my direct consumer strategy what's my Amazon us strategy, so I think I think that people have pulled back a lot on this kind of global international thing because they are feeling the heat in their home market and there's this is us Brands I'm talking about, so You know for those brands that aren't concerned about that you know where where we see a typical road map is let's see it to us brand they starting to us the natural place to go is the UK because you don't typically have a language in Madera, it's a very kind of us feeling kind of a country obviously and then you'll see some expansion into Europe usually Germany and France being kind of the next biggest e-commerce markets. [30:15] We have a lot of customers a challenge to do really well in Australia Australia is kind of an easy box to take off its English-speaking and is very friendly to Imports and, there is a lot of infrastructure out there for supporting these countries so there's a lot of lot of the marketplace provider so eBay has a really excellent program around this so does Amazon, around global Shipping say allow you to they'll take care of lot of this operational kind of complexity you talk about where you can have a crawl walk run metaphor so, eBay brand program for example you start out like let's say you're a US company and you want to start selling into eBay Germany, you can just kind of set a flag that says I want my part to show up on eBay Germany they'll actually translate it for you using a Google translate consumers there can see it the order it and then you'll get an order that just shipped to the US and does it reshipping, that's that's nice because you can kind of test the waters without having to make huge Investments Santa Crawl part then is what we say to folks is as you see that volume take up it's not the best customer experience so really kind of go to that next level of customer experience you need to start kind of shipping pallets over to, the destination country and selling in more of a localized way that's the walk and then run is when you, you know you actually kind of maybe create a store footprint or a fulfillment footprint actually put bodies over there answering questions of that kind of thing and that's the run so we sit up that model work really well for both small and medium-sized retailers as well as Brands and. [31:46] I think we'll see more and more of those kind of solutions that come out to really help everyone kind of, peel this cross-border trade peace and understand how you selling these International markets. Jason: [31:57] And I'll just head one one points and Scott and I both won't geography China has about like 1.35 billion people in India has about 1.3 billion so there, they're the two most populous countries in together they're almost three billion which is. Scot: [32:13] Yeah there's like eight billion people on the planet. Jason: [32:15] Exactly. [32:18] But so yes I think that that that's a great answer to carries question the next question came from Josh tarasoff and Josh wanted to know what our take is on Amazon strategy, behind buying products at full retail price for Marketplace Sellers and he gave us a link to CNBC article talking about this this new deal. Scot: [32:43] Yeah and this is kind of a little bit of a head-scratcher and as I've talked to a lot of sellers are concerned about this because, the way it was announced was just kind of like Amazon didn't exactly say why this kind of said hey you know you have some product and FBA and you may see. Amazon.com is the buyer which kind of people like what what's that mean so what I think's Happening Here is. Yo again these global Shipping program let me kind of explain how eBay does this so a seller on eBay. [33:18] If you don't opt out of it they will actually. Up to your default opted into that global Shipping program I was talking about I think that's what Amazon is doing because what they want to do is when they pick a new country but this is true for any country but when they ruined Australia. They want to show as broad assortment as possible and people and I'll show you love Western Goods so this this program will allow Amazon to say to people in Australia. Look we have you know 30 million products that that are available to come into your country, versus if they did do that then maybe it's a million or two million that they would kind of host, so they would still have a million to 2 million local and then like another 28 million that are kind of cross-border trade that could be shipped from the US, that gives that gives them this kind of I would call the backfill strategy so it gives them this perception of lots of selection. Using cross-border trade as a back film then let's do it lead you do is so imagine people start buying from. The cotton country in the outer country product they can very quickly learn from that and say oh. [34:23] These widgets are very popular in Australia let's kind of source them local or let's get pallets instead of each is from the u.s. FBA let's work with Our Brands and sellers to kind of say hey. Hey mister customer your widgets are really popular in Australia that was kind of wrap this up so that's what I believe is going on it's easy to kind of make it seem more nefarious and Jason turn over to you for that Park. Jason: [34:52] Yeah though I have to say I have a slightly dishonor different understanding of what's happening so be interesting maybe there's a little both happening but I've talked to a few 3-piece Sellers and it was less than automatic. To the program that you had to opt out of and more it was an offer to opt into a one-time transaction. [35:14] And so like what these sellers were told as hey you have an inventory that you're selling 3p in North America. We want to buy that inventory from you one time so that those listings will go away in North America cuz you'll no longer have the product to sell and we're going to take ownership of that inventory and sell it in another country and so it was basically an offer. [35:38] From Amazon to the seller to buy their inventory so that Amazon could resell it and they were offering to buy at at at. [35:46] Full ask price from the seller and how I interpreted that is. That they were looking to buy inventory to fill in brands or products that they were missing in some of the new markets that they're entering like Australia for example. [36:04] Interview if you think back to the early days of toys and Amazon you remember they originally had a deal with Toys R Us Toys R Us to the famous we pulled out of the deal. Right before holiday would you have to Amazon in a bad spot and Amazon actually sent a bunch of employees to go in the retail stores. Buy toys at full pop and put them on the market place so that the customers would be able to buy toys from Amazon and that really kicked off Amazon's. [36:32] Foray into the toy space in so I look at this this 3p thing and I said hey Amazons. Doing the same thing in new markets today only they now have a convenience they didn't have back then they don't have to walk in the stores and buy products, have a bunch of sellers in their own Echo systems that are they have products in their warehouses so they just go to those guys and say hey do you want to sell me your inventory if you do great I'll buy it. [36:56] I'll sell them in another Market you know in the long run I'm certainly going to look to get them more efficient supply chain but but as a way to get started I will do that. There's nothing wrong or nefarious about doing that but what what does happen is there a few brands that three-piece Cellars. Are selling on the marketplace the do not want Amazon to be able to sell them in and most famously, these days that would be Birkenstock and so Birkenstock had a number of, of authorized resellers that were selling their products on Amazon is 3p and they got letters from Amazon saying he will buy your inventory and resell it. And the Birkenstock CEO reacted very badly to that he sent out a very dire letter saying you know any retailer that sells even one pair of shoes to Amazon to allow them to resell will never sell Birkenstock again and he, he called it Amazon's attempted modern-day piracy and and you know there's a pretty pretty lengthy article about it in Washington Post, which is I guess somewhat ironic since it's paper owned by Jeff Bezos and will put a link to that in the show notes. Scot: [38:10] So our next question comes from a nuke goes off in a noob says hey guys I love your show so Anup obviously has, impeccable taste and yeah where was he says we would love to see your take on when if Brands will be active on messaging platforms like Facebook messenger Kik Etc is it a better Channel than email is there any kind of signal in the noise where do the opportunities risk thanks. Jason: [38:39] Great question on oops so it it depends a little bit on the parameters of what you're asking so when you know you mentioned, Brands being active which is different than brand selling stuff on these platforms and you predominately named platforms that are. They're pretty prevalent in North America although kick kick has a more Global footprint. [39:06] The answer varies widely depending on your geography so obviously we talk a lot about we chat, in China being you don't Super Active platform for brands, there are millions of sponsored accounts on on WeChat kakow chat and other parts of Asia like Korea is very popular and a ton of brands or have are active on that here in North America although messenger has a billion users you know we only see about 30,000 Brands active on it right now which like compared to Lee isn't a lot, and that's really because the the platforms that are most prevalent in North America like, messenger Snapchat Instagram historically haven't had the best tools for Brands so the advertising tools have been kind of poor and those are rapidly improving which. Makes me think we'll see Brands using those platforms more as an advertising vehicle and then the Commerce tools are still very poor and what we what we just painfully lack in North America is a. Universally adopted digital wallet that enables you no friction full free transaction on all these platforms so when you look at what the big difference between WeChat is and Facebook Messenger, it's really, that we chat has 10 since digital wallet built into it and it makes it really easy to do a transaction right in the platform and we don't we don't have that on Facebook Messenger today. [40:35] And so I do I guess you know roll all that up we are starting to see brands use those platforms more, more degree brands that are very Visual and that are using like Snapchat and Instagram as a discovery platform, all the platforms are rolling out better advertising tools they're rolling up better self-service tools and their ruling out visual search tools like the Pinterest new lands feature for example and those all lend themselves to do. The platform's Becoming better product Discovery platforms so I do think we're going to see progress but I don't think we're going to see anything like, the adoption of WeChat in China unless and until we get a universally-accepted digital wallet. [41:21] So I would just add one more thing, these could all be good tools for your mix but at the moment none of them are going to give you an Roi anything close to email which is you know still a great bang for the buck. Scot: [41:32] Yeah I totally agree and we talked about it a lot and our annual predictions and you know I think. Everyone every us company wants that China mild work here in an in it just hasn't kind of. Taking it I don't know if it's even if we had a lot I'm just not sure consumer behaviour the same so it's going to be really interesting to watch that play out I wouldn't count it out yet because you know you have some really serious multi-billion-dollar companies kind of playing this it is interesting, kind of a dark horse in this is Amazon so they we mentioned this in summer Amazon news last episode so they've got theirs a lot of rumors that they have a messaging platform in the works. I have to believe that would enough. If I think of what would Amazon do to make their messaging platform different I think buying stuff would be the one thing that other thing I would think would be kind of unified Echo, and text chat kind of you know, kind of hook up maybe pretty resting so let's kind of see what they come out with and then also as a reminder they came out with I want to call it. Sprint's but Sparks I guess is there a kind of. Pinterest e instagrami product oriented kind of think so so Amazon is the first e-commerce company to take a shot of this so that could be a different take but I do think there's a lot of headwinds there. Nothing I would draw your attention to that's an interesting case study is, the the retailer everlane came out and they were kind of the poster child for this and they've been lockstep with Facebook the integrated everything they did the transaction notifications they did the wallet they've done all that stuff and then in March of this year they actually announced they were just going to end a life that so I think you know. [43:15] I think that we went to a hype cycle there and we're definitely in the trough of disillusionment kind of phase I don't know if we going to make it out of that truck or not. Jason: [43:24] Yeah it's going to be interesting to watch I tend to be bullish but I think you it could be really risky to overestimate the timing so, you know what remains to be seen like how quickly it's adopted, and I guess I would add just one of the point I have seen some interesting new pilots including one by I think Adidas with a really trying to. [43:48] Use SMS as that that sort of transactional platform, and add the ability to do auto reorders and things like that using SMS witches sort of interesting cuz that can be well or friction than some of these other platforms. [44:05] So let's go to the next question which is from Lauren Tonkin and Lauren right side love your thoughts on auto replenishment, why have other retailers not adopted this tactic probably Beyond Amazon at Target. Do auto replenishment models differ globally what non-intuitive product categories do you think him venefit from the NADA replenishment strategy thank you keep up the great work Jason the sky. Scot: [44:33] Fix another person with a great taste I have to say Jason let me let me kind of. Paying this off of you so we make sure to talk about the same thing so when I think about Auto replenishment it is. There's kind of nuance here so Amazon free sample has subscribe and Save which is a hard I want to subscribe to this Auto replenishment to me means the platform saying to you, hey Jason you ordered toothpaste 30 days ago is this a good time do you want to go ahead and order more is that kind of how you think about it or do you want them all together. Jason: [45:06] No I think about exactly how you do I think there's two tears and implied in Laurens question is when she says Auto replenishment I think she's actually, initially talking about subscriptions because she references Amazon and Target and you know Target does support subscriptions but not through Auto replenishment, and and your point like you know I think the Step Beyond subscriptions is this entirely implicit process where the stuff just shows up. Scot: [45:34] Yeah and it's too kind of background things to answer this question in number 1 full disclosure I'm on the board of a company here in Research Triangle Park called Windows Circle and their whole thing is applying data science machine learning to transactional data retailers to cut a fine replenishable products so it's actually know a fair amount of this and then I would also Point folks to, the excellent Deep dive Jason let us onto machine learning this is a great way the other, to leverage machine learning so this is obvious right so. Dog food any replenishable kind of a consumable product is going to have a certain period of time and it's done. Other ones are harder to tell so it's harder to tell the duration like even dog food you know I you know I may have a dog that only eats one cup versus Jason's dog eats two cups we all know MacGyver loves to stuff it and. And then also another good example is maybe batteries because maybe person a has six kids and they just. Turn two batteries like crazy person be being doesn't burn two batteries that much of This Is War Machine learning is, nursing because it can look at that transactional data at a very personalized level and say you know this. This customer is seems to be replenishing on this product on this level let's automate that for them. Or maybe even surfacing it up to that that top to your of subscribe and save I do think it is very interesting. [47:04] I think Why are retailers not really kind of attacking it I think when retailers list the things they're going to move the needle for them, they are stuck at night number one into which typically and Jason you're more of an expert on this but whenever I talk to retailers they're obsessed with 3 platforming, so they spent a lot of time I just like choosing the platforms Andrey platforming and kind of doing that kind of stuff. And then there are spending a ton of time around omni-channel Integrations and these kinds of things and then you know like. Replenishment subscribe and save is like number four and five personalization maybe this number three so so my view is it just kind of like it's hard for your average top. 200 retailer to get to this to spend time on it so I'm curious to hear your thoughts Jason. Jason: [47:51] Yeah I do think one of the challenges is just the band with challenge that you know and he's big roadmaps if if it doesn't pencil out as that you know. First or second most valuable initiative it just hard to get bandwidth to get to it, but I do think there are some nuances I think the majority of subscription programs at the moment are pretty brain dead and tendon not work very well, so you know you think about a lot of these subscription services. Like a blue apron or Dollar Shave Club and after awhile you get behind you didn't cook all the food the Blue Apron sent you or you have an excess supply of razors and you get subscription fatigue and you turn it off and so we're left in North America with this irony there all these subscription-based businesses, Stitch fix Trunk Club. It started out as a recurring subscription in and they all have had to shift their model to not be automatic subscription because customers. In general just don't like receiving the product when they don't need them and so just sending stuff on a fixed schedule hasn't worked very well you know I do think. [49:00] An exception to that rule is the Prime Pantry and I think boxed is probably an exception to that rule in that regard but what we really. Like close to and just haven't seen enough good examples yet is the artificial intelligence based, replenishment witches I think more what's Scott's talking about an interested in and you know they're there certainly are some good examples of that we're doing a lot of work with Sephora which has a huge data set and, you can imagine you know everyone's use case for a Cosmetics as wildly different, and so it's not a matter of just figuring out that people need mascara on a monthly basis it's a matter of figuring out you know the individual usage patterns for for a particular consumer. And and predictively shipping for that consumers use case and so I do think that's going to be successful we're going to see more of that and then I would also say. Did to me the big the big picture here is instrumented Auto replenishment in you know and said this. Amazon has a little bit of this and what they called their Dash replenishment program but your you know your Canon. Inkjet printer that automatically orders ink when it knows it's running low or The Brita water filter that orders a new filter cartridge when it knows you should change the cartridge. Those are the today examples but you don't have to go too far in the future before I can virtually assure you that the, your toilet paper holder is going to count how many squares of toilet paper to use and know when you need more toilet paper in your house and you know you can imagine that Amazon Go technology that they're using in the store to see what products you put in the cart you can imagine that same technology being in your kitchen to know when you're running low on milk and you know so I think. [50:39] In the not-too-distant future the internet of things will be the trigger for a lot of these Auto replenishment orders in and when that happens we're projecting that about 40% of the skew used in the center of a grocery store, you know the people go shopping for the day and drive trips and causes serendipitous Discovery and all these other things are going to go away because about 40% of those goods you're just going to have magically show up at your house when you need them. Scot: [51:06] Yeah and there's kind of a news item here just recently Walmart filed a patent that would it was kind of like dash button but the products would order things themselves so there's there's a lot Innovation going around that area to be interesting to see that. Play out and see you know. Is consumers adopt that or not it's kind of like creepy when the milk kind of self their nose is empty and orders it for you I'm not really sure if if how folks are reactive. Next question is from Ben Cates and been really wanted to just kind of talk about our point of view of off-price retail both online and offline. Jason: [51:45] Yeah and that it's a tricky topic right now cuz it's, in North America off-price retailers in one of the few bright spots in brick-and-mortar retail so you look at the dollar stores you look at TJ Maxx and and there you know really one of the. The few growth areas in brick-and-mortar retail. You know obviously consumers are getting more price-sensitive and and that's become a super popular format in the challenge has been how to manifest that off price format, online Frank and you have sort of two problems when you get to these really you know inexpensive low-cost items like the things in a dollar store. The shipping becomes really challenging for e-commerce so that that's a you know the Majestics cost become a big impediment in Amazon parlance you know most of those items are crap items items you can't realize a profit and e-commerce on in the even bigger problem is, a big part of the shopping experience in these off-price stores is the treasure hunt it's that you don't know what you're going to find when you walk into the TJ Maxx and your you know hopefully going to find something that there's only one that's a great deal and it's really. Cost inefficient to, create a product detail page for that SKU you only have one of them and it sells super quickly and in many cases it just makes more sense to put that coat in a store then it does to. Put it online and so I would say the moment that the best off-price retailers are really struggling to figure out what the Digital model is I mean you know that. [53:17] TJ Max is in the Nordstrom Rack I'll have e-commerce sites but the. Assortment of product they sell in their e-commerce site is very different than the assortment they sell in the stores and the percentage of their sales that are online are much lower than a traditional apparel retailer for example. Scot: [53:36] Yeah I think I don't have a ton dad there there's a there's a chart maybe we can put it in the show notes that this kind of shows this disparity that that you have been kind of talks about here where, if you look at it just kind of physical retail the only things that are growing from a same-store sales are the dollar stores and the the warehouse clubs and, it's ironic because those actually don't translate to unlined very well no one is figure it out we've had boxed on the show I kind of put brandless in this bucket. Amazon Pantry figured out how do you bring that that Wholesale Club kind of an experience, bolt products and end up getting the unit volume unit cost down and butt by having you buy, large assortment some things no one's figured out how to bring that online and at the same time the guys that are really struggling offline are the the non off-price retail so if you're not a value-oriented or kind of a convenience oriented play right now that seems to be there studies that show this will have time to go into it but there's this kind of, bifurcation in the US by our Market where a pretty big segment loves value and they'll go to the TJ Maxx and they'll sort through every. Apparel item in there looking for a great deal so they have at Skyway I think about it as they're willing to spend a fair amount of time to save save money and they like that hunt and other side is convenience wanted so so I think's happening is the guys that are really struggling offline you know the ones we've reported on the Sports Authorities to Macy's the Sears guys closing stores. [55:06] Then really have value and they also don't have convenience so they kind of in this no man land where consumer behaviour changed and and I think the off-price guys have been very fortunate that they they are squarely in that value bucket. Jason: [55:21] Yeah I think that's absolutely right and I think there's there's one outlier there which we won't get into on the show but the affordable luxury is is one other bright spot and that's, mostly cosmetics in the form of Sephora and Ulta in North America but those guys are killing it, so if you need to make an investment right now that might be a place to walk. The moving on Gareth Haynes from the UK from across the pond sent us a great question enjoying your podcast from the other side of the pond I would be interested in your take on the recent in the UK anyway growth the product sold on Amazon, buy Chinese 3p Merchants which are presumably the manufacturers, using FBA and Garrett says I've noticed transformational changes and some product groups where new skus and brands of being strong traction very quickly, is propelled forward by a combination of aggressive pricing and supported by AMS NFPA. Scot: [56:19] Yeah this is this is very much in my wheelhouse and, this is huge said this is a massive Trend Amazon it's in Orson cuz you think Alibaba would solve this cuz all these guys are all about as customers but all he bothers so focused on, new Chinese manufacturer selling to Chinese consumer they've kind of dropped the ball on this they do have a platform caught AliExpress but it really hasn't gotten Traction in our Market or Europe it's very popular in in a couple other areas where e-commerce is underrepresented like Russia and what not, so when Amazon is done is. Yeah I would say two to three years ago they realize there's demand people like this product direct from China manufacturers what they don't like is the stuff takes you know when it gets shipped from the Chinese manufacturer. Honeycomb Core slow boat from China it literally is a slow boat from China it takes kind of four weeks to get here if you've ever bought anything from the marketplace wish you've experienced this. That's a fun Marketplace and have been all kinds it's the closest thing to a dollar store if you will kind of that his kind of nail dad and you know it's a great company they're growing but the. The downside is you order these things for three to five six bucks and they take 6 weeks to get here cuz they're coming from mainland China so so. In a world war addicted to Prime that feels like it takes a thousand years so it would Amazon cleverly did as they saw demand for the stuff on the platform. But it was being shipped directly so they have built a whole entire infrastructure call Dragon Boat that essentially uses Predictive Analytics and looks at these folk song on the platform that are shipping Direct. [57:53] And says to them look at instead of doing this direct we think your volume would increase this much if you did pallets and they'll actually then work with them too. Pallets on containers onto an Amazon boat they're cut off all the middle men they see six of middlemen in this exchange so all draft right from Amazon Amazon has part of Amazon China is all. Set up for this to get them into the u.s. in FBI and then now they're Prime eligible. [58:18] And the same is true for the UK this is been extremely disruptive especially for non-branded kind of things so. Yo electronic accessories was the first category now we're seeing it in apparel so you're the same Factory that's making the Vera Wang. Wedding dress is now selling a wedding dress for $200 versus the. The 20K kind of thing so yeah it's been hugely disruptive and what's interesting is you start to see this trend now where. Let's see what can I pick on I was buying some shorts other day and I bought a Columbia pair of shorts for like $80 so that was the name brand, and then amazonbasics had a pair of shorts so then Amazon has worked probably with a China Factory too kind of say here's what we want it to look like in the quality and is not half price so is $40 and then I could actually buy a comprable products direct from a, and you find these guys using AMS to your point using a Chinese manufacturing never heard of and, yeah that one was $20 so what you start to see is this differentiated price we're branded is attacks Amazon Prime as half of X and, Chinese seller is 80 to 90% of X and I think what Amazon is saying is let's give consumers the trade-off and if they whatever they choose they choose and they they understand the trade-offs there and we'll make it very transparent. And so is very interesting and it's extremely disruptive. Jason: [59:49] And I would totally agree and I do think that three-tier, model is going to become more common I mean you even think about like you know Gillette razor blades cost $7 each Dollar Shave gun, Club disrupted the market by you know selling blades at a dollar each and now the Chinese manufacturer the dollar was using as is selling directed $0.20 each and disrupting Dollar Shave Club. And I think that is common. I will give Scott Galloway credit which I hate doing that he has a funny quote about how you know people that have way over estimated 3D printers we already have the world's greatest 3D printer it's called China Anne and I think these marketplaces are really just a sort of facilitating, us using China as sort of a 3D printer that can you know really quickly manufacture these products and get them in the market. Can I guess I would say the one cautionary tale is there have been two huge hits, in in North America that were direct from Chinese Factory products with no brains right and said I was to holidays ago we had all the hoverboards the the stabilized skateboard stuff and you know those were all like designed by Chinese factories and sent over here and they were you know, all also direct from Factory and right now we're in the middle of this silly affair with all the fidget Spinners and most of those are our direct from Chinese factories and in both cases their electronic products were the battery and we're having some scary. [1:01:20] Consumer malfunctions and so I do think there is there's a potential risk, that that these these products are going to get a bad rap for safety concerns and therefore it's going to scare consumers away and so you know, I think we have to make sure we steer clear of that you know for this trend to continue. Scot: [1:01:42] Yeah and the time and puts it in Gareth question. quickly is what's a brand to do so so you're a brand or a retailer you're in category X and suddenly there's a Chinese seller and I think this is really this is the world going forward and to your at the top of the show you talked about how are you more agile I think the answer is. Brands and retailers have to partner to be much more agile there's some things you can do around you know what's interesting is a lot of these things are coming out of the same Factory so they'll do a run for the brand and then we'll do it run stuff, and so if I'm a brand I think I would go back to my Factory in negotiate that they're not allowed to do that in some way you know there's certain constraints that that you can put on there especially with your Electro property, there's some stuff you can do there but it is a day there's so many use factories that you know just shutting down the one there's one next door, so I think its Innovation so you know. And if that's what your brand has to kind of stand for just just kind of these lifestyle Brands and things, those days are are are going to be hard to stay on top of if you're not doing something Innovative around the fabric the technology, all these kinds of things to differentiate your product as a brand and that that treadmill a lot of Brands I talk to you kind of say we've had private label in grocery whatever for years and it doesn't matter I think this is way different than Ethan they face before and it's a new world and. The only solution is in a bit. Jason: [1:03:10] That absolutely and I think it comes down to being close to your consumer if your brand that they can really stay close to your consumer know them you can innovate products that. Particular meet their needs or fit their life and it best that the Chinese factories are going to be fast followers and so I think in the New World, those. Does he know great Innovations you come up with their going to have a shorter lifespan because you know you are you are going to have the Chinese competitors coming in and and challenging your price point so you need to be ready to move on to the next product little faster than we used to do. [1:03:46] And with that I'm sorry to report that it is happen again we've wasted a perfectly good hour of our listeners time, and I'm even sad and report we didn't get to all the listener questions so we're definitely going to have to do another one, so if you have any thoughts about the questions we covered on this show we'd certainly encourage you to hop on Facebook, let your thoughts be known and if you have some other questions we'd love you to leave those on Facebook as well and will get them in the next episode and they've you did enjoy the day show we would certainly appreciate a 5-star review on iTunes. Scot: [1:04:20] Yeah thanks for when we really appreciate the questions and hopefully even enjoyed the hot take on Amazon's quarterly earnings and listener questions. Jason: [1:04:31] Until next time happy commercing.

EP091 - Boxed Wholesale Head of Reengagement Nitasha Mehta An interview with Nitasha Mehta, Head of Reengagement and Boxed Wholesale. Boxed is bringing the wholesale club experience to e-commerce, is based out of Edison, NJ and has raised $132m in capital. In this episode we discuss Amazon's Whole Foods acquisition, disruption of CPG, private label, mobile, customer acquisition tactics, and customer retention tactics.  Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 91 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Wednesday June 29, 2017. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at Razorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing.   New beta feature - Google Automated Transcription of the show: Transcript Jason:  [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 91 being recorded on Wednesday June 28th 2017 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your Coho Scot Wingo. Scot And Nitasha:  [0:40] See Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners in this week show we have a very timely guest, nitasha Mehta is head of reengagement at boxed she previously held positions at Samsung in Amazon box is bringing the Wholesale Club experienced e-commerce based out of Edison New Jersey and is raised over $139 in Venture Capital welcome nitasha. Thank you. Jason:  [1:06] Soonest Natasha we always like to kick out these interviews by having our guest share a little bit about their background and and how they came into their current roles can you talk to us a little bit about how you got here. Scot And Nitasha:  [1:20] Sure, so I leave here and marketing at Fox I've been off for 2 years now which is been an amazing ride it's been really great to see Nvidia, be part of that tremendous growth that we've seen over the past two years. [1:45] Where in New Jersey part of, companies on Amazon on in Seattle on the content marketing team for Mobile Electronics, both been in the e-commerce and retail space for quite some time it seemed like a natural extension to. I joined by a couple years ago and really excited to be part of the team. Jason:  [2:14] Pretty cool and you have sort of the unique title how did you arrive at that title. Scot And Nitasha:  [2:21] Sure thought of Engagement really has a few different facets, my main focus is really customer retention and so hyper focus on customer really trying to understand how to find the light messages and promotion, for a customer at the right time until about one hundred percent of my focus, an email and push notifications are some of the channels that I meant along with programmatic direct mail and polka Matic display. I'm so if a pre-owned Compass Bohemian title for the customer experience. Jason:  [3:04] Very cool and I always is it I was like it when you invent your own titles so then you can be the the the absolute industry Guru of that title. Scot And Nitasha:  [3:16] Absolutely tell us a little bit more about what you did Amazon, sure so I managed a couple of our Mobile Electronics, Sanders and campaigns and so worked really closely with apple and Nike on MP3 players and GPS watches as well as Garmin and TomTom not going, population in 2010 Pacific or GPS devices, and though many of our on-site popcorn campaigns on the pop form as well as email probably manage over 100, weekly campaigns across multiple different brands and inventors Regal how. What do you think about Nike selling on Amazon since you can work for them on the device side maybe you have a point of view on on shoes. Yes but we home yet actually I'm actually not sure if if not user icon shoes yet but we were the first category with an Amazon to bring them on Direct, we had a relationship with with, GPS devices and so when they launched their campaign with TomTom we were able to bring them on which was really exciting at that point but to bring on the he has a venue one of the first category to do so. [4:46] And then how about a Samsung what did you do over there. I was on the Punic marketing team for tablet and so it's kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum working with Amazon as one of our customers and so Amazon was one of our largest suppliers, of iron tablets on other work today cuz they would Best Buy and Walmart on the channel marketing side. Managed promotions for tablets and this was also in 2012 when tablets, they still are but when tablets are really On The Rise and was a really exciting place to be at that time. Then see if it boxed for two years imagine you seen some pretty crazy growth were you like me were you in the first handful of employees. Boxed is only a couple years old right. That were about three years old I'm almost four actually and I started when we were almost. I would say and since then we've. More than quadrupled so tremendous girls were already running out of space at our third office and so it's been a really exciting ride to you there from you know the very early days. Free Colts and then does your role change or you've held the same role and just kind of taking over more and more pieces. Yeah I started in this little a lot of what I've done in the past really like me to. [6:23] Focus on being gagement in particular and so if I go so slow I've been taking on more over the past couple years and I also have a, rebagg ball and thunder marketing for work very closely with many of our Brands and suppliers that box as well. So so imagine boxed has like a typical retail that category teams and all that kind of stuff and even relations you guys have a fun center or is that, you don't do any of your phone that it's kind of 3 p.m. or something. No we do have our own system in it and you have 4 at Sears across the country and so we recently just launched our fourth in Dallas, a few months ago International in the contiguous 48 states. Are these kind of Amazon 1.2 million square feet kind of Caesar these are iMagic pile of it smaller a little bit smaller that we're pretty close. Jason:  [7:29] Nice and for listeners that maybe aren't totally familiar with box but I what's the how do you describe the the value prop with the elevator. Scot And Nitasha:  [7:38] Sure, and once on the last where the online mobile version of your wholesale Shopping Club but we don't have any membership fees and we have free shipping so anything that you normally go to the Wholesale Club on, and spend your entire Saturday shopping we will deliver on average in two days you and all your books eyes. As favorite. Jason:  [8:07] Don't you imagine the answers both but do you feel like are you primarily trying to take visits away from, Costco and Sam's Club so you're getting people to recreate that brick-and-mortar experience online or are you you trying to take visits away from Amazon or maybe Prime Pantry. Scot And Nitasha:  [8:26] I think it's Holloway coexist with all four, Costco fans and DJ's they don't have a strong online presence if they're putting a lot of focus on and so we also are targeting Millennials that may not necessarily, not on the ferry started shopping at his Wholesale Club yet and so. City dwellers and Millennial moms for example are really a huge Target of ours and and. A new that we can coexist with all four of these other retailers. Jason:  [9:06] Got you in what are the things that somewhat unique about the club stores that some listeners may be very familiar with and others might not is they tend to have different product configurations then art. Typically sold. [9:21] At what grocery stores or or even that are sold in Amazon Pantry so you know you might have A4 pack or an 8-pack, on a grocery store shelf and you might have 104 count in the club club store so we tend to call those Club packs is boxed primarily offering Club packs is that, are you getting the same configurations or something in between what's the. Scot And Nitasha:  [9:44] Yeah so we primarily focus on Club packs or the Bahamas you and so we work very closely with our suppliers on, customized packaging Pacific to eat, but still you know what's in the Fun Pack. Jason:  [10:01] Got you and is it has it been difficult like I I know traditionally in the old days Costco has a lot of Leverage I mean you know with a very small store account there the second largest retailer in the US. [10:14] I feel like they used to have these. These kind of draconian vendor agreements where they were the only ones that were allowed to carry a particular configuration so they had exclusivity on this card packs art are you finding it that's less true today or are you you getting. [10:29] That's like like a slightly different version of Quebec or how is that working are you. Scot And Nitasha:  [10:33] Yes yes, spell largely true what we do is negotiate a slightly different variation or size count for the econ version and so we wouldn't necessarily get a soda. cut exact size but we would have this form or variation different packaging specific for us. Jason:  [10:57] Got it in in in general is are you finding like is a big part of your value proposition. The value of the products that because they're buying, Club PacSun you're encouraging them to get a bigger cart that you're able to offer really aggressive pricing or is it the convenience and not having a slap all that big stuff from the store and to the car and all those sorts of things like what what what are the primary things that you think are really driving consumers to use you. Scot And Nitasha:  [11:26] I said was definitely convenient but I would say that's probably one of our, biggest differentiator is and trampolines that are not having for Lego these bolt size 3 six packs of paper towels home especially for myself living in your, I need to go around the corner to CVS every other day for items but I can just buy one time and had to deliver and open Venus was definitely one of our biggest value Problem by overall, we don't strive to be the cheapest prices online but the value of having the Club Vive, RX delivered to your door and not having to pay the annual membership fee is huge Michael. Imagine you being an ex Amazon person and you guys are in the kind of cpg category with a lot of your offerings what did you think about the whole Whole Foods Amazon acquisition any thoughts on. Hey I thought it was brilliant and it was 1030 now. Solution they haven't really nailed down the flash category I'm gone fast food. Growing but doesn't have the brand yet and so I think this really helps them and help them gain credibility within the fresh-faced and I'm usually beneficial cuz. [13:00] Because Whole Foods generally have a ton of presence of any and digital and for listening they're really going to help each other and. Smart across-the-board. [13:14] And then um the Amazon does have an offering it's it's left I found a lot of people don't know about it and it's kind of under serve but it's the Prime Pantry, and it seems like that kind of is there trying to solve, yeah kind of some more problem you guys are with a very different kind of a mechanism I've tried it before and it's like this weird gamification of fun the box and it's like hard to connect. So it's a lot of work it felt like to kind of like Phil the boxing and going to optimize it. You feel like you guys have a bit of a white space from Amazon that they haven't really solved the what you're doing or is there some overlap. Yeah it's a tough I think so I think Prime Pantry and doesn't it's like you mentioned has a brand awareness, have a very unique brand effect and the fact that we only focus on full and so that's her name differentiator from you, time pantries yet Enough full disclosure I'm a customer we will use it at my office so we have a startup and. Yeah it's the food is great for for that. My family is not quite big enough to eat it that much but booked through the guys have that it works great in an office of 20 people you know we get our and then ordering is is really nice to see you guys have done a good job of. Be able to reorder things. Jason:  [14:38] And for lizards that don't know Scot goes through a lot of snacks so that that's that's a meaningful. Scot And Nitasha:  [14:43] They were perfect for you, and B videos is the flying a huge focus of ours as well and so he's a pretty significant portion of our business that's dedicated to start up like yours. Jason:  [15:01] Nice I want to dive just a little bit more into how how you're interacting with Brands and how they view you the one thing on that last question I actually think you're. [15:13] Prime Pantry is almost the opposite of you write like the pantry is really. [15:19] A way for Amazon to sell the small packs and entice the customer to bundle enough small packs together that it's cost effective to ship them. And you're you're selling the big packs which are the things that Amazon normally is willing to sell as eaches even even on there. [15:36] They're the normal website if you will but. Honesty Bee Gees I think one of the interesting things that happen is when when Amazon announced the Whole Foods deal all the immediate talk is how that affects retailers right and you know who which retailers are most likely to be disrupted by by this new Force but I feel like there's been this, the secondary realization, did it's really a big wake-up call for the cpgs that may not have had very much focus on digital right so your. Your Procter & Gamble are Unilever or you know Kindle car for those folks, you know less than 1% of grocery is digital you know you're overwhelming largest customers are predominantly brick-and-mortar and so you know while you're starting to deal with digital it's for a tiny part of your business and now suddenly. You have the threat that that I can a very significant player could be disrupting your category with digital and so I wonder, like do you see that that will you know potentially make some of your your brand Partners more digitally Savvy and maybe more open to, trying things digitally with with folks like yourselves like I could almost imagine that that's a favorable trend for you. Scot And Nitasha:  [16:54] Yeah absolutely and I think we've started to see that Trend over the past few years to the fact that many Brands now have a shopper marketing team but are largely focused on digital, I live in joy tea of my contacts that I have you, contact conversations with our phone that Shopper marketing team and their. Much savvy are there in they were you know. Four or five years ago and I'm so I already started to see that Trend shifts and I completely agree I think especially with this whole foods deal it will continue to grow in that direction and more. Jason:  [17:38] The absolutely, you don't want of the interesting things insert a traditional Shopper marketing there there's a lot of tactics in addition to getting the product on the shelf that are commonly used right like so there's lots of merchandising in Coop and Brands paying for. And positioning in sampling in and we see some of that, on on the Amazons in Walmart's of the world is that something that boxed is doing today in terms of like offering digital promotional opportunities for for brands or is that something you're you'll consider as you you advance. Scot And Nitasha:  [18:13] No it's actually something that we are already offering which we probably started about a year-and-a-half ago and so we probably, oh and enjoy these are real estate on both of our site as well as our ass. And we called many of the placement of virtual and caps and so no at a play on the freaking water and cat food but, definitely in English. And excitement and engagement over these placement over the past year as well which which continues with that trend of Brands moving becoming more more digitally body. Recool the one of the the trends at Costco I don't know about the other clubs but they have the Kirkland brand which is which is their private label and. And I don't know where it started but it's become quite popular and they sell Auntie mall and that's primarily what they sell is that private label. I think Amazon is actually sells Kirkland it's odd it's kind of taking a life of its own and it's one of the they sell more Kirkland online than Costco does. Los customer you guys I really like you guys have a similar offering called Prince and spring maybe tell us a little bit about the rationale of that and how is that going. [19:33] So if the really started off with just paper towels and toilet paper so two in the fact that he's package good that everyone needs an Zen, there's huge opportunity there and really being into stop there and our category that's really dominated by another down even the Sherman and so we started that. A couple years ago and has expanded the printing spring assortment free significance and it's a huge Focus for the company the team has been. Growing pretty rapidly and now we offer everything from toilet paper to flushable wipes to hangers and most recently it was only just launched, coffee and so both ground and whole bean coffee all Source locally. And it's if it's not stopping there we're watching chemo and moving into the food and beverage States as well and so is definitely a huge Focus for us. And I know she have one of things we love in our office is K-Cup coffee and but it's quite expensive in and noticed your private label is almost like half price of, what other offerings are which is which is nice. And it and it tastes good, okay on the so Jason and mentioned you know the brands and in the things do they eat. [21:09] How do you navigate having that private label when you're also trying to get the sharman's in the bounties on the side I met you the good news is you're not the first kind of. Company to do this so I guess it's pretty well-read and ground for him. Yeah I really just increases over all share with in that category we haven't seen any kind of libation going either way and so again you know I think there is. There are products that are recognizable that you would always want, I'm to partner with and and a sore on our site but if we can offer a different selection a different place with wood, in terms most likely Target a different type of customer your that's really are our strategy that. Jason:  [21:58] Got it so I love the fact that you're you're competing with traditional clubs. In the digital space because I fear going to talk about Costco in particular like they're very admirably retail or they do a lot right so I'm really not trying to pick on them but I freakin called them the biggest digital Luddite in the retail industry. I think it's very overt like I think they've just made a strategic decision. We don't want to be digital we don't want to give the customer any reason not to visit our stores and why lie. [22:33] Can kind of understand that sentiment like ice you know I and I suspect most of our listeners on the digital podcast probably feel like that somewhat short-sighted but In fairness to them it hasn't really shown up on their balance statement yet so. But what's interesting there model is sell stuff at the lowest margin possible they're super aggressive on price and their primary profit driver is those Club memberships. You guys obviously aren't doing the membership and that's one of your value props is get those Club packs and get that convenience without the membership. Bed so I presume you have to make more money selling the goods and then you have this this really inconvenient cost that we all struggle within e-commerce which is shipping. So [23:23] Like do you guys have any strategies for keeping the the shipping costs under control I mean I know it feels like that's a ever-increasing. Cause we talk a lot on the podcast about the fact that e-commerce is growing at like 20 to 30% and the shipping guys capacities growing it like 8% and so there a. They're constrained commodity and what they're doing is there charging more for their service as a result. Scot And Nitasha:  [23:48] What does, we offer free shipping on all orders over 49 so that definitely helps with the shipping fees and then on top of that the majority of our orders, the average order size is 9 - 10 items so we are stuck up service our customers are. [24:19] Play higher than an Amazon sample or the typical or sides or just one or two products are order which does largely affect shipping but because that were able to eat shipping costs low. Jason:  [24:33] Gotcha and I guess one of the things that somewhat surprised me. [24:40] Based on your category in the types of items that customers get from you I almost would have expected to see some sort of subscription service and I know Scott mentioned you have really convenient reorder service but if you guys ever you know. [24:53] Like is that an over decision you made not to do some scription and says that something that could be in the roadmap what's the scoop on subscriptions. Scot And Nitasha:  [25:01] Potentially be on the road that is something that we have considered especially for certain items but. Customers into typically reorder like baby next absolute spend baby products for subscription type of service and so that only something like thinking about. [25:21] I may be remembering this wrong but when boxed first launched my recollection is was kind of a mobile app only kind of a thing and then later the desktop was added and again maybe I misremember yet, but kind of curious about that mix of of mobile and desktop, again I kind of like the desktop version cuz usually I'm doing it when I'm at work and I can kind of like, see the product better in that kind of thing but any interesting insights you can share what you guys have learned there. Definitely the launch of the mobile app for mobile first and also. Attack company first and so the majority of our employees are actually on the tax team. The innovator and improving Dorothy experiences while I was excited. And so we launched shortly thereafter. The first years mobile is the majority of purchase it. And the letters how many of our customers prefer to shop through the source of the app the app is really is a convenient option I personally love using the app for me order items, simple to put process reorder and so I think, you're having both options really great for a different use cases. [26:57] And then you know I mentioned earlier and you said this is kind of growing part but the kind of a b2c and B2B element. Did you guys start leaning into the B2B when you kind of saw how people were using things or or tussle bit more about that kind of how that came to be in in anything you can share on mix or anything would be interesting. Stressful that continue growing our business. Meet by the natural extension of epoxy started as a beauty popcorn but because you are stuck up service and deliverable and our own office manager or just the front, LIRR employees I really am from cartoons and truly, is our employees love the snacks in the Beverages and we need the paper towels in the toilet paper it just seemed like a natural extension and now that team has been curling pretty, pretty quickly as well for the past year the huge Focus for us this year and in 2018. Yeah I imagine that it's kind of where we also use you guys for a funeral off the office supplies again the kind of packaging is good as is that kind of where, those got out at imagine before you saw the business side there wasn't a lot of the office stuff. Right yet you continue to add a lot more selection within the office based off as we start to it as we continue to build out that part of our business. [28:33] Wrinkle. Jason:  [28:34] I love that strategy like the more Tech Guys you higher than more snacks yourself. Scot And Nitasha:  [28:39] Very true it's hard to keep snacks in stock at our office. Jason:  [28:51] Hopefully that permit person has a good promo code. Scot And Nitasha:  [28:54] Exactly. Jason:  [29:02] So going back to the very beginning of our conversation reengagement like one of the. [29:09] The huge challenges for all online retailers in particular 84 PurePlay online retailers is, customer acquisition right and I think of sort of the big big player and in the space for the last couple years has been Jet and you know they famously spent, a fortune on each customer in terms of active acquisition cost what's your strategy around acquiring customers and driving that customer value are there any particular tactic sure, you're relying on and any that have been predicted successful. Scot And Nitasha:  [29:44] Sorry we pretty much, across the board in terms of acquisition and retention but specifically acquisition-related focus on TV we launched our first, ad campaign, the beginning of last year and then we launched another one towards the end of the year I'm working on the 3rd right now as well at Subway has been really. I'm really surprised MC Market and so really you know building on the Branded dolphin and having that constant exposure in key markets and then print has been used for us in terms of acquisition so, somewhere to check that is invested a time and direct mail and print we're also focusing quite a bit on that in terms of opposition. Jason:  [30:35] Done at night I can majun Subways particularly clever because you know one one large segment of Shoppers that have kind of excluded from the the brick-and-mortar club folks are our folks that don't use that car. Scot And Nitasha:  [30:49] Exactly. Jason:  [30:54] Yeah so it's interesting you just mentioned a lot of a sort of old-school old-world advertising techniques and I almost wonder in some ways. For Pure digital play like you know your tendon running a lot of companies that are predominantly doing digital marketing if you know some of the. The print stuff could potentially be less crowded these days and so the I don't know the signal-to-noise ratio for that kind of campaign could almost be better than it used to be. Scot And Nitasha:  [31:20] I agree and that's what we're seeing as well we still have a huge focus on digital Facebook it's probably one of our largest and channels in terms of opposition but. Agreed and turn the prince and then even some of some other channels that are starting to come back that aren't necessarily a saturated such as SMS. Is also accused opportunity more suffering gagement but. I do see a trend of some of these older. More mature Channel coming back and playing in a very saturated space which is digital right now. Jason:  [32:01] Yeah have you experimented with any direct mail I that that detention I guess is another one is those mailboxes are a little less full than they used to be. Scot And Nitasha:  [32:10] Yeah we have actually up until I say about a year-and-a-half ago really focus on really use direct mail for acquisition purposely targeting a specific, Tor zip code and planning our campaigns around that and then we started, staying programmatic direct now on and this was a brand-new way to rain gauge with friends were really excited to touch with and so we started talking with with a company called pebble. Jason:  [32:45] Until what what is pebblepost doing for you. Scot And Nitasha:  [32:49] So we didn't micholi at 35 thing with them at to be engaged with, you think I unsubscribe from our email and go up until that and if the only way. Really engaged or engage with current customers with email or push campaigns or display programmatic campaign and so this was really exciting opportunity to, customer that had unsubscribe from our emails I wear either unengaged from them or didn't like the content, and Shannon promos and Deals if they were still active on our site, and so how probable works is if a user within our specific segment. I'm sorry sight but downstairs and doesn't convert within that session I will postal actually trigger ascend, I'm at our postcard or catalog to that user within 2 to 3 days and it's extremely relevant and targeted. He started targeting users 8th on what products are what category is actually viewed when they did visit the site and it's completely different, customer they essentially then either too we send email to which is also a very saturated space. Jason:  [34:08] For sure and I guess what I love about that is it it it's almost like analog retargeting like that you're at you know what, it's their heads Fades retargeting but but via that that analog channel that the you know is potentially a little less saturated that's brilliant, like you mentioned course email is is very saturated but generally when I talked to folks that still is one of the better Roi tactics for them I'm assuming email is still in your mix as well. Scot And Nitasha:  [34:36] Yeah yeah you know this is one of our additional in terms of retention and so I'm still still. Going to be a huge Focus for us I don't see that changing anytime soon but then again you know a good email campaign may get 20 to 30% open rates right over so even 70% users on the table that were unable to engage with info, when you think about the number of impression that you get from a physical piece of mail. Not only two eyeballs but depending on how larger household is because I get a multiple Impressions on a daily basis if you're like me I leave mail sitting on the counter for 2 weeks, are we by the time. Convergex that amount of exposure is incredible and. Target's a completely different user than those who are very email so good. Yeah I think blue apron's a Believer I'd get something from those guys like every every five minutes from from email. Jason:  [35:54] Yeah I think they're actually just looking to step up the the advertising spend is there they're trying to preserve that IPO. Scot And Nitasha:  [36:02] Call. Jason:  [36:06] One of the things when we talked to folks about the efficacy of their their digital campaigns and particularly email like the big Trend you go to any of the shows these days and you know you throw a rock in your hit 30 sort of personalization vendors, and it seems like you know the the big the big pitch is always personalization on those marketing channels is that. Something you're experimenting with is that working or overhyped or what's your what's your POV on that. Scot And Nitasha:  [36:33] No I think that's a huge Focus for us and something that we have in focus on for quite some time is really. Affiliate emphasizing, a one-to-one customize messages creating triggered messages they found customers havior or purchase Behavior I think that is, Chris Lyons messages and 101 customize messages that we can send that, that is our Focus night and definitely something that have a person and direct now is also helping out with. Just imagine visiting our site and going to our baby category and for some reason or another you don't have, and upconverting with another question but then three days later you received a postcard in the mail and the content is all babies focus with navy at 20% off discount any baby item on site. And I think that opportunity there is tremendous in terms of customization. [37:41] Quinn and you guys are actually doing that or that something you're doing up for it we are doing currently. So you have that level of of targeting and whatnot in the mail program. One thing I know you guys do as you have boxed bold which I think is your cash back program and then you have a loyalty program total bit about those and what they're geared towards. [38:07] Bacco program is our partnership with Emma and so if you aren't a customer and you make a purchase on Fox with your AMEX card, you automatically given golden box full which is free shipping. And 3% cash back on all orders so for any regular customer or Montana? I'm a class program is 1% cash back on every single order and so the more you order from box and more. Cash back you get and then a mess up my little get 3% cash back. In the free shipping it just lemonade to the the $50 threshold or how does. And then said so as a shopper it's kind of interesting it kinda reminds me to Chatta although it doesn't have like the sum of the jet elements because you know when you're first starting your kind of like, I can't tell if I'm going to save much and it is you kind of go though you just saving it feels like you're saving more and more than like and I was just paid on my NX I didn't really realize I was into some of their special thing, yeah time to get through you realize you actually saved quite a bit is that that tensioner. Explain that rational so it's a little bit different than that where the more you ask the car somewhere you're saving, our cash back program is based on the total part value so if you're sending $100 in the order then you're going to get $1. [39:46] So you can see it anytime in your account and so the more times you purchase was box you build on your cash back value. Jason:  [39:58] Interesting like one of the challenges with those kinds of value props. And when it's there's almost a little bit of gamification and you're certainly like driving customer lifetime value with the dollars back but I guess the downside is. You know a customer super price sensitive about one item and they log on your website and they look at the price of diapers and they go somewhere else and look at the price in the. The total savings may not be reflected in that item priced it does that work against you or. Scot And Nitasha:  [40:31] I'm sorry I think they're a lot better value popsci we offer letter. Different art differentiators but you have so we may not if you, don't have it the cheapest price on say it's more about the experience I would say we should we offer to free samples on every order so it's somewhere to go wholesale, shop in Carthage Area 3. A lot of people go just for the samples so we've kind of levitated that online so you can choose to free samples on every order you'll get the 1% cash back on every order on, free shipping or no membership see if I think all and all the customer experience really speak for itself, and then not to mention I don't know if you receive battery if you notice it in your box. But we also have handwritten notes, to every customer that I was just too so there's a nation with personalized S5 to our entire order earrings as well. Yeah I seen that kind of borrows from the chewy folks today I don't know who started it first but they were always well known for them yeah. Jason:  [41:41] Scot Scot has a giant collection of postcards that same and you guys order a lot of Oreos. Scot And Nitasha:  [41:46] Call podcast research those for them the Mondelez episode. Jason:  [41:52] Exactly. Scot And Nitasha:  [41:53] Oh yes we've done a Facebook live with it with model eating Oreos so and said I love you. Jason:  [42:02] Very cool I'm sad to see their stock went down based on the Amazon announcement talking about the impact on cpgs. [42:12] Yeah but I'm glad you mentioned the sampling cuz that feels like untapped area for a lot of e-commerce players I'm imagining. The sampling is one of those areas that you're able to use as a shopper marketing program for your Brands is that true. Scot And Nitasha:  [42:27] Yeah, a huge part of our current marketing strategy with our suppliers and and they love it because it's a great way for us to testing products and so for considering a sorting a new item, stumbling program is a great way to see how our customers will respond to it and then we could also be engaged and put those customers after the fact and send them offers on the full size items, we do I said or some I am based on what they've actually chosen to add the car, and a kind of potential there and you're offering, products that are new to the platform or just even leave I wasn't as limited-time offers or so you're a big focus and comes over sampling strategy. Jason:  [43:17] Yeah and so this could potentially be controversial but do you work the your private labels into the sampling program as well. Scot And Nitasha:  [43:26] Especially when we launch a new product and that's one of the first places that I will want to watch it as is the other sampling program. Jason:  [43:36] Yeah I love that tactic again it just, there you know so many boxes are going out right now not taking that opportunity to introduce that customer to other high-margin products that they could potentially get addicted to seems like a real mess for a lot of players so I love that congratulations. Scot And Nitasha:  [43:53] Yeah. Thank you I absolutely agree especially for a brand that many new customers haven't heard of other don't know much about a great way to introduce it to them. [44:07] Cool one thing I thought was kind of a little bit of a non sequitur I was navigating through the site looking at different categories and of the, one that really stuck out as being an unusual was hotel and travel with, what's that all about. Last week and end of the following, today this is something that our partnership Cena's been working really hard on it and we're really excited about it at all so seem like a, a natural extension for box, I still have our vacation packages and now our customers and can go on and and really find some of the best hotel deals I played around with that and I haven't found better deals for for many of the hotel but that I was searching and so. A great. Please our customers I think of a natural extension of the business. So your Skype now getting a new variety of non-physical kind of stuff. [45:19] Yeah if I see if you're on Boston you're looking as backup for your home or your business and why not be able to book a vacation and at the same time and so. Skyler really excited about this and they don't I don't think this I think this is the beginning of a much larger partnership. Jason:  [45:42] Very interesting you don't I'm curious so we talked a lot about your business today we talked you know you're in a category that's, I would characterize a sort of digitally immature and so you know you're an advanced digital player in a in a space that that seems like it's just on the verge of getting disrupted if you jump in your time machine and look forward to your two, you know how do you see the the industry in your category changing do you think it's going to look a lot like it looks now do you think it's going to change dramatically. Scot And Nitasha:  [46:17] What I think with the time by we mentioned before especially with the Whole Foods acquisition I think, more and more brands are going to invest more dollars into digital and we're already starting to see that now are at the econ, your arms of specific brands are growing larger and larger and they have a lot more, and as well and so I see that really being a huge opportunity over the next year or so so really, incident and create a new and exciting opportunities with some of these friends, one thing that I think that I went really love about working with fox, is the fact that we're so small and then bowl and we're willing to Casting things and new features and so we've actually created features for a brand based on some of their preferences, and though I see that continuing to be a trend machine shine over the next year or so. Jason:  [47:21] Very cool III suspect that as as you know the brand start getting really serious about digital alike as we see some consolidation of you know there's a very long time grocery at the moment and brick-and-mortar grocery. Anna. [47:37] You know it feels like there's almost this bifurcation that you're going to potentially benefit from that like the traditional grocery store is getting really disrupted because it's it's starting to be really driven by fresh and organic. And you know so so folks are looking for. One experience to get that really fresh stuff and then once you have that really fresh stuff you say are you know what's the most convenient way to get all the rest of my. My goods in so it almost feels like. [48:04] You know where I used to do everything as a One-Stop shopping at Kroger now I'm starting to see people you know that are. Going to all the or Trader Joe's or Whole Foods for their they're fresh and then they're relying more on club or. You know are are big online friends for for all of those replenishment items. Scot And Nitasha:  [48:25] Construe. Jason:  [48:29] Well nitasha congrats on your success so far. I think that's going to be a good place to wrap up because it is happen again we've perfectly wasted all of our a lot of time. So when a remind the listeners that they're always welcome to continue the dialogue on our Facebook page and of course have you liked this episode we'd sure appreciate a review on iTunes if you didn't like this episode just send an email to Scott. [48:55] Nitasha thanks very much for being on the show and joining us. Scot And Nitasha:  [49:00] Thank you so much for having me as a pleasure to hop on the podcast you guys are building in wish you guys nothing but the best. I thought I think you sound like. Jason:  [49:16] Until next time happy commercing.

BJ's Wholesale Club Members now have the option to

Whether you have one truck or a fleet of trucks, one employee or a hundred, how you present your company to the public is critical to creating and establishing your own unique image. Too often, landscape contractors fail to be consistent with their “branding and messaging” to their clients, creating mixed messages and causing consumer confusion which will result in lost revenue opportunities and mixed messages. In this episode Adam Sokoloff, President of Sunrise Signs, explains: -What is a logo and why you must have one. -Is it time to update your current logo? -Color definitions and what they say about your brand. -Brand consistency for small businesses. -Small brand changes that can have a huge impact on your company. -How car and truck wraps can help brand your fleet. Sokoloff's career originally began at the High School of Engineering and Science in Philadelphia. After graduating high school, he quickly realized that engineering was not his thing and became a music major in college. Although he loved music, his career really took of when he entered the job market working in retail for BJ's Wholesale Club. His desire to understand every aspect of the business, combined with good old-fashioned “hard work” was immediately noticed as he rose through the ranks and became an assistant vice president. There he was responsible for over 800 employees and approximately a half a billion dollars in yearly sales. His career at BJ's lasted 20 years and taught him about customer service, operations and especially marketing. When the company downsized, Sokoloff took the opportunity to start his own business. A year later, Sunrise Signs was born and he hasn't looked back. In five short years, Sunrise Signs has grown from a local Philadelphia sign company to a nationally recognized leader in small business fleet branding and advertising solutions. As the President and owner of Sunrise Signs, Sokoloff has fostered a culture that takes a hands-on, highly consultative approach with clients to truly learn about their businesses and how to help them grow.

Whether you have one truck or a fleet of trucks, one employee or a hundred, how you present your company to the public is critical to creating and establishing your own unique image. Too often, landscape contractors fail to be consistent with their “branding and messaging” to their clients, creating mixed messages and causing consumer confusion which will result in lost revenue opportunities and mixed messages.In this episode Adam Sokoloff, President of Sunrise Signs, explains: -What is a logo and why you must have one. -Is it time to update your current logo? -Color definitions and what they say about your brand. -Brand consistency for small businesses. -Small brand changes that can have a huge impact on your company. -How car and truck wraps can help brand your fleet.Sokoloff's career originally began at the High School of Engineering and Science in Philadelphia. After graduating high school, he quickly realized that engineering was not his thing and became a music major in college. Although he loved music, his career really took of when he entered the job market working in retail for BJ's Wholesale Club.His desire to understand every aspect of the business, combined with good old-fashioned “hard work” was immediately noticed as he rose through the ranks and became an assistant vice president. There he was responsible for over 800 employees and approximately a half a billion dollars in yearly sales. His career at BJ's lasted 20 years and taught him about customer service, operations and especially marketing. When the company downsized, Sokoloff took the opportunity to start his own business. A year later, Sunrise Signs was born and he hasn't looked back. In five short years, Sunrise Signs has grown from a local Philadelphia sign company to a nationally recognized leader in small business fleet branding and advertising solutions. As the President and owner of Sunrise Signs, Sokoloff has fostered a culture that takes a hands-on, highly consultative approach with clients to truly learn about their businesses and how to help them grow.

One Orphan is Too Many 101: With Doug RiggleIn this episode, we discuss the plight of orphans in our country and around the world. Listen in to hear about how some amazing people are addressing this issue.Transcript:Lance Foulis 0:48Hello, everybody, welcome back to land slots roundtable we are picking up after the stop of holiday, we had a little bit of a hiatus during holiday. So this is our first recording of 2022. And we are really excited to have everybody listening again and to be back and to be recording. I was talking with one of my friends who's starting a podcast. The first guy on this season Jason spears, and he was talking about how he is really missing recording and I've been missing recording. I've been missing the podcast, he's actually recovering from COVID. So that's why you haven't heard his podcast yet. So we're excited for the launch of their podcast this this year, hopefully, within the next couple months. Anyway, I'm excited we have a very special guest today. Doug Riggle Doug is the founder and president of orphan World Relief as an adopted child. And later as a single parent who adopted from the foster care system. He understands the needs of kids from all angles.On their website, one orphan is too many is a really great, quote. Orphan World Relief was founded in 2008, after Doug experienced firsthand the needs of homeless and orphaned children in Ukraine. Upon returning to the states, further research, shed light on the global crisis and the millions of orphaned and at risk children around the world. What started as an organization designed to help well run programs in other countries financially, has since blossomed into an organization that understands the needs of children in the US and around the globe. While helping educate people on the needs. These kids are dealing with every day, hashtag hope changes everything. I love that hashtag Doug, I saw it yesterday on the website for the first time. So Doug, welcome to the roundtable. Thank you, Lance. Great to be here. Yeah, I'm so glad that we were able to finally do this. I've been thinking about asking you, I think for the last year and a half. And it took me that long to ask you and to get you on. So yeah, let's just why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself? Sure. So it was Doug. I have lived in central Ohio since 1987. Although I went to high school out in Roseburg and I went to stepped away for college in Texas andDoug Riggle 3:09been back here ever since. Which college did you go to? I don't think I knew that. University of Texas San Antonio. Okay. All right. Yeah, county. Why why San Antonio. So I Texas. When I was 17, I graduated high school. And my parents said, we're moving to Texas. You can't stay here by yourself. I had a scholarship to theater scholarship to theater and Otterbein. I didn't know that. And my parents said, You're not living here by yourself. We i i had it all worked out. I had a place to stay. I was and they're like, nope. And they just put their foot down. They put their foot down and I'm like, I'm still a 17. So So okay, so then you go to Texas who paid for your education? I did. You paid for your education. So when you had a scholarship, that's hilarious. Yeah. Well, to be honest, I paid never more than $500 a semester. Oh, wow. After I became a resident of Texas, is that like a Texas thing? It was it was it was back in 1983. When I started college, wow. Wow. Okay. Yeah. And that included books, and I was an English major. They didn't have a theater department at the time. So I'm like, Okay, what's next? I love reading. Let's do English.I actually thought about English for a second, like majoring English for a second because, well, I didn't know anything when I went to college, like, pretty much about anything. But I was like, I want to be a writer. Like I wanted to write books. Yeah. And so I asked the people, I guess I started Columbus State, and they're like, Oh, you could do journalism, or you could major in English. And I thought about and I took a couple English classes and I'm like, I don't I don't know. It's just college. I have a lot of thoughts on college now being out of it for so long and going through it but it is hilarious to what we decide to major in and why exactly. And we're all just so different. So you majored in you majored in English English, four years, four years. 4.74I'm sure to be sure I was six. I took three three times before I passed it. Really? It was so boring. I grew up. I mean, I went to school in Ohio. So I had Ohio History in high school. Yeah. And when I got to Texas, they require you to take Texas history. And of course, everyone around me had already taken it because they lived and yeah, I'm like, their their claim to fame is that they were their own country for about a year or so. Yeah. between Mexico and the United States. And then the only other thing I remember of the main board is the very first governor. His, his name was he was governor Hogg. His wife's name was ima. And I just thought that was hysterical. I'm no one else thought that was funny. But I did the Yankee from the north cell. That's, that's really funny. Did you ever develop an accent while you were there? No, actually, when growing up, we lived in different places. And my mom was from Appalachia. My dad really southern Ohio, when they adopted my adoptive parents. Yeah. And I had an accent when we moved from Nevada when my dad retired to Ohio. And I got teased so much in school, it took me a while I lost the accent. Okay, it comes back when I'm really, really tired. Or on the very, very massively rare occasion when I've had too much to drink.It comes back out. Oh, really? Yes. So fascinating. How old were you when you were adopted? I was a month old. You were a month old. So infant? infant? Yep. Okay. All right. Then Then how did they like was it just through like, whatever agency or whatever they were stationed in Iowa, Waverly, Iowa at the time and zation, like military military, okay. And then they mom had had three miscarriages after my sister. And the doctor said no more. Yeah. Your body's telling. You can't have any children. So they adopted me when they were living in Iowa. Wow. Wow. And then they ended up in Ohio. So my dad's family's from Ohio. Got it. We lived in Iowa, Nevada. They were stationed in Washington state for a while where they had my sister. They were stationed in Mississippi for tech school.Trying to think we're all saved. And Virginia. Mom's from so when dad would go he repaired radar. Okay, and so when he would go out and repair radar in Alaska, usuallywe would go live with family members sometimes. Not in Alaska, not in Alaska. That way we didn't have to do or Alaska said no, because I've always wanted to see it. But I know back then. It's like no, no one went there. Right? Yeah. Yeah. It's it's an interesting place. I there's some people that I know that are in the military.So we're walking down the hall and this one of his roommates came up there were three boys in this room came up. Hey, Richie, who's this guy? And he grabs me his little hands. He grabbed me by that by the pinky. This is my new pop.Lance Foulis 0:17Oh, IDoug Riggle 0:18like turning away. Trying not to like, burst out in tears. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he was smart. He knew what was going on. Yeah. Even though hetogether Yeah. Wow. So this is my new pop. Yeah,Kim Foulis 0:32gosh, I'm not crying you're cryingLance Foulis 7:43I think he's, uh, yeah, he's career Air Force. And they've been all over the place. But they I don't know how many years they've been in Alaska. But the pictures that they'll post like a random moose. That there that's like going across the road. And then yeah, like, take a picture at two o'clock in the morning. It's still daytime out. Like, although, yeah, weird stuff like that. I would be hard to get used to daytime at 2am. Or kids would love it. Yeah, probably. Okay. So, English major, and then talk to us a little bit about? Well, let's just let's just talk about we're from the World Relief. Sure. Why you why you founded it, what the purpose of it is,Doug Riggle 8:22you know, back in 98, I took my first mission trip ever. And I remember, Pastor, my church, Chris asked us asked me if I wanted to go. And I've never been out of the country before. Well, I've been to Mexico, technically just over the border, into Canada over the border. But I'd never really been out of the US. And I thought about it, prayed about it and like, Okay, let's go. Okay. And so we went there. And it's funny, because just last night, I'm working on a book with a friend of mine, collaborator, Kevin Greg out in California. We just went through this section of the book last night for the like, second or third time.So you're writing a book to Yes. Oh, we'll get into that. Okay, we can talkabout that. And we went over there and we spent a day there was a young man named Pasha and he worked with homeless boys in this little area in Kiev called Eternal Park, which is a little little island in the middle of the river, you get to by train. And we were there. We kick the you know, kick the ball around, I day played soccer. I kicked the ball. I have no sports ability whatsoever. No depth perception, no sports ability at all. So we ended up playing with these kids, just having a good time with them. They were all homeless kids. Pasha got $145 from an American couple a month that paid for his living expenses and allowed him to do outreach to these homeless boys. Wow. And I spent you know, we spent the day with him. I shared my testimony with them. Yeah, the next day, we were going to visit an orphanage north of town. Funny story where We were driving north of town and our driver URI had made a crack earlier about women drivers. So my interpreter refused to interpret anything. He said to me because she was mad at him. So I asked URI I said, you know, was able to get out in some basic Russian, Ukrainian, where's the orphanage? And he points straight ahead. I'm like, well, that's helpful. And I said, Good yet Chernobyl. I said, Where's Chernobyl? He points straight ahead. Then he's like, he's, I could see him like freeze the turns around in the seats. Like, we stay short time. I'm like, okay. So anyway, when he took you to the orphanage took us to the orphanage. Before we got there, we took a bus. And we had to meet you're in the north part of town. We took a bus and we actually walked under, spent about 20 minutes walking, to get there to meet Yuri to get the bus to go to the orphanage. Sorry, awkward story. We walked under a bridge and I could hear someone call my name. What I know. I'm like, I'm in the middle of Ukraine. And no one except for the people around me know who I am. Yeah. And then I'm like, Just hearing things. And then finally, I had this little voice, Douglas. I turned around, and the bridge we had just walked under. In the rafters of the bridge, were the boys that we had spent the day with the day before. No way. They slept under the bridge that night. Wow. And that was the moment God's like, you're not going to go back to the US and not do something about this. Wow, I'd already been thinking of adopting. And so this was during that same time frame. I'm like, Okay, I know, I know, I you know, I need to adopt, I plan on adopting. I was married before. I wanted to adopt my wife wanted to have our own natural kids. And so there was some conflict there. And I'm like, but uh, now I'm single. Yeah, like, I can't adopt, which, that changed. I changed my mind, which is like, a mindset that you have is mindset. Yeah, yeah. Cuz I knew it'd be hard because my best friend's Rick and Nancy had adopted three girls, and then fourth girl. Oh, thatwas after they adopted theirs. Right. About the same time. Okay. All right.And they were just in the process. And they were still probably in the honeymoon period. Yeah. I didn't have any warning signs telling me not. But it's still at, you know, I wouldn't trade it for the world. It's still the right thing to do and what I felt God calling me to do. But I also realized I needed to do something broader. Because growing up, I didn't know anyone adopted. I didn't know any orphans. I just thought I was the only one. Oh, really. And I had no clue that there were millions upon millions of kids in this world who are orphaned, abandoned, eating, you know, kids at risk, were right on the brink of being orphaned or abandoned. And so after that trip, I came back here, and I started to the United States and started researching and figuring out, oh, my gosh, 147 plus million kids orphaned, that they can count. How many 140 7 million147 million kids globally? Yeah. In the United Statesin foster care. There's about 400,000 kids at any one time.Lance Foulis 13:12Wow. That's not even I was surprised cuz I saw that on your website. And for some reason, in my head, it was a larger number. So to me, it's almost like, it's, I think I just had the thought like, oh, like, there could be a bigger impact, potentially. Right? Because there's not I thought it would be millions of kids in the foster care, but in the US 400,000. Well, if youDoug Riggle 13:32think about the kids in the foster care system, every year, about 20,000 of them aged out, got it. So every year there are 20,000 kids who are now without a family without any support structure, which is one of the programs that we're building right now. It's called foster to adult Yep, that we're getting off the ground to help some of these kids who, in some cases are falling through the cracks. So the Children's Services, county agency where we are at currently. I don't have the exact numbers. And you know, I would probably, like get sued if I say this out loud. But some of the things that they're doing is pulling kids out of foster care. And before they're 18, or reuniting them with their families, that they're out of the system. They're no longer counted as a number. And then they turn 18, though they're with a family that, you know, neglected or abused them before. And now they're back on their own again,but like, is that going back into a good situation? Or no? Okay. Yeah. Yeah,it's not, but it's a way to clear the books and save money. Oh, wow. And it's it's really, I'd love to find a good investigative reporter to kind of do some digging.I would love it. If we had more investigative reporters these days. Iwould love them. Yes. Anyone who's actually a reporter. Yeah, right. Yeah. And actual they don't exist anymore like they used to, right. Oh, yeah.Yeah, definitely. Hey, somebody out there hearing this podcast.Kim Foulis 15:00Just heard you. Come talk to me.Lance Foulis 15:03Okay. So let's talk about let's, I mean, you mentioned a few things there. So let's talk about I'm, I'm kind of a little bit curious about your childhood. So let's maybe start there. Like, when did you figure out that you were adopting? Like, what does that even like, I wasDoug Riggle 15:17in fifth grade, and my parents pulled me into the kitchen. And my dad paced back and forth, and like, I'm in trouble. What did I do wrong? It's like he can feel thank me get to get her over with now, whatever I did wrong. Mom would start to speak and she started crying. I'm like, oh, man, they're getting a divorce. But that doesn't happen. This is the 70s. It's like, yeah, all these thoughts going through a kid's mind. And then finally, the they came out with it. And I realized later in life, that was my dad pushing my mom. We need to tell Doug that he's adopted. Okay. Everyone else knew. Sure. So they figured it was your sister knew? Oh, yeah, she did. She was nine years old when they adopted me got it. So she had to know she was Yeah. I would get her in trouble later. And with mom and dad, Debbie said that I'm not her brother. Oh, she get in big trouble for saying that for saying that. Even if she said her. She didn't say I knew that could get her in trouble. So you had that lever. I have that lever over her. Okay. But yeah, so a fifth grade. And I was told I was adopted. I remember. They told me on a Sunday night, Monday morning, I went to school, and we were doing these little men Deleon genetic square things about eye color. Okay, and to figure out your mom has blue eyes. Your dad has brown eyes, what possible color accommodations? And I'm like, I don't want to feel this assignment. So I went up the teacher while we were like working on some of the stuff there. And I'm like, I'm adopted. I said, this, this may not work for me. I don't want to get a bad grade. So it's the cell teacher in front of the entire class. Hey, everyone, Doug's different than the rest of us. He's adopted. Come on. Oh, my gosh, yeah. I and I was a shy kid. And I just like wanted to crawl into a hole. Oh, my. And then lunchtime. I had kids asking me questions. You know, are you a bastard? I didn't know what the word meant. Why? Yeah. So I'm like, I'm like, No, I know what the word meant. I had to look it up when I got home, in fifth grade, eighth grade, and, you know, ask me questions about who my family were. And I'm like, you know, I didn't know. I had no information. They my parents told me when I turned 18, they would share with me about what they knew about my biological family. Interesting, which they didn't. They didn't know I snuck into their their room and broke into the little metal filing cabinet and got the information to myself when I was 19.Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, you will be more patient than I think. Yeah, then. So but when you're fifth grade, your parents tell you that Yeah. What does that like?It? There was parts of it didn't like okay, some of this makes sense now. Oh, sure. I never knew my dad liked me much less loved me until I was out of college. Wow. Now I know now he does. He did you know, he's passed since. But growing up, I just always felt that there was a disconnect. Interesting part. Partly because I didn't understand His love language. Okay. His love language was giving me things and so, okay, I remember one time, I was probably 30 He had this hideous lamp. My dad went blind after like his second open heart surgery. He would go antique shopping with my mom and he, you know, spend money on things that you didn't need, but he had this lamp that was just absolutely hideous, but he loved it. And he wanted to give it to me and I didn't take it. And that hurt him. Oh, wow. Because I was rejecting His love is basically you know, I you know, I wish I'd you know know now what I knew then but sure her knew then what I know now, you know hindsightLance Foulis 18:53toys. It is way easier. Yeah, they're nine site. Okay, so I can't I just can't imagine being in fifth grade and having a truth bomb dropped on you. And then being in the middle of a class and a teacher pulling a stunt like that. Yeah, that's awful. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's okay. That's just unreal. Alright, so back back to the timeline. 98. You come back, you're doing research. Tell me about how you were doing your research because this isn't 98 I think we had the internet right. But it wasn't anywhere like it is now.Doug Riggle 19:22No, you're part of it was talking to people and part of it. So I actually then started the adoption process myself to get certified to adopt. Because you can go through the entire class and process and not actually adopt. But sure, I'd like I want to learn more. And fortunate. I mean, I learned a lot about kids waiting kids in the US and in America. But it wasn't until talking with other people that I was connected with at church and other places that I learned about orphanages and what the needs were and I that second day in Ukraine, I'd actually visited a different orphanage. And so I got to see firsthand, a very well run orphanage. There's a story telling in the book about a little girl named Masha and her brother, who were when they were six and seven, it's right at the fall of communism in 91. It's that that weird perspective here in America, we're all cheering communism has fallen over there that it's 45% unemployment. So these parents are just making a decision. Do we watch our kids starve to death? Because we both lost our jobs? Or do we do something about it? So what they did is they taught their six year old daughter to become a prostitute. Oh my gosh, and they drank heavily. And this is the little girl in the orphanage with their brother. And then later on, you know, because they were drinking so much the money away. They sent their son out to work as a sex worker as well, who was seven years old. Geez, so the kids ran away. Fortunately, sadly, though, until live on the streets, all they knew had to do was sell their bodies. So you know, got these now at this point eight, nine year olds filling the bodies to strangers, horribly dangerous, obviously. And this is before we had this big understanding of child sex trafficking. They someone from the orphanage that they were at found them and brought them in. It took psychologist over a year's worth of work with a little girl just to teach her to have fun and play. Oh, wow. So I got to see the positive results of what a good program could do is orphanages get a horrible rap? Yes. I mean, orphanages were gone, probably in the set by the 70s in the United States as well. And we might move to a foster care system by enlarge. Okay, and soit's never thought about that. We don't have orphanages in the States, weprobably threw the baby out with the bathwater, right? Because at least two orphanages is permanency. Yeah, I'm here. I'm not going from house to house to house. Yeah, I don't know if you know, by the time I adopted my son, I he from age five to age 13. When I got him, he was in about 15 different foster home placements. She's Yeah, that to me did as much damage to him as the reasons that he was taken from his biological frames again, with for sure. I mean, it's think about that. There's no permanency there. There's no, you know, you're in a new house one day, there are new rules, right? And your new relationship, your relationships, and these people are supposed to take care of you. Oh, there's some great foster parents out there. Yeah. But the ones who are like, Okay, we're going on vacation now come take these kids. And they put them into the place of like they're doing more harm. Right. And good,right. So let's talk about a couple of programs or fun World Relief does. Sure. Let's talk about, well, you can talk about it in any order that you want.So we started out to all of our programs to begin with for international and we came alongside programs that were well run, and wanted to provide financial support for them. Because they didn't have they were small, but they didn't have a lot of like us support. Yeah, so we want to be able to tell their story. At the same time. We came alongside some of them too, and help them become more self sufficient. God. So for example, in Honduras, Casa Garvey, we worked with them to help them set up a chicken and cattle farm,Lance Foulis 23:17an orphanage at the orphanage. Wow, soDoug Riggle 23:19that the kids can learn a trade. They are producing protein that's needed for everyone. Yeah, excess. So you've got beef, milk, chicken eggs, excess protein can be sold to community to make them more self sufficient. Wow. It's just an amazing program. Yeah, it's just fabulous. They're kind of like our hallmark of what a good program is. Because it's not just an insular little program, we send money to orphans. It's a program that involves the church, they have a block, the church works with block factories, everything becomes part of the organism that helps the kids there. There's also a nutrition center in Lemo nearby that helps kids and families with provide better nutrition to their kids,Kim Foulis 24:03which I've been to, by the way, when I was 15. That's the one that you went, I didn't know that. That's where I went. Tell us about picture downstairs. So I was 15. I was there for a week. And there was a group of people that were working building walls, but then there was a second, like, smaller group that was going to go over to the nutrition center. Okay, so I was like, Yeah, that's me. That's me. And I knew a little bit of span like enough to talk to little kids. And I mean, they just they cling to you, they surround you with all of this. I need love. I want love. But also, this is like my one meal a day. And I'm just you can tell they're they're so hungry for everything.Doug Riggle 24:39Everything. Yeah, yes,Kim Foulis 24:41it was phenomenal.Doug Riggle 24:42I've got some great pictures in the office of there's one of me and one kid on a teeter totter and like eight kids on the other side of the teeter totter. It's just a great likeyou're doing the teeter totter with eight other kids. Yeah, that's hilarious. Yeah, it's it's a it's a great program there who came up with the idea for that program? Without youNo, no, no, no, that's that was also run by yovani. The guy who started the church, he started the orphanage. He was a doctor still as a doctor. So he went to work with HIV kids, the nutrition center came about. And it's all this big collaborative effort. They've got a Block Factory, they've got a sustainable tree farm. They have two tortilla factories in the city. They've got a row of houses that they work with women who have HIV. Wow. And the women so it make purses. Every time I go there, I buy a ton of purses and bring them back. They're really beautiful. And I'm like, these several like crazy here in America for a good amount. Yeah, we could get them to commoditizea little bit more. But that's so that's such a good idea.Oh, it's amazing. It's amazing.Kim Foulis 25:42It's hearing about the whole ecosystem. Yeah, it can build like and be sustainable. And yeah, you'reDoug Riggle 25:47you're learning responsibility. And like you said, you're learning a trade. That's huge. Yeah,there was a orphanage in North Africa. I really, I've been trying to find the information about it. I read about it back in like 2000. And they teach the kids to 10 the vineyards. And the adults produce wine and sell that and everything is becomes has become self sufficient. The kids then can go when they leave the orphanage, they want 10 Great finds that get 30 bucks an hour, right? I mean, that's a good skill to have. And yeah, yeah.That's so awesome. So it started off as International. How long did it take you from 98? Till till like you were able to found orphan road relief.2008. So a decade. Wow. So I needed to I mean, I had to put a lot thought behind it, figure out who I was going to serve on my initial board. Yeah, how I was going to structure things so that we were different than other organizations so we could differentiate ourselves. So people would want to donate to us. Yeah. So with our international programs, we don't just we don't do child sponsorships, which everyone to ask us to do. I'm like, the infrastructure to do it. Child sponsorship is outrageously expensive, okay. And there's nothing wrong with them that for the larger organizations, compassion, all of those, they're great. But you have to pay for someone to ship the items to the kids, right? Translate letters back and forth, and go take pictures. So you have current pictures of these kids. Every year. Yeah. And me, I'mLance Foulis 27:14like, Okay, we can't afford that. Yeah, that's a lot of infrastructure.Doug Riggle 27:17It is a lot of infrastructure. So I jokingly refer to us as kind of like the Wholesale Club for orphans. I love that because it's, we deal in bulk. Yeah. And we want to have the maximum impact. So we have a spreadsheet. Right now we have like seven programs internationally that we support. Okay. Every time like once a quarter, we send out money to the programs. And we take, like, let's say we have $10,000 to send out, we I goes into a spreadsheet that factors in the number of kids being impacted the cost of living for that area of the world, and their annual budget. So we never give more than 20% of their annual budget because we'd never want anyone 100% dependent on us make sense. Because if we fail, they fail. We don't want ever want that to happen. And that happens quite a bit. Sure. But then they each get each quarter equal buying power. So like St. Petersburg, Russia is one of the more expensive places where the harbors located. And so they may actually get the bulk of the money, but they get the same buying power as the three programs that we support in Honduras, God and the same program we support in the Ukraine and Russia. Got it.Okay. And then when you're when you're doing all of this, the decade before you're able to found it, what's your day job?Let's see. So I was working at an insurance company here in Columbus, I left there in 2011, which is the the year we got our 501 C three status. We've been doing work before then for our nonprofit, but everything was retroactive, which was great. As far as donations. But I was at that time I was it human resources. Got it. Okay. And I was a communications expert there.So figuring out how to start up a nonprofit was just on like a side gig. Yeah, yeah.Yeah. And they're like, there are different ways to set up a board. You can find people who are passionate about what you're passionate about, and can come alongside and support your vision, or people with deep pockets. Sure. Pardon me is like I should have chose the people with deep pockets. But I did. I picked you know, three people. Rick, Nancy, who were my best friends and my buddy Steve. They were the original three board members. He was my personal trainer for a while. Got it. They came alongside and supported everything that I did. And yeah, helped me make decisions as we grew. Now. We've got a board membership about 10 people. Wow, I'm in different parts of the US and in Honduras as well. Wow. So it's been an amazing growth since then.Lance Foulis 29:51Yeah, that's fantastic. And the impact that you've had is that there are the organizations had is probably quite 1000s of kids. Yeah, yeah. Overall over the years that wouldn't have, it wouldn't have been positively impacted without, yeah, it just kind of blows my mind that you, it's almost like it was just this process that was kind of like laid out, you go on a trip. And that basically is like, essentially plants a seed, and then eventually that seed over time. I mean, you obviously did work, you know, to come back and do all the research and learn. Yep, you adopted during that time. And so you're raising a kid during that time as well. And then you had the ability to, you know, launch this thing that's still going on now and is is grown. So.Tell me about the bookDoug Riggle 30:46that you're writing. So right now, Kevin, and I've been working on this for over a year is Kevin from California, half of California, Kevin, Greg, amazing, amazing guy. I've been so blessed. I found him through a company called Upwork. And I interviewed about seven people I've been asked to write this book by people off and on about, it's basically my life story. Sure. And how God has used things in my life to help push me forward and to learn to weather the storms of life. So the books called right now I'd rather be a buffalo. Interesting. So when a storm comes, cows will run along with the storm and just get drenched. Okay, Buffalo will run into the storm. So they get through it on the other side, fast. No way. And I'm like, That is a great way for the way I've been. God has been orchestrating my life. And I'm like, Okay, wow. So instead of like shying away from topic, so, you know, if we get to the topic of my son, later on, he committed suicide 14 years ago, the one I adopted, and I tell the story, over and over again. It was actually two weeks before Christmas. And at Christmas time, I remember sitting with my family, and everyone's walking on eggshells, and no one's talking about Richie and he had just passed. Wow, in my mind, like this is a natural. So I started telling stories. And I started Oh, you know, Richard, but I love this. I remember BB when, you know, his cousin's like, when you guys did this, and you got stuck on to seven, he didn't know where to get off and you drove on to 73 times. before? It's storytelling is so healing and you know, and I look at the Bible, the Bible is full of stories. And not not clean ones either. No, no. Life is messy.Very messy. Yeah. Let's let's go ahead and talk about Richie. Yeah, you adopted 13. adopt him at 13. I knew Richie. Yeah.He and your brother used to hang out quite a bit. Shall That's right. Yeah. Yeah. I've got great memories of them camping. We there's a storm came up during the one time we were camping. And I'm like, I got up and got out of the tent. I was sharing a tent. I think with Rick and my buddy James and I got my jeep because I couldn't sleep. So I'm laying there in the jeep and the storm comes up and then I look over and I see what used to be a tent is now Richie and Shawn flailing about. Trying to stay dry as Yeah, keep the tent up. Yep. During this whole time. Whose tent was that? I think it was your brother's.Lance Foulis 33:18Oh, geez. Hey, Shawn. Hey, Shawn. Hey, Shawn. So like, yeah, we grew up Sean and I grew up in our family, my brother and my dad, my two brothers and my dad. I got two older brothers, Todd and Sean. And then my dad, we always used to camp and there's something about the weather nodes when you're camping. Yeah, it was. I don't know how many times we set up tents in the rain. Just got absolutely. And like, to me looking back on that. If I had been the dad in that situation. I'd been like, Alright, we're done. We're leaving. Not my dad. It's like we're here. We're nice. We're camping. Camping. Yes. Whether whether the rain stops or not. Okay, so yeah. So you had you had Richie at age 13. Yep. Some reason I thought he was younger. Tell us tell us that story, finding Richie.Doug Riggle 34:04So, oddly enough, the year before I had been through the adoption process. And there was another young man named Jason from Ironton, Ohio that I was going to adopt, okay. And he was 17. I was kind of his last hope to have a family. And then I was taking him down, he would come up and spend the weekends with me. I was taking him down. It was getting close to him moving in with me. Uh huh. And he on the drive down. He's like, I gotta just need to tell you that. I don't want to be adopted. Hmm. And so I've started probing a little bit like, Okay, can you tell me more what you know? And he's like, it's not you. It's I just don't want to be adopted. And so I dropped him off as foster home, called the social worker right away. This is a Sunday evening and she called me right back. And so then she went and talked to him and she couldn't get anything out of him other than he didn't want to be adopted. Interesting. And he wanted to stay where he was at in Ironton, Ohio. And so I'm like, okay, heartbroken for one, investing a lot of time. And she's just like, just make a clean break. It's like, like, okay, that's easy to say it's hard to do, right? But I took her advice. She's a social worker, I took her advice, and I didn't have any contact with him. For a couple years, actually. He actually contacted me. After I'd adopted Richie went down to see him, come to find out. His girlfriend was pregnant. And he didn't want to leave her. Got it. So I'm like, okay, dude. Totally honor that. Yeah, I wish you had said something. I said, we could have figured something out. But same time, you know, respect your desire to stay there with your girlfriend. Yeah. But yeah, so then, then I'm like, okay, is this God's way of telling me don't adopt. And so I'm, like, go about life working. And I remember one day, I went upstairs to do something. I had this old house on campus to story. I go upstairs and I look over in the room, which was Jason's, which he would have had. And I saw my my dog, Max, I had a collie max at the time laying on the bed, where Jason was, and the only time Max ever laid on that bed was when Jason was there. And I just started bawling my eyes out. Oh, my gosh, I was like, in tears. Yeah. Like, I still want to be a father. Yeah. And I was still had plenty of time on my adoption, certification to go ahead and adopt. So I like, Okay, let me start this process again. Oh, wow.So you put your you basically just put yourself back out there? Yeah, essentially. Yeah. So you go through the whole process. How long was that process with Jason? Would you say?It was about seven months? Seven months? GetLance Foulis 36:43to know him? Yeah. Thinking that. Okay. I'm going to adopt you. You're going to be my kid? Yeah. You have that in your brain? And then he's like, No. And then that's crushing. Yeah. And then now you're like, Okay, I'm gonna put myself out there again. That's one thing. I think I never realized that. Okay. So there's a couple observations, I think I can make anybody and everybody that I know that has adopted or thought about adopting, it's usually been something that's been in their, their mind that they want to do for a long, long, long time. Right. And then it is a long process. And you are really putting yourself out there. Yes. I know, people that thought they were going to adopt and it didn't, and it felt like death. Yes. Is that was similar to very similar? Unreal. Okay, so So, so you're, you're back. I'm gonna put myself out there again.Doug Riggle 37:36Yep. By this time, adopt us. website was up and running. And you could see kids available for adoption. So I was looking, I mean, I was paying attention to kids from quite a quite a few states away, because the adoption certification in Ohio was good for a couple of other states. Got it. But then I saw this little boy with big sticky out ears up in Cleveland, Ohio. And I contacted a social worker, she contacted me, we talked on the phone quite a bit. And so I'm like, she was being very hesitant. What I come to find out, like about a month later, is that he had been through a failed adoption to Oh, wow. So the family that were going to adopt him. This is horrible. They brought him into their home. And then they change their mind. And so that what they did, they lied. And they said that he sexually abused their daughter, what they admitted later on that they lied. But he was devastated. That horrible Yeah, was like, people, people don't realize what they do to kids. And it's just kidding. So they like, we need to make sure you're on the up and up, and we need to make sure this isn't going to fail. So we're gonna spend a lot of time talking to you, before we even let you get to meet him. Okay, which Fair enough? Yeah, I totally get her. They sent me. They sent me his paperwork. Oh my gosh, it took me a day to put the paperwork in because there's no structure ordered anything. Okay? This is when everything's physical paper, too. So I've gotten four binders, like three inch binders of paperwork that I first put in date order, so I could read his story from end to end and figure out, you know, there were duplicates. And I had to go through this and that and like, Oh my gosh. So I read his, his his file. Wow. And then I you know, I'm like, called camis. Social Worker opposite Hey, you know, let's, let's go forward with this. So then she had me come up and we had a meeting with two of his teachers. He was living in a residential home in Cleveland. He wasn't in foster care system anymore. But he was in the foster care system, but at a residential home, Cleveland Christian home, okay. And I go up there, meet with them and she's like, look, because of his background. Let's just, you know, you can come up every weekend. spend the weekend with him here. We'll say that you're here to mentor him. Mm, like, Okay, that's fair. And so like, I just like, I'm just being protective. I'm like, No, I totally get it. Yeah. So she brought him into this room and the three of us sat and talked for a little bit. And then we go to the gymnasium there at Cleveland Christian home, and we're playing horse or something. And again, it's sports related, and I'm lousy. So I lost. Even Kim, the little four foot two social worker beat me. But that's okay. And then she's like, let me give you the two of you a chance to talk. It's just like, hey, Richie. Why don't you take Doug to see your room? Like, okay, yeah, this is great. So we're walking down the hall. And this one of his roommates came up there were three boys in this room came up. Hey, Richie, who's this guy? And he grabs me his little hands. He grabbed me by that by the pinky. This is my new pop. Oh, I like turning away. Trying not to like burst out in tears. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he was smart. He knew what was going on. Yeah. Even though hetogether. Yeah. Wow. So this is my new pop.Kim Foulis 41:09Yeah, gosh, I'm not crying.Doug Riggle 41:12Yeah. Wow. And so then, you know, a few months later. So the odd thing was I had already gotten my tickets and promised to go to Ukraine for a month. That next year, which is right around when the adoption when he was going to move in with me. So I had to, he had to stay there for an extra month at the at the Cleveland Christian home. While I was in Ukraine. And I remember, I got there like we need. They got a hold. It means that we need you to call the United States and talk to Richie, like, oh, while you're in Ukraine while I'm in Ukraine. Oh, wow. I don't remember how much that phone call cost. But it was. This is back before cell phones and everyone had lost Oh, yeah. So I called there I said what happened? His teacher, one of his teachers was so connected with him that she was she was acting out. Why do adults do this? She was acting out and she was pushing his buttons to get him to respond. So that maybe the adoption would fall through? And he'd say, yeah, and because he got so mad at her, he took a shoe off and hit her with it. I mean, throw it out her and beat her good. Social Worker got on the phone after I talked to Richie and calmed him down. Because I was I only been there a week. Yeah. Three more weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. And she's like, I got the whole story. The teacher instigated that verse. He's not in any trouble. It's like, I just wanted you to talk to him. Yeah. Thank you. So yeah, we're good. And then my work was was lovely. They gave me a month off to go to Ukraine already worked that out the year before. Then I go, come back home. And Richie. The next weekend moves in with me. So I had went to work for a week and then I took six weeks off. Wow, for parental leave, man. Got to got all the way up till he started school. Was thatLance Foulis 43:04a company perk.Doug Riggle 43:05It was a company perk. Wow. So job sixweeks? Yeah. The first two companies I work. I think of all the work for both of these companies. But the first of both of them. They didn't have paternity leave until our youngest right?Kim Foulis 43:17Yes. You had no paternity leave until our third child. Yeah.Doug Riggle 43:22This was 1999 99. And I was on the y2k project. So Oh,Lance Foulis 43:26sure. Oh, my gosh. y2k. Yeah, I turned. I turned 18 and 99. So I was getting ready to go into college. But I remember the y2k thing. I think my dad bought a generator to be prepared. I think nice and nothing happened. I mean, thankfully, yeah, nothing happened. But that's, that's really funny. So Richie moves in with you. You get six weeks off. What was it like? Just tell us about that process of for both of you.Doug Riggle 43:54So you always go to the honeymoon period. Everything was great. He loved everything I made. The kid could eat like anything.Lance Foulis 44:00Oh my gosh, I forgot. Doug is an amazing cook. Oh, I know this. Like I'm amazing. I've heard many stories. When I was in college. You went and did something and you asked me to like, stay at your place and watch your dogs. I don't remember where you went. This was a long time ago while I was in design college or high school. I don't remember but yeah, you met you made Portuguese? Oh, yeah. I never had a Peruvian. You were like, you told me about it. And then you made Portuguese and that was one of the best meals I've ever had. It was so good.Doug Riggle 44:30Angie Volkman makes homemade Parag is really gonna say we trade at Christmas time. I give her tray of baklava she gives me back to frozen protein. Oh, that's adorable. They're amazing.Lance Foulis 44:39Do you make baklava? Yeah. Oh, bedsheets? I mean, wow. ridiculously good. So easy. Is it really? Oh, yeah.Kim Foulis 44:47It just sounds fancy. I guessDoug Riggle 44:48he says it's easy. He says I'd probably light myself on fire. So anyway, yeah, the honeymoon phase. You get a honeymoon phase. He likes everything you're cooking. Yeah.And you know, we're doing great entered school. This is this is where the odd stuff comes in, like, because he came from so long in foster care of age five to 13. They put him in the most restrictive school in Columbus, which was he'd come home every day with stories of kids jumping out Windows running away. And, and so every day I'd go there, I'd walk him to his classroom. I go there, I pick him up from this classroom. Work was great. They're like, you can get off early to go do that. Wow. Andcuz yeah, this isn't when you can work from home. No, no, no, no, like it is now.So this is like this third week there at the school and I kept pushing him like, he needs to be in a better school. This does not make sense. He's not a bad kid or an offender and everything. You're just going on the fact that he came from foster care. That's so terrible. It's not fair. And one of the teachers one day stopped me and said, Hey, you're Ritchie's father until I'm like, yeah. Like, he's not gonna be here much longer. I'm like, oh, good as you have one of the teachers. And he's like, No, he's like, but you're the only parent I've ever seen. Come in. Oh, wow. So all these kids are here without any family support. Oh, wow. And so I wasn't there much longer than he entered Middle School near our house on Indianola. Got it?Lance Foulis 46:17Got it on? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's just it. It's an amazing, it's an amazing story. You you. I don't even think I knew you were adopted. Maybe I did. Maybe just out of my mind, but the fact that you were adopted, like your parents telling you when you're in fifth grade, dealing with that, and then the school thing happening, and then having it in the back of your mind, I'm going to adopt plus doing the orphanage thing. It's such a it's such an amazing story. Because I mean, Kim Kim said to me before that she could potentially adopt I've always been like, I don't see that which is almost like what like kind of like I said earlier, it's almost like everybody that I know, that's like, gonna adopt it's been in their mind since before. Like before college, I would say, and they're always like, Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna adopt. It's such, it's such an amazing, selfless thing to do. And it is really putting yourself out there. And the fact that you're choosing to give a person love unconditionally, and you don't know if they're gonna return that necessarily. It's just such a such a fascinating concept to me. So, I guess maybe I don't want to go. We're gonna make sure Okay, we're good. 15 Okay. Um, can you just just tell me like, and walk me through and the listeners through? the why behind adoption? I guess? What, what? Why for you? Why they why adoption for you?Doug Riggle 47:54You described it perfectly. It's the same way that God brings us into His family. Hmm, exact same way. Unconditional love towards someone who's may not be deserving. But because of who they are. Still needs that unconditional love. Wow. Just because they exist. Yeah. Every child deserves a family. Yeah. And I, my biggest complaint was so I've been going to different churches and speaking in different, you know, pastors conferences and talking to, you know, people from pastors from 3040 churches. And I've only ever had one church ever really step up to support what I do. Seriously? Yeah, it's the one I go to. Oh, wow. Yeah. And it's, it's heartbreaking because, to me, God's called us to care for widows and children. Yeah, you know, James 127. And we're not doing it as a church. Mm hmm. We're not stepping up to take kids in there. At this. This is where a not at the risk of sounding horrible. I love the fact that, especially in the church, people have big families. But if they had to make room for just one, one child, Mm hmm. If if one person and you know, single, I'll say person. In every church in America adopted from foster care, we'd wipe out the number of kids available for adoption in foster care overnight. Mm. One person from every one church in America the church. Yeah.Kim Foulis 49:32And then every family just one church. Yeah. All the churches in America. Yeah.Lance Foulis 49:36Melody said something like that on the podcast if Yeah, she said if one if there was one host family and every single church that they would wipe out, do you know her there that program? My village ministries, Melody mercial, weDoug Riggle 49:48partner with them? You do it? Yeah, they're actually going to do some training for our new foster to adopt program.Lance Foulis 49:54Okay. That's awesome. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's unbelievable. It's one Family from every church step up. And then the one thing that she had brought up in our podcast that I, I'm sure you'd agree with is the fact that if there was one family that did it, you would have all of the other families, hopefully, or a majority of the families there ready to support and help out? Absolutely. Tell us about that. Did you have support when you? Yeah, tell us what that was like.Doug Riggle 50:22So the one thing I always tell people when they adopt make sure you have a good support system underneath you. So obviously, I had built in support with Rick anansie. Yep, I was Uncle Doug to there. You know, 12345 kids, yeah, five, including Jordan. And I was the person so when they would go away, they needed respite care, the two of them. I go watch the kids for them for the weekend. Sometimes it'd be bringing my dogs and Richie in tow. And we have you know, that 15 passenger van to get us from place to place.Kim Foulis 50:53NoDoug Riggle 50:53way who had that? They did they had that day. And that's right. Yeah. I forgot.Yeah, it was huge. And it was a little terrifying to drive. I like driving small cars.Yeah. It's basically the size of a living room. Yeah, no pressure. But,you know, they were, you know, we were each other's support system through a lot of that. Yeah. My family as well. And I, by that time, I adopted Richie, I knew my biological mother and father and had a great relationship with them. So I would you know, he would go with me to Colorado. He went with me once to Iowa to visit my my biological dad, my dad put him on the back of his mule. He'd never been on an animal before in his life. And he's Wait, heLance Foulis 51:33had a mule? Yeah.Doug Riggle 51:34Why on the farm?Lance Foulis 51:35Oh, on the farm? Yeah. Okay, nice. Yeah. So he got to ride on a mule throat on a mule? Yeah, not everybody can say that. That's true. Um, wow. Yeah. And then, I guess, the other thing, could you just talk about like, So my understanding is in order to foster care, and to adopt, you have to take classes or several classes. Right. Gonna take? How long is that process? Does it vary?Doug Riggle 52:01It varies by agency. So like, right now in Ohio, the state, county agencies have outsourced a lot of that work to smaller organizations that do you know, adoption and foster care. Which is, which is great. It's it, it spreads out the the availability of classes for people to come and take quite a bit. So it's not just one organization, when I took it, it was Franklin County Children's Services. I'd go downtown once a week and said two classes than the home study. And you know that and usually by the time you get to the home study, you've got I believe, this home study may be applicable for up to a year and a half. Okay, two years. Okay. To go through the final session for adoption? Or foster care, you know,Lance Foulis 52:48yeah. Yeah. And then people that are interested in learning more, what's the best way for somebody to learn more about adopting,Doug Riggle 53:00go to adopt us kids.org, I believe that's the website, I may be wrong. And they'll they'll walk you through us waiting kids, you can see pictures, I can't go there anymore. Because I it's just heartbreaking. Because when I was adopting before I got Richie, I'd be out there every week, and I'd see these kids and I've watched them over months grow up, you know, Oh, wow. Without homes without families. And it was just, you know, you see kids back from when I was, you know, going to adopt Jason, you know, then two years later, now, these kids are still there. And now they're two years older. And it's just, it's heartbreaking. Yeah,Lance Foulis 53:36absolutely. Absolutely. So I mean, that that's something you even bring up because I'm curious. You've been doing this for years, you've seen? Like, I don't, I don't have to know about kids that need to be adopted? I don't because if I don't want to I just can turn my head away. Right? You've been looking at it for years now. Yes. How has it? How have you? What do you call that when you you see somebody jaded? How have you not been? How are you not jaded by what you've seen?Doug Riggle 54:10I'm not jaded by the kids and their stories. I'm jaded by the response of adults. Mm hmm. And I might start with all this, you know, my parents didn't make the best decision waiting till I was in fifth grade. I wish they'd been telling me since I was born. Sure. Just make that part of the conversation. The kid you know, the the parents of Masha and her brother in Ukraine who taught their kids to be prostitutes. Of course they were in a situation either we watch our kids starve to death or become prostitutes. Hopefully, you know, this isn't I never have to make you just see the adults are the ones who ultimately make these decisions. Right. And they do it from not always the best perspective. It may be a financial perspective, it may be a practical in their mind perspective. It may be I like my comfort life. It's it's, you know, adopting isn't comfortable. Yeah. But that's why I come back to the church and say, you guys were adopted by God. Right? You didn't deserve it. Right. These kids do deserve to have a home. Yeah. And instead of having your fifth and sixth kid, how about bringing one in? Just one? Yeah. You know, I always like, if we can just do one. And that's it. I realized with orphan relief, I get requests internationally, weekly, that I have to say no to programs from as far away as Pakistan, Georgia, Soviet Georgia, all over the world, a lot in Africa. Number one, we don't have the resources to support them all. Sure. But it's just heartbreaking that, you know, there's not someone there to support them.Right. Yeah, that you're getting you. So you're getting asked from different organizations all over the world for some help. Yeah. And and you have to say no, because, yeah.Because I mean, we can end up giving 10 cents per orphanage that doesn't do anything, we want to make sure we're having the monetary impact as much monetary, monetary impact as possible to help them thrive and grow their programs. I did a what's the word? Blog Post 2016, on how to start an orphanage. And it's funny, because if you type that in, it's like, my LinkedIn article is like one of the first ones that pops up. It's gotten so many hits, which has been great. Yeah, but basically, I tell people don't come alongside the ones that exist, and and help them grow and mature. There are so many well meaning people out there, but they're gonna like, Oh, I'm just gonna fly to Africans to an orphanage. Hmm. Well, what's the culture? What are the restrictions there? Like Latin America, every five years, you basically have like your your workers, when in your orphanage, get a check for basically a year salary. Like on a five year period. Oh, wow. I that may have changed since then. But there are all these different things that you have to know. Yeah. And I'm like, instead of trying to do that, find an orphanage. That's a well run. well supported. come alongside them and help them grow and mature. Don't start something new. Yeah. New ones. We need great stable ones.Lance Foulis 57:26Yeah. So enhance the ones that are already Yeah. Yeah. How can people get involved with your organization if they want to?Doug Riggle 57:37Orphan world relief.org Just go out there. We're, we're building up a great staff. I just hired an amazing development manager. Oh, yeah. Who is that? Her name is Kim. And she's, you see her all the time. I do see her all the time.Lance Foulis 57:52Congratulations.Kim Foulis 57:54I am so very, super pumped about it.Doug Riggle 57:56Yeah, we were very excited to have you there. She's beenLance Foulis 57:58very, very excited. And I realized weDoug Riggle 58:01didn't even talk about our foster program. So we've got two of them are foster to adult which Mary Jo is getting off the ground. It's working with kids getting the mentorships, ages 16 to 25. And give them that support that they're missing. Because when they graduate from the foster care, they're on their own. Mm hmm. And they have no support system.Can you talk about that? Because we hit on that at the beginning. But the whole concept of aging out aging out?Huge problem in America. Because if you think about it, we take these kids away from their families, most 99.9% of time for very good reason. They've been abused, neglected, and say, we're going to take care of you now. But we take care of them until they're 18. And then we say, now you're done. Right now you're out on your own. I mean, I don't know if you remember, Amber who goes to our sister church awaken. She was 18. And her social worker picked her up. She wasn't no high school yet. Social Worker backed up said where do you want me to take you you're out of the system now? Wow. Fortunately, a friend of hers. Family, let her sleep on the couch and get finished high school herself through college. And now she runs a nonprofit organization.Lance Foulis 59:08Candle the candle? Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. So so what you're describing it kid turns 18. Yeah. And they're done there. It could be December. It could be March, it could be whatever month. Yeah. And they they get taken out of a foster and then are just basically on their own. They're onDoug Riggle 59:27their own. There are some support systems available to them. Like Star House in Columbus does offer some sort of residential support. But there's financial literacy that these kids had not gotten right there. Itwasn't financially literate at age 80. You know, most kids aren't,you know, all these things. But you had a support system,Kim Foulis 59:47right? Yeah. And that weren't on your own right.Doug Riggle 59:49i Yeah, I mean, I wasn't, I can't imagine me turning 18 And then like, All right, go be in a jobKim Foulis 59:57bank account. Save Yep.Doug Riggle 1:00:00So what happened? Like what? There has to be stats and stuff out there. So what typically happens?Every year 20,000 kids aged out of foster care. And then what out of that some of them. So a good percentage of them will be homeless Chase or a period of time. A good percentage of them will turn to what's the word? Drugs, alcohol theft to survive? Yeah, understandably. Yeah. 80% of people in prison have one thing in common. They've been in foster care. 80% 80%. Yeah. And you think the other 20% are probably going to grow up without a family support system? Right, right. Oh, my gosh, that's not everyone, you know, in prison. Sure. But that's a staggering statistic. So if we can get involved in these kids lives between, hopefully age 16 and 25, and get them on the right path, we can then stem the tide of statistics, they're going to face them of being helpless. You agree? Yeah, having to resort to theft. You know,Lance Foulis 1:01:11I mean, that's just such a, it's, it's an interesting thing to think, when you do grow up. So I grew up with a really great support system, I grew up with a family, my parents didn't get divorced, you know, like, that is a very unique kind of situation where my parents are like, actually still together. My brothers and I got along for the most part, but at 18, I was not ready to be any kind of an adult, and to have somebody turn 18, and then just expect that they can go out and function in society is absolutely insane. Does anybody like I imagine that there's not necessarily like something in place where these, all of these kids would even know what's going to happen at age 18.Doug Riggle 1:01:53There are so the social workers tried to work with them as much as possible. A friend of mine, she and I worked together at an insurance company before she left Michigan, a social worker, she had eight kids that she knew were aging out. So she worked with them. That was her job to kind of come alongside them, work with them, try to get them as much support she could. So that they were prepared when they turned 18. There are some states in some areas pushing the age to 21. Try to help some of that. Sure. But again, if you don't do something, an intervention to help these kids get a support system in place. They're going to be 21. Still the same things.Lance Foulis 1:02:28Yeah. Exact same situation. Just three years later, right. Wow. Okay, so yeah. So you mentioned a couple different things that are from World Relief does what other things are you guys doing that people could come in and help with?Doug Riggle 1:02:41So our I think our favorite program that people love to get involved with is are my comfy kids broken? Comfy kids? Yep. So kids enter foster care all the time, what we do is a lot of times, they show up with the clothes on their back. And if they're a small child, that may just be a diaper. And they're now in a new home, that they don't know the rules or anything. Nothing is theirs. So we put together backpacks, age, gender appropriate backpacks, that provides a change of clothing, a nightlight, a book, coloring book, a blanket, a stuffed animal, even even the 17 year olds get a stuffed animal. Yeah, something that's theirs. Yeah. And allows them to have a sense of dignity. Instead of maybe a few things shoved in a trash bag. You right, yeah. Because a lot of times are taken from home so they don't have a suitcase or anything like that. shoved in a trash bag. And they are. Yeah, so we tried to provide them with a sense of dignity, and a little bit of hope. To ease that, that scary thing. I mean, think about if I were seven years old, taken from my family in the middle of the night, even though it may not be great. It's all I knew. And now I'm building my place on in a new family's home. Right? I don't know, the rules don't know anything, nothing is mine. All these things around me aren't