Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of May 13th 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada and sponsored by Purolator, Canada's Shipping Company for courier and freight, learn more at www.purolator.com In this episode an exclusive interview with Whole Foods former Co-CEO Walter Robb in advance of our discussion together on the main stage at STORE 2019 coming up May 29th in Toronto. We talk about his personal journey to retail leadership, perspectives on the growth and evolution of food trends and the origins and power of sustainability and organic. Then, part two of my feature interview with Rob Shields, veteran retailer and retail loyalty visionary as we talk about the past, present and future in the retail loyalty space as Rob tells us that “over time some things become true no matter when you ask it”. We talk about removing the friction of loyalty with his new venture Paymi.
Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of May 13th 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada and sponsored by Purolator, Canada's Shipping Company for courier and freight, learn more at www.purolator.com
In this episode an exclusive interview with Whole Foods former Co-CEO Walter Robb in advance of our discussion together on the main stage at STORE 2019 coming up May 29th in Toronto. We talk about his personal journey to retail leadership, perspectives on the growth and evolution of food trends and the origins and power of sustainability and organic.
Then, part two of my feature interview with Rob Shields, veteran retailer and retail loyalty visionary as we talk about the past, present and future in the retail loyalty space as Rob tells us that
“over time some things become true no matter when you ask it”. We talk about removing the friction of loyalty with his new venture Paymi.
Last but not least I’ll cover off the top retail news of the week including Home Hardware sticking to it’s strengths, the grocery battle for Victoria Day, Walmart crushes earning with the best Q1 comps in almost a decade, Whole Foods tests a new format, Canadian Tire talks global expansion via Helly Hansen, Chicos weighs buyout, Sobeys says Voila, and calling all drones in isle 5….
But first, let’s listen in to my interview with Walter Robb
Let’s jump into the second part of my conversation with retail and loyalty veteran Rob Shields - picking up where we left off last episode, Rob share insights with us from being one of the top retail CMOs in the country through to the creation of an open source loyalty program and beyond. Let’s listen in:
Thanks to Walter Rob & Rob Shields for being my guests in this episode, now let’s hit the highlights from Retail This Week eNewsletter, biggest retail weekly in Canada and you can subscribe on www.retailcouncil.org for free.
That’s a wrap on this edition of The Voice of Retail, if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on iTunes or your
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I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and company and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn
If you are in Toronto attending STORE 2019 be sure and stop by the Purolator Podcast Studio and share your STORE 2019 insights for The Voice of Retail special conference editions.
Join me again next week for my interview for part one of my interview with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois Senior Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University and frequent commentator on the grocery sector in Canada and Karl Littler Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at RCC on key issues for retailers in Canada.
Until then, have a great week!