The Voice of Retail

The Globe & Mail's veteran retail reporter Marina Strauss's exit interview plus up close and personal with Carl Boutet, retail strategist and Board advisor on the state of the retail nation in Canada and around the world

Episode Summary

In this episode…If you are a retailer in Canada and the name on your call display commanded your attention - Marina Strauss joins me on her last day at the Globe & Mail as their veteran retail reporter as we turn the mic around with a look back at her rich career covering the retail beat, the state of retail in Canada, advice to retailers on dealing with the business media and plans for the future. Next live from the Purolator Podcasting Studio at STORE2019 in late May an up close interview with global retail strategist Carl Boutet, Chief Strategist and Board Advisor for Studio RX based in Montreal. We talk about his background in retail, travel to Egypt to share retail best practices, and views on the state of the retail nation in Canada and North America.

Episode Notes

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of June 24th, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

In this episode…If you are a retailer in Canada and the name on your call display commanded your attention - Marina Strauss joins me on her last day at the Globe & Mail as their veteran retail reporter as we turn the mic around with a look back at her rich career covering the retail beat, the state of retail in Canada, advice to retailers on dealing with the business media and plans for the future.

Next live from the Purolator Podcasting Studio at STORE2019 in late May an up close interview with global retail strategist Carl Boutet, Chief Strategist and Board Advisor for Studio RX based in Montreal. We talk about his background in retail, travel to Egypt to share retail best practices, and views on the state of the retail nation in Canada and North America.

Next we’ll cover off Retail This Week with UNTUCKit expanding across Canada after posting knock-the-cover-off-the-ball success at Sherway in Toronto, a look at shoppers on both sides of the border, Amazon steps up hiring for their Tsawwassen facility, Purolator’s 1 Billion dollar investment roll-out, Lulelemon’s crops for clothes, Back to School kicks off in the U.S. with two day Prime Day, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Head shops left behind, Longo’s builds meals, chronicling grocery store format changes, and five key edible takeaways (sorry, no free samples!).

But first, let’s listen in to my interview with Marina Strauss


Thanks to Marina and Carl for being my special guests for 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
favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition.

I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Until next time, have a great week!