The Retail Perch

In this special episode of The Retail Perch, Shekar and Gary discuss their top 10 predictions for 2023 surrounding supermarket retail. They both share five of their own predictions which include the growth of retail media networks , artificial intelligence, smart carts and much more!

This is the perfect episode to kick off the season of giving! Gary and Shekar welcome Andrew Forman, Founder & CEO of Givz, a platform that provides customers with an alternative option to traditional discounts that give back to others. Andrew discusses the origin story of Givz, and what inspired him to combine his passion for charity with e-commerce. He explains how donation incentives rather...

In this episode of The Retail Perch, Shekar and Gary are excited to have brothers, Andrew and Thomas Parkinson, founders of Peapod, on The Retail Perch. Andrew and Thomas have more recently founded Sifter Solutions, which personalizes the shopping experience by matching complex diets with the right foods. They explain how their backgrounds led them to the retail industry, the future of e-commerce,...

This week Shekar and Gary are thrilled to welcome Todd Michaud to The Retail Perch. Todd is the CEO of HuLoop Automation, a company that works with retailers and brands to provide them with digital assistants and digital workers to help them augment what their people do. The three discuss the benefits HuLoop Automation brings to retailers, what the Kroger-Albertsons merger means to the industry, I...

In this special episode of The Retail Perch, Shekar and Gary share their thoughts on the recent Groceryshop event in Las Vegas. It is evident from their enthusiasm that in-person events are almost back to their pre-covid glory. They discuss Instacart’s acquisition of Rosie, computer vision platforms, electronic shelf tags, dynamic pricing, and much more!

This week on The Retail Perch, Shekar, and Gary welcome Shawn Tuckett, CEO of Webstop, a company that helps retailers be more successful digitally. Shawn explains how Webstop levels the digital playing field for small to midsize retailers by providing powerful end-to-end solutions to create a complete digital grocery experience. The three discuss; Webstop's retail media network for small to mi...

This week Gary and Shekar welcome Russ Hawkins, President, and CEO of Agilence. Agilence is a leader in loss prevention analytics, helping retailers, restaurants, and grocery retailers reduce preventable loss. Russ describes his journey from New England Telephone to Agilence and all the stops along the way. The three delve into the areas where businesses are using Agilence’s analytics platform to...

This week Gary and Shekar welcome Kevin Sterneckert, Chief Strategy Officer at DemandTec an Acoustic Company. Kevin brings extensive experience in grocery retail, retail technology analysis, and identifying the possibilities of AI, IoT, big data technologies of the future that are creating excellence in the supply chain. The three discuss the keys to successful deployment, reasons deployments fail...

In this episode, Gary and Shekar welcome back Doug Madenberg Chief Listening Officer and Executive Director at The Feedback Group. Doug is on to share the findings from The Feedback Group's recent national research on food price inflation and shoppers' perception of grocer's profitability. Doug shares the strategies customers are using to cope, the percentage of shoppers using these st...

This week Gary and Shekar get the opportunity to geek out with Stephen Statler, SVP at Amazon-backed Wiliot a company that has designed IoT Pixels to track the location and temperature of produce from farms to stores. Stephen explains how their postage stamp-sized technology is allowing retailers to minimize waste and maximize freshness for customers. The three also delve into how these tiny compu...

This week, Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking Arsen Avakian CEO and Founder of Cooler Screens and Founder of Argo Tea. The focus of today's conversation is the sophisticated digital add platform known as Cooler Screens, but Arsen shares how building his challenger tea brand, Argo Tea, helped him to understand the consumer experience gap (CX Gap) between the information available onl...

Sustainability seems to be a buzzword in grocery retail these days. Many retailers have gone so far as to sign sustainability pacts. In this episode, Gary and Shekar speak with Jay Jordan, co-founder, and COO of Strella Biotech, a startup that provides actionable data to optimize the fresh supply chain. Strella Biotech focuses on upstream supply to make ripeness predictable and reduce food waste....

This week Shekar, Gary, and guest host Stephanie have the privilege of speaking with Sterling Hawkins, keynote speaker, investor, entrepreneur, and author. Sterling is on the show to share his new book, "Hunting Discomfort." We discuss the #nomatterwhat movement, how fear and ego keep us stuck in business and life, and much more. This show is for anyone who feels there are too many obstacl...

Gary and Shekar welcome Lucinda Wright, co-founder and CEO of Cask & Kettle, creators of boozy cocktail k-pods for home coffee brewing systems. That's right boozy k-pods! When one thinks of alcoholic beverages, technology probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind, but Lucinda’s story about their k-pods distilled spirits will make you think twice. Boozie vanilla latte anyone? Just l...

This week Gary and Shekar welcome Adam Zimmerman, Partner at DESIGN HOUSE, an advanced digital circular platform. DESIGN HOUSE is redefining the weekly ad for retailers in more ways than one and of course, Gary and Shekar were excited to offer their .02 on the subject. Adam explains how his company has taken the weekly circular of the 1970s and modernized it into a digital ecosystem that drives tr...

This week is a first for The Retail Perch! Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking with Alicia Esposito, VP of Content at Retail TouchPoints. Alicia offers the unique perspective of someone in retail media. The three discuss Retail TouchPoints' approach to delivering relevant content to retailers, the different retail verticals and what they can learn from each other, the power of TikTok...

This week, Gary and Shekar are joined by Tommy Yionoulis founder of OpsAnalitica, a SaaS platform that helps clients manage their daily operations and identify issues in their business so they can be addressed quickly and efficiently. Tommy tells the story of how he went from college grad to stand-up comedian to founder of OpsAnaliica. They discuss the positive impact the platform had on businesse...

In Part III of this series, Gary and Shekar discuss how to execute quickly on the copious data that retailers have to ensure they are providing the most relevant offers to their customers. They also talk about how marketing automation combined with a sophisticated understanding of each shopper helps retailers create strategies for 1 to 1 personalization, the future of the weekly ad, and much more.

In Part II of this series, Gary shares how he took his family stores from mailed out paper coupons targeting the top 30% of shoppers to an engine that supported personalization algorithms which allowed him to deliver coupons to specific customers via the web, email, or a kiosk. Shekar then explains the transition from pre-cloud data centers to the more accessible cloud and how it democratized acce...

In part one of a two-part series, Gary and Shekar discuss how personalization has evolved over the years. Gary shares his experience in the retail trenches and the lessons he learned from them. They discuss why grocers needed to develop loyalty programs and the new information they were able to learn from these programs. Next week they will discuss the steps grocers can take to move their personal...

This week, Shekar and Gary welcome Manolo Almagro, Managing Partner at Q Division, a transformational tech consultancy. Manolo offers his perspective on retail tech and where it's going. He also weighs in on the MetaVerse and how it can be used in grocery, the limitations of the Amazon stores, his ideal e-commerce experience, why 5-year plans should make way for 12-24 month plans, and so much...

The Retail Perch is back! And what a fantastic guest to return with. This week, Gary and Shekar have the opportunity to speak with Michael Solomon, prolific author and Professor of Marketing at Saint Joseph's University. " They want to be educated, they want to be stimulated, they want to be entertained, and there’s no reason not to do that,” says Michael about consumers.  The three discus...

This week Gary and Shekar welcome a fellow podcaster on the show. Jason Goldberg, co-host of the popular e-commerce Podcast, the Jason & Scot Show. He is also a 4th generation retailer who brings with him the perspective of someone who had a front-row seat to the digital disruption of retail. Jason explains his family journey from a fruit cart to Blockbuster Video to Chief Commerce Strategy Of...

This week Gary and Shekar have the pleasure of speaking with Harold Lloyd, vice president at Harold Lloyd Presents, Inc, where for the past 25 years he has been presenting ideas and solutions to the retail and supermarket industry to better enhance their productivity, team leadership, time management and more. To say this episode is entertaining would be an understatement. Harold shares the story...

The Retail Perch is back this week with a refreshingly new perspective from a CPG company. Gary and Shekar interview David Klavsons, Chief Executive Officer at King Juice/Calypso Lemonade. David explains his journey from big CPGs like PepsiCo, Nabisco, and Craft to convenience retail and now Calypso Lemonade. He highlights how his organization has used a test and learn environment to grow its bran...