Ep. 140 - Retail Survival 2026: Why Mid-Tier Brands are Faltering

Retail is sprinting into 2026, and the finish line keeps moving. We sit down with Deanah Baker and Scott Benedict to chart where the next big shifts will land: AI that actually clears friction, merchants who think across channels, and retailers racing to align speed, execution, and value. If you’ve felt the workload double since omnichannel merged teams, you’ll hear why the answer isn’t more hours, it’s smarter tools, cleaner data, and leaders who model new ways of working.

We dig into Amazon’s bold supercenter test in Orland Park and what it signals after years of smaller bets. Is this the long-awaited counterpunch to Walmart’s supercenter dominance? On the specialty side, mid-tier apparel faces a tough truth: financial strain delays tech adoption, even as RFID, sharper attribution, and faster cycles become survival gear. Target, once the gold standard for store discipline, needs to rebuild basics, on-shelf availability and execution, before the brand can shine again. Kroger’s at a crossroads with strong private brands but dented price trust and uneven service investments, while regionals press the pace.

Then there’s Aldi, expanding aggressively by doubling down on its limited-SKU, private-brand engine. The model travels, but only if logistics and inventory turns stay razor-sharp, because out-of-stocks in a narrow assortment break trips fast. Meanwhile, club formats; Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s, prove that curated value and omnichannel convenience can grow together. Private labels, upgraded specs, and low-friction tech keep engagement high.

Walmart’s AI partnerships (including Gemini) point to a practical strategy: learn broadly, act quickly, and keep customer search and discovery seamless. The goal isn’t just smarter results, it’s shortening the path from insight to shelf, syncing merchants, suppliers, and supply chains. The real moat is culture: curiosity, art-meets-science judgment, and global awareness that great ideas can start anywhere.

If you lead in retail or sell into it, this conversation will sharpen your playbook for the next 24 months. Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway, what shift are you betting on?

Transcript

Welcome And Part One Recap

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Well, hello everyone, and welcome back to Doing Business in Bentonville. I'm Andy Wilson, and I've got two wonderful guests with me today. We're going to jump straight into our topic today, and we're going to we're going to continue our topic that we talked about in part one of retail change, changes and trends for 2026. We're going to continue that today with our continue talking about retail trends to 2026. My guest today, Deanna Baker, Scott Benedict. Welcome back. Thank you. It's good to have you back.

unknown 0:43

Thank you.

The New Work Of Merchants

SPEAKER_02 0:43

It's good to see you. Okay. Now, both of these individuals are hosts of doing business in Bentonville. So it's really a treat to have them here because we don't get to set across from each other very often, and we're getting to do that. Normally we're individually doing our on show somewhere. So I'm excited to continue our conversation, part two, around the trends for 2026. Okay. Wow, what a year already. And we're just getting started, right? I mean, in part one, we talked about the impact on AI and digital transformation. If you if you haven't caught that podcast, really watch it or listen to it because our experts here really did talk a lot about that. The second thing we talked about was value and pricing strategy, which is so important to the consumer today in search of value. The third thing we talked about is also a trend of a 2026 is consumer health and wellness shift. We see that everywhere taking place in our country today and in the world, actually, and we're very, very excited about that. And in many other things you can find in part one of our retail trends. Now, this is part two, and we're going to get into depth here a bit. You're going to get to hear uh from Deanna and from Scott so really good advice here. Then we're going to wrap this thing up with we're going to get into and talking about retailers. We'll talk about Walmart, Amazon, Kroger, Aldi's, and some of those. So that's what's in store for us today. So, Deanna, I want you to lead us off because one of the things that Deanna did at Walmart so well, she was she was in merchandising and apparel and shoes and jewelry and all this wonderful stuff. And Deanna, you did such a great job at Walmart. I always loved walking to the stores and seeing your hard work displayed through the fashions area and beyond. So uh anyway, talk about uh the trends actually from an employee standpoint, a worker, a future worker, what it's gonna take to get the job done.

AI Tools, Training, And Leadership

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah, yeah. So I I feel like there was um a point somewhere through my career, and I would say through leadership especially. Um so even prior to 2020, uh and I have to speak from a merchant's perspective, but I was also extremely close with the cross-functional team. So I think this would apply to all to all. Um but extremely busy merchants. Um for us in particular, you know, we're talking about 4,000 stores and so much to do. Um a lot of it was repetitive, it was uh labor intensive, a lot of number gathering, change one decision, go back and redo. Um, and so a a lot of heavy lifting that ate up time. And we were always trying to push back against that as a group of what does the customer say? Have you been in stores? What what are our stores teams telling us? How can we remove friction so they can do a better job for the customer? Um really hard to get to preserve time for those conversations. And so I feel, you know, go past 2020 when Walmart merged into one team, Omni team, suddenly that workload more than doubled. Either you were brick and mortar coming into the conversation or you were e-commerce, and then the next day we're learning how to drive both channels and be good stewards of of both disciplines and bring it together. Uh so what time you had before just got uh you know, reduced even further. So, where was the time to be curious, to be the ultimate advocate for the customer, to stay on top of trends, uh communicate well with your supplier partners and the stores? It just got reduced further. So here we are, and we we're reading every day about new AI tools that are coming out. Um, the fashion team talked about, I think it was uh kind of unveiled at the last shareholders' meeting that they're going to have AI help in cutting down the time frame to create and deliver um products to the customer, to the market. Great, right? What else is there? Well, there's already with us uh tools that can help with that heavy lifting I was describing. We just are going to have to figure out how to get from here to there so that ultimately we can all be the merchants. And I'm using merchants broadly, whether you're a planner or you're in product development or in the stores as a merchant. How do we, you know, look globally and strategically down on our jobs and what we're responsible for and making sure that we're handing off those things that we can and utilizing those to read and be better informed and use that newfound time to benefit the customer. And so to me, if we can get from here to there, I think it's gonna be messy because all tools aren't there today. And so it's gonna have to be, Scott, like reassessing at every mile marker. Is there something else that I can hand off? Am I using all the tools at my disposal so that I can ultimately be the best merchant I can be?

SPEAKER_02 6:08

And you know, also you've got as an individual, you got to you you've got to go through retraining. Absolutely. And that's hard when you're building. The learning curve is gonna be massive, right? Yes, and it's gonna be massive. Uh, because you have to do that. It's it's is you're gonna go to work and say, how do I do my job now? And you may have been there for years, yeah, right? So the learning curve has got to take place and and each of you that are gonna be impacted by that, there's got to be um you have to go back to school.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

And and that's where leadership plays a strong role in in showing your team what matters to you. Yeah, right. And what matters to me is having all of us as a workforce that is utilizing technology to to our benefit. And so you have to model it. And then as an individual, you have to commit the time to it. So not easy, but I think the payoff is well, it's non-negotiable, actually.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Yeah, it is. It's not yeah. No, it's not. Customer expects it. Yeah, it's not easy anymore. Because you're right. The consumer is gonna expect uh these type uh uh uh side shifts when they shop online, even even in the store. So it's gotta go all the way back to the beginning. And that's the merchant. It is and the supplier. As you but it's uh okay, Scott, continue. I know you have some thoughts about that. Continue them with this, it's really good. Deanna, thank you. That's really good. What you laid the foundation on.

The Holistic Merchant Mindset

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Yeah, no, I I think building on her point, I think there's gonna be a need for the emergence of the holistic merchant, a merchant who understands both the drivers of the business in physical retail as well as online retail, because this concept of channel mentality or channel mindset is I think is going to become quickly obsolete. In fact, I think it is to think about you have expertise in the category, and the channels are how you reach the consumer, how you tell the story, and how you get great insight about what the customer likes and dislikes in what not only what they buy, what they search for, uh what ratings are reviews, feedback the consumer gives you. And so it's gonna require not only that the next generation of merchants that are in college today have different training than what they had, but it also requires uh an evolution of the current merchants. And and and I'll I'll I'll echo uh the concept that that when I use that term merchant, it can be planning and forecasting, it could be inventory, it could be marketing, could be the actual buyer themselves. But it's you have to look at inputs from a lot of different sources to make decisions about assortments, about uh planning of promotions, about how inventory flows. And then we live in an interesting world where supply chains were disrupted through the pandemic, now they're impacted by other things uh like tariff policy and uh and trade policies and things like that, to where you've got to make good decisions. Now, the great thing is that there are a lot of emerging tools. And we talk about some of the customer-facing uses of AI, some of the back office uses of AI is to consume a lot of data and help merchants and planners and forecasters and inventory management teams make better decisions from a lot more data. And I think we talk about the challenges and there's plenty, but there's also some wonderful benefits of the era that we live in broadly as consumers and certainly as merchants, to where now we have tools to help us parse through all of that information and hopefully make better decisions, but will require different kinds of leadership mindsets, uh, different incentive structures, different ways of collaborating across both a retail organization and in the consumer brand organization, and then how the two work together in ways that aren't being taught in universities, not similar the way that we did at the beginning of our careers. It's evolving very quickly. The good news is I think it would come out of it a far better, stronger industry. But the the the the pain will be in the transformation that we're it feels like we're right in the middle of right now.

Pivot To Retailers And Consumers

Amazon’s Supercenter Test

SPEAKER_02 10:33

I think we should to move to talk about retailers for a moment. Uh, because you all laid a great foundation on what's going to take place uh from the people in the merchant side and support side, the market side, all that. Now let's talk, let's flip it to the consumer that's going shopping inside the store online. Okay. So let's think about that and for a moment and let's just uh share your thoughts. And I'll just throw up a retailer, let's talk Amazon. Okay. Uh they just talked about today uh uh a huge uh change in Amazon brick and mortar. You want to talk about that, Scott?

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Yeah, they announced uh a super center format in Orland Park, which is a suburb of my hometown of Chicago. And it'll be interesting because Amazon, through the last few years, both pre and since the pandemic, has tried a lot of different physical retail formats, and not all of them have worked. The but their best physical retail format is the one that they bought, Whole Foods. Uh and I don't say that to be critical. It's that they haven't found the right formula yet. I think this announcement is uh significant both because it's different and bigger in scale than things that they have tried before, which have been more either grocery formats or other smaller formats, and because it clearly uh appears aimed at one particular retailer, our former employer, because that is the one thing that Walmart has done so very well is evolve and grow the Super Center format. And Amazon doesn't have a response to that. This would appear to be a test of that format. So it'll be interesting to watch both that individual location and if they roll them out and at speed.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Right. I love okay. And and you know, and Amazon in preparing for that, they you know, they expanded their food program to uh all in 2025. You know, they expanded this massive food program so people could get fresh food daily. Yes, within hours, absolutely. And so, and that's what seemed to have worked very well for them. Now here they go with brick and mortar in an expanded way. So that's definitely a trend. And I and I don't think they're not the last. We're gonna talk about several other retailers. But Deanna, one of the things I think would be great is you talk about when you you talk about specialty retail apparel, all that. What do you see, or who do you see that's really on the front end of that from a specialty standpoint?

Specialty Apparel Under Pressure

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yeah, I think so many retailers right now are trying to figure that out. I don't think I see I would hold anyone up as the beacon.

SPEAKER_03 13:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Um, because I think it's real-time learning. I I would probably, I'm biased, but I'd probably put Walmart at the at the forefront, right? So if we we kind of take a Walmart out of the equation and I look beneath that, then I first have to ask the question, who is in a healthy financial position? Because so many aren't right now. Um, some of it is, well, I would say a lot of it's self-inflicted for whatever reason, uh, however they got there, but that becomes a distraction for them to figure out their their own, you know, get healthy plan, which to me may or may not include also how do I include, you know, AI technology and stay on the forefront when I'm just trying to fix my own, you know, situation right now. And that includes so many in mid-tier. Yeah. So, you know, we've all read a lot about Coles and JCPenney as an example, and they're both taking different approaches to try and solve it. We've just heard about it today.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Luxury and uh bankruptcy. Um, and so, you know, GAP is trying to make a resurgence through all of their banners and I think making some good strides there. So I I think the race is on, but I I would predict that if those who number one, we need those who are struggling, we need them to figure it out. Yeah because the customer needs options.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Right. Good point.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Right? I don't think the world can exist on Walmart and Amazon.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

I really don't.

SPEAKER_03 14:45

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

And you know, for different aesthetics and brand DNAs, those things need to they they create choice for the customer. Right. And so I I wish them all well and I hope they get it all figured out. But there better be someone looking right now. Like by this point, everyone must be on RFID.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Just the base ground level, and some aren't.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

Right? They're not. And so don't let that slip further behind because today's forest fire you're putting out will be another forest fire that you're behind on in this regard with technology.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Great advice. Talk to me about Target. What are your thoughts? I mean, you you show up Target, you looked at them, they were your major competitor for years and years at Walmart. We know Target has been struggling. We know there's been leadership change at Target. Uh, we've seen some really bad stores out of stock, some mess. Target's been a mess. I mean, I they they have been. And I want them to be successful and improve. But from your view, what do you see based upon uh uh uh uh how they're doing?

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Yeah. So there were years that I was very jealous of my Target counterparts, yeah. Their ability to execute at store level with precision. I mean, it to me, they they were best in class.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Right.

Target’s Execution Gap

SPEAKER_00 16:03

And um, you know, whatever they intended uh from a merchant's eye showed up on the on the sales floor. Um, it's far cry from that now. You know, we've all seen and read lots of uh in the news about you know it different experiences people have had. Um to me, where they are now is completely um fixable. But it's gonna take leadership, really getting back to the basics and the disciplines of every um uh position in the box. Right. So you can't walk into a target store, I don't care how beautiful a display is if it's half stocked at the beginning of the season. Um and so I feel like they've had a breakdown in in how they run that discipline box that I admired for so many years, but I don't think it's that broken. I think customers still want Target to win. I think there's they they want that shopping experience. You know, I who doesn't love going through, you know, Starbucks at the front store and then pushing that cart through and filling it with things you never knew you needed, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Like it was an experience. I called it a hundred dollar store.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Oh, at least. Yeah, at least, yeah, yeah. Um, and so I think customers want them to win, but they've got to get their act together. And to me, it just starts with sheer discipline.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:20

And and making sure that you can do that on repeat.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Good. Okay, Scott, let's talk Kruger. Yeah. Okay. Uh a lot, you know, it's been a lot in the news. Yes. Uh, you know, they haven't yet named their CEO. Uh but uh, you know, they were they were very focused on other things, a lot of part of 25. An attempted uh merger, yes.

Kroger After The Merger

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Right. So what are your thoughts on Kroger? Well it's interesting because uh both A and and Albertsons have been very quick to say, okay, we're we're fine without this merger going through. We're just going to go forward. And both of them are innovating in different ways. I think if you look at Kroger's specifically, uh, you know, we talked uh uh uh previously about how uh private brands is important, and Kroger's been very good at private brands. They have the store breaths uh to do a lot of great things in terms of their retail media network broadly and the in-store elements uh of that. But I think they damaged a little bit of their brand credibility on some of the reasons why the merger didn't go through, which was they got caught raising prices, they got caught doing some things that didn't reinforce consumers' trust that uh that their product was at a at the best possible value it could be at. And they haven't uh they haven't invested as aggressively uh in some of their omnichannel service elements, delivery from store and that sort of thing. And that's not to say that they haven't made those investments. They have, but they haven't gone as aggressively after that diet as I think some of their competitors have, and not just the one that we used to work for, but even some of the regional players that they face in places like Texas, where HUB has has been very strong there in the Southeast with Publix or other regional players. And so that that's the thing there is there uh I used to to to kid in in my own category, I used to say we're either on the brink of greatness or disaster, and I'm not sure which one is going to be. Yeah. I'm not sure which one is gonna be with them. They're either in the brink of greatness or disaster. It's up to them to decide which one that is, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:39

I think I think both of you are making some great points on that, is that from the standpoint of where Calgary is, they got a work, a lot of work to do, no question about it. Shows you that speed that's taking place today. And if you fall behind, you get really behind. Yes. And I think that's and I think you did uh, I think what you pointed out with some of the uh apparel merchants, you're right. They're behind. And the ones you mentioned, they're behind. And now not only do you have to catch up, but look at the change that that's taken place in AI and Omnichannel, all those things that we talked about in part one, it's really tough. Okay, you know, this is a company I really like. I like all these. Yes. You know, it's sort of sitting there, the small stores, this stuff there, you and I love to walk in them because it's like, okay, you know, is what am I gonna find here? I'm gonna find a lot of value, find private brands. What are you, you know, is actually small and fun. And I would say we'd improve some of their produce, but out, you know, outside of that, it's it's it's a nice shopping environment. Uh and what it's just an house 185 stores this year.

Aldi’s Value And Scale Challenge

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Yes. Wow. Yeah. That's a big it it is, and it suggests that you don't make that kind of investment unless you feel very confident that your model, which is always being refined and improved, but it travels, it travels to new markets, it travels to new stores, and you feel ready to make that investment in stores. And we obviously live in a time where store closures get more headlines than store openings. So when you see someone being as aggressive as that, yeah, that says they feel confident enough in their model and their commitment to value. And they're very good at private brands uh as well and are going more. And so all the things we've talked about are manifesting itself in Aldi, uh, and the consumer seems to really like that. The other interesting thing, if you grew up in the wholesale club business like I did, is they operate with a limited SKI assortment. They are not as full line as a Kroaker or some other Walmart neighborhood market. Yeah, they're they're they're they're narrower than that. So they're really focused on every item. It has to be a great item, great value. Uh they have limited uh uh labor in the store. So it has to be very efficient, just like wholesale clubs have to be very efficient. The store has to be very efficient how they move merchandise through the building and out through the front door. So all of those things feel like the Of manifesting themselves in Al D and they're recognizing that their model has legs and at a time where value is important, they're a great solution to a consumer looking for value. Right. Yeah. Any thoughts on Oppie?

SPEAKER_00 22:14

I just as it ramps up more, because that's where the customer is going, is looking for value. Um, I did walk through their store, and it was several years ago, with someone knowledgeable on their infrastructure. And reiterating what you just said, it's it's very lean. And so I just wonder how how much pressure, how much volume can you put in one box and still work that model, right? Because that's why they're able to deliver the low cost.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Uh so you just uh that under pressure, I'm interested to see how that how they manage it.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Yeah. One of the things that's different about an Aldi from a wholesale club is you think of the holding capacity of the building, a wholesale club can hold up in the steel a whole lot of merchandise. And Aldi, because it's physically smaller, if you're doing more volume, that means you've got to churn inventory through that business building very, very efficiently. So as they grow, not only in a store count, uh, but in the volume that they're trying to do per location, the holding capacity of those of those stores based on the design is not that big. So that will make logistics and the flow of inventory critical because out of stocks in a limited skin environment is killer. And if you're if you don't have the alternative item to offer them because you have a narrow uh assortment, that can derail their success very quickly if they don't do that right.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Well, let's hope they're ready for growth and let's hope they're ready to maintain those uh uh comp sources that they have so that you're right about that. Okay, we'll be watching them. Okay, let's go let's go to club business. Yeah, Costco Sam's. Yes. Thoughts.

Club Channels: Costco, Sam’s, BJ’s

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Okay. I spent a little time in the club business. First of all, it's it what's interesting, you left BJ's wholesale out of the conversation. All three chains from the pandemic through till now are doing very well. Right. Now, is Costco doing the really, really well? Yes, they they are, but all three chains are doing very well, which says the consumer, not only here in the US, but in other markets around the world, embraces the club format, the club channel in ways because a lot of the operators like Costco and Sam's have kept the format fresh. The role that technology has played, the role that omnichannel has played in the club format, uh those formats have leaned in, I think, on the use of technology because they're very efficiency uh driven. Both Costco Sam's and and BJs also uh try to go a little bit upmarket in terms of the quality and the spec of their product. That's part of what we were always taught as club merchants, and they're doing a great job in doing all of those things. I think the the interesting thing about Costco is that for all the positive things I can say about them having competed against them for most of my career, they were a little slow in the adaptation of omnichannel when compared to Sans Club. I felt Sands Club was going there faster. They're starting to uh to show that they recognize that and are putting more omnichannel elements into their business. The one thing I'll say about BJs is BJs, because they don't have the SKU discipline and they're all they're okay with that, uh, they have more breath of assortment. They really leaned in in grocery and in food out of the three. Uh and that's been interesting to watch. Last thing I'll tell you is all three of them have also leaned into what we talked about earlier, private brands. All three of them are leaning heavier. Now, a lot of people don't know, uh uh Kirkland Signature is the largest single private brand, I think, in the world, at least in the U.S., and because they only have the one brand. Sam's ClubNow is has has gone around the first mark. But it's interesting to see that all three of them are leaning heavier into private brands and leaning heavier into OmniChannel and continue to grow quality. And that's been an interesting thing. But that all three have been successful in in the pandemics through to now.

Walmart’s AI Partnerships And Speed

SPEAKER_02 26:16

I think you're right. I think they're doing a good job. The business set uh the business forecast is good. Yeah, had a good year. Last year they had a very good year, both uh whoso club did. You're right about that. Um Deanna, we're gonna have to talk about Walmart at some point, right? So um as we think Walmart, and you know, we we know that just uh this week uh they announced this uh this commitment with uh um with Gemini and Google with what's gonna take place for the consumer online and and then store online, it's gonna be amazing. I mean, no question Walmart, they just added uh you know an expert on the board of AI. Uh they added people inside the organizations, leaders of AI. No question Walmart is getting focused for the future, right? I mean, you can see it and what we are, what we know. So thoughts about Walmart for the future.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Yeah, when I uh heard about Gemini, um, it's exciting because that could be the thing that helps cut through all the friction from search that with that Walmart that like we struggled with when I was there, right? Like uh, and of course, that was you know three years ago. So I know that improvements have been made. But again, reaching uh back to the points that we've talked about before of knowing uh how to attribu attribute a product, right? And and what the customer is going to search for and being able to do that, a lot of those gaps get filled by this announcement, I think, so that uh that the customer can more readily find what they want. And then just know behind the scenes that you know, through use, it gets smarter, it's test and learn, and it can be more prescriptive as it goes forward for the customer. So that's exciting. That's all well and good. If you can't react to it, you got a problem, right? And so a speed to market, you know, and and how we can facilitate the the tools and technology to cut out lead time. Um, and that extends through your supplier partners. If they're if they're sluggish and it takes them X number of days to get fabric and then they have this much time to turn it around and they put it on a boat, it doesn't help you. So I think there's a whole equation and it's all interconnected that to be figured out, but it's very exciting with what this is going to unlock.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Right. I agree. Your thoughts, Scott, on Walmart. Well, it's interesting because after that announcement happened, uh, I got approached by a couple of journalists who said, well, it wasn't that long ago that uh Walmart announced the partnership with OpenAI, the company that owns ChatGPT. What does this mean? Uh is there some sort of threat? I said, no, you apparently don't understand the culture of Walmart, and that is, is that they're gonna try and have partnerships with a number of different players in the space, and they'll learn from each of those partnerships. And that doesn't mean one partnership is disadvantaged or has suddenly fallen out of favor. We're in a time of transformational change and a lot of learning, and there's gonna be a lot of partnerships that that you want to do to gain those learnings. And in the focus, obviously, culturally in the company is focused on the consumer, and the consumer is is evolving in the way they search and the what evolving in the tools they use for that process. So don't be shocked if they partner not only with these two, but with others going down the road because they're trying to learn how best to serve a customer. And that may end up that they continue partnerships with multiple partners or they they ultimately uh resolve around one or two. But you know, that that should be expected that that they're gonna look at every viable player, every viable partner, and say, how can that make us a better retailer and serve a customer better? And I I think as a former associate, that makes me very proud that that's the mindset uh that that they're continue. Uh a wise man once said leaders make change but stand for values that don't change. I forget who that was. But um but but it's that that's the manifestation of that in the modern context, is they're continuing to evolve and change the model, but ultimately the customers of focus and how you serve them is the value that doesn't change. Right.

Culture Of Learning And Global Ideas

SPEAKER_00 30:42

And think about the two partners they selected at least thus far. Each of those partners are learning and generating every day. So if you're surrounding yourself of people who are in that space and they're running as fast as they can to learn, you know, new things and ways to adapt the the technology, then you're going to you're gonna have uh more more answers over a faster time frame.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

You're gonna get smarter faster. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

Absolutely right. Absolutely right. What a great discussion. Uh thank you, Bo. This is so exciting. Isn't it gr a great time to talk retail? It is. You know, we're about to experience such a segment shift in retail and in the whole country and things around especially around the things that we've talked about in part one and part two of this of this event uh around AI and the impact AI is gonna have on business, especially retail. You know, the thing that that is so wonderful is that AI now is gonna have more impact on retail the first. I mean, it's gonna it's it's like AI is having an impact on a lot of places, but it's like now it's retail. Before sometimes we drag behind in retail, not now. And if you're behind, you better hurry. As we talked earlier in our first segment about speed, the importance of speed. Speed is critical, critical, critical in retail today. And we were fortunate enough to grow up in a place um where we were taught speed in the Boring Senate. And um, okay, as we wrap up. Any final thoughts from our two wonderful panels story?

Art, Science, And Curiosity Closing

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Well, I'll I'll I'll tell you this that one of the things I think is great about uh here in Northwest Arkansas and the community that we are a part of is it's kind of fun to be at the epicenter of where a lot of that that change is. And and I don't ever want to lose sight of that because uh there is a lot of exciting development and an awful lot of very smart people that reside in this community, that every opportunity to interact with them, I think, is is truly uh a blessing. I countered that with the fact that one of the great learnings about four years in the international division is that not all great ideas in retailing emanate from within the boundaries of the United States. There's there's best practices in a lot of different markets, and that's probably the biggest takeaway I had from that. And so I think as we move forward, it's not only are we blessed to be in a real epicenter and uh in a capital of how retail is evolving, we also still have to keep our eyes on what's going on in other parts of the world and where innovation is taking place because not all of it takes place here, a lot of it does. But I think we've we've always got to be students of our industry and students of the consumer. And I think that's one of the things we were taught as merchants is that that's always the mindset that you want to progress from. If ever that was important, it's important now.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

One thing I would add is what we do at its core has been and will always be a mixture of art and science. And so I'm interested, I'm I'm really excited to be on this journey going forward and talking to people in future podcasts that we're going to have to discuss that intersection. Um, but it's art and science and it's curiosity at the at the front. Um, so I'm just really excited to to continue to learn as everyone else, you know, we're on this journey together and to talk to other individuals to just enrich all of our knowledge.

Community Notes And Wrap-Up

SPEAKER_02 34:15

Great. Great. To our viewers, thank you. Thank you again. Uh, we really couldn't do this without you. So thank you uh to our hosts, Deanna. Scott, thank you. It's been great spending time with each of you. It's always a pleasure. Um checking our website out, doing business in Bentonville. Uh you can get wrapped Scott's thoughts there. He's there. You can check him out. He does that almost every day, so you can check that out. Deanna's gonna be back this year with uh hosting, and we're excited to hear about what she's gonna do. So be checking Deanna Baker out. And um, I will be leading an event in the next few months called AI People. Uh, and I spent quite a bit of time in the HR people area at Walmart. So we're gonna be talking about that impact, and maybe I can talk our guests, our our hosts in coming and joining me on that too. So we're gonna be doing a lot of things. Check out doing business in Bentonville, follow us, subscribe to our newsletter. Again, thank you very much. Have a wonderful day!