Ep. 145 - Retail Leadership Shift: Walmart, Target, and Kroger’s New Era

Walmart just crossed a trillion-dollar valuation and is openly positioning itself as a tech-driven retailer. That milestone raises a bigger question we all care about: what has to change inside a company when the future is AI, omnichannel retail, and nonstop competition? I sit down with John Reeves, a 22-year Walmart veteran and lifelong merchant, to break down what we’re seeing on the ground and what we think it signals for 2026.

We dig into Walmart’s leadership transition and why succession planning is not org-chart theater. John shares what great CEOs do differently, including Doug McMillon’s habit of learning directly from stores and asking the questions other leaders avoid. We also talk about the practical side of transformation: using technology to improve merchandising, speeding up decision making, and preparing for how AI in retail will reshape jobs from the back office to the shopping cart bay. One of the most important points is also the simplest: paying associates more can be a strategic advantage when you’re trying to upgrade service, execution, and talent.

Then we widen the lens. Target’s brand is strong, but out-of-stocks, store standards, and long self-check lines can quietly drain trust and profitability, especially when higher-margin categories soften. Kroger’s new CEO hire gets us talking about store-walk leadership and what it takes to refocus a grocery giant on its core. We close with a clear-eyed look at Amazon’s habit loop, plus what Costco’s member trust and private label momentum can teach every retailer.

If you’re building a retail strategy for 2026, listen, take notes, and share this with a friend in the industry. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us which retailer you’re watching most closely right now.

Transcript

Welcome And What We Will Cover

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Well, hello everyone and welcome back to Doing Business in Bitonville. My name is Andy Wilson, and I will tell you, we have a great, great show for you today. And I just can't wait to get uh to jump in this. My friend John Reese, welcome back.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Thank you. It's great to be here as always.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

It is so good to see you. A happy new year, I think, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Yeah. Yeah. Haven't seen you since last year.

John’s Walmart Career And Lessons

SPEAKER_02 0:29

I know we have a you know, it's always great to have John here because um we're passionate about this topic we're gonna talk about today is retail. And I think we're gonna do something really interesting today. We're gonna talk about several retailers. You know, you see, yeah, I know you guys are gonna talk about Walmart. Yes, absolutely are. And we're gonna talk, you know, about Target and Costco and uh a few others. Uh we're gonna throw some groceries in today, right? We we want to talk about Kroger and there's a good big reason behind that. But first, before you jump in, John, remind everyone about your phenomenal career and and the time you spent at Walmart and all this stuff and what you're doing today.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Okay, yeah, for sure. I um I'm John Reeves. I was uh uh with Walmart for 22 years. I started in 1981 in the Stillwater, Oklahoma, uh while I was going to college at Oklahoma State. Kind of fell in love with uh with the with retailing at that point. I became a department manager, and back in those days we had the order books, and I got into those and uh started working my way up, became an assistant manager in uh in Oklahoma. Uh and from there I went to the store 894 in Tulsa, worked for Maxie Carpenter, or who a lot of people I'm sure remember. A wonderful late Fred. Yeah, we miss it. Very good guy, great store manager. And uh from there I was promoted into the home office in the sales promotion area, spent a year there, and then went into the buying area um and the menswear specifically, worked for the first female vice president at Walmart, Harrietta Bailey, who was a great, great great woman. Um great leader.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Great leader. You know, I worked for her. She worked for her. It was one of the greatest experiences ever. Yeah. Ever. What a wonderful uh leader.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah, she was uh she was fantastic. And she uh, you know, the thing that that made Harrietta great is all the people that she inspired to follow her, like Loomis Makita, Deanna Baker, people like that that worked originally for Harrietta. And uh I think Walmart does a lot to her. And from there, I uh I did an expat assignment in Canada when when Walmart purchased the Canada stores in 1994. I was part of a group of buyers that went to Canada and uh and kind of taught the Walmart system. You know, there was a lot of uh information systems that we had to teach them. Mark Glover uh came with us and headed that up. Um, but it was also about teaching the culture. So I was really excited to be named to uh be on that project and help help get that company uh launched. As you know, today they're the number one retailer in Canada and growing every day. And then I uh I came back into the um into Walmart, worked in the domestics area as a buyer, bought sheets and pillowcases and that type of thing. And then I took another expat assignment uh in Mexico and lived in Mexico City for a couple of years, uh, working with um at that time uh Walmart had just purchased um the entire uh Mexico operation from CFRA. Prior to that, it was a joint venture. So they we went down there to focus mainly on the supercenters. Came back uh to the U.S. and was a uh senior buyer in the housewares department, and that's where I was when I retired. Um uh and then I went on to the other side of the the equation, went to the supplier side, and uh and now I work with several suppliers, mainly uh that do direct imports. Um so I'm working with Chinese suppliers, Vietnamese suppliers, uh, and that type of thing, and selling to Walmart and Sam's.

Walmart Hits A Trillion Valuation

SPEAKER_02 4:05

So great career. Thank you, John. You know, one of the things you should do if you don't uh check John Reese out on LinkedIn, follow him, because I'll tell you he's in the stores a lot. He's he he has great comments about the stores. In fact, because of the reason I follow him and some of the stuff he's done recently uh is why we're here today. He gave me this idea. Let's talk about a broad number of retailers today and bring you some of our thoughts and predictions, maybe around some of these retailers. Here we are, we're starting a new year out, 2026. We're gonna look, we're gonna glance back, but we're gonna also look forward and talk about. So let's just jump into this. Uh, I think the first thing we'll start with, we'll start with Walmart. Um, but again, like I said, we're gonna it's gonna be broad today. Uh, you know, I think we have to congratulate Walmart on their one trillion dollar uh uh valuation. Right, right? That's big news for sure. It's huge, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah, they're a tech company now.

Leadership Transition And Succession Bench

SPEAKER_02 5:02

They are tech you know, they are. Well, you know, they moved they moved over and and now NASDAQ, but uh they get to join uh all Google Amazon, Amazon, yeah, all those big ones, right? Yeah, meta and Apple and Alphabet. So they get to join that group of tech companies now. Right. Who knows? Yeah, wow. You know, it's so interesting when you think of Walmart moving over, because this really does anchor them from a futuristic standpoint. They are gonna be tech driven. Right. You know, people led, tech driven. That's what they say. That's gonna happen, and you're gonna see that, and that's our next topic is that we're gonna talk about this transition of leadership that just took place. Right. You just announced. And um, of course, you know, we're here in Northwest Arkansas, we're so we're up close and uh pretty uh close to all this that's happening, and we're gonna talk about some of this transitioning and why. Uh, but I think it's important that we start with the trillion dollars because that's sort of now going to lead who's gonna run this place. I think we we know that. But so let's talk about uh John Furter for a moment. Okay. You know, here he is, he's been his company a long time. I actually worked with John's dad. Um quick story. Um, when I became the officer of the company at 29 years old, John's dad had been an officer for a long time. And uh, you know, I was assigned to him as a mentor.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

And uh Steve is a wonderful man, taught me so much about okay, you know, you're you're gonna you're gonna go from millions running millions now, Andy, to running billions, leading billions. So there is a transition here, Andy, that you need to learn. And he taught me a lot of that, John, in those early days. Um, and now, you know, uh John grew up with that. Right. And John, but he grew up with his Rogers, Arkansas. Yeah, and you grew up. So thoughts about John.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Well, I think uh, you know, based on what I've seen, I've not met John personally, but uh the thing I like about him is uh he's he's young, he's enthusiastic, um, he's tech driven. I mean, in fact, uh Doug McMellan said in a in an interview that if you see somebody running faster and uh ahead of things, uh you had them with a baton and uh and and chair him on. So I think it was time from I think John was developed at this point to a time where he could run the company. And the good thing about it is uh, you know, he worked with Doug McMillan, who was a fantastic CEO.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Yeah, absolutely. And we're gonna talk about Doug a bit more in some detail.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

And the other the other thing I would say about the transition is uh not only did he have a chance to work with Doug and learn from Doug, who was one of the greatest, but look at the team that they put together too beyond John Ferner. One of the things that Doug mentioned was was put great people around you. And I really think that uh that they do have some great people in place.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Well, you know, you talk about uh Chris Nicholson, he's he's moving over on the wall in the international side. Right. And um, you know, he's he's rapid, he's moved rapidly throughout the company uh in in leadership roles. But I think that's you know, if you okay, let's just go back to Doug Macmillan. He definitely did that. Right from Sam's to international. Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

You know John did it too. Jim John ran Sam's, John was in international. I mean, if you go back and look at his resume, it was it was a year, year, year, year, year in different roles, the same thing that Doug did. Yeah, it's you know, it's Walmart finding people when they're young and saying, okay, these is somebody who's got the ability to lead this company in the future. Right. And they take that individual and they put them in different roles. Now, we both watched Doug uh come into the office as a young, yeah, impressive uh and eager to learn guy. Uh and then you would look at his resume with Walmart. It was a year, here, year, here, year, here, yeah, yeah, in a lot of different places. So, you know, he has a huge knowledge base. And they did they did the same thing with John, they're doing the same thing with the other executives that are right.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

If you look at look at it, look at Matrice Watkins going in uh to Sam's uh and you know for merchandising. And you know that merchandise is critical, right? You know, I mean Walmart is tech like, but it is a merchandising-driven company. It always has been, it always will be, right? It's just gonna use the technology to drive that. And and and I want to anchor this for a moment about merchandising at Walmart, because we're gonna talk about Target in a moment. We're gonna make a a a few comments about the difference there. But if you're in retail, you either have got to be I mean online or brick and mortar, it doesn't matter. You've got to be a great merchandiser, right? If you're not a great merchant, and you're the ones you should talk about. Starts starts with merchandise. Yeah, sure. I mean you you were a great merchant. Talk about it. What what are your thoughts around Latrice moving over and why? And and then about the importance of being a merchandise-driven company.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Well, I think uh, you know, Latrice was running the mer well, she was the chief merchant at Walmart stores, right? And you've seen what they've done and how they've grown under her leadership. But uh I think I think what we're gonna see with Sam's Club and her there is a is a focus on merchandise. And and and not that Sam's hasn't done that, they've been really good at it, but I think they're gonna take it to another level under her leadership.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

What I want you to think about as you listen to us or or view us is I want you to think deeply about secession here as we've talked about these individuals in this, and think about and how do you apply that to your organization or to your department when you think secession, because you've got to really think deep in the bench here. And you know, we we've talked to John, but the P as you said at the beginning, it's so important the bench you put around that leader and the depth you're gonna develop that bench. And that's what's happening here. That you know, there some of that bench could leave, and they do at times around around the leader, but then who is underneath that? You gotta think at least a couple levels here if if you're thinking about your organization structure, because you don't think those people aren't gonna get job offers? Absolutely are, you know, they are sure they will. And and and maybe they don't leave, but the point is here, as you think about your role in leading, you need to think two levels down. And that's exactly what Walmart is doing here, right? Because every under each in this move of development with these individuals, there's there's there's there's other people in place here, if necessary. Right. So critical. Any other things around our leadership?

Doug McMillon Stories And Humility

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Well, Shame, you want to talk about uh I did have a I did want to talk about Doug a little bit. Sure. You know, I have a story or a couple of stories about Doug that that are pretty typical of his leadership style. And and as I mentioned, you and I knew Doug when he first came into the office. Um the thing that I noticed about Doug right away was he had the ability to engage with anybody and and he did it from a very sincere and humble uh standpoint, and uh and he asked a lot of questions. I mean, he even if he was talking to me who was a buyer in menswear and he had nothing to do with that, he wanted to know. He wanted what your items are, how you know what you're selling, he wanted insight, he wanted to learn what I knew. Um, and then he, you know, and he would do the same thing throughout his career. He would go to the stores, he would ask questions. Um, when he first became CEO, I remember this very clearly, it was um it was the uh Thanksgiving Day. It was back when they were opening the store at like eight o'clock at Thanksgiving night for the uh blitz. And so being the curious person, I didn't go to buy anything, but being a curious retailer, I wanted to see, you know, what was going on. So I went to the store, and guess who else is there as an observer? Yeah, Doug McMillan was there, and and and he wasn't there to give direction, he wasn't there to bother the associates, he was there to observe it and learn, and and that's what he did. The other thing that I remember vividly about Doug, and I think is a true testament to his leadership. When I was in Mexico, I mentioned I was on an expat assignment in Mexico City, um, and we were getting near the end of that assignment, so everybody was wondering, well, what are we gonna do when we come back? Um, phone rings in my apartment in Mexico City. It's Doug McMellan. And he says, Hey John, I've got an opportunity. At the time, Doug was running the international, or is it Sam's International as one of his stops? And um I said, I've got an opportunity for you if you're interested in it. And um at the time I had been on two expat assignments, and and you know, this this assignment would have required extensive travel. And I said, I you know, maybe I'm not at the right point in my career. I had young children at the time, uh, and so I didn't accept that assignment. And and in retrospect, I kind of wish I would have. And if Doug watches this, if you need me for anything, call me now because my kids are grown and I'll do whatever. Uh but I thought it, you know, it was an honor to me and to to be thought of now from him and for him to think about it. And and also he could have had anybody call me. He could have had his personnel managers contact me, he could have had the direct report contact me. He contacted me himself.

AI Omnichannel And Paying Associates More

SPEAKER_02 14:24

And that's that's kind of a the kind of leader that he was. It is, you're right. Such a great, such a great individual. And you know, it's let's talk about, let's continue talking about Doug more on that topic. You know, I thought it was a great article that HBR did, interview with John with Doug. What? And uh there's some questions there I think we should just talk about just for a moment. Sure. And you you already mentioned one when you know it said, you know, when they asked him in that you sort of surprised us when you said you're stepping down. Why? And you you know, you said, well, with Doug, quote Doug, when you see someone who can run the laps ahead better or faster, the right thing to do is to hand them the baton, step aside, and cheer them on. That's powerful. That is powerful. It I'm gonna say this, and I'm gonna have to I don't know if I was a CEO of Walmart, I would have the ego to say that. Right. I'm gonna say I just want to tell you, very few people do, but Doug McMillan has that. Right. You know, he looked and seen what's best for the company. Right. And now he may he made a this huge decision. That's powerful. And I know a young leader listening to this, you got this is what I say about ego. It can destroy everything in his path. Doug did not allow that to happen. And that's a powerful move. He was I I mean, when I read that, I just had to I had to just think and meditate on that for a while. Right. Because that's that's such a powerful statement from Doug.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

Yeah, yeah. And so thanks for bringing that out. Yeah. Um also uh, you know, there's several things in the article we we definitely want to talk about. You know, of course they talked about AI, uh, you know, with AI disrupting business models and endless uh uncertainty, what does these days look like and uh to leave consistently? I think we're all thinking about that, aren't we? Right. Yeah. Your thoughts or any thoughts you have around that?

SPEAKER_00 16:19

No, I I think uh he's been a champion of of um of focusing on on the things that are going to drive the company in the future, like e-commerce, uh, you know, before Doug took over. Um Walmart was pretty was pretty far behind Amazon. Oh, big time. And uh and under his tenure, they've done a big big job of catching up. Uh AI, you know, he he came out last year and talked about AI publicly, and he kind of threw out a warning to to everybody that you better get up to speed with it. Um and you're seeing that at Walmart. Now you're seeing that influence. I think the one thing that um if you look back on on Doug's tenure there, the one thing that impresses me the most was back probably in uh 2012, 13, something like that, he said we need to be paying our associates more.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

And I remember um they came up with a plan and they increased the what they were paying the associates. And that takes a really humble person to say, okay, yeah, we're gonna we're gonna raise our cost. And he mentions in his article that, you know, the the net profit went from six percent to four percent. And you know, shareholders may have been a little bit edgy about that, but it was the right thing to do, Andy, and uh and he proved that over time. And there's a lot of associates that stayed with the company because it was a place uh that they could afford to work for.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Uh so he moved all that forward. And I think that was one of his greatest accomplishments. He had he had the uh intestinal fortitude to say, I'm gonna stand up for people.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Right. I think that was a turning point, a tipping point. I think it was. And uh and it's it proven to be, like you said, so accurate. And you think about because of that happened, the people they were able to bring in, the talent they were to bring in the organization, because you know, one of the things that they knew about this whole change, this whole AI coming, and and is that, you know, and Doug made the comment and and he said, you know, he said it's it, he said every job is going to change some way. And, you know, we are we are actually doing business in Mintonville, just a quick quick advertisement for us, but we're doing these live events around AI and retail. And I'll be doing one uh leading with it with some other people, um, but I'll be leading it uh coming up in um March. We're going to March or April, we'll keep it check our website, but we're gonna talk about AI and people. And um because it's it's you know, you read all the news, you see it, and it's changing human resources immensely and jobs and roles and responsibilities. We're gonna we're gonna bring we're gonna try to bring some uh uh direction in that for you. So we be looking that out. But anyway, but Doug said, you know, um it's gonna change everything from the how we get shopping carts in to how we do everything else. Yeah, you know, and that's those things we said, you know, when we communicated at Walmart, we want to push it all the way down to the person bringing the shopping cart scene because that's a very important job.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

And that's why we would say it. Let's, you know, it's technology is gonna change everything. And uh and and so again, what did they do? They they brought John in because he's he's ready to take that child challenge on. So yeah. What other things that um came out to you in this article?

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Well, there's one, Andy, that that really stuck with me. And um probably something that doesn't get talked about a lot, but at the end of the article, he said, My priorities have always been faith, family walk. And I gotta tell you, um during most of my career, I think it may have been mixed. Maybe it's been backwards, it may have been Walmart, family, faith. Yeah, but what a model that is for the way to do business. And it's not this is not a discussion on faith, but but to put your priorities in line, yeah, and and then to see the kind of success that that gentleman had, yeah, that tells a lot to me.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yeah, I agree with that. That's very powerful. And when I read the article too, I thought the same thing. I thought, you know, that that that stuck my isn't it? You know. Um, one of the things that in the article, and you can read the article, and you can Google it online, but you know, he said uh a question is what advice uh would you give a CEO who's trying to lead major transformation? And I'll just read just his sentence. Uh it says, listen to your gut. The thing that that most of us regret is not going faster. We used to talk about speed of light at Walmart, and they still do, I know, but he says, I was initially focused on how to build the e-commerce business and turn it into an omnibusiness, leveraging assets we had, including the stores. What I didn't understand, and this is really important, was that it was going to lead big changes in the way the company worked. And he had to figure that out and bring the talent in and in order to do that. And then he said, I learned that people can handle it. You need to, you need to go hard, you need to go fast. That's a great message to CEOs. Right. Um absolutely. Yes. You know, you gotta go hard, you gotta go fast, you gotta lean on the people. Right. You know, and Sam Walton always taught us, John, you know that on the stores, he always shared this. And so much of what Doug was was the culture he learned from all of us learned from Sam. But one of the things Sam Used to say to us all the time to remind us, we stand on the backs of our people. And that's what Doug is saying here. Right. You bring the right people around you, you stand on their backs and let them go. And you go hard, you go fast. And um, and he said, and then I love how you closed it out. And when you know you're in your bones that something is right, you need to act on it without much delay.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Make a decision.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

That's pretty powerful. Yeah. That's okay. There you go. There's your Harvard Business Review class today. It is so good, isn't it? Anything else on Walmart before we exit?

Target’s Store Standards And In-Stocks

SPEAKER_00 22:37

Um, no, I think you know, maybe maybe when we talk about some of the other retailers, I may bring Walmart into the equation a little bit. Well, let's talk about Target. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

You know, uh John and uh he gets out and travels stores. I I do too, uh, because we love we love the walk stores. We we will do that forever, I guess, uh till we die, but because we enjoy so much. But let's talk about Target because Target has had a transition, you know, and uh the former uh CEO was a Walmart person uh that we know. And uh you know, Target has struggled. They have. You go to their stores today, uh they'll well, yeah. Um you were just recently in a Target.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah, I I actually I I try to get into a Target at least once a month, if more uh than that. And you know, as a former Walmart buyer, let me just tell you that um yeah, we always admired by Target. Did we always we would spend a lot of time in their stores and we'd always walk out, go, you know what? These guys are great at putting an assortment together and timely assortment um and that type of thing. Lately, though, um, you know, I go into a target and I've been disappointed. And and my disappointment really comes from things like out of stocks. I mean, I would go in and see entire counters wiped out. So um, and still some really, really good merchandise, Andy, but but when you when you clutter it up uh by not taking care of the store standards and that type of thing, um, it kind of loses its appeal a little bit. Now, Target announced their last quarter they were down in sales. Right. And I dug a little bit deeper into that, and I'm finding out that um they were up in grocery, but they were down in apparel and they were down in home. Now, you and I have been around this business a long time, and we know that the margins uh that apparel and home get are much, much higher than the ones that you get in food. And so I was concerned a little bit about their mix, you know, and their profitability when that happens. So um I think the new the new guy uh that's taking over Fidelki, I guess is how you say his name has a big challenge ahead of him um to get Target back to and what he says is now we need to be who we who we always said we were, get back to that. Uh and they're investing five billion dollars uh to try to get the stores back. I think that would be job one for me. If I was going to uh to have anything to do with Target is let's get let's get the store standards back to where they were, get the great merchandise and get the stores in stock, let's invest there, right? Um and he's and they're working on that. Of course, they're also, you know, they also were like anybody else, AI, e-commerce, and and technology. But um, you know, my biggest thing for them, well, let's fix the in-stocks and the store presentation.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Right. Well, you know, uh but you know, you're right. They laid out four priorities, if you will, and and you've you mentioned some of those, uh, you know, talking about leaving with merchandise authority. You know, that that is absolutely what they should do. But as you said, number one is in stock. I mean, if you you go in and you're out of stock, it you you're not authority on it. I mean, their apparel and domestic, what's interesting being down in those categories were their strengths and their profability. You you hit it. They have got to get that back, but they've got to get in stock too.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

And and get and get those, you know, those in-caps to the right features on there, price point that, and and and they have to do that. Uh, you know, they talked about elevating guest customer experience. Well, I would tell you my store visits and is that I stand in a long, long line in self checkout, and I wonder all the others are closed. That to your point, they don't have staffing to do that. You you you can't be successful like that. You you know, because why do you have to stand in the line at step checkouts? I mean, I you know, I don't that's why they're there. Well, they fast. And um, and you know, if you have a problem with that, then go stop that. Right, you know, and um, and then the third point was accelerating technology in the company, uh, a more joyful experience. I will tell you, when I walk into Target, I'm probably being blind here, sorry, but I walk into Target, which I do, um, my joyful experience is hey, you're in stock number two, I can get checked out with sending in a long line. If you do that for me, I'm pretty joyful. And give me a good price, right? And then straight strengthening a team and communities. I I totally agree with that. And I think they're focused on we wish them what. Wait, because we Walmart needs Target, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Right? You agree with that? I I a hundred percent agree with that. I think that a strong Target makes Walmart better because Walmart is always on their toes.

SPEAKER_01 27:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:27

Um, and it makes them better.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Well, yeah. We wish Target success, right? I do. And we'll be in their stores. Yes. So we'll come back and talk about it. Right.

SPEAKER_03 27:36

All right.

Kroger’s New CEO And Store Focus

SPEAKER_02 27:38

Okay, I want to move to one other. We don't talk a lot about groceries here, but I want to talk about Kroger for a moment. And uh this this podcast has a theme here called Transition of Leaders, right? Uh in and you all that follow Tar uh Coat Kroger knows that uh they've just had a recent transition, they've been without a CEO for a while, and they just named uh uh Greg Foring uh as their next CEO. And if you know Greg, he's a former Walmart person. Right. We'll talk about that. But but when he let's talk about what he just last did. Let's move to Greg in Walmart, okay? But he you know he was um um the CEO of New Zealand Air, Air New Zealand. Wow. Yeah, you go from Walmart, you go run an airline, now you go back to retail. Yeah, he's probably happier. I don't know. I think I can't imagine leading the airline.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Uh but yeah, well, he's from New Zealand. Yeah. So uh he went home for a while, but now he's back in the US. Um actually, Andy, of all the um when you compare Target and everything, I really, really like this hire for Kroger. Yeah. Um because of what Greg was able to do at Walmart. I mean, he was instrumental, you know, and when Walmart put him in in as the CEO of Walmart US, right? Sales were trending downward, things were in the super centers. Right. In the super centers, um, he came in and turned all of that around. And you and I both know that if the core Walmart business isn't strong, everything else is gonna suffer. So his task was to get that core business turned around and moving in the right direction. And he did that. Yeah, he did that for 20 quarters. Right. That's a lot. And I think you know, Kroger was actually down in their last uh in their last numbers. I think we're gonna see some really, really uh good things happening to Kroger because of his expertise uh and his his hands-on ability, right? Um, and his rapport that he has with the associates. I mean, I think everything, I think you're gonna see some uh some good movement from Kroger and it's a large company.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Right, it is, it's a massive company. I tell you, I think the first thing he's gonna do and he did it at Walmart for us, and uh he did, he did, he did flip that, we said, on the sales. But what he did, he put on a store vest, a Walmart vest every day, and he went to the stores and he walked to stores, he talked to customers, and he talked to his socials, and he talked about how how can we fix this? What are your ideas? What are your suggestions? He would bring those ideas back in every week, and we would talk about it. But he would not only bring the ideas, he would execute the ideas, and that's exactly uh what Kroger needs. Kroger needs him in the stores, walking to the stores, listening to customers, listening to the associates, bringing because he has the authority to bring those back and act on those things. Right. And that's what our Kroger needs today, because they've been focused on acquisition. Now they got to get back and focus on what they do best, and that's that's that's groceries. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

And I also think, Andy, it's uh based on what Greg was able to accomplish at Walmart that you will see them take a leap forward in e-commerce and and pick up today and the type of things that he helped establish at Walmart.

SPEAKER_01 31:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

I think we'll see a focus on those too. So I really I really think that the future for Kroger is good with that.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

I think it's great news for Kroger. Not so great news for Walmart, but great news for Kroger.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

Because he'll make Walmart stronger.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

He will.

Amazon’s Lead And Walmart Catch-Up

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the things that was so impressed to me, I not that I I've never flown to Air New Zealand, but I've read stories. And you know, he did the same thing there. You know, he he he put on a vest, he got on his airplanes, instead of walking stories, he's walking the aisles, pushing the cart, serving food and drinks, and he talked to the customers sitting in the airlines. Have you ever had that to happen on any airlines flight where the CEO was pushing the cart down the aisle and asking you about how we could build a better airline? No, no, no, it doesn't happen. Right. I will tell you, and I would like to encourage the the airlines I fly, you're in the U.S., the CEO to get out of their office, walk the aisles with a cart, and ask me that question. I have plenty of things to, but don't stay in first class, come back to where I'm at and then ask me back then, coach, right? For sure. Anyway, but that's great. Yeah. See, but that's the leader we're talking about. And uh so it's great. Now, let's move to one more. Let's talk about Amazon. Yeah. What are your thoughts on Amazon?

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Well, still going strong. I mean, they they did almost$720 billion uh last year. So they're bigger in uh, you know, from a retail standpoint or from a total company standpoint uh than Walmart is. And you know, the thing that that Amazon has been a tough competitor because they got such a head start, right? You know, they started their company as an e-commerce company, and Walmart was of course a brick and mortar company. And so um I think what happened was was as Amazon grew and they offered their prime membership and that type of thing, customers started using Amazon and it became a habit to use Amazon now. Um, and that's great for them, and they continue to do that. And and I know you and I both have seen Amazon packages pop up on our porch, probably more than we would want to. Um, but they've got that head start, they've got that lead. Now, one thing I love about what Walmart's doing right now, I think their um Who Knew campaign is fantastic, and I think that is helping get the message out there to people that are used to clicking on Amazon. Hey, maybe you ought to go check Walmart out too. Um, and of course, Walmart backs it up with store, uh, you know, different avenues of uh retrieving the merchandise would pick up today, and and and everybody's working on getting the delivery to one day or less or a couple of hours or whatever. Both of them are using drones. Um, but it's gonna be interesting to watch uh over the next five or six years to see. You know, Walmart, I think, has done a good job of catching up. They're not they're not fully caught up to Amazon yet, and you know, and it seems like once you make make a move towards it, Amazon takes a step forward. So it's always gonna be uh um it's always gonna be a battle, and it's gonna be interesting to watch. But uh it's a great company.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Yes, it is, it is. I think you really you really summed that up really well about Amazon. Thank you, John. And and I think we still need to watch them. I think they, you know, when you they're head, as you talked about, uh in this in this whole whole omnichannel space. Uh, but they've they but there's a lot of people after them. Right. And and and they so they're gonna have to run fat even faster.

Costco’s Member Trust And Momentum

SPEAKER_00 34:37

And I'm curious to say, you know, they you know, they they bought uh Whole Foods, which is just now opening a store here in and Rogers. It'll be interesting to see if there's other acquisitions coming down the road. Um so it'll be it'll be fun to watch. Yes, it will be.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Okay, our last retailer is gonna be Costco. Yeah. Now, you know, we we've talked Sam's, we've talked Walmart, we we we we've you know talked Kroger. So um boy, Costco reported just from out of the year. I am and they're off to a great start. Right. Uh I mean, you know, they're they're strong. Uh they had you know$123 billion worth of business in their first 22 weeks of sales, uh 8.5% last year. They're not 124 locations, had a strong January. They're off and running.

2026 Outlook Next Topics And Closing

SPEAKER_00 35:22

They are. They're uh they're uh they're amazing. They're an amazing company, yes. I love going to Costco and um you know part of part of my um as I try to sell to Sam's Club. I don't sell to Costco, but part of trying to sell to Sam's Club is to understand what Costco does and what Costco does well. Uh their private label programs are phenomenal. Um, but I think the thing that makes Costco um really good is they have a trust built with their member. Members that shop at Costco, trust Costco. Now, uh I don't know if you've ever been to a Costco in Southern California on a Saturday, but it I mean it's one of the most uh intense retail experiences, I guess, wholesale experiences that you can have. I mean, the parking, you first of all getting a parking spot's impossible. Um and then when you get into the store, if you finally figure out, you know, the two-mile walk to get into the to the club, and it's just packed and the registers are humming. I mean, it's really exciting to see um$270 billion company and growing at eight, nine percent right now. So spicy. Um yeah, it's an amazing company, and and uh you know, I think Sam's Club as a direct competitor, you know, is it does a really good job. And I know there's areas of the country where uh Sam's Club is very strong, like in Texas, or they would be very strong. And um, but in California and and some of the other areas, Costco very, very, very tough.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Okay, so our predictions here is that we feel good about Walmart and their transition, their leadership and their focus, right? Uh what they're going to do. Uh, so we we feel good about that. We feel good. You mentioned Costco, we feel good about that. Amazon's strong. They're they're making a lot of changes and shifting things around to to I think streamline the organization and they close some stores and now focus, you know. You do that, you try all these new things, you should. Now they've made decisions, so they're gonna, you know, refocus on their core business, it sounds like. And they're and you know, again, they're they're growing their whole foods again. Right. As, you know, to your point. That's that's strong. We uh we feel we feel good about um well, we we need to see what Target does. Right. I think that's keep an eye on that's we gotta we gotta do that. Now, John, here's what I think we should do. I I think we gotta get you back out in the stores, okay? Okay. And that you need to follow, I mentioned you need to follow John on LinkedIn, John Reeves, because I will tell you, he's in the stores, he takes photos, he has comments about it. But one of the things that I'm trying to convince John to do is to uh get back in here more often and talk about his store visits and talk about his thoughts around retail and not only uh not only the the the store itself, but the merchandising piece. Because you you heard John's background, his merchandising. He's you know, we work together at Walmart. He's he's he's an expert in that. So, John, um, I just put you on the spot. Come back over here, come back in share, share your wisdom, share your knowledge and your thoughts around not only the stories, but merchandising. And I I think this is something that we should just talk more about to share because it's the we're gonna keep watching these companies.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02 38:36

And we may add one or two more to our list as we are out and about.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

There's a there's a couple of them out there that I've got my eye on now, Andy, that I think we ought to talk about. One of them is TJ Maxx company, which seems to be on fire right now. Let's do that. Yeah, let's do that next time. We can talk about that. And you know, the other ones are the uh and TJ Maxx participates in the the like the off-price uh retailer, but there's other ones out there like Ross and um that that seem to be doing a lot of business and uh are always busy. So I think there's there's a lot going on. And then the other thing um that at some point I'd like to talk about are the the dot-com companies that are doing really well.

SPEAKER_01 39:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

Um and I get a lot of inspiration, a lot of merchandise direction from those companies too.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

So okay, you have your next show. Yeah. Okay, so tune in to John. We'll do that. Um, John, it's always a pleasure to be with you. Well, great guy, you're a good friend. Uh I can't thank you enough for uh sharing some of your time today with us. Well, thanks for having me. I really it's always a pleasure. I miss you, man. I miss you. I was like, all right, uh, I said I I even said, where are you, man? We gotta do, we gotta get together. It's always fun. Yeah, it is. Okay, thank you again uh so much uh for your viewership. And you it's just amazing. Uh we're real humbled by our our success at doing business in Bentonville, and I give you all the credit for that for your viewers and we get to you know talk to people in over 100 countries and thousands every day, check us out, and that means so much to us. We're thank we're we're so humbled for that. Thank you very much. Uh reach out to us, please reach out to me on LinkedIn. Now you reach out to John on LinkedIn. All right. Okay, thank you, everyone. Have a wonderful day. Yeah, thank you, Jeffrey. Thank you, appreciate it.