While the Pandemic Triage is well in the rearview of retail executives, we have been hearing of the need for sharing and discussion around more deep challenges facing the sector. New in 2023, TBOR is tackling the next round of complexities. Here is our first - Re-Innovating Retail. As the retail industry transitions through a high-speed technological revolution filled with overwhelming mounds of data, Ai, robotics, and digital transformations. The power to lead, leverage, an...

Arguably the top buzzword of 2021 is “The Great Resignation”. Catchy as it sounds, it's an incomplete story. Many are leaving, but others are staying and new will come - for the right opportunities. A recent Fast Company piece suggests it is actually “The Great Reprioritization”. It focused on the worker perspective, but reprioritizing and redesigning the way retail works should be a high priority for CEOs. We turn to the changes in play around head office ret...

This time of year in particular brings urgent calls to "Shop Local". Individually and collectively, the TBOR Crew has been a vocal supporter of independent retail and foodservice from the earliest days of the pandemic. Yet, as we dove into Ep. 30, we soon realized these two words can mean different things to different people. Is it about buying 'locally made' product? Or are we to focus on buying product from a nearby owner-operator (that might be sourced...

Some fire showed in this 24 min episode. All agree that the retail front of house staffing model for stores is broken. There are quick patches for Holiday 2021, but the underlying issues are not going away. The question is whether the industry can disrupt itself to find the answer. The ongoing campaign against a higher minimum wage suggests it won't. We speculate on a slow demise of stores, to the detriment of consumers and brands, if staff are not invested beyond 'min...

Another shorter segment (22.35 min). The Supply Chain issue has many facets. This episode focuses on what can be done at the store level in face of stock unpredictability and shortfalls. Independents might be hard hit with supply, yet have a real edge here to pivot and reset product experiences. The challenges are exponential for chains. The crew dissects the issues and offers tips to mitigate the impacts.

As we head into the last quarter of 2021, the crew looks to the retail CEO's path to 2022. Each of us brought our top one or two priorities to the discussion. What must be tackled now, while continuing to solidify foundations for 2023 and beyond. This was a fast moving discussion. Listen as we scan the landscape to establish in real time our curated topics for deep dives in the next while.

Are #retailers' #supplychains ready for the next Black Swan moment(s)? Listen here for our preview of Episode 26.

We know Amazon has been buying planes while chip shortages are creating shortages in car rental fleets. Gary notes that 2020/21 backlogs might take a year to catch up given current global capacities. If corona-virus protocols wax and wane through 2023 or beyond, supply chain vulnerability will continue to be the biggest wild card for retailers and shoppers alike. This is the subject of Episode 26, fortuitously timed with the announced shocker that Canadian Tire purchased a...

We have heard much about ado about how we have “gained 5 years in 5 weeks”, evolving rapidly through the pandemic. There are pundits claiming soon 50% of retail will flow online. At #thebusinessofretail we love an intriguing hypothesis to test. We take this one head on.

Gary had come across a push-piece calling for #ecommerce to comprise half of all retail transactions by 2025. "No way!" we thought. Yet, we dissected it to contemplate implications and conditions for this to occur. Here is a sample from Ep 25, which will launch in full in one week..

Imagine drive-through meals at every Loblaw's supermarket, with President's Choice on the menu board?. Or retailers taking over the better meal prep kit plays. Will grocers unleash their vision of the future? Or will they just test the waters? Will A.I. be cleaning up in aisle four? If so, will it be about customers, or on cutting costs (and people)? @TheFoodProfessor is is back. This time, helping us understand one of our most important subjects: the challenges reta...

Canada's Food Professor is back! Dr. Sylvain Charlebois covered Foodservices a few months ago and returns to reveal the big shifts happening in our large grocers that are sending ripples through our Food Retail sector. Here is a sneak peak and a 'tip of the cap' to Sobey's CEO, Michael Medline.

There ha s been much trumpeting of "customer experience" over the past decade. However, the experiential foundations of the past 100 years are still these: sales and service. Have we forgotten what exceptional sales and service entails? Have productivity efforts gone too far? This is different than having shiny interactive displays in store... this shows up when we shoppers have our specific problems solved, when we gratefully buy something more expensive because an associate he...

Our resident CEO George Minakakis, MBA pushed the crew to revisit a bedrock fundamental of retailing that has been eroding for years: the art of exceptional sales and service. Listen here to a 4 min sneak peak... and subscribe in order to catch the full episode when it drops July 13.

In Episode 22 we are joined by Arlene Dickinson - Canadian business leader, investor, author and television personality. General partner of District Ventures Capital and CEO of Venture Communications, she recently launched the Venturepark ecosystem of supports to assist Canadian #food and #wellness #cpg brands. This one will be of broad business interest. Arlene’s holistic and long-run view to creating a richer, more resilient local food supply driven by value-add in the last mile of deliver...

As we continue this June to explore the opportunities and challenges for new brands to scale, we are delighted to discuss the issues in a food context with one of Canada's most respected business people, resident Dragon on CBC and all-around supporter of ventures: Arlene Dickinson. She joined on the heels of launching Venturepark - what might be the most complete tip-to-tail ecosystem of support for new brands in the #cpg space. The full episode will be live Tues. June 29.

This is a sneak peak at Episode 21. If you like it, please download the full discussion.

“Purpose” in business is a daily topic in our newsfeeds. We expect much as shoppers, but are our values and commitments to do right by society and the environment in the way of our desire for what's new in fashion, technology - and the economic means to acquire them? While consumers continue to buy cheap and made-to-fail products, CEOs are under increasing pressure to convince these same shoppers, as well as employees, investors and other partners, that their enterprise is actively add...

We have been seeing a surge in new fashion and lifestyle brands even as the bigger players in this subsector seem to struggle. Yet making it through to profitable scale remains elusive for many. The TBOR team are joined by Canadian retail executive Christine Day to explore why this is occurring and to discuss the challenges and common pitfalls founders face - and the reasons to be optimistic about their futures. Christine recently teamed with Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and his ...

This time we are unpacking the tumult that has swept through the foodservice sector in Canada. Our dine-in restaurants and bars have borne the brunt of the pandemic, while some formats have thrived. Lots of losses here have been gains for grocery. But what next? The TBOR team is joined by guest Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. Sylvain a Canadian researcher and professor in food distribution and food policy at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Also known as The Fo...