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- [00:02]
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Hello, it's February 24, 2026. Welcome to this week's episode of the Commerce riff with the CPG guys. It's our weekly short segment, bite sized. 10 minutes of content, audio and video. We hope you enjoy our curated stories. I'm your co host, pbsp. I'm joined by Paparazz, the father of pop stars, co founder and CRO of Think Blue Consulting. Sree, we're back from Cagney and you're on your way somewhere else. What's going on?
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I'm actually already at E Tail Palm Springs and hosting a private dinner tonight with productwind as well. Shop Talk will be here before you blink. And lots of things going on at Shop Talk. We're hosting more curated dinners. You know, if you want to know more about Peter and my availability, simply email us. That's shreepguys.com pvspguys.com or contact@cpguys.com we're also recording podcasts. Let us know if you want to be on the show. But before we do anything else, tell me about Nadia's birthday party.
- [00:52]
A
Yeah, Nadia turned seven. We had a party. It was a hello Kitty spa day theme at the Giggling Pig in New Haven, Connecticut. We we raced to get the party done before the big blizzard hit. We got home and it dumped 2ft of snow on us. Sree, can you believe it? Nadia was home from school today and they just called school for tomorrow. So we've got a couple of days. I'm actually kind of glad that the snow kept me from joining you on the West Coast. I get to spend a little time with my daughter, but all always good. Sree. All right, so everybody, needless to say, the first item on our agenda today is Cagney 2026. Where Sree and I were last week and what a week it was. Sree and I just got back from what I can only describe as a marathon of insight. We're fired up to share it all with you. In this episode we're recapping the Highlight from the 2026 Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference. And this year we did some something really special. We partnered with Mass Market Retailer, a publication we genuinely admire. Part of the retail media IQ family. A huge thank you to Jeff Friedman, CEO for making this happen. We publish daily exclusive recaps throughout the conference and you can find all of them by visiting Mass Market Retailer directly or just Google Mass Market Retail Acagny and they'll come right up. Of course we're going to link them in the digital liner notes of this podcast episode now what makes up our now what makes our recaps a little different is the lens we use. We're not Wall street analysts. We don't even play them on tv. We're not chasing a We're going way deeper than that. In each daily recap, we allocated a composite score to every presentation based on seven attributes we believe truly matter for the long game. Those are portfolio stability and innovation, AI acknowledgement, Omnichannel understanding, price pack architecture and revenue growth management, consumer insights, depth, organic, volume growth and M and a strategy going forward. In our podcast recap, which dropped yesterday, show SRI and I walk through that composite score and use it to bracket every presentation, rather every presenting company into a tier top, middle or bottom. Give it a listen, let us know what you think. So who did we cover? Four days, four recaps, and some of the largest Fortune 500 publicly traded consumer brands on the planet. We're talking L', Oreal P&G McCormick, Kimberly Clark Racket, Colgate, Paul Mallow, Church and Dwight Clorox, Coca Cola, Unilever, Utz Brand, elf Beauty, Hormel, Conagra Brands, Kraft Heinz, Celsius Holdings, Newell Brands, PepsiCo, Jam Smucker, JBS Vita Coco Mondelez, Gentle Mills and Molson Coors. Wow, that's not only a lineup, that's a mouthful. And sree, you've got something extra. Cooking SRI recorded a live episode coming very soon with two presenters from Kimberly Clark, Patricia Corsi, their Chief Growth Officer, and Craig Slavcheff, their Chief R and D Officer. They get into everything from the use of AI and innovation development to how marketing and engineering work hand in hand to bring it all to life. That one is well worth your time, so look out for it. To learn more about Cagney, go to Consumer Analysts Group of New York. We'll put a link in the digital liner notes to this episode. Sri, you're up.
- [04:07]
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Thank you. Peter Cagny was awesome indeed. You know, the number of corporate communications leaders, including wanting to feature CEOs on the show, has just astronomically skyrocketed. But Champagne Toast Body Wash with no minimum shipping threshold is now just a click away for Amazon prime members. The mall favorite brand is making some of its best selling fragrances, body washes, hand soaps and candles available for Amazon US Shoppers. The selection is also eligible for prime shipping. Amazon is the number one online destination for US beauty shoppers, accounting for 47% of the online beauty and personal care market in the U.S. in 2024, according to Euromonitor Sephora second with 9% share. Euromonitor estimates 39% of all beauty and personal care sales take place online, which is a whopping large number for Omni Channel. Launching our first authorized brand storefront on Amazon allows us to put ourselves directly in the path of the consumer, bath and Body Works CEO Daniel Heath told cnbc. It's about meeting them where they already shop. The Amazon launch marks the latest effort by Columbus, Ohio based Bath and Body Works to expand its access points for customers. Last year it began selling its products in college campus stores with a footprint of now more than 1,000 locations. And the company's first point of sale outside is roughly 2,600 owned and franchise stores on its own website. Heath joined Bath and Body Works in May after his role as Nike's chief transformation and strategy officer was eliminated by CEO Elliot Hill. Heath recently laid out his plan to return Bath and Body Works to profitable, sustainable growth. He calls it a consumer first formula with four pillars creating disruptive innovation products, reigniting the brand, winning in the marketplace and operating with speed and efficiency. The Amazon partnership, he says, is the first of many milestones that will be delivering this fiscal year against that strategy. Before the official storefront launch, Bath and Body Works products were sold on Amazon through third party sellers. Now, he says, the company is attempting to reclaim the brand story on Amazon and those marketplace sales. While Amazon has many first party relationship brands from Nike to Calvin Klein that use wholesale partnerships as part of their business model, there are a few examples of retailers selling on the site that design, manufacture and sell their products entirely on their own through a storefront. For those so called vertically integrated brands like Bath and Body Works, Amazon is increasingly filling the role of skilled logistics partner rather than a retailer. I believe you have Walmart next.
- [06:28]
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Dateline Bentonville Sri Walmart's US advertising arm, Walmart Connect grew revenue a whopping 41% year over year in Q4, an important period that includes the holidays. According to an earnings statement retailer saw global advertising revenue rise 46%. You know Sree, if this is like the second or third year that they're in business, that percentage growth number in real dollars isn't huge. But my God, reaching nearly $.4 billion. We're seven or eight years into the retail media arm of Walmart for the full fiscal year. That is just astronomical, right? Advertising and membership fees. So Walmart plus right two very high margin segments accounted for ready for this three a third of Walmart's operating income in Q4. Asked by analysts about whether the company can sustain its rate of advertising expansion, executives reinforced they see a large opportunity for growth ahead. Quote we still have long ways to go here to get in the neighborhood of some of the best in class competitors, cfo John Raney said on an earnings call. We feel like we can improve our own advertising capabilities while doing it on a growing base, which gives us a lot of Runway into the future. For one thing, Walmart is drawing more demand from its Marketplace targeted at 33rd party sellers versus first party brands, Rainey explained. Another factor is Vizio, the connected TV device maker that Walmart acquired two years ago for a little over $2 billion. Vizio is working off a smaller base than the overall US Business, but provides Walmart an avenue into video as more retail media networks try to stand up full funnel marketing ecosystems. We saw triple digit growth in advertising with our Vizio business in the quarter, rainey said. This is an extra. This is exciting because it gives us yet another channel to market our to our customers and I feel like that's really just getting started. Walmart has made structural changes to sports advertising bets and replicated success playbook outside the US along with account for the rise of new technology like Agentic Commerce. In January, it promoted Seth Delair, chief growth officer overseeing Walmart Connect, Walmart plus Walmart Data Ventures, Vizio and the Global Marketplace platform. Quote I think the signals confidence that the capabilities we have built in the US are exportable to other markets and we can work with our other markets to accelerate those platforms to grow, said CEO John Foreigner, who took on the top job earlier this month of Dallaire's appointment. We're optimistic that what Seth has done here in the US with his team can accelerate growth in other markets. Additionally, sri you want to close this out?
- [09:16]
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You know we've had Seth Dillet twice on the show. We're lucky to have had him. What Was it episode 200 and 400? But what a powerhouse. Peter. He's changed the thinking there completely. So about five months after formally being acquired by Sycamore Partners, I could not skip this one, Peter Walgreens is laying off hundreds of employees yet again. In Texas, 159 employees are impacted, according to a notice the company filed with the state dated February 12. The effective layoff date is June 1 and marks the closure of the company's distribution center in Houston. Additionally, 469 employees are impacted in Illinois at the company's headquarters, according to another notice Walgreens filed with the state dated February 10th. We're focused on becoming America's best retail pharmacy, beginning with improving the in store experience for our customers and patients, walgreens spokesperson said in a statement shared with Retail Dive do this. We made the difficult decision to simplify our organization, both the support center and with our field leadership to speed decision making and improve the service that millions of customers rely on every single day. We have deep respect for our colleagues and greatly appreciate their contributions and are committed to supporting them throughout this transition. The company did not comment on the total number of employees impacted overall. However, do remember that Walgreens became a private company in September after it was sold to private equity firms Sikomo partners for about 10 billion. The company then split its businesses into five standalone entities, including spinning out the Boots Group Walgreens International retail pharmacy chain. The acquisition followed a period of turmoil for the retail business while it was still a publicly traded company. Walgreens third quarter earnings release in June showed frontal store retail sales dropping by 5.3% year over year due to store closure and just bad comps. The drugstore retailer in 2024 announced it would close 1200 stores over the course of three years and here we are.
- [10:56]
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Wrap it up Peter A reminder to catch up with our recently released episode featuring Joshua Gebhart and Brandon Nutter, co founders of Amped in our CAGNY 2026 recap episode. Do follow our daily recaps of Cagny on mass market Research retailers exclusively published last week from the event. There are links to that in the digital show notes of this episode. All right folks, that's our take on relevant commerce happenings from so many announcements this past week we thought were meaningful and could not pass on a riff. We hope you enjoyed it. Please do click like our posts on all platforms. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and now YouTube. See you next time week.
- [11:39]
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The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGuys LLC or the individual author, hosts or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGuys LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPT Guys LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPT Guys LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or other damages arising out of any individual's use of or reference to or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.