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- [00:00]
A
Hey, CPT guys, listeners, PVSB here and we want to take a minute to tell you about something that Sree and I are genuinely proud to be a part of. And that's the Cornell OmniCommerce Leadership Program, an immersive on campus executive education experience at Cornell University in beautiful Ithaca, New York, happening July 27th through the 31st. This isn't a webinar. This isn't another online certificate you do in your pajamas. This is five days on the Cornell campus surrounded by senior executives from retail, CPG and ad tech service providers all wrestling with the same questions you are. How do I win the omnishopper? How do I navigate retail media? What does agentic commerce mean for my business? The faculty lineup is extraordinary. We're talking Cornell professors alongside practitioners from Mars, Snacking, Nestle, Walmart, AJO delhez, Fetch Dollar General, Monster Energy, Bayer Consumer Health, and yes, sri. And I will be right there in the room with you. You walk away with a Cornell SC Johnson College of Business certificate, 36 professional development hours, and more importantly, a concrete Omni Commerce roadmap you can bring back to your organization on day one. Seats are very limited. The program is built for VPs, directors and senior leaders who are serious about getting ahead of where commerce is going. Visit the link in our show Notes to learn more and request information. Search online for Cornell OmniCommerce leadership or find the direct link@cpguys.com we'll see you in Ithaca this July. Now let's get into Today's episode. It's June 2, 2026 and this is the Commerce Rift brought to you by the CPG guys. 10 minutes of the stories that matter in commerce this week. I'm your co host, pbsb. I'm joined as always by Papa Ra is the father of pop stars, co founder of Think Blue Consulting Sree Lot going on this week?
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Absolutely, Peter. I blinked and half the year is already behind us. You know, I'm excited because tomorrow we'll be handing out the actual Retail Media Awards with Path to Purchase Institute's annual event. And then we have Cannes lines in less than three weeks. A month later we'll be at Ithaca and we've got a special surprise for you because we will be broadcasting from Cooperstown Baseball hall of Fame.
- [02:23]
A
It's going to be a religious experience. SRI indeed. Let's get into it. Four stories that four stories this week that cut across the full spectrum in Kroger's massive leadership resets the magnitude of snap changes and its impact. The grocery Marketplace, an expansion of 30 minute delivery service, and Costco reports record breaking volumes of gasoline. All right, let's talk Kroger. Because if you're a CBG supplier and you haven't been paying close attention to what's happening in Cincinnati over the last 18 months, now's the time to catch up. Kroger you're calling on today is structurally different than the one you were calling on two years ago when Rodney McMullen was the CEO. And that has real implications for how you show up. Here's the scope of the change in the Most recently filed 10 Kroger disclosed 10 executive officer changes in a single fiscal year. Wow. That's the most in over 12 years. And at the same time, the store count dropped below 2700 for the first time in over 11 years. This isn't noise. This is a company in the middle of a genuine reset. Really. All traces back to March of 2025 when longtime chairman and CEO Rodney McMullum abruptly resigned following a board ethics review. Still don't know all the details on that sri. Inquiring minds want to know. Board member Ron Sargent stepped in as interim CEO, spent nearly a year stabilizing the business, trimming underperforming stores, cutting corporate overhead, running a CEO search. And then in February of this year, Kroger made a hire that the industry hadn't seen coming. At least not in this form. Greg Forin, formerly head of Walmart U.S. former CEO of Air New Zealand, is now the permanent CEO of Kroger, the first external hire for the top job in the company's 143 year history. Kroger shares jumped roughly 7% that day. The announcement dropped. The market had a reaction. The industry should too. But here's what we want CPG brands to focus on because it's more actionable than the CEO headline. The person now running merchandising at Kroger is Mary Ellen Adcock, EBP Chief Merchant and Marketing Officer, 25 year Kroger veteran. Here's what's important about her background. She came up through the operations in manufacturing, not traditional buying. She's not a merchant in the conventional mold. She's an operator. She reportedly delivered over a billion dollars in annual savings. When you pair that profile with Greg Foreign, a CEO who built his entire reputation on store standards and operational discipline at Walmart, you now have a leadership tandem that's going to hold suppliers to a higher standard. Not a different standard, a higher one. So what does this mean for your business if you're CPG right? Three things. First, read the room with category managers right now. When leadership changes at the top, category managers go into a period of relative caution. They're calibrating to the new priorities. This is not a moment to walk in with a speculative new pitch idea, right? This is the moment to show up with strong data, clear scorecards. We're talking 8,451 stratum, right? And a clear performance story. Earn the conversation before you ask for the shelf space. Second, your execution metrics are being watched more closely than ever before. Fill rates on shelf availability, item data accuracy, case pack efficiency. If there's any slop in your supply chain, you will feel it faster under foreign and ad cock than you did under the previous administration. Get ahead of it now. And third, don't underestimate the division level changes. Multiple Kroger division presidents are new or newly redeployed. Colleen Jurgensen retired after 45 years running the Central Division. Tom Schwilke after 42 plus years with Ralphs. There's an enormous amount of institutional knowledge that walked out the door. The new division presidents are learning the book. If your brand has strong velocity in a division where leadership recently changed hands, document that story and get it in front of the right people. Don't assume new president inherited your context. Go earn it again. Bottom line, Kroger is not in turmoil. It's in transition. And for the CPG brand paying attention, there's a real window right now to position yourselves as the right kind of partner for what this company is becoming. Don't waste it.
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Sree over to you straight from Grocery Dive States implementing restrictions on SNAP spending By the end of 2026, we'll actually see an approximately $830 million sales loss in the categories targeted by the waivers, according to new leaderness research. From November, redirected or reduced spending by SNAP households could lead to sales losses of 430 million for soda alone, 300 million for candy, and 100 million for energy drinks across the 19 states that will have waivers in place by the end of the year, according to the firm's research. After Numerator conducted research earlier this year, Montana became the latest state seek a waiver request, which is expected to go into effect later this year, though the firm noted in an email this will result in a minimal increase to the 830 million estimate. Three other states have also received waivers, two of which are expected to take effect in 2027, one in 2028, according to the USDA. These estimated sales hit comes roughly a third of SNAP participants will face restrictions by the end of the year, Numerator noted. As SNAP waivers roll out across the United States, grocers and states implementing the restrictions will likely see major shifts in SNAP consumer spending in the categories targeted by the restrictions. Numerator notes that the state waivers will structurally change the SNAP program entirely. SNAP hustles are largely aware of the waivers, Numerator found. Among SNAP households surveyed at the start of this year 2026, 2/3 nearly of those in states with approved waivers said they plan to use non SNAP dollars to purchase soda became ineligible, while 60% 45% said the same for candy and for energy drinks, respectively. Numerators research found that SNAP shoppers may offer healthier alternatives to restricted items, but 30% of surveyed consumers saying they would possibly switch to tea, juice coffee in the face of soda and energy drink restrictions. The same percent said the same for candy, noting they would consider fruit ice cream or fruit snacks instead. Newberry also looked at how the government shut down the fall impacted SNAP spending. The firm found that average Weekly grocery spending fell 10% among SNAP households from dollars 233 the week of October 5 to 210 the week of October 26. Spending then stabilized in early November before recovering during the middle of that month. Numerators research is based on a survey of 1016 SNAP households in late January and purchase data Peter 30 minute delivery? Is that what you said?
- [08:59]
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Sri I have a need for speed because the race to your front door just got a lot more serious. And if you're a CPG brand and you're not thinking about what sub 30 minute delivery means for your business, well, you probably should be thinking about that. Here's what happened just this week. On May 28, Walmart announced it was expanding its 30 minute or less delivery service from seven cities to 33 cities in the U.S. that's nearly a five fold expansion in a single announcement. And it comes just two weeks after Amazon made a similar move expanding its own 30 minute delivery service to dozens of additional cities, with more planned before the end of the year. Two of the largest retailers on the planet making major infrastructure commitments to speed within two weeks of each other. That's not a coincidence, that's a battleground forming in real time. Let's put some context around the Walmart number because Tracy Poulot, who is Walmart's Chief e commerce officer, made a statement that I think deserves more attention than it's getting, right? She said that 26% of Walmart's express deliveries are already arriving in 30 minutes or less. Not eventually, not theoretically. Right now more than a quarter of express orders are hitting that threshold and Walmart has already completed millions of these deliveries to more than 19,000 zip codes just in the first quarter of this year alone. That's not a pilot Sree. That sounds to me like a scaled operation. And what are customers buying on these deliveries? Well, this is where it gets really interesting for cpg. Walmart calls it the need it now category and it spans batteries, course party supplies, dog food can't let you sri if bala gives you the look and you don't have dog food, you're in big trouble, aren't you? Cold and flu medicine Baby essentials Last minute meal solutions these are not considered purchases. They are impulse and urgent purchases and they are migrating to a delivery model that until very recently didn't exist at scale. Think about what that means for how your brand needs to show up. The shopper who used to run to the nearby store at 9pm because the baby needs for formula. The dog bowl is empty. The that shopper now is a real alternative. And if your brand isn't in the eligible item catalog for Walmart's 30 minute service or you're not optimized for Amazon's equivalent offering, you are invisible at the exact moment of high purchase intent. That is a miss you can't afford. Our friend Neil Saunders, retail analyst at Global Data put it plainly. Retail is not offering fast delivery. Don't just lose the urgent purchase. They run the risk of pushing that customer to a competing platform entirely where they may not come back. The mission starts urgent, but the habits form there. So what should CPG brand teams be doing right now? Three things. First, audit your fast delivery. Eligibility are your priority. SKUs in the catalog for Walmart Express and Amazon's rapid delivery programs. If you don't know the answer, find out this week, not next quarter. This week. Second, think about your assortment through an urgency lens. What your portfolio maps to a need it now occasion Cold and flu Baby Pet meal solutions Entertaining right? These are all the categories already showing traction and 30 minute delivery. If you're in those spaces, make sure you're positioning your content. Your search visibility are optimized for the urgent shopper. Speed changes the search behavior. Someone who needs something in the next hour is not browsing. They are searching with intent. Be findable. And third, watch this space on inventory placement. And as these programs scale, the retailers that can fulfill in 30 minutes are the ones with inventory positioned closest to the customer. Dark stores, micro fulfillment stores, warehouse models that has supply chain implications for how you pack, how you allocate and how you think about your retail media investment at the local level. 30 minute delivery space is no longer a future state. It's happening right now in 33 cities and counting. Two of the biggest players in retail putting real resources behind it. But brands that treat this as a logistics story will be behind. The brands that treat it as a commerce strategy will be ahead. Sree, talk to us about gas consumption, would you?
- [13:08]
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Yeah, Peter Straight from cnbc, Costco holds on last Thursday said it saw record breaking volumes for gas in its fiscal third quarter amidst rising fuel prices. No surprise, CEO Ron Bakkeris said the final five weeks of the quarter, which ended May 10, became Costco's top five volume weeks ever as customers search for cheaper gas amid the war in the Middle east against the backdrop of ongoing macro uncertainty. Our focus providing quality goods and services the lowest price possible, valkyrie said on a call with analysts. The company also said it saw first time members coming to Costco for its gas stations during the quarter. We believe this will drive even greater loyalty with these members in the future as members who use gas stations typically spend more with us in the warehouse. Comments came as Costco reported an increase in net sales for its fiscal third quarter, beating Wall street revenue expectations for the actual period, the company reported net sales of $69.15 billion, up from 11.6% last year. It said adjusted comparable sales were up 6.6% for the quarter, with digital sales up nearly 21%. That is a surprise. Here's how Costco performed in its fiscal third quarter compared with Wall street is expecting based on a survey of end List by LSDG EPS $4.93 vs $4.93 Expected Revenue 70.53 billion vs 69.81 billion Expected 700 million over for the three month period. Costco reported net income of $2.19 billion $4.93 per share as we mentioned, compared with 1.9 billion or $4.28 per share. The prior revenue rose to 70.53 billion from 63.2 billion in the year ago period. Costco said it SAW memberships grow 4.1% of the quarter along with a 37% increase in traffic on its website and app. Its top sales categories included pharmacy, home furnishings, gold and jewelry. Costco had been at the forefront of a tariff dispute with the Trump administration after a Supreme Court decision invalidated some of President Donald Trump's levies on foreign imports. The retailer previously said it would lower its prices and receive tariff refunds. Following the Supreme Court decision on Thursday, Vaccus said the company has begun submitting tariff refund claims and expects to receive refunds on its approved claims on a rolling basis over the next few months. Our goal is to be the first to lower prices and the last to raise them back, is said. Take us home, Peter.
- [15:27]
A
I'll believe they get that money when I see it. SRI that's a wrap on this week's Commerce Riff. Reminder to check out our recent conversations launching our C Suite series with Bob Nolan from conagra Brands and Mike Weissong, CEO of Care Pharma Pharmacies. Anything we covered this week sparks a thought drop in the comments. Leave us an email. We read every comment. If you're not following us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, now is the time. Forget about MySpace. We'll see you next week. 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 CPG Guys, llc, 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, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.