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- [00:03]
A
Hello, it's November 18th, 2025. Welcome to episode 11 of the Commerce Riff with the CPG Guys. Weekly short segment burst digestible 10 minutes of content, both audio and video. We hope you enjoy our curated stories. I'm of course your co host PVSB and I'm joined by Paparaj himself, co founder of CRO and Think Blue Consulting. Sree, how are you doing man?
- [00:26]
B
I'm doing an awesome man. Lara's already on her Cat's Eye tour. We watched them live in Minneapolis last Saturday. NYC is this upcoming weekend. Rhea starts our headline tour December 1st. This is a busy month in the Raj household, but for our audience do follow our Instagram, TikTok and YouTube channels. Simply call the CPG guys. It's that easy. So let's get to this week. Our first topic is a blockbuster from Walmart. Peter, Go for it.
- [00:51]
A
Yeah, thanks Sree. Walmart Incorporated today announced that its Board of Directors elected John Furner 51 to 6. He does. Doug McMillan, 59, is president chief executive officer effective February 1st of next year. Ferner was also elected to the company's Board of directors effective immediately. McMillan will retire on January 31, 2026 but remain on the Board of Directors until next annual shareholder list meeting and help ensure a smooth transition. John Furriner is the right leader to guide Walmart through into our next chapter of growth and transformation, said Greg Penner, Chairman of Walmart. After starting as an hourly associate and being with us for over 30 years, Sri that's three decades in a variety of leadership roles across all three of our operating segments. John understands every dimension of our business from the sales floor to global strategy. He has proven that he can deliver results while living our values. John's six year leadership of our Walmart US Business during a time of rapid change marked by digital acceleration. You know Sheree, John is at the top of digital acceleration. You and I know how he gets all of his direct reports to commit to social media and he expects them to be actively engaged in promoting the Walmart way. Also, strong associate engagement has positioned us for continued success. McMillan said, quote, serving as Walmart CEO has been a great honor and I'm thankful to our board and the Walton family for the opportunity. I'm incredibly proud of what our associates accomplished and deeply grateful for their commitment to our customers, to each other and to the communities we serve. As the company is done with previous CEO transitions, McMillan will stay on the Board until June in addition to staying on as an advisor to Fernner through fiscal year 2027. The company plans to make an announcement on Fernner's success as CEO of Walmart US before the end of fiscal year 2026. McMillan was a huge transformation agent. He's done his job. The CBG guys believe Doug has single handedly transformed retail thinking in the US to be omnichannel by following the shopper in the industry. Owes him a great debt.
- [03:12]
B
SRI Holy Moly. That's one heck of an unanticipated move in the industry. There's no doubt Peter. He is one of the senior most people in the industry, the world's largest company single handedly took responsibility for the digital change. Of course, without associates you can't execute, but you need a leader at the top. In our eyes he's one of the greatest transformation agents following the consumer. Our best wishes to him. Good luck to John Furner in his new role. Whole Foods Market has added seven new categories to its surprise bag offerings of surplus food in the Too Good to Go app. That app, Peter, is all about excess food available in supermarkets and avoiding waste. It's selling at approximately 1/3 the retail price. Now remember, none of these products are stale, they're pre expiry. They're available at more than 530 Whole Foods Market stores across the country to the app's 17 million plus users who can now choose surprise bags and categories including produce, seafood, meat, dry goods, frozen goods, refrigerated foods and floral items. Whole Foods first partnered with Too Good to go in July 2024 with bakery and prepared food bags, which already have helped shoppers save more than 1.6 million meals from going to waste. We believe every effort to reduce food waste is an opportunity to make a difference as part of our purpose to nourish people in the planet, said Caitlin Liebert, VP of Sustainability at Whole Foods Market, in a statement. Expanding our collaboration with Too Good to Go into even more departments is a simple yet powerful way to bring value to our customers and communities while helping build a more sustainable food future. One meal at a time. Now Peter, for those of people who chase Whole Food and call it the whole paycheck, here's a way to get it at 1/3 the price. Simply go download the Too Good to Go app and look for Whole Foods and buy from Whole Foods and this might be an opportunity for many to actually participate in buying food from Whole Foods. What do you think?
- [05:15]
A
I think it's good on Whole Foods, cherie. This is a great opportunity for consumers to get involved in this purveyor of very high quality products, especially right at Thanksgiving. Yeah, absolutely shree. Holiday shopping season has begun early and Amazon is well back on the commerce riff here. And every week it seems Amazon's Black Friday week is early again this year and combined with Cyber Monday will stretch over 12 days from November 20th through December 1st. What is the 12 Days of Thanksgiving? Not just the 12 Days of Christmas. 12 Days of Christmas, yeah, exactly. Amazon is promoting millions of holiday deals of up to 55% off on home electronics, kitchen beauty and apparel from brands such as Bissell, Beats, Nike, Theory, All Saints, New Balance, Kiehl's PlayStation, Dyson, God, the list is endless. Lancome and Bose. New to the deals event this year include new to Amazon brands and exclusive products from Charlotte, Tilbury and Fisher Price. Daily drops offering deep discounts with today's big deals and a new feature Shop the game that allows viewers to simultaneously watch sporting events on Black Friday and shop Brilliant. The company's main competitors are also running events early in the season to jumpstart the holidays. Walmart this year is holding the first of two Black Friday events this Friday to Sunday, with a second online only event coming November 25th to November 27th and in stores and online November 28th to November 30th. Best Buy kicked off its holiday season in October with weekly doorbuster deals on a variety of tech products. And we'll mirror Amazon with a nine day version of Black Friday also beginning on November 20th. As long as I don't have to go in the stores and get trampled to buy a hdtv, you know, I think the safety first reason I've done safety first, it's crazy. It's crazy. Meanwhile, Target has also kicked off early holiday marketing with a gift giving campaign around the return of its hot Santa. You remember Kris Kringle, the hot Santa street ho ho ho. He got a lot of press last year. As another way to gain market share, Amazon held its fifth annual holiday beauty event last month which featured a myriad of leading brands priced up to 40% off, including bareminerals, Laura Mercier, Clinique, Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, Olay, Dove and La Roche. Posay over to you Crazy Peter.
- [07:45]
B
It feels like every single year the holiday shopping is advancing by a week, five days, four days, and now it's like late October is when it's kicking off the meaning Black Friday doesn't even mean anything anymore because that's like late November. But I feel a little un nostalgic now because I actually used to enjoy when I was younger, maybe 10 years younger, 15 years younger, going on Black Friday going store by store. I didn't buy much. It was just fun, a lot of people watching.
- [08:13]
A
What do you think it was an anthropological experience? Absolutely.
- [08:17]
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That's what I'm talking about. I kind of miss it. Anyway, Straight from Grocery Dive, Albertsons is continuing to find ways to sweeten its loyalty offerings during a time of growth for its membership programs. Members of Albertsons Fee Free for you loyalty program can get a three month extended free trial of Uber one while paid Fresh Pass annual members can access six months free. In late September, Albertsons added a travel benefit to its 4U loyalty program that provides members with with rebates also on travel related purchases through a partnership with Expedia. The recently added for your travel program also allows us shoppers to earn cash back on airfare, hotel stays, car rentals, vacation packages that they in turn can use to buy groceries from, of course, Albertsons Banners Albertsons is seeing significant growth in loyalty membership, which actually increased 13% in Q2 and 14% in Q1 as of mid October. When the grocery company announced its second quarter earnings results, its loyalty membership consisted of 48.7 million members. That's a lot of members Peter. And then Uber. This is not the first where it's actually being offered and I'm seeing home delivery across the board right it deepen its grocery routes through expanded partnership with grocery partners in addition to Albertsons. At the end of last month October, Kroger expanded its relationship with Uber to bring the full assortment and a majority of its banners to the delivery platform starting in early 26. We announced that at one of the rifts a few weeks ago. Kroger is also enabling its shoppers to use the Kroger app to order meals from restaurants that offer delivery service via Uber Eats. Kroger is offering those meals via Uber Eats on its own app. In September, Aldi became available on Uber Eats. The e commerce company also separately announced that month the addition of several new features to its platform such as a freshness guarantee and weekly discounts on produce, meats, eggs and dairy products. That's a wrap folks. That's our take on relevant commerce happenings from so many announcements this past week we thought were meaningful and could not be passed on for a rip. We hope you enjoyed it. Please do click like our post on all platforms. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and now YouTube.
- [10:30]
A
See you next week.
- [10:33]
C
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