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- [00:02]
A
Hello, it's November 4th, 2025. Welcome to episode 10 of the Commerce Rift with the CPG guys. Why we do this? Well every week it's a short segment burst about 10 minutes of content, both audio and video. We hope you're enjoying it. Numbers would indicate you are of course. I'm your co host pvsb. I'm joined by Paparaj himself. He's co founder and CEO of Think Blue Consulting. Sree, how is your day going?
- [00:28]
B
My day is going great, but congratulations to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I know you're incredibly proud. It made your week media year. Now you have a whole year to look forward to another one. So you didn't mention it strangely enough, so I thought I would. But both kids are ready to get going on their respective tours mid November and mid December. Please do follow our Instagram, TikTok and YouTube channels simply called CPGuys. That easy. So let's get to the first topic this week. It's all Amazon.
- [00:58]
A
It certainly is. Sree. I will say this though about baseball. I am looking forward you and me march the World baseball classic in 2026. We're going to see some good global baseball trends. Nothing said global after the World Series with Ohtani and Yamamoto dominating in October. Baseball. All right, Amazon. They see a significant opportunity for growth in its existing physical stores which are centered on grocery, at least for now. The E commerce giant announced plans to expand same day deliveries of fresh groceries now in 1,000 US cities to 2,300 by the end of the year. Even that could be seen as an extension of E commerce as much of physical retail. In any case, despite the current dominance of brick and mortar, E commerce will ultimately take over and AI is making that happen even faster than before, Andy Jassy told analysts on last Thursday's earnings call. I still think if you look at the worldwide market segment share of retail still 80% of the 85% lives in physical stores. That equation is going to flip over time. Interesting. I think AI is going to only accelerate that, unquote. Physical retail remains a small, if growing portion of Amazon's retail operation. However, all this is overshadowed by Amazon's announcement that they would be terminating 14,000 employees globally for quote unquote culture reasons. Cute. 3. Online store sales rose 10% year over year to 67.4 billion, while physical store sales rose 7% to 5.6 billion, according to financial findings from Thursday's call. Overall product sales rose 9.6% to 74.1 billion. That's a price to all of that e Commerce is worldwide. Shipping costs rose 8% to 25.4 billion. Several analysts noted that Amazon is taking share in retail, but other aspects of the retail business are growing faster than either the online or offline channel. Seller services sales grew 12% to 42.5 billion, advertising grew 24% to 17.7 billion, and subscription services grew 11% to 12.6 billion. Whatever the impact of AI on the retail landscape, there's no doubt it's fueling Amazon's tech operation. And Amazon's tech operation is fueling profit. Sri, over to you.
- [03:24]
B
Last week we mentioned snap government shutdown November 1st. Guess what? It's November 2nd. So as a potential loss of SNAP benefit looms, grocers are rolling out new initiatives including food donations, coupons, discounts to help combat food insecurity. Over 40 million people will currently not receive the SNAP benefits this month November because the USDA said it won't fund the program due to ongoing government shutdown issues. Over two dozen states are of course suing the administration, demanding that the nutrition program continue to receive funding while the political impasse continues. While grocers often donate food and money to food banks and community organizations anyway, several grocers announced new donation efforts in the last few days to help these SNAP consumers. Ivy unveiled $125,000 in donations, 100,000 for Feeding America partner food banks in the region, and 25,000 for DoorDash's initiative to waive service and delivery fees. HEB said it's making a $5 million donation to food banks in the Feeding Texas Network and also giving 1 million to meals on Wheels programs throughout the state. The grocer also said it will serve over 340,000 meals across Texas and Mexico through its annual series of festive holiday gatherings in November and December. Starting November 10, eight grocery stores in West Virginia will provide females. WSAZ, the radio station, reported owner Jamasan Sparks told a news outlet that on weekdays people can access a pre made dinner bag, one for each member of the family, and that on weekends they can pick up bags containing meal ingredients along with snacks and drinks. On the E Commerce front, food delivery company GoPuff said it plans to donate up to $10 million worth of food to SNAP recipients. The convenience retailer is allowing users who have a SNAP EBD card saved to their account to receive $25 of SNAP eligible items and free delivery between November 1 and 15. GoFup will run the same exact deal again from second half of the month November 16th to 30th, then comes DoorDash saying it will deliver 1 million meals for free in November and donating food from its dashboard stores to food banks. For each person who has a SNAP EBT link to their account, DoorDash will waive delivery and service fees for one order from Sprouts, Farmers Market, Schnopes, Dollar General, all five of our old delays, US banners, Ty Vee, Giant Eagle and Wegmans during November. Such is the profound impact of the.
- [05:42]
A
Snap ads, Peter Kroger's expanded its relationship with Uber through a deal that will bring the full assortment and most of the grocery stores chains to the delivery company's platform starting in early 2026, according to a joint press release the company's issued Thursday. The retailer will also allow shoppers to use its own app to order meals from restaurants that offer Delivery service through UberEats. Kroger is deepening its connection with Uber at a time when the supermarket chain has been concentrating on using its stores and to fulfill online grocery orders. Kroger plans to enable shoppers to use Uber Eats to place delivery orders from more than 2600 of its approximately 2,700 supermarkets. The company also said they plan to work together to develop retail media experiences for brands to reach shoppers. To attract shoppers, the grocer is also allowing members of its Boost loyalty program to access an extended trial of Uber's membership, offering Uber 1, which provides 6% cash back savings on rides, free deliveries and discounts on Uber Eats orders. Uber One members in turn will have access to an extended free trial of Boost, giving them double fuel points on all purchases and free delivery on orders placed via Kroger's website and mobile app. Quote Today's announcement combines the best of Kroger's fresh food and exclusive Our brand with Uber's expertise and proven delivery technology, creating an experience that gives customers more choice and value while introducing new customers who have different shopping needs to Kroger, which provides more data to power our retail business. Unquote, kroger's Chief Digital Officer Yael Cosette said in a statement.
- [07:19]
B
SRI thank you Peter. We thought it would be fun to go over the impact what our industry has on the overall economy. And here are some facts straight from Consumer Brands association facts about our industry that are simply thought provoking. Employment the jobs supported by the CPG industry make up 10.5% of total U.S. employment, more than 1 in every 10American jobs. That's 22.3 million jobs. Labor Income the total labor income supported by the CPG industry represents 9.5% and value added contribution represent 10% of the national GDP or a whopping 2.5 trillion industries that are touched by CPG. The impact creates a ripple effect that positively influences and supports other industries. For example, production in the CPG industry creates demand for supplies from industries as various farmers growing agricultural inputs. Hence the commodity crisis of over Covid and paper manufacturers supplying cardboard boxes, wholesale retail trade, transportation. You know we obsess so much over supply chain and transportation warehousing. Big deal for over 80% of what's sold in the store because only 20% approximately DST agriculture, forestry, fishing, manufacturing, labor involved in manufacturing, construction, services. Not to forget real estate with Walmart just announcing a bunch of real estate acquisitions they did in the last month and finance with all the credit card and all the transactions that take place inside a store every single day. All benefit driving these numbers on its own CPG alone and not all the corresponding industries surrounding it, which I've given the numbers earlier as 7.1 million jobs, 391.6 billion in labor income and 667.6 billion in contributions to the US GDP. Amazing numbers, isn't it Peter?
- [09:14]
A
Absolutely, Sree. Well that's our take on relevant commerce happenings for so many announcements this past week we thought were meaningful and could not be passed on for a rif. We do hope you enjoyed it. Please do click our like our posts on all platforms, follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and actually Tree as of this weekend, all 530 plus episodes of our podcast are now streaming on YouTube. Looking forward to Thanksgiving everyone. Take care. 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 or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPTGuys LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPTGuys 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.