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- [00:02]
A
Hello, it's October 1st, 2025. Welcome to episode seven of the Commerce Riff with the CPG guys. We're recording this episode. The day after my beloved Los Angeles Dodgers completed their sweep of the Milwaukee brewers in epic style, phenom Shohei Ohtani, through six scoreless innings, struck out 10 batters. And if that wasn't enough, he hit three home runs and took home the NLCS MVP award. As the Dodgers are headed to the Fall Classic, I think even the Yankees fan himself might begrudgingly acknowledge that Ohtani is the greatest player of our lifetimes. I'm your co host pbsb, and I'm joined by Papa Raj, co founder and CRO of Think Blue Consulting, sree, what do you think?
- [00:49]
B
Well, there's no reason for me to begrudgingly acknowledge anything, right? Anybody's allowed to win after seven championships versus 27. Get another 20 and then I start the grudging war.
- [01:00]
A
Sri. The number's eight. The number's eight.
- [01:02]
B
Whatever, man. 27 and eight are like different. There's two digits in a single digit. But that said, I think in my lifetime I didn't get to watch Babe Ruth, so I have to discount some of those.
- [01:14]
A
That's why I qualified it as our lifetime.
- [01:17]
B
In our lifetime, I don't think I have ever seen a player who's also a power hitter but at the same time is also a power pitcher. Last year we didn't get to see his pitching, but this year we got to see him back in action at least the second half after the all star break. So I think 2027 might be 2026 might be a hundred winning game regular season for the Dodgers. So. But we'll see. Certainly paying that payroll tax is helping, but it's not helping the Yankees who are now third in the payroll tax. I think Dodgers are number one. But in all event, I'm doing great. Congrats for the Dodgers on advancing to the World cities. For the small 1% of the audience that cares about baseball like Peter and I do, I'm sure you're following that tonight the Blue Jays may actually get wiped out, but we'll see. Hard to say because the Mariners and Blue Jays appear are evenly matched. We are of course sharing opinions on what we consider to be the most important news items from our great CPG plus retail omnichannel industry. Do follow our Instagram TikTok YouTube channel simply called CPG Guys that Easy. So let's get to it. This week our first topic is chatgpt and food ordering.
- [02:27]
A
Walmart is officially stepping into the era of AI powered commerce, announcing a new partnership with OpenAI to create AI first shopping experiences that lets customers complete purchases directly through ChatGPT. Walmart's new AI shopping assistant is called Sparky. Imagine that. The collaboration, announced on October 14 will make online shopping more personalized, predictive and conversational, moving beyond traditional search bars to natural language interactions that anticipate what customers need. According to Walmart, customers and Sam's Club members will soon be able to 1 shop directly in ChatGPT using Walmart's Teamston checkout integration, 2 ask for products or ideas in plain language, 3 receive curated shoppable recommendation pulled from Walmart's catalog and 4 use Walmart plus benefits automatically, including free delivery and member discounts. Quote we are running towards that more enjoyable and convenient future with Sparky and through partnerships including this important step with OpenAI, said Walmart CEO Doug McMillan in the announcement. Continuing a native AI experience is multimedia, personalized and contextual shopping. In AI you ask for the integration and of course it's Walmart getting the start right away. SRI over to you.
- [03:55]
B
Yeah, so I said food ordering, but looks like it's food ordering and a whole lot more just routine everyday shopping. So that is of course, who else would I expect other than Walmart to lead the way with AI? Now I'll talk about an earnings release, Ulta Beauty, which Peter and I consistently say beauty and skincare has largely been unaffected by the recent turndown in volume. But let's see. Ulta Beauty, one of the top beauty retailers in the US Is battling heightened competition, shifting consumer behavior, which has actually caused it to drastically switch up its offerings for shoppers during the second quarter this year. Ulta Beauty saw a healthy boost in its sales amid recent challenges. Ulta's comparable sales increased 6.7% year over year. Customer transactions spiked 3.7% of the money the dollar spent for purchase climbed up almost 3%. However, despite all of that in the sales boost, recent data from Placer AI found that Ulta's foot traffic at same store location declined 1.1% year over year during the quarter. This is a telltale story of what grocery has been experiencing specifically. Same store visits dropped by 4.6%, 5.4% in June and July respectively. Maybe those tariffs are kicking in after all. During an earnings call in August, Ulta Beauty CEO Keshia Steelman said that while beauty remains a top priority for customers, many are watching this spending as they grow concerned about the economy. Insights suggest consumers continue to prudently manage their day to day spending and are watchful of pricing trends in response to tariffs, she said. At the same time, beauty enthusiasts tell us that they're prioritizing the beauty regimens and remain strongly encouraged within the category to attract and retain customers, she said. Ulta will look for new ways to maximize key growth opportunities in beauty and wellness. This includes expanding the wellness section of its stores on Peter, you have a blockbuster from Nestle, don't you?
- [05:47]
A
Certainly, Sheree. Nestle's new CEO hasn't wasted any time making his mark on the company. About six weeks after the consumer goods company fired former CEO Laurent Fresh over an undisclosed romantic relationship with a direct subordinate, current CEO Philip Navratil revealed that the company is cutting 16,000 jobs. He says, quote, the world is changing and Nestle needs to change faster. This will include making hard but necessary decisions to reduce headcount over the next two years. We will do this with respect and transparency along with other measures we're working on to substantially reduce our costs. The company raised its cost saving target to 3.79 billion by 2027. Nestle, the company behind Nescafe, Gerber and Hot Pockets, saw its Stock shoot up 1.2% at our last check on Friday, October 17 due to the company's decision to cut 6% of its 277,000 person global workforce. Companies said about 12,000 of the job cuts will be white collar rolls, while 4,000 in manufacturing and supply chain will also be eliminated. The workforce contraction has already begun and the company plans to continue reducing headcount over the next few years. I wouldn't be surprised if they're also shaving off some of their lesser performing brands. Nestle is a multinational company with employees worldwide, but North America is by far its biggest, representing more than one third of its sales. Sree what's going on with Last Mile Delivery?
- [07:22]
B
At the time of this recording last night I actually watched robotic delivery in downtown Los Angeles and I couldn't pass this one up. DoorDash will bring autonomous delivery to the Phoenix metro area by an expansion of its partnership with Waymo. I saw a bunch of Waymo cars downtown and will promote its new service with a limited time $10 Waymo promo for DashPass members in Phoenix as well as LA and San Francisco by Waymo's audio delivery option. Testing of the driverless deliveries in the Phoenix area is underway with plans to launch broader commercial ops later this year. DoorDash customers can be matched with one of Waymo's autonomous vehicles by the doordash autonomous delivery platform which orchestrates DoorDash various types of delivery methods including by dashes which have DoorDash drivers, of course robots, drones or way more. The service will begin with the deliveries from Dashmark, DoorDash's own then operated convenience grocery and retail store like A1B which also supports the recently introduced Dashmark fulfillment services. DashPass is designed to give consumers consistent value, convenience and access to the best of the communities and a partnership with Waymo build on that promise that David Victor, VP of Business and Corporate Development at DoorDash in a statement. Together we're giving members access to savings on and a new delightful experience while advancing a vision for a multimodal autonomous future of broker Commerce Phoenix is turning into a hotbed Autonomous Delivery Activity April 2024 DoorDash Competitor Uber Eats launched autonomous delivery in the Phoenix area, working with a select group of local merchants to be also mentioned, DoorDash recently partnered with the CPG guys on two episodes to understand everything about the retail media offering all the new platforms, new ideas, innovation. Please do log in and simply look on Google. Simply type CPG Guys space doordash and you should be able to find both episodes all right folks, that's a take on relevant commerce happenings from so many announcements this past week we thought were meaningful and could not be passed on for a day. We hope you enjoyed Click like our post on all platforms. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and of course YouTube. Thank you and see you next week for another edition of the Commerce Rift by the CPG Guides.
- [09:32]
A
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