Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report
Welcome to Retail Unwrapped, a podcast from The Robin Report.
Join Shelley E. Kohan as she shares insights and unpacks issues at the core of retail and consumer products. The conversations are lively and the opinions are honest.
New episodes every Friday.
Episodes
285 episodes
EP 284: Tarek Müller Builds a Global Retail Tech Solution
Many technology companies are built by people who create a solution for a nonexistent problem. SCAYLE was built by people who studied a problem and then lived it firsthand. For more than a decade, the team behind About You didn't just theorize ...
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50:32
EP 284: How to Master Agentic AI, Not Fear It
Although Agentic AI and LLMs may cause high anxiety for retailers that sees bots as competitors, the truth is that we are experiencing one of the most exciting times in retail that is on the cusp of change. About 23 percent of Americans have al...
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33:03
EP 283: Hershey Perfects Experiential Retail
Retail theater transforms the store to a stage, and that’s 130-year-old Hershey’s sweet spot. The iconic confectioner is quietly becoming one of the more sophisticated retail operators in the industry. Join Shelley and Stephanie Berman, Vice Pr...
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24:27
EP 282: Tim Baxter Has a Bold Vision for Retail
When Tim Baxter left Express, he thought he might semi-retire. What he discovered instead was a vision he'd been building toward for 30 years; a belief in the meaningful role a retail store can play in people's lives, and his conviction to brin...
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50:20
EP 281: A Data Expert Uncovers the Power of Re-Commerce
The consumer movement to invest in secondhand is led by values: meaning, provenance, and sustainability. Re-commerce is not a niche; it’s a $180-$200 billion global, parallel economy growing up to five times faster than traditional retail. The ...
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24:42
EP 280: A Leading Economist Weighs In on the SCOTUS Tariff Reversal
The recent Supreme Court decision outlawing the “Liberation Day” tariffs has added another level of uncertainty to the financial outlook of American retailers. Join Shelley and Dan Altman, chief economist and bestselling author of the High Yiel...
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22:28
EP 279: How Not to Run a Retail Business
How does the retail frontline succeed, despite leadership dysfunction? The disconnect between corporate decision-making and the frontline reality has reached a breaking point. Store managers are caught holding the bag for supply chain disasters...
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37:18
EP 278: Gaming the K-Shaped Economy
There is widespread confusion about the popular and overused K-shaped economy meme. General understanding oversimplifies consumers into "haves, have-nots, and have-everythings," when the reality is far more nuanced and fluid. If retail executiv...
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25:12
EP 277: Why Materials Should Lead Design
A complete reversal of the traditional concept-to-market approach will improve margins, speed to market, and sustainability goals. What does that look like? Materials lead the design process instead of design leading materials selection. ...
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26:17
EP 276: How AI Propels FedEx Customer UX
Customers have high expectations in their transaction experiences that do not end with the purchase. Today’s empowered and convenience-focused consumers want easy returns, and FedEx is on a mission to make that a reality using AI as a tool to i...
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24:35
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EP 275: NRF Trade Talks: Five More Unique Perspectives
Last week, Shelley caught up with five more innovators at NRF 2026 to get their takes on the retail industry and an outlook for this year. Their conversations ranged from the connected store and talent development to geolocation analytics and t...
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1:12:12
EP 274: NRF Trade Talks: Four Unique Perspectives
Shelley caught up with four innovators at NRF 2026 to get their takes on the retail industry and an outlook for this year. Their conversations ranged from managing returns and geo-location insights to advanced tools for managing inventory. ...
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1:00:28
EP 273: A Masterclass in Agentic AI
Most retailers think they're keeping pace with AI advancement, but they're operating with fundamentally broken data while the entire shopping model collapses around them. The customer shopping journey is shifting, and AI agents will manage the ...
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25:31
EP 272: Here’s What Happens When Your Customers Design Your Clothes
Here’s an interesting fact: 1.6 million tradespeople trust their friends over impersonal brands. And here’s why: Most workwear brands claim they understand their customers, but they're designing products by committee in the boardroom and based ...
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25:53
EP 271: The Shifting World of Retail Real Estate
We’ve all read the real estate headlines, both positive and otherwise. So, what’s really next in retail real estate? There's nowhere left to expand: Occupancy in quality centers is running 96 to 97 percent in desirable locations. It’s a landlor...
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31:16
EP 270: Sprouts: Pioneer in Health and Wellness
Most grocery retailers are chasing a $1.6 trillion market but Sprouts Farmers Market is deliberately ignoring $1.3 trillion of it. Join Shelley and Nick Konat, President and COO of Sprouts, as they reveal why the retailer has a laser focus on t...
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25:40
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EP 269: Luxury Leather's Toxic Impact
Traditional fashion and automotive industries are wedded to a leather supply chain that requires 20 toxic processing steps and plastic coatings, while they simultaneously claim environmental leadership. The uncomfortable reality executives don’...
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22:59
EP 268: Never Underestimate the Power of Weather
Full disclosure: Don’t ever underestimate the power of weather and its impact on retail. There is no other external driver that influences the consumer as frequently, meaningfully, and continuously as the weather. In fact, it influences more th...
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17:50
EP 267: How a D2C Brand Beat the Odds in Scaling to Retail
Sometimes it takes tenacity combined with fearless confidence to launch a retail brand. That’s how Hulken achieved what most brands consider impossible: Pitching Target in June and landing their rolling totes on the shelves by November. Join Sh...
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24:15
EP 266: Retail 2025 Was a Radical Shift
A look back at retail 2025 reveals that consumer behavior volatility has reached unprecedented levels, with shopping patterns shifting hour-to-hour rather than seasonally. Most C-suite leaders are woefully unprepared to handle this level of vel...
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27:33
EP 265: AI Is an Ally, not the Enemy
The retail frontline sales staff is often an untapped, but highly valuable resource. Everyone wants to know that they matter and can make a difference. So, how do retailers empower their store associates, their most critical customer-faci...
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25:45
EP 264: Fast Tracking the Beauty Industry
Here’s a stark warning for beauty executives: Brands that cling to traditional manufacturing models are already obsolete—they just don't know it yet. The challenges facing beauty CMOs are hitting critical mass: It's not just driving growth, it’...
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28:46
EP 263: How Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels Is a Poster Child for Healthy Snacks
Big brands in the food industry face a double-edged challenge: Make snacks healthy and deliver duller colors and unfamiliar tastes. Eliminating dyes and reducing preservatives and sugar are consumer demands that are forcing food manufacturers t...
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26:06
EP 262: A Preview of Mixed Holiday Spending Trends
In a wide-ranging conversation, Shelley and Tom McGee, president and CEO of ICSC, discuss a mix of consumer trends that will impact holiday spending. It might surprise you to know that Gen X controls 33 percent of all spending (although only 19...
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26:09
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EP 261: Why Traditional Retail Stores Are Missing Return on Experience
When you are an architect who works on projects around the world, your perspective about American retail changes through a refined filter. Kevin Roche, Founder of Roche Design Strategy, has the advantage of understanding firsthand the power of ...
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35:03
