Interview live from the main stage at RCC's #STORE2019 with Walter Robb, former Co-CEO of Whole Foods, and Michele Sexsmith, Senior Vice President of Environics Analytics talks state-of-the-art tools for retail store location selection

Jul 5, 2019

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Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of July 1, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

In this episode…live from the main stage at RCC’s #STORE2019 conference my exclusive interview with Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods. We chat about the nature of consumers on both sides of the border, the zen of Amazon then, now and in the future, the current state of grocery retail across North America and trends for the future.

Then a return visit from Michele Sexsmith Senior Vice President Retail, Retail Estate and Entertainment sectors with Environics Analytics talking about using modern data and sophisticated mobile-based analytics to help guide retailers in their site selection and understanding customer insights.

Next we’ll cover off Retail This Week including Ontario celebrating with a 50, can the Goose continue to soar, Amsterdam’s HEMA in Canada, Dollarama goes south (American), Canopy/Tweed/Tokyo Smoke CEO Bruce Linton outside and talking, SportCheck more inclusive, Man/Sask testing same day cannabis delivery, Ireland’s Primark celebrates 50 & 372, Robots rub off on the humans at Amazon warehouse, and Galen Weston gets serious on sustainability at the Consumer Goods Forum global summit.

But first, let’s listen in to my interview with live from the big stage at #STORE2019 with Walter Robb

Thanks to Walter for generously giving me the thumbs-up to put our interview on the podcast, Layla at CAA for helping me pull this episode together, and Michele for being my special guest. Now let’s hit the highlights from Retail This Week eNewsletter, biggest retail weekly in Canada and you can subscribe on www.retailcouncil.org for free.

That’s a wrap on this edition of The Voice of Retail, if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on iTunes or your
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I’m Michael LeBlanc, Founder and President of M.E. LeBlanc and Company Inc. and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.