The Voice of Retail Retail Insider's Craig Patterson on the state of retail in Canada in 2019, and former Tesco CMO/Eagle Eye Solutions CEO Tim Mason on his new book "Omnichannel Retail"
Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of June 3 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada and sponsored by Purolator, Canada's Shipping Company for courier and freight, learn more at www.purolator.com
In this episode Craig Patterson from Retail Insider joins me again as we catch up on the year to date in retail in Canada including new international arrivals and a few departures, the tech scene on the show floor at RCC’s STORE2019, and a look ahead for the rest of 2019.
Next an exclusive feature interview with Tim Mason, CEO of Eagle Eye and former deputy CEO & CMO of Tesco in the U.K., and CEO of Tesco in America, Fresh & Easy. We talk retail tech and about insights from his new book, “Omnichannel Retail” with advice for modern retailers on transforming their business and competing with digitally native retailers.
Last but not least I’ll cover off the top retail news of the week including Aritizia use of Influencers in their marketing mix, Save On Foods investing 12 million breaking ground on a new store, Sarah Jessica Parker coming to Edmonton, the high cost of hidden tariffs, Sephora stores close for diversity training, seven years of Sears self-destruction, a close up on our friend the Green Grocer (aka Peter Von Stolks SPUD, and Canadian Grand Prix winners and much, much more.
But first, let’s listen in to my interview with Craig Patterson
Thanks to Craig and Tim for being my guests in this episode, as you could probably tell the technical gremlins gave Tim and I a bit of trouble half-way through our interview so we switched off to a different recording media when we started talking about his book, hence the different sound texture and levels.
If you are in Toronto and listening to this before June 18, here is the link to register for the evening with Tim Mason:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/omnichannel-retail-book-launch-tickets-62049938035?aff=efbneb
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 and you can learn more about me on www.meleblanc.co or of course on LinkedIn
Until then, have a great week!
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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.