The Voice of Retail The Globe & Mail's veteran retail reporter Marina Strauss's exit interview plus up close and personal with Carl Boutet, retail strategist and Board advisor on the state of the retail nation in Canada and around the world
Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of June 24th, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
In this episode…If you are a retailer in Canada and the name on your call display commanded your attention - Marina Strauss joins me on her last day at the Globe & Mail as their veteran retail reporter as we turn the mic around with a look back at her rich career covering the retail beat, the state of retail in Canada, advice to retailers on dealing with the business media and plans for the future.
Next live from the Purolator Podcasting Studio at STORE2019 in late May an up close interview with global retail strategist Carl Boutet, Chief Strategist and Board Advisor for Studio RX based in Montreal. We talk about his background in retail, travel to Egypt to share retail best practices, and views on the state of the retail nation in Canada and North America.
Next we’ll cover off Retail This Week with UNTUCKit expanding across Canada after posting knock-the-cover-off-the-ball success at Sherway in Toronto, a look at shoppers on both sides of the border, Amazon steps up hiring for their Tsawwassen facility, Purolator’s 1 Billion dollar investment roll-out, Lulelemon’s crops for clothes, Back to School kicks off in the U.S. with two day Prime Day, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Head shops left behind, Longo’s builds meals, chronicling grocery store format changes, and five key edible takeaways (sorry, no free samples!).
But first, let’s listen in to my interview with Marina Strauss
Thanks to Marina and Carl for being my special guests for this episode. 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
Until next time, have a great week!
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.