Veteran retailer and VP at Retail Council of Canada Sonny Brar talks LP trends & Retail Secure, and Lift & Co's VP Data Sean Copeland takes us through their new retail cannabis 2.0 research

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of September 9, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

In this weeks episode I get up close and personal with the one and only Sonny Brar, a veteran retailer who now is Vice President of Member Relations and education at Retail Council of Canada. We focus on conversation on retail loss prevention - top trends, what Sonny is hearing around the table at the loss prevention advisory council, and what is on deck for Retail Secure, Canada’s premier retail LP conference coming up in a couple of weeks.

RCC Member Only Shrink Survey: https://www.retailcouncil.org/community/loss-prevention/retail-loss-prevention-and-shrink-survey/

Next I chat with Sean Copeland, Vice President of Data at Lift & Co. in Toronto. We delve into their new cannabis study “As 2.0 opportunities emerge, can you still compete with 1.0 strategies: Canadian cannabis consumer insights for legalization 2.0” and tease out lessons learned for recreational cannabis retailers.

Lastly I’ll take a look at the retail news of the week, but first, let’s listen to my interview with Sonny Brar

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Thanks to Sonny and Sean for being my guests this week, 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.

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That’s a wrap on this edition of The Voice of Retail, if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on Apple iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, please rate and review, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry.

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.