Lisa Bigioni owner of Choom Cannabis Niagara, Claire Santamaria VP of retail phenomena Yorkdale and Angela Kapp from CBD marketplace TruPotency

Welcome to The Voice of Retail, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

First up recorded live in the Environics Analytics podcasting studio at RCC’s Retail Cannabis forum in Toronto I meet Lisa Bigioni, an Ontario retail cannabis lottery winner and co-owner of Choom Cannabis in Niagara.    We talk about the experience around winning the lottery,  the process of picking a partner and opening up a cannabis retail store under incredibly tight deadlines.

Next recorded live at the Retail Council of Canada Bricks & Mortar Forum live in Toronto we check in with Claire Santamaria, Vice President of Yorkdale Shopping Centre.  One of the premier shopping centres in North America, Claire talks about the fashion heritage of the mall and the hard work that goes into finding the right retail partners and people that all comes together to make Canada’s most productive shopping environment

Lastly part two of my interview with Angela Kapp, retail & brand maven and now Co-CEO of GG Growth, an modern enterprise based in Arizona that includes the top YouTube series CannaCribs, and the recently launched TruPotency, a CBD retail and resource….and that’s where we pick up our conversation.

Lastly I’ll hit the highlights from Retail This Week for the week of December 9, but first, let’s jump into my interview with Lisa from Choom

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Thanks to Lisa, Claire and Angela for being my guests on this episode, now let’s hit the highlights from Retail This Week.

That’s a wrap on this edition of The Voice of RetailIf 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.