The Voice of Retail

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of June 18th, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. In this episode an exclusive interview with Arlene Dickinson, legendary entrepreneur, founding Dragon on CBC’s Dragon’s Den, veteran investor and CEO of District Ventures Capital ( https://www.districtventurescapital.com/) based in Calgary. After working together several years during my days at The Shopping Channel, Arlene and I catch up and chat about her latest series of investments at District Ventures focussing on start-ups in the food category taking them onto retailer’s shelves with an innovative listing deal with with CircleK convenience stores. Next I sit down with Michele Sexsmith, SVP and Practice Leader, Retail, Real Estate and Entertainment Sectors from Environics Analytics talking about the marketing mix for retailers and how to leverage digital to amplify, personalize and measure customers and customer segments in and around your retail stores and more. Last but not least I’ll cover off Retail This Week including the sweet smell of success for Saje, RYU founder’s love of tribes, Giant Tiger breaks new ground, Dollarama back on growth path, Ikea turns a Paris subway into a glorious showroom, Amazon’s private label products best sellers in 22 categories, Walmart deals with Ellen, hot rental trends and the customer that use them, shades of grey - Vancouver cannabis edition, Choom cannabis opens with great fan-fare in Niagara Falls, Canna Cabana in Toronto, Shoppers offers same-day delivery in Ontario, and edibles laws finalized and ready for on-shelf around December. But first, let’s listen in to my interview with Arlene Dickinson Thanks to Arlene and Michele 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 favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. 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. 

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of June 11th, 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 two exclusive feature interviews both recorded live in person at the Purolator Podcasting Studio at RCC’s #STORE2019. First, I chat with Kaileen Millard-Ruff, Vice President of Retail for Ottawa-based international retailer Lee Valley Tools. We talk about Kaileen’s rich background in retail, the unique culture and history of the brand, their differentiating merchandising and in-store experience. Next one of Canada’s premier retail statesman, industry advocate and thought leaders Willy Kruh, Global Retail Lead for KPMG and Retail Council of Canada’s 2019 inductee into the Retail Hall of Fame. Based here in Toronto with KPMG for 36 years, Canadian retail lead for the past 20 and global lead for the past 15, we chat about Willy’s start on sales floor with Harry Rosen, through to Willy’s reflections on the state of modern retail, and the work still to be done, particularly in Canada, by retailers to effectively compete in modern retail. Last but not least I’ll cover off Retail This Week including Hudson’s Bay going private, rare full length video interview with Amazon worldwide consumer chief, Fjallraven’s Swedish adventures in Canada, a harmonized approach to single-use plastics, Tokyo Smoke’s cross-Canada retail expansion, Walmart’s overall of jet.com, tough lessons from Tim Horton’s, Loblaw “pears” up with Toronto startup flash food and Metro launched e-grocery in Toronto. But first, let’s listen in to my interview with Kaileen from Lee Valley Tools Thanks to Kaileen and Willy for being my special guests for this episode, stay tuned for more interviews from the Purolator Podcasting Studio in episodes to come. 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 favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. 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. 

Welcome The Economist Cannabis Summit special edition of The Voice of Retail podcast, I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. This special episode contains content intended for listeners 19+. Held in Toronto June 5, The Economist Cannabis Summit brought together an international roster of speakers addressing the cannabis industry from several perspectives, and true to The Economist magazine brought insights and sometimes controversy to the main stage. I was able to chat with three of the many interesting people in the cannabis industry represented at this event starting with veteran Toronto retail Robin Ellins, owner of the Friendly Stranger, this year celebrating 25 years in the cannabis culture and accessory space from his Queen Street store in Toronto. We talked about authenticity and what it will take to compete in the retail cannabis marketplace in the years to come. Next I spoke with Emmy award winning director Abbey Epstein on her documentary “Weed The People” which looks at medical cannabis in the U.S., and talk about the lessons she learned about the plant’s history of stigmatization and prospects for decriminalization in America. Last but certainly not least a rare, exclusive interview with Jim Tebrake, Assistant Chief statistician, Economic Statistics, Statistics Canada about the innovative approach Stats. Canada took to sizing the retail (black market) cannabis market and his ongoing insights measuring Canadians use and consumption and the industries production dynamics. Let’s jump right in now starting with my interview with Robin from The Friendly Stranger Thanks again to my special guests Robin, Abby and Jim for joining me on this special edition. The day concluded with a fireside chat with Vicente Fox, former President of Mexico and current board member at Canada-based cannabis company Khiron Life Sciences, sharing his observations based on ten years of focus of the cannabis space. Amongst many things, he also spoke about integrating cannabis into NAFTA and other forward looking economic, policy and political objectives. Check out this interview in BNN: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/video/cannabis-should-be-tied-into-revamped-nafta-deal-former-mexico-president-vicente-fox~1701077 That’s a wrap on this edition of The Voice of Retail, if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. 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 then, 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. 

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 favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. 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! 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. 

Welcome to our second special STORE 2019 edition of The Voice of Retail podcast 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 Retail Council of Canada’s STORE conference is the biggest retail conference of the year in Canada and for 2019 In partnership with with my friends at Purolator we built the Purolator Podcasting Studio and set out to interview some of the most interesting people in retail hosting retail industry leaders from across the country live on the exhibition show floor. We also followed up with a few folks who we met at STORE2019 but our schedules didn’t quite line up to get them into the studio during the action packed day and a half. Let’s kick off this second STORE episode starting with my exclusive interview with Steve Dennis, President & Founder, SageBerry Consulting and the STORE day two opening keynote. Steve has been named a top 5 global retail influencer by two leading organizations and his thoughts on the future of shopping are regularly shared in the media and in his role as a contributor for Forbes. During a 30 year career as a senior executive at two Fortune 500 retailers--and more recently as a strategic advisor, Steve has worked with dozens of retail, luxury and social impact brands to inspire, catalyze and design their journey from boring to remarkable. Next, a great conversation with Lara Wood, General Manager of Cannabis NB talking about her rich background, their award winning development program, the innovative, go-to-market structure of Cannabis NB and how the Province embraced the retail cannabis opportunity. Then I followed up with Laurie Weston, Director of Retail for Purolator after they were big winners last Tuesday night at the Excellence in Retail awards in the pop-up retail category. I wanted to know how their innovative Mobile Quick Stop truck concept came about, and advice for retailers as we look toward the 2019 holiday season - top of mind stuff for retailers across the nation as we sit here in June. Let’s get started with Steve Dennis… That’s a wrap on the second of special RCC STORE 2019 edition of The Voice of Retail - thanks to Steve, Lara and Laurie for joining me in the Purolator Podcast Studio . if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. 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 Join me each and every Friday as I interview some of the most interesting people in retail and cover off the most important stories within the Canadian retail industry and around the world. Until then, 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. 

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of May 27th 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 part two of my interview with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois Senior Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University as we discuss Canada’s new food guide, the rise of plant-based meat alternatives for “flexitarians” and the state of grocery eCommerce. Next, part two of my interview with Karl Littler Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at RCC as we jump right in talking about the new NAFTA agreement including insights to the ratification process, credit card fees, grocery issues and sustainability. You can connect with Karl at Klittler@retailcouncil.org or directly to RCC via this link: https://www.retailcouncil.org/contact/ Last but not least I’ll cover off the top retail news of the week including the need for a new West Coast port, Walmart tricks out their new concept urban super centre in Toronto, Indigo shifts creative direction, understanding Kate Hudson, TopShop closes in the U.S. but remains in Canada, the Amazon purge, celebrating the Sobey Family, Ocado invests in robot meal preparer and much, much more. But first, let’s listen in to my interview with Sylvain Charlebois as we chat about Canada’s new food guide Thanks to Sylvain and Karl for being my guests in 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 favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. 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. 

Welcome to a very special STORE 2019 edition of The Voice of Retail podcast 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 Retail Council of Canada’s STORE conference is the biggest retail conference of the year in Canada, spanning two days of thought leadership, networking , industry awards and some of the best of retail solutions on display on the exhibition show floor. In addition, each evening there are important retail industry awards shows, Excellence in Retail on the first evening and Canadian Grand Prix new product awards on the second. For 2019 In partnership with with my friends at Purolator we built the Purolator Podcasting Studio and set out to interview some of the most interesting people in retail hosting retail industry leaders from across the country live on the exhibition show floor. We talked tech, brand strategy, retail operations, customer behaviour, retail insights and much much more. I’ll be putting together several special episodes of The Voice of Retail to capture the wealth of insights that emanated from this Toronto-based event. Let’s get kick off this series with a most excellent interview with one of Canada’s top tech leaders fresh off the STORE conference main stage; Kevin Peesker, President of Microsoft Canada. We talked about the phenomena that is Restaurant Brands Inc, (Popeye’s, Burger King and of course Tim Horton’s) and his journey to the leadership role at Microsoft, more than 28 years of experience in technology that has taken him to over 70 countries, Microsoft’s perspective on retail transformation and the impact of AI, Azure cloud based computing and the culture necessary to drive innovation. Next an interview with Jo-Ann McArthur a specialist in food and beverage marketing as we talk about how for Genz healthy eating now includes not just what’s in food, but its entire journey - how it was made or grown, how the workers, animals, and environment were treated and how certification matters to consumers in the foods they choose and the eggs they buy. www.eggquality.ca https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10etP1p2bU Last but certainly not least I chat with David Lui, Vice President of marketing for Mark’s and Sportchek. We talk about his personal journey to retail leadership, one of my favourite all time marketing campaigns Well Worn, and taking on the marketing of two of Canada’s most prominent retail brands. Let’s kick this episode off starting with my interview with Kevin Peesker from Microsoft: 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. 

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of May 20th 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 a feature interview with retailer Sinéad Clarke at her wonderful store the Irish Design House in Toronto. We talk about the journey that brought her to Canada and the passion she brings to her business. Next, an interview with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois Senior Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University and frequent commentator on the grocery sector in Canada talking about his background and approach, and discussing the upcoming legalization of cannabis edibles as Sylvain tells us that the government is “taking the fun out of edibles” Last but not least, part one of my interview with Karl Littler Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at RCC on his journey to the most senior levels of government and advocacy and we start covering off key issues for retailers in Canada including the new Nafta (CUSMA as its know in here in Canada) agreement. Last but not least I’ll cover off the top retail news of the week including grocery retailers doubling down on delivery, Endy stays the course, Roots debuts on the Magic Mile, Ontario moving closer to suds in C-stores, STORE keynote speaker Steve Dennis is waiting for the Penny to drop, with or without a silver bullet, cannabis retailers play flip that permit in Saskatchewan, and the Healthy Planet plans multi year expansion. But first, let’s listen in to my interview with Sinead from the Irish Design House. Thanks to Sinead, Sylvain and Karl for being my guests in 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 favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. 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 If you are in Toronto attending STORE 2019 next week be sure and stop by the Purolator Podcast Studio and share your STORE 2019 insights for The Voice of Retail special conference editions. Join me again next week for the regular Friday edition we’ll have part two of my interview with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois talking about Canada’s new food guide and the impact on grocery merchants and Karl Littler as we continue to dive into the top line of key issues for retailers. Until then, 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. 

Welcome to a very special Collision conference edition of the Voice of Retail podcast I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. Described by some as the Tiff for Tech, Collision is Irishman’s Paddy Cosgrave’s great import into Toronto for the first of a three year run. This North American tech conference outgrew it’s New Orleans home and welcome as Visa access for it’s many international guest became harder to come by, and after Paddy visited Toronto and began to appreciate the burgeoning tech scene and welcoming environment. Learn more at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/it-s-like-tiff-for-tech-why-the-collision-conference-is-moving-to-toronto-1.5139325 So over a couple of days I joined 25,711 attendees from 125 countries including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau , Houseplant retail cannabis brand creator Seth Rogen, and the always amazing Kara Swisher plus and many many more. I put this episode together featuring interviews and highlights for the week starting with Sarah Landstreet, Founder + CEO at Georgette Packaging (Y Combinator W2016) the day after she crushed her MainStage two minute pitch opening night talking to us about next generation packaging, processes, engineering and materials. Next, offsite I chat with Pat Breen, Irish Minister for Trade, Business & Employment. EU Digital Single Market & Data Protection who was visiting on a trade mission this week promoting Irish tech and merchandise. We met at the Irish Design House in Toronto hosted by wonderful owner Sinéad Clarke. Stay tuned for an upcoming episode for a feature interview with Sinéad. https://twitter.com/PatBreen1?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Learn more about the Flywheel here: http://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/8946794/type/dlg/fragment/internal%3D1/https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/home/search/?keywords=the%20flywheel Last but certainly not least I chat with Hassan Murad, Founder, Intuitive - AI for Zero Waste on his innovative AI powered recycling sorting solution Oscar that visually scans the items you are about to dispose of and tells you what goes where. https://intuitiveai.ca/vision I’m also joined with commentary interspersed between the interviews by two fellow Collision attendees, visionary tech leader Chris Hodgson founder of the Pivt and Lisa Charters a long time digital maven in the entertainment, content and business advisory practice with their commentary and observations on the show https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherhodgson/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacharters/ That’s a wrap on this special Collision edition of The Voice of Retail, if you liked this podcast you can subscribe on iTunes or your favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. 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 Join me each and every Friday as I interview some of the most interesting people in retail and cover off the most important stories within the Canadian retail industry and around the world. Until then, 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. 

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of May 13th 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 an exclusive interview with Whole Foods former Co-CEO Walter Robb in advance of our discussion together on the main stage at STORE 2019 coming up May 29th in Toronto. We talk about his personal journey to retail leadership, perspectives on the growth and evolution of food trends and the origins and power of sustainability and organic. Then, part two of my feature interview with Rob Shields, veteran retailer and retail loyalty visionary as we talk about the past, present and future in the retail loyalty space as Rob tells us that “over time some things become true no matter when you ask it”. We talk about removing the friction of loyalty with his new venture Paymi. Last but not least I’ll cover off the top retail news of the week including Home Hardware sticking to it’s strengths, the grocery battle for Victoria Day, Walmart crushes earning with the best Q1 comps in almost a decade, Whole Foods tests a new format, Canadian Tire talks global expansion via Helly Hansen, Chicos weighs buyout, Sobeys says Voila, and calling all drones in isle 5…. But first, let’s listen in to my interview with Walter Robb Let’s jump into the second part of my conversation with retail and loyalty veteran Rob Shields - picking up where we left off last episode, Rob share insights with us from being one of the top retail CMOs in the country through to the creation of an open source loyalty program and beyond. Let’s listen in: Thanks to Walter Rob & Rob Shields for being my guests in 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 favourite podcast platform, and be sure and recommend to a friend or colleague in the retail industry. You can also ask your favourite home devices, Amazon Echo, Google home to play the most recent edition. 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 If you are in Toronto attending STORE 2019 be sure and stop by the Purolator Podcast Studio and share your STORE 2019 insights for The Voice of Retail special conference editions. Join me again next week for my interview for part one of my interview with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois Senior Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University and frequent commentator on the grocery sector in Canada and Karl Littler Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at RCC on key issues for retailers in Canada. Until then, 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.