The Voice of Retail

Welcome to the Voice of Retail for the week of July 1, 2019 I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. In this episode…live from the main stage at RCC’s #STORE2019 conference my exclusive interview with Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods. We chat about the nature of consumers on both sides of the border, the zen of Amazon then, now and in the future, the current state of grocery retail across North America and trends for the future. Then a return visit from Michele Sexsmith Senior Vice President Retail, Retail Estate and Entertainment sectors with Environics Analytics talking about using modern data and sophisticated mobile-based analytics to help guide retailers in their site selection and understanding customer insights. Next we’ll cover off Retail This Week including Ontario celebrating with a 50, can the Goose continue to soar, Amsterdam’s HEMA in Canada, Dollarama goes south (American), Canopy/Tweed/Tokyo Smoke CEO Bruce Linton outside and talking, SportCheck more inclusive, Man/Sask testing same day cannabis delivery, Ireland’s Primark celebrates 50 & 372, Robots rub off on the humans at Amazon warehouse, and Galen Weston gets serious on sustainability at the Consumer Goods Forum global summit. But first, let’s listen in to my interview with live from the big stage at #STORE2019 with Walter Robb Thanks to Walter for generously giving me the thumbs-up to put our interview on the podcast, Layla at CAA for helping me pull this episode together, and Michele for being my special guest. 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 The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact. 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 Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit special edition of the Voice of Retail I’m your host Michael LeBlanc and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. An elite organization that brings consumer goods retailers and manufacturers together globally, the Consumer Good Forum’s Global Summit is a CEO-led group that aligns the world’s retailers and consumer goods manufacturers together, alongside other key stakeholders, to secure consumer trust and drive positive change, including greater efficiency. Check out this recent article: http://www.canadiangrocer.com/top-stories/galen-weston-to-the-food-industry-lets-get-serious-on-sustainability-88156 This year their Global Summit was held in Vancouver in June, and since I was in the neighbourhood (Victoria giving a keynote presentation on the state of global grocery eCommerce) I grabbed a Harbour Air float plane from Victoria for the fun and picturesque half hour flight over to Vancouver harbour. Highly recommend taking this trip if you have not had the opportunity btw. At the Global Summit I had the opportunity to mix and mingle with about 900 of the biggest thinkers and the brightest minds in retail, brand and strategy game, so of course took the opportunity to do some chitting-and-chatting for The Voice of Retail on and around the conference floor, in the media room and even on the EY thought-leader”ship” yacht parked behind the Vancouver Conference Centre. First up a conversation with Kristina Rogers, Global Consumer Industries Leader: Consumer Products, Retail, Agribusiness. Based out of Chicago but born and raised in Canada, Kristina is responsible for global business leadership across multiple consumer industries and we talked about global eco-systems, risk and the nature of innovation. Next, two global Canadian loyalty leaders who speak on an international stage: Caroline Papadatos, Global Loyalty Consulting Leader for Loyalty One, and Bryan Pearson, CEO of Loyalty One and a frequent (and frequently quoted) contributor to Forbes and thought leader in the loyalty space. In a wide ranging interview we talk about Big L loyalty and Little L loyalty, what has changed in the loyalty space in 25 years, the nature of modern retail loyalty & technology and the richness of the tools. You can reach Caroline at CPapadatos@loyalty.com and BPearson@loyalty.com Lastly, and interview with two retail strategists as we talk about their thoughts on the latest in retail brand marketing strategy and consumer insights. This interview was recorded on the EY yacht parked in Vancouver Harbour, so the background is pretty noisy with Harbour Air flights coming and going, but stay with us as the conversation is really worth it. But first, here is my conversation with Kristina Rogers from EY: That’s a wrap on this special Consumer Goods Global Summit 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 The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact. 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 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 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! The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact. 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 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 The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact. 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! The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact. 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 The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact. 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! The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact. 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! The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact. 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! The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact. 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: The Voice of Retail podcast is presented by Hale, a performance marketing partner trusted by brands like ASICS, Saje, and Orangetheory to scale with focus and impact. 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.