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PODCAST

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report

Shelley E. Kohan

Welcome to Retail Unwrapped, a podcast from The Robin Report.Join Shelley E. Kohan as she shares insights and unpacks issues at the core of retail and consumer products. The conversations are lively and the opinions are honest.New episodes every Friday.

business management

All Episodes

25:45

EP 265: AI Is an Ally, not the Enemy

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/11/14

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The retail frontline sales staff is often an untapped, but highly valuable resource. Everyone wants to know that they matter and can make a difference. So, how do retailers empower their store associates, their most critical customer-facing ambassadors? In an increasingly tech-driven business, new digital tools are designed to create lasting customer relationships that match loyalty with emp...

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28:46

EP 264: Fast Tracking the Beauty Industry

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/11/07

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Here’s a stark warning for beauty executives: Brands that cling to traditional manufacturing models are already obsolete—they just don't know it yet. The challenges facing beauty CMOs are hitting critical mass: It's not just driving growth, it’s how to get to market at the speed of culture shifts and keep up digitally and socially. Lauren Thermos is General Manager of Atelier, an Australian produc...

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26:06

EP 263: How Uncle Jerry’s Pretzels Is a Poster Child...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/10/31

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Big brands in the food industry face a double-edged challenge: Make snacks healthy and deliver duller colors and unfamiliar tastes. Eliminating dyes and reducing preservatives and sugar are consumer demands that are forcing food manufacturers to reformulate decades-old products that those consumers have developed taste preferences for. Join Shelley and Misty Skolnick, Co-owner of Uncle Jerry’s Pre...

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26:09

EP 262: A Preview of Mixed Holiday Spending Trends

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/10/24

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! In a wide-ranging conversation, Shelley and Tom McGee, president and CEO of ICSC, discuss a mix of consumer trends that will impact holiday spending. It might surprise you to know that Gen X controls 33 percent of all spending (although only 19 percent of the U.S. population); so why are retailers still ignoring them? There’s $1.4 trillion wealth transfer to this generation that nobody's talking a...

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35:03

EP 261: Why Traditional Retail Stores Are Missing...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/10/17

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! When you are an architect who works on projects around the world, your perspective about American retail changes through a refined filter. Kevin Roche, Founder of Roche Design Strategy, has the advantage of understanding firsthand the power of Return on Experience (ROE). He believes traditional retailers face an uncomfortable truth: Legacy KPIs are measuring the wrong things entirely. The most suc...

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26:59

EP 260: Leading with Impact and Purpose

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/10/10

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Modern leadership often confuses constant availability with maximum impact. It veers off course when it ignores intuition in favor of data. Join Shelley and Melissa Gonzalez, Principal and founder of MG2 in a conversation about her new book, The Purpose Pivot, which explores why understanding your genuine zone of impact requires ruthlessly eliminating everything without purpose. They discuss how m...

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22:24

EP 259: How to Get a Better Seat at the Table

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/10/03

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Here’s a surprising fact: A workplace revolution is underway and fundamentally reimagining how ergonomics drives productivity and employee retention. With mandates of returns to office, companies are discovering that outdated workspace designs are accelerating turnover. Progressive organizations leverage ergonomic innovation as a competitive weapon. Join Shelley and Bob King, Founder and CEO of ic...

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31:08

EP 258: AI Is Transforming the Fashion Supply Chain

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/09/26

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The fashion industry's stubborn reliance on outdated supply chain practices is bleeding profits and destroying consumer trust. Traditional approaches to sizing, inventory management, and trend forecasting are creating failures across the entire value chain, from excess inventory that decimates sustainability goals to astronomical return rates that crush margins. While most companies still operate ...

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25:11

EP 257: How to Build a Retail Media Empire

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/09/19

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Spoiler alert: The physical store is an experiential platform that can tap into retail media network ad spending projected to reach $100 billion by 2026. In a digital marketplace, dynamic advertising platforms leverage AI-powered analytics to capture real-time customers. Walmart gets it and its Connect media platform is driving 12 percent of their profits. Join Shelley and David Simon, EVP of Adve...

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23:43

EP 256: Primark Sets Its Sights on the States

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/09/12

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Primark's strategic U.S. expansion started 10 years ago and is a master plan in calculated retail growth that could fundamentally reshape America's affordable fashion landscape. Primark has 450 stores worldwide and 33 in the States. It has ambitious plans to expand with 60 to captivate the American shopper. Join Shelley and Rene Federico, Head of Marketing for Primark U.S. as they discuss Primark'...

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27:00

EP 255: Why Retailers Are Becoming Political...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/09/05

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Crisis management has become a requisite strategy in today’s fractious marketplace. The socio-political landscape has become a minefield for retailers where one misstep can trigger unprecedented consumer backlash and boycotts. In today's hyperconnected environment, every consumer with a smartphone becomes a potential crisis catalyst, documenting empty shelves and operational failures that go viral...

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21:04

EP 254: Ace Hardware Knows How to Build Community

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/08/29

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! How do you make yourself matter to your local community? If you’re a hardware retailer, what you have to offer is more than nice; it’s a necessity. Ace Hardware gets it. They are innovative players in the retail media landscape with RedVest Media, designed to drive embedded community relationships that translate into measurable ROI advantages. Join Shelley and Molly Hjelm, Corporate Vice President...

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26:51

EP 253: An Inside Look at The Honest Company’s...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/08/22

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Some turnarounds make for epic legends. How do you rebuild a brand and transform it dramatically in two years? The Honest Company, co-founded by Jessica Alaba in 2011, is experiencing a renaissance with double-digit revenue growth and the highest gross margin in the history of the company. Join Shelley and Carla Vernón, CEO of The Honest Company in a candid conversation on how authentic brand purp...

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40:17

EP 252: Blunt Talk About Retail News Headlines

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/08/15

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Provocative, controversial, and blunt observations about what’s making retail news headlines. Shelley and TRR contributor Mark Cohen, who is an industry veteran and former director of retail studies at Columbia Business School, explore a few of the difficult challenges facing retail leaders. They reveal truths about vendor abuse (new revenue streams from chargebacks for questionable violations), t...

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36:02

EP 251: Surprises About Rising Food Costs

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/08/13

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! While consumers fixate on tariffs as the primary force behind rising food prices, the reality is far more complex and revealing. Regulatory changes, labor costs and operational expenses coupled with new tariff pressures on some food categories are creating uncharted supply-demand dynamics. Join Shelley and Stew Leonard, Jr., president and CEO of Stew Leonard’s as they discuss the three-tier cost s...

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36:39

EP 250: AI Alert: The Retail Workforce Is About to...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/08/01

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The retail industry stands at a crossroads where artificial intelligence threatens to eliminate millions of jobs while simultaneously creating new opportunities—but only for those retailers smart enough to adapt. Rather than competing with AI, forward-thinking executives are discovering how to amplify human skills like negotiation, empathy, and conflict resolution in collaboration with technology....

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24:10

EP 249: Why the Fed’s Policy Paralysis Threatens BTS...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/07/25

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The Federal Reserve's policy paralysis is creating a perfect storm for retailers heading into the most critical selling season of the year. Inflation is still threatening, labor markets are more fragile than they appear, and tariff-driven price increases are hitting apparel and durables precisely when consumers need to make back-to-school and holiday purchases, Join Shelley and economist Daniel Al...

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35:03

EP 248: Stop Chasing Normal: Disruption Is Your...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/07/18

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! The retail apocalypse isn't coming—it's here, and survival depends on adaptation, not market dominance. Consumer behavior has fundamentally shifted beyond price sensitivity to a complex value equation encompassing convenience, curation, and experiential factors. Consumers have restructured how they engage with brands, migrating away from traditional retail stores toward a melding of physical retai...

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30:03

EP 247: Watch What Your Customers Do, Not Say

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/07/11

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Do you know how to unlock the hidden opportunities in what your customers aren’t telling you? Traditional consumer research captures what customers say they want but misses the subconscious decisions driving 85 percent of purchasing behavior. Ethnographic research reveals the gap between stated preferences and actual shopping patterns identifying untapped revenue opportunities hiding in plain sigh...

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33:38

EP 246: The Retail Marketing Test: AI or Human?

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/07/04

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Special Guest: Greg Licciardi, Vice President of Sponsorships and Partner Programs at the Association of National Advertisers; Adjunct Professor of Marketing at Fordham and Seton Hall Universities. AI may replace some marketing functions as a more precise, cost-efficient way to reach and retain customers. The challenge is to match AI’s efficiency with the fundamental human connections that ...

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265 results

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