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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

37:18

EP 279: How Not to Run a Retail Business

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/02/20

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! How does the retail frontline succeed, despite leadership dysfunction? The disconnect between corporate decision-making and the frontline reality has reached a breaking point. Store managers are caught holding the bag for supply chain disasters, tariffs, empty shelves, and operational chaos they never created. Join Shelley and Rachel Williamson, founder and CEO of Running Great Stores, as they unp...

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25:12

EP 278: Gaming the K-Shaped Economy

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/02/13

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! There is widespread confusion about the popular and overused K-shaped economy meme. General understanding oversimplifies consumers into "haves, have-nots, and have-everythings," when the reality is far more nuanced and fluid. If retail executives make million-dollar decisions based on an incomplete understanding about the K-shaped economy, it's going to cost them. Join Shelley and Katie Thomas fro...

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26:17

EP 277: Why Materials Should Lead Design

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/02/06

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! A complete reversal of the traditional concept-to-market approach will improve margins, speed to market, and sustainability goals. What does that look like? Materials lead the design process instead of design leading materials selection. Join Shelley and Liza Amlani, principal and founder of Retail Strategy Group and co-author of The Material Life, as they discuss why design innovation is ty...

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24:35

EP 276: How AI Propels FedEx Customer UX

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/01/30

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Customers have high expectations in their transaction experiences that do not end with the purchase. Today’s empowered and convenience-focused consumers want easy returns, and FedEx is on a mission to make that a reality using AI as a tool to improve the experience. Join Shelley and Jason Brenner, Senior Vice President Digital Portfolio at FedEx as they delve into the fascinating world of re...

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72:12

EP 275: NRF Trade Talks: Five More Unique Perspectives

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/01/23

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Last week, Shelley caught up with five more innovators at NRF 2026 to get their takes on the retail industry and an outlook for this year. Their conversations ranged from the connected store and talent development to geolocation analytics and the need for personalization. Listen and learn from the experts. Matthew Cry transformed his retail leadership experience by leveraging a better ...

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60:28

EP 274: NRF Trade Talks: Four Unique Perspectives

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/01/16

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Shelley caught up with four innovators at NRF 2026 to get their takes on the retail industry and an outlook for this year. Their conversations ranged from managing returns and geo-location insights to advanced tools for managing inventory. Listen and learn from the experts. Tim Robinson has interesting insights on a significant challenge for retailers, especially, post-holiday: returns. ...

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25:31

EP 273: A Masterclass in Agentic AI

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/01/09

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Most retailers think they're keeping pace with AI advancement, but they're operating with fundamentally broken data while the entire shopping model collapses around them. The customer shopping journey is shifting, and AI agents will manage the entire experience. Why? Agentic evolution outmatches traditional human-based search. When shoppers ask arbitrary questions like "show me the best handbag," ...

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25:53

EP 272: Here’s What Happens When Your Customers...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2026/01/02

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Here’s an interesting fact: 1.6 million tradespeople trust their friends over impersonal brands. And here’s why: Most workwear brands claim they understand their customers, but they're designing products by committee in the boardroom and based on their P/L. Join Shelley and Eric Gerard who discuss how he built his BRUNT Workwear brand with the people who actually wear the work gear. Th...

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31:16

EP 271: The Shifting World of Retail Real Estate

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/12/26

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! We’ve all read the real estate headlines, both positive and otherwise. So, what’s really next in retail real estate? There's nowhere left to expand: Occupancy in quality centers is running 96 to 97 percent in desirable locations. It’s a landlord’s market with store openings continuing to outpace closures by roughly 2:1. And capital is still flowing into retail real estate and property tech despite...

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25:40

EP 270: Sprouts: Pioneer in Health and Wellness

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/12/19

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Most grocery retailers are chasing a $1.6 trillion market but Sprouts Farmers Market is deliberately ignoring $1.3 trillion of it. Join Shelley and Nick Konat, President and COO of Sprouts, as they reveal why the retailer has a laser focus on the $300 billion health enthusiast segment. Marching to a different drummer, Sprouts is driving 8 to 10 percent annual store growth while competitors struggl...

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22:59

EP 269: Luxury Leather's Toxic Impact

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/12/12

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Traditional fashion and automotive industries are wedded to a leather supply chain that requires 20 toxic processing steps and plastic coatings, while they simultaneously claim environmental leadership. The uncomfortable reality executives don’t acknowledge is that traditional leather production isn't just environmentally destructive—it's becoming economically obsolete. Join Shelley and Stephanie ...

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17:50

EP 268: Never Underestimate the Power of Weather

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/12/05

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Full disclosure: Don’t ever underestimate the power of weather and its impact on retail. There is no other external driver that influences the consumer as frequently, meaningfully, and continuously as the weather. In fact, it influences more than a trillion dollars in retail sales on an annual basis. Join Shelley and Evan Gold of Planalytics as they discuss the fact that the weather is more volati...

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24:15

EP 267: How a D2C Brand Beat the Odds in Scaling to...

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/11/28

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Sometimes it takes tenacity combined with fearless confidence to launch a retail brand. That’s how Hulken achieved what most brands consider impossible: Pitching Target in June and landing their rolling totes on the shelves by November. Join Shelley and Hulken co-founder Alex Schinasi to learn why the most successful omnichannel strategies aren't about being everywhere, but about identifying the f...

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27:33

EP 266: Retail 2025 Was a Radical Shift

Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report ·

2025/11/21

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! A look back at retail 2025 reveals that consumer behavior volatility has reached unprecedented levels, with shopping patterns shifting hour-to-hour rather than seasonally. Most C-suite leaders are woefully unprepared to handle this level of velocity. Join Shelley and RJ Hottovy from Placer.ai as they discuss a range of consequential retail shifts. Holiday promotions now start in September as retai...

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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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