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PODCAST

Remarkable Retail Podcast

Michael LeBlanc, Steve Dennis

I"m Steve Dennis, strategic advisor, keynote speaker, bestselling author, and host of the industry leading Remarkable Retail podcast, along with fellow retail insider Michael LeBlanc. Discover why C-suite executives from Amazon, Walmart, Ikea, Tractor Supply, Vuori and dozens more - choose to share their growth stories on the only retail podcast hosted by two of the NRF"s top voices for 2025 and 2026. With AI reshaping just about everything, when making sense of competing narratives has never been

business management

All Episodes

00:45:55

Consumer Spending Still Defies Gravity, Luxury Retail...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/10/06

Can consumer spending keep defying gravity? Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc open Episode 314 by untangling a contradictory economy. GDP growth is solid and spending is holding up, yet consumer sentiment sits at its lowest since 2014, the latest jobs report came in weak, inflation won't budge, and mortgage rates are the highest since 2002. As one commentator put it, the U.S. is a tortoise economy in a greyhound costume. Nike offers little relief: sales down 4%, another round of restructuring and

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01:10:51

Seth Godin: Solving the Unsolvable, Plus Costco...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/09/29

Seth Godin, bestselling author of more than 20 books, visionary, friend of the pod and the inventor of email marketing, returns to The Remarkable Retail podcast to discuss his new book, The Knot. Seth reframes the Gordian Knot legend: Alexander didn't cut it, he pulled out the hidden pole at its centre and then untied it. The lesson? Every place we feel stuck has hidden entanglements, and the way through is to name them. Seth explains how wanting two incompatible things at once keeps people and

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00:44:05

The Race to the Doorstep Escalates, Plus...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/09/22

The Remarkable Retail podcast turns six. Steve Dennis opens with the macro picture: inflation remains stubborn, driven largely by fuel. U.S. diesel just hit an all-time high, regular gas is up 36% year over year, and retailers absorbing higher freight costs say they're nearing their breaking point. Michael LeBlanc adds that diesel is almost perfectly correlated with food inflation, and that Canadian retailers expect fuel surcharges to persist into early 2027.The hosts review the first holiday

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00:52:18

Lululemon Slides, Five Below Sizzles & Anthropic...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/09/08

Remarkable Retail Episode 311 welcomes guest co-host and longtime friend of the pod Anne Mezzenga, Founder & CEO of Retail Field Report, joining Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc on mic and on camera.Anne opens with her new venture, launched in March as an evolution of the work she built at Omni Talk Retail with co-founder Chris Walton. Retail Field Report takes a journalist's lens rather than an analyst's — working shifts in stores, interviewing executives and walking floors to learn what's

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01:02:38

Walmart Stalls, Target Stirs & Amazon Flies, Plus...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/08/25

Episode 310 opens with Steve Dennis reporting back from an invitation-only Amazon analyst day in Seattle, two days focused on Prime and grocery. Steve unpacks the breadth of the Prime flywheel, Amazon's push into sub-one-day delivery, the drone facility he toured just before the company announced an expansion to roughly 500 markets, and why Amazon's rise to the number two grocer in North America should have rivals looking over their shoulders.Then, the numbers. US retail sales grew about 5%

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00:56:07

Amazon Surges, Luxury Splits, Wayfair Surprises, Plus...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/08/11

Amazon keeps raising the bar. Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc open with the retailer's blockbuster quarter: massive gains in AWS and advertising, staggering AI capex, and retail revenue up 16% year over year, up from 12% last year. Third-party sellers now drive more than 60% of the business, and Citi pegs underlying GMV growth near 10%, roughly double the industry average. Amazon's B2B division alone now tops $60 billion, bigger than all but eleven U.S. retailers. Then the hosts dig into the

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00:59:34

Ulta Beauty's Amiee Bayer-Thomas on Why Stores Are...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/07/28

Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc open episode 308 with a check on Steve's number one prediction for 2026 — uncertainty reigns supreme — and it's holding up. The flat 10% global tariff is gone, replaced by a 10–12.5% range on nearly all U.S. imports, with steeper rates for Canada and Brazil. The new forced-labor justification behind the increases strikes Steve and Michael as ridiculous and unlikely to survive a court challenge.The retail numbers look better than the tariff logic. June retail sales

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01:00:11

Bombas CEO Jason LaRose on Socks, Soul, and Scale —...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/07/14

This episode comes to you live from our pop-up studio at the CommerceNext Growth Show in New York City. Our guest: Jason LaRose, CEO of Bombas — the brand that turned socks, underwear, and tees into a mission-powered growth machine, with more than 200 million essential clothing items donated to people experiencing homelessness.But first, the news — and in our summer biweekly format, there's plenty. Steve breaks down Nike's unimpressive quarter: revenues down, China off 12%, and an operating profit

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00:55:00

Tractor Supply CMO Kimberley Gardiner on the Power of...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/06/30

Recorded live on the CommerceNext Growth Show main stage in NYC, Steve Dennis sits down with Kimberley "KG" Gardiner, Chief Marketing Officer of Tractor Supply Company, who traces her path from senior marketing roles at Toyota, Lexus, and Volkswagen to leading one of America's most distinctive lifestyle retailers — 2,400 stores, 50,000-plus team members, and a culture she felt firsthand walking a Virginia store with CEO Hal Lawton during her interview. She explains how the "Life Out Here" platform

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00:41:44

The Analysts Reunited: Strong Sales, Sour Sentiment,...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/06/16

Episode 304 reunites The Analysts — Remarkable Retail's celebrated panel of Forrester's Sucharita Kodali, Guggenheim's Simeon Siegel, and GlobalData's Neil Saunders — to take stock of retail coming out of earnings season. Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc open on the paradox of 2026: results are largely strong, sentiment is dismal. Simeon argues the link between the two is "tenuous at best" — people talk one way and spend another. Neil has the data: roughly 60% of shoppers who expect the economy to

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00:40:52

The Fuel Powering Costco's Growth, Department Store...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/06/09

On Episode 304 of the Remarkable Retail podcast, co-hosts Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc dig into a busy earnings season, the global forces reshaping retail, and the competitive divides separating winners from also-rans.They open with the department store sector, which Steve frames as "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly." Macy's shows incremental progress and Bloomingdale's posts double-digit growth, but Kohl's stays stuck and JCPenney's latest numbers underscore the structural problems dogging

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00:45:31

People-led, Tech-Powered with Walmart/Sam's Club...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/05/26

In episode 303 of Remarkable Retail, Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc deliver a sharp, fast-moving episode built around a single conviction from one of retail's most influential retailers: the future is people-led and tech-enabled.Chris Nicholas, former President & CEO of Sam's Club and now President & CEO of Walmart International — a global operation spanning 18 countries, 5,700 stores, and over 500,000 employees shares how humanity and technology are intertwined to drive growth. In this encore

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00:58:40

Reimagining the Mall with Simon Property Group's Eric...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/05/19

In Episode 302 of The Remarkable Retail Podcast, Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc sit down with Eric Sadi, Co-President, North America at Simon Property Group, for a long-overdue conversation on what the modern mall has actually become—and why the obituaries keep aging badly.Eric walks through Simon's reimagination strategy: replacing tired anchor boxes with mixed-use destinations that braid together dining, entertainment, fitness, hospitality, and even residential living. He explains why occupancy

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00:48:00

Retail's Great Concentration, Tapestry's Comeback,...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/05/12

Amazon, Walmart, and Costco aren't just winning—they're pulling away. In episode 301, Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc dig into what Steve calls "Retail's Great Concentration": the accelerating shift of sales, traffic, and profit toward a small group of super-scalers. Fresh data shows just six retailers now capturing a disproportionate share of industry growth—and the structural forces behind it, from fulfillment economics to consumer migration toward convenience and value, aren't slowing down.The

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01:00:12

Episode 300: Pete Nordstrom on Culture, Customer...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/05/05

The Remarkable Retail Podcast hits a major milestone with its 300th episode—and Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc mark the occasion with a conversation they've been looking forward to: a rare, candid sit-down with Pete Nordstrom, one of the most respected executives in modern retail.As Nordstrom celebrates its 125th anniversary, Pete offers an inside look at what has allowed the business to survive—and by most measures, lead—through dramatic shifts in consumer behavior, technology disruption, and

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00:39:05

Shut Up and Play the Hits, Walmart's Big Store Bet,...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/04/28

What happens when retailers keep playing the hits after the audience has moved on? Steve Dennis opens with that question — drawn from his latest Substack essay — and it anchors everything that follows. From Bed Bath & Beyond's overreliance on the 20% coupon to QVC's slow fade, the episode explores what happens when leaders confuse past success with future relevance. The problem, Steve argues, isn't always fear. Sometimes it's a failure of imagination. That theme runs straight into DTC strategy, with

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00:48:16

The Retail Rumble (Part 2) with Ken Pilot, Steve...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/04/21

Steve and Michael open earnings season for March-ending retailers with a tour of luxury's stumble. LVMH posted just 1% organic growth, with fashion and leather — including Louis Vuitton — remaining soft. Kering continues its turnaround "with more promise than proof" under new CEO Luca de Meo. Even Hermès saw growth slow and its stock fall. The common thread: the Middle East, where mall traffic has reportedly dropped 30–50% at locations like Mall of the Emirates. Albertsons' 0.7% comp reinforces the

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00:52:00

Live from Shoptalk: Retail Rumble (Part 1) with Neil...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/04/14

This week Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc bring listeners a high-energy live episode from Shoptalk Las Vegas — Part 1 of the inaugural Retail Rumble.The episode opens with the week's most important retail news. Levi Strauss delivers strong revenue growth driven by its expanding direct-to-consumer business, underscoring how its pivot away from wholesale dependency is unlocking margin and brand control — an increasingly critical playbook in modern retail. The department store sector remains under

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00:51:05

Stitch Fix CEO Matt Baer, Nike's Identify Crisis,...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/04/07

This week on The Remarkable Retail Podcast, Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc break down the forces reshaping retail before sitting down live at Shoptalk in Las Vegas with Matt Baer, CEO of Stitch Fix.The episode opens with a wide-ranging look at the macro pressures bearing down on the industry—geopolitical conflict, rising tariffs, and supply chain strain. Earnings from Nike and RH reveal a consistent theme: even iconic brands can stumble when positioning and innovation lag behind a volatile

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00:46:04

Is AI Retail's New Front Door? with Bret Taylor...

Remarkable Retail Podcast ·

2026/03/31

Steve Dennis and Michael LeBlanc are joined by guest co-host Neil Saunders, Managing Director and retail analyst at GlobalData, bringing his signature analytical rigour and on-the-ground store insights to a wide-ranging discussion of the week’s biggest retail developments and the future of AI-powered commerce. For our feature interview, Steve sits down live at ShopTalk with Bret Taylor, Chairman of OpenAI and CEO and co-founder of Sierra. Taylor outlines how AI agents are emerging as the new

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132 results

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