Retail Unwrapped - from The Robin Report

Hosted by The Robin Report

Business News Commentary

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Episodes

314

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

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

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60 recent

October 16, 202630 min

EP 314: A Good Return Experience Triggers the Next Purchase

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Retailers have spent decades trying to make returns disappear, yet the problem has grown to the tune of $850 billion. The return experience influences whether customers will ever buy from you again: 82 percent of shoppers say free returns matter, and 81 percent check the policy before they buy. Join Shelley and Birdie Smith, Head of Sales at Happy Returns, as they reveal how the smart play is to transform returns into a growth lever; retailers that give shoppers options, speed, and convenience can turn a return into the next purchase. They also discuss what happens when AI agents start handling returns for the shopper and why only two percent of retailers believe they can detect return fraud heading into the holidays. Returns are no longer the cost of doing business. How they are handled is why customers come back…or never do. Special Guest: Birdie Smith, Head of Sales, Happy Returns For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

October 9, 202631 min

EP 313: California Pizza Kitchen Reinvents Itself

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Restaurant growth has always meant more square footage, more leases, more licensees and fees, and more capital at risk. California Pizza Kitchen is betting the next chapter of its 41-year-old brand on meeting the consumer where they are and staying true to what built the brand in the first place. Join Shelley and Michael Beecham, President of California Pizza Kitchen, as they reveal why the founders were brought back and where the smartest path to today’s diner may lead to a vending machine or the frozen food aisle. Special Guest: Michael Beecham, President of California Pizza Kitchen For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

October 2, 202652 min

EP 312: Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams: Empathy is the North Star

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream is a revered and sought after brand; its community culture is solidly empathetic and focused on the quality of life for the growers, makers, ingredient producers, employees, and customers. Join Haley and Zoe Switzer, Chief People Officer at Jeni’s, as they discuss how to build a culture that nurtures a workforce. As Zoe says, “Maybe more than 50 percent of our quality of life is determined by, or at least heavily influenced by, what happens at work. So, the privilege of being an employer is a really big deal; you have an opportunity to have a meaningful impact on people's lives in terms of whether they can put food on the table and pay their rent, or whether they develop skills that serve them well at work.” She believes a Chief People Officer is a representative of the way a company thinks about its community which at Jeni's means a “genuine commitment to quality, doing the right thing for someone else, and make their life a little bit better.” Listen and learn how HR can be transformed by a mutual commitment to uphold high standards, treat other people with dignity and respect, solve problems together, and see one another as important individuals. Special Guest: Zoe Switzer, Chief People Officer, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

September 25, 202626 min

EP 311: Halloween and Hershey’s Are Enduring Traditions

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! It’s no surprise that there's a lot going on in the mind of the consumer, with concerns about the economy, what's happening globally, and the pressures of online social interactions. Halloween provides a welcome reconnection with people in real life. Join Shelley and Stephanie Berman, Vice President of Retail at The Hershey Company as they discuss how Hershey brings memorable moments to life with street fun, new products, and meeting consumers where they are. They discuss how to leverage consumer analytics, tools, and technology to make this Halloween an emotional experience by getting closer real-time to the consumer. Stephanie reveals how her field teams bring real-time insights to adapt and adjust to consumer needs. Learn how Halloween is more than family fun and a popular tradition; it is a time for unapologetic self-reward, social connection, and anticipation with about 67 percent of parents purchasing Halloween candy by mid-summer. Impressively, it is also a $900 million business for Hershey. Special Guest : Stephanie Berman, Vice President of Retail at The Hershey Company For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

September 22, 202618 min

Retail Unwrapped on the Road: How Ace Gets Retail Media Right

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Retail media, currently over-hyped and over-promoted, is typically seen as a novel advertising channel. That sells the network short as a business growth strategy. It is a powerful tool for multi-location, co-op-model retailers when it is used to tie advertising to sales, distribution and new customer acquisition across the brand. Join Shelley and Molly Hjelm, Corporate Vice President and of Head Retail Media at Ace Hardware, as they discuss how Ace is bringing together advertising, store distribution, ecommerce, delivery, customer acquisition, data, and the in-store experience. Learn how the network multitasks to inform and alert its independent store owners about everything from the weather to influencers to make Ace relatable and amplify the trusted relationship its customers expect. Ace also is a poster child for vendor relationships with is new Vendor Council that tests new media strategies and its Retailer Reach direct channel between vendors and store operators to maximize local inventories. Molly Hjelm, Corporate Vice President, Head Retail Media, Ace Hardware For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

September 18, 202630 min

EP 310: Can AI Be Trusted?

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! AI is in the crosshairs of its creators, ethicists, legislators, and a nervous public. With recent headlines predicting the demise of humanity, how does anyone trust AI? On a more operational level, retailers can train and scale AI, but it cannot build trust or relationships, which is an expensive blind spot for retailers. The emerging issue is that AI fluency will separate the haves and the have-nots, and retailers that understand and use AI as a tool to build trust will have a competitive edge. Join Shelley and Aaron Strout, author of Wired for Purpose: Why Humanity Is the Biggest Differentiator in a Digital World , as they reveal how Ford and Ikea became victims of their own tech hubris. Special Guest: Aaron Strout, Author, Wired for Purpose: Why Humanity Is the Biggest Differentiator in a Digital World For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

September 11, 202628 min

EP 309: Brand Drift and the Risks of AI Marketing

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Most retail brands don't collapse in one dramatic moment; they drift, one small decision at a time. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 40 percent of CMOs pushing for bigger rebranding budgets will lose influence with the C-suite because they can't prove the return. AI is already eroding organic search, adding to brand drift. Join Shelley and Karen Leland, founder of Sterling Marketing Group and author of “The Brand Mapping Strategy,” as they unpack why reinvigorating a brand beats rebranding. They discuss how brand marking is findable, followable, or unforgettable and the risks associated with each. Special Guest: Karen Leland, founder of Sterling Marketing Group and bestselling author For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

September 4, 202640 min

EP 308: A Visionary Designer Engineers a Radical Ganni Sneaker

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! It stands to reason that emerging technologies should help engineer visionary designs, and new tools will enable new solutions to old problems. That’s how Maria Intscher-Owrang, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Simplifyber used her curiosity and creativity and looked to sci-fi to reinvent a supply chain. She and her team developed natural fiber liquids that can be molded with 3D technology into unlimited shapes and engineered to outperform or even replace traditional fabrics and/or plastics. This short cuts traditionally complex multi-step manufacturing and transforms the traditional supply chain in the process. They have engineered these materials for apparel, footwear and car interiors. Her latest invention is to mold Ganni moon shoes through a fusion of sustainable and compostable bamboo, sugarcane, and wood enhanced by crystals. Join Haley and Maria as they dig into her journey of developing bio-based engineering and design with tech advanced tools. Maria describes her passion to change an industry and find alternatives to fossil-fuel based fibers, expendable apparel that pollutes unregulated environments, and unsafe clothing manufacturing conditions. Listen, learn, and be inspired. Guest: Maria Intscher-Owrang Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer at Simplifyber, For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

August 28, 202629 min

EP 307: How to Revive Personal Attention With Customers

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Membership points and convenience aren't the same thing as loyalty. Starbucks found this out the hard way when their app went dark; customers didn't wait in line for their order; they walked down the street to the competition. Join Shelley and David Wachs, founder of Handwrytten, as they reveal why personal attention beats personalization. They unpack what scalable tools retailers can use to keep customers feeling valued. Real loyalty is emotional, relatable and trustworthy; personalized tech tools could usher in the return of the lost art of handwritten notes…written and addressed in longhand by robots! Guest: David Wachs, Founder of Handwrytten For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .

August 21, 202623 min

EP 306: An Economist's Warning on Shifts Impacting Holiday 2026

We'd love to have your feedback and ideas for future episodes of Retail Unwrapped. Just text us! Retailers keep bracing for the same inflation story to replay, but tariffs, the war on Iran, and an AI-driven integration boom are rewriting pressure points. Tariff uncertainty and the AI data center boom that is consuming construction materials and microchips are quietly driving up prices on everything from cell phones to electronics. Retailers are expected to hold the line on holiday pricing, but a cold winter could spike heating oil and diesel, forcing prices up. Join Shelley and Dan Altman, author of the High Yield Economics newsletter, as they unpack why the K-shaped economy is persisting, and why diversified supply chains and revenue streams are a survival strategy for retail leaders. Listen and learn why new Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's tough talk on inflation hasn't translated into action, leaving markets guessing about the central bank's real direction and retailers guessing their way into the most important quarter of the year. Guest: Dan Altman, author of the High Yield Economics newsletter For more strategic insights and compelling content, visit TheRobinReport.com , where you can read, watch, and listen to content from retail industry experts, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter .