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5 Must-Know Tips for Shoptalk 2025 | Your Ultimate Shoptalk Conference Guide · GrocerTalk

• 0:09
  Hello, everyone.
• 0:10
  We are back.
• 0:11
  It's time for you're such a ranker.
• 0:13
  The show where Ann and I rank stuff.
• 0:16
  And today, because we are in Las Vegas, we are turning our attention to Shop Talk.
• 0:20
  We're going to rank our personal five best recommendations for our Omnitalk fans to get the most out of Shop Talk.
• 0:27
  Anne, are you ready?
• 0:28
  Oh, I'm definitely ready.
• 0:30
  This is ranking things or giving Vegas tips.
• 0:33
  Now, you know, I realized that I've been here and will be here every single month of this year so far.
• 0:38
  It's February right now.
• 0:40
  Oh, my God.
• 0:41
  January.
• 0:42
  I am here in February.
• 0:43
  I will be here in March.
• 0:45
  You will be here for Shop Talk, too.
• 0:47
  That's right.
• 0:47
  Let's just keep this train going.
• 0:48
  Yeah, why not?
• 0:49
  Why not?
• 0:50
  Wow.
• 0:50
  That's pretty impressive.
• 0:51
  So I think you are an aficionado.
• 0:52
  I think you are aficion expert.
• 0:53
  I've developed some.
• 0:54
  I've developed some tools.
• 0:56
  I can't think of anyone better qualified to rank the things to do to get the most out of Shop Talk then, Ann.
• 1:02
  Yes.
• 1:03
  All right, so here's how this is going to work in reverse order.
• 1:06
  5 up to 1.
• 1:07
  What is your number 5 recommendation for getting the most out of Shop Talk, Anne?
• 1:12
  Well, my number one.
• 1:13
  Number five.
• 1:14
  Number five.
• 1:16
  Getting a DoorDash subscription.
• 1:18
  This is actually my number one thing.
• 1:20
  Wow.
• 1:21
  To Vegas, period.
• 1:22
  But I think that if you are coming to Shop Talk, get your doordash, do the trial, whatever it has to be.
• 1:30
  But you absolutely need a doordash subscription for the following water bottles.
• 1:34
  Gotta stay hydrated.
• 1:35
  Yeah.
• 1:36
  Oh, my God.
• 1:36
  In Vegas, 100% access to food that.
• 1:39
  Doesn'T cost you 300 per person and is sourced from local food purveyors here.
• 1:45
  Like there's this Thai restaurant that I just love that I get every time I'm here.
• 1:50
  I order from that same Thai restaurant.
• 1:51
  And all in.
• 1:52
  It's like $20.
• 1:53
  Where are you gonna do that on the strip?
• 1:55
  Do you recommend the Dash Pass as well?
• 1:57
  Yes.
• 1:57
  Or just a subscript subscription.
• 1:59
  Whatever.
• 1:59
  You.
• 2:00
  You know, I personally recommend the Dash Pass for a multitude of reasons, but I would say any.
• 2:05
  Any subscription.
• 2:06
  Just try it out while you're in Vegas.
• 2:08
  And you will not.
• 2:09
  Yeah, actually, that's a good call because maybe you can put your dash, your doordash subscription on your corporate car, too, as part of a travel.
• 2:15
  Travel expense.
• 2:16
  It would still be less expensive than going.
• 2:17
  It is.
• 2:18
  It's probably a good benefit for your company.
• 2:20
  All right.
• 2:20
  And my.
• 2:21
  My number five is.
• 2:22
  Is similar to yours.
• 2:23
  It's funny How, How.
• 2:25
  How aligned we are to start out.
• 2:26
  Mine is you have to make sure you have a good plan for breakfast.
• 2:30
  Yes.
• 2:30
  Yes.
• 2:31
  You know, Shoptalk, there's a couple options.
• 2:33
  You can go to Shoptalk.
• 2:34
  Shoptalk does a great breakfast, but if that's not your thing, there's only so many options in the hotel, like, and they're not open either.
• 2:43
  So our advice is always, like, find, like, the vendor partner or something that's doing a private event for breakfast, because breakfast is the way to go.
• 2:51
  If you want to get a good meal to start your day, you really have two options.
• 2:55
  You have the Shop Talk breakfast and kind of a vendor or solutions provider private event, too, because otherwise the pickings are slim.
• 3:03
  You're eating, like, laminated pastries at Starbucks.
• 3:05
  That's like, your best option.
• 3:06
  Yes.
• 3:06
  Or sometimes runny eggs.
• 3:08
  And you never know what's in runny eggs.
• 3:10
  Chris.
• 3:10
  No.
• 3:11
  Yes.
• 3:11
  Right?
• 3:12
  Yes.
• 3:12
  Ann's alluding to the fact that I once got food poisoning at one of these shows in Vegas as well.
• 3:18
  All right, and number four.
• 3:20
  Number four is to prepare your schedule and to have backups.
• 3:24
  So we always kind of go through the list of our, you know, who's speaking, who do we want to see?
• 3:30
  And then I think it's important.
• 3:32
  And Shop Talk does a good job of making it really easy.
• 3:35
  If you're in a session and maybe it's not the topics that you wanted to cover or it's, you know, something different, you can go quickly across the room.
• 3:43
  So, like, have your backup play plan ready and have the app downloaded so that you're ready to go.
• 3:47
  That's interesting.
• 3:48
  See, I almost.
• 3:49
  I kind of like to.
• 3:49
  Don't have a plan aspect of it, to just go in the moment and get the frenetic energy going and, and have excuses for, you know, just bouncing around.
• 3:58
  But you're.
• 3:58
  You're the plan person.
• 3:59
  I feel like.
• 4:00
  I feel like it's good to have an idea so that you don't have to think about it once you get there.
• 4:03
  It's a good plane.
• 4:05
  Plane trip activity on the way to Vegas.
• 4:07
  Yeah, it is.
• 4:07
  It is.
• 4:07
  All right, so mine, minus mine.
• 4:09
  My number four is actually for.
• 4:11
  Go Starbucks for the week.
• 4:13
  Just.
• 4:13
  Just let it go for the entire week.
• 4:15
  You've got three Starbucks options in the Mandalay Bay Casino.
• 4:18
  Yeah.
• 4:19
  As we're drinking because we have the time right now in Vegas, but there's three options.
• 4:23
  You've got the one right outside the convention center.
• 4:26
  You've got the one in the walkway, and then you've Got the one in the Mandalay Bay Delano.
• 4:31
  You know, kind of the Mandalay Bay.
• 4:34
  Yeah, yeah.
• 4:34
  Right outside the shops of Mandalay Bay.
• 4:36
  But so, like.
• 4:37
  But the lines are horrible.
• 4:38
  They're terribly long.
• 4:39
  You can't get through them.
• 4:40
  And the great thing about Shop talk, too, they always have coffee.
• 4:44
  Yes.
• 4:44
  And the coffee is really tasty, if I might add.
• 4:47
  I think.
• 4:48
  And so, like, you're never in want of your caffeine fix.
• 4:51
  I mean, you just can't get, like the caramel macchiato or whatever that you're probably addicted to the sugary, sweet coffee.
• 4:57
  But the coffee is there.
• 4:58
  It's readily available.
• 4:59
  It's my actually favorite part of the Shop talk experience.
• 5:01
  I think they do the coffee better than anybody.
• 5:03
  Wow, that's ringing.
• 5:05
  A ringing endorsement, Chris.
• 5:07
  I'm actually the.
• 5:08
  It's funny that that's your three, because mine was actually, yes, do Starbucks, but don't make the rookie move of either waiting in line for an hour at the arena entrance or Shark Reef right outside the convention center food
• 5:21
  hall entrance.
• 5:22
  The.
• 5:23
  The.
• 5:23
  The best move is to order ahead at the Shops at Mandalay Bay, because that's right between Mandalay Bay and the Delano.
• 5:31
  They do a really good job with their order pickup.
• 5:34
  Yes.
• 5:34
  You might wait a little bit longer, like eight to 10 minutes, but, like, order it right before you're about to go downstairs to the conference, and it'll be right there, hot and ready.
• 5:43
  You cannot order it from the arena or from the Shark Reef because there's just a cup graveyard sitting there.
• 5:49
  Hours.
• 5:49
  I think.
• 5:50
  I think I waited an hour.
• 5:51
  Over an hour one time.
• 5:53
  Yeah, it's like nrf, you know, It's a disaster.
• 5:55
  Busy is what you're talking.
• 5:56
  Okay, so that's your number three.
• 5:57
  Just to clarify, your number three recommendation to get the most out of Shop Talk is to order ahead at the Starbucks.
• 6:03
  That's outside the shops at Mandalay Bay.
• 6:05
  That is.
• 6:06
  That is my number three.
• 6:07
  And there's.
• 6:08
  I mean, you need refuel once you get to the conference, but some of us.
• 6:12
  Some of us need that jolt before.
• 6:14
  You need your Starbucks every morning.
• 6:16
  Yeah, I can go without it.
• 6:17
  I just need coffee.
• 6:18
  But all right.
• 6:18
  My number three, and this one, I think is really big, is.
• 6:22
  I think everyone attending Shop Talk needs to mark their calendar because at 2:35pm on Tuesday, March 25, GAPS CEO Richard Dixon is taking the main keynote stage.
• 6:34
  I have.
• 6:35
  And to your point, I haven't planned everything, but I've marked my calendar for that, because I can't wait to hear what Mr.
• 6:40
  Dixon says because he definitely looks the part and.
• 6:43
  Yeah, but I'm still skeptical of his turnaround strategy.
• 6:46
  I don't really understand it.
• 6:48
  I'm hoping he can outline it for me so I can get a better sense of what it is, because I'm still a little curious.
• 6:53
  I'm not buying or drinking the.
• 6:55
  The.
• 6:55
  The gap kool aid for Ms.
• 6:56
  From Mr.
• 6:57
  Dixon at this point.
• 6:58
  That he's a lot of people.
• 6:59
  He's been swirling up and shaking around shoes to fill.
• 7:02
  I know.
• 7:02
  I'm sure that's on your must watch list, too.
• 7:04
  Yeah, for sure.
• 7:05
  I mean, I really like all the keynotes, like, for nothing else.
• 7:08
  Just to get to see these people in real life and get a sense of who they are and just how, like, the kind of people that they are, because we read about them in the headlines all the time.
• 7:17
  But I just.
• 7:18
  I think Shopjack does a really good job of finding these people, bringing them on stage and letting us hear directly from them.
• 7:24
  Even though a lot of times PR teams are involved, but you still get to see, you know, just.
• 7:29
  I like to.
• 7:31
  I like to meet people and judge by their, like, character and how they interact with people and their body language and stuff.
• 7:38
  So to me, it's more about getting the full experience than it really is about just, you know, hearing what they.
• 7:44
  What they're saying to the press and the headlines.
• 7:46
  Great point.
• 7:46
  Or how tech forward someone seems when they're talking on stage.
• 7:49
  You know, it's for sure.
• 7:50
  There's a lot you can tell from people.
• 7:52
  For sure.
• 7:52
  And their outfits.
• 7:53
  I love their outfits.
• 7:54
  Yes.
• 7:55
  All right.
• 7:55
  And what's your number two recommendation for getting the most out of shop talk?
• 8:00
  My number two.
• 8:01
  I'm realizing I don't have a lot about the sessions in here.
• 8:04
  Oh, really?
• 8:05
  About the environment in and around.
• 8:07
  That's why we're a team, man.
• 8:08
  Because I do.
• 8:09
  I do.
• 8:09
  Okay.
• 8:10
  Because mine is to make sure that you do a lap at the beach party.
• 8:14
  Because I think that even if you just go down there and you just, you know, walk around a couple times and check it out.
• 8:22
  One, obviously, I, you know, I love music, so it doesn't matter, like what, whoever's performing live, it's amazing.
• 8:28
  You get good stories to go home with.
• 8:29
  Yes, you do.
• 8:30
  Yes, you do.
• 8:31
  But I think the best part of it is, is that you get everybody who's at the conference in a little bit more laid back environment.
• 8:37
  So instead of, like, you know, rushing the stage after a presentation is happening and, you know, trying to get that five minutes with somebody.
• 8:44
  I think this is like a much more casual place to just be like, hey, nice to meet you.
• 8:49
  What do you think of the band?
• 8:50
  Like, the setting is just so much more relaxed that I think I've had some really great conversations with people at that beach party.
• 8:58
  So I think it's somewhere to go.
• 8:59
  Yeah, I think that's a good recommendation.
• 9:00
  I mean, that's a good recommendation.
• 9:00
  Cause Shop Talk's also about networking, right.
• 9:03
  And so that is a good place because, you know, the show's like, it's.
• 9:06
  It's through its second day at that point.
• 9:08
  Right.
• 9:08
  If I'm not mistaken.
• 9:09
  And it's kind of the loads off and you can just kind of meet people that you haven't had a chance to connect with.
• 9:12
  The other thing I like about that beach party too, and we get to see all of our competition and we get to see who's friendly and who's not as well, which I always, always love, because there is some.
• 9:21
  There's.
• 9:21
  There is definitely some competition in our industry and.
• 9:23
  All right, my number two.
• 9:25
  What's your number two?
• 9:26
  My number two.
• 9:27
  My number two is I would attend every AI session that you can.
• 9:32
  And the reason I say that is like, Ann, you're actually interviewing Wayfair's CTO on Tuesday morning.
• 9:38
  So Omnitalk fans, you should check that out.
• 9:41
  Of course, there's the startup pitch competition as well, and a session that I'm particularly interested in Wednesday morning.
• 9:48
  It's called Generative AI and the Next Generation of Search, which is a topic that I've been thinking a lot about as of late.
• 9:57
  Because.
• 9:57
  Because no doubt, Ann, as you know, this will not surprise you or anyone else, especially anyone on the Shop Talk team, because when this conference is over, I'm going to be asking myself, is AI overhyped, under hyped, or
• 10:08
  properly hyped by the retail executives in attendance at shopdoc?
• 10:12
  Because last year I felt like it was under hype, like people were poo pooing it.
• 10:18
  And I was a little concerned about that.
• 10:20
  And I'm curious if the pendulum has swung in a different direction or if people are still part and parcel skeptical of Generative AI and its impact on the retail industry.
• 10:29
  So that's my number two.
• 10:31
  Okay, well, I think that's good advice.
• 10:34
  There's gonna be a lot of those sessions.
• 10:35
  Yeah, there are.
• 10:36
  I feel like there may not be sessions where without AI mentioning them, but.
• 10:41
  But yeah, at least in the title and especially the search one, I think that's a really good One.
• 10:45
  We've been talking about that on the show for a long time.
• 10:47
  It's funny, I actually went through the agenda and, and it was funny.
• 10:50
  There actually weren't, there weren't as many as I expected, believe it or not.
• 10:53
  But I think to your point, there will be many companies on the exhibit hall floor with AI in their name though, for sure.
• 10:59
  So.
• 10:59
  All right, and what is.
• 11:00
  Without further ado, what is your.
• 11:03
  I'm curious to see if yours is the same as mine.
• 11:05
  What is your number one recommendation for getting the most out of Shop Talk 2025?
• 11:11
  Number one is a little self serving, but come to the takeaway session with Chris and myself and some members of the Shop Talk team.
• 11:19
  Ben Miller for sure will be on stage and then the other members of the team that will be joining us are yet to be determined.
• 11:26
  But it's always a great mix of people.
• 11:28
  It is the best thing, I think that summarizes all the takeaways, especially if you're reporting back to teams at work and you aren't sending a multi multiple people to the show.
• 11:40
  It's the best way to kind of congeal all the thoughts.
• 11:43
  And I love it because I think you get some behind the scenes mentions too from the Shop Hack team about like, how they were thinking about setting up that session or what ended up happening because they are working
• 11:54
  so hard behind the scenes to like make sure that, you know, they can move all the levers to really provide like amazing content for those three days.
• 12:02
  And so I think you get some sense too of like what ended up happening and what they were planning on happening.
• 12:08
  And it's, it's great insight and really kind of sums up the whole conference.
• 12:12
  Because you can't go to all the sessions.
• 12:14
  Yeah, no, 100%.
• 12:15
  My number one is exactly the same as yours and exactly the same.
• 12:19
  It is the key takeaway session.
• 12:20
  Yeah.
• 12:20
  And you know, we're, we're live podcasting from the stage.
• 12:23
  So to Anne's point, for all you fans out there, or even if you're not a fan and you just want to recap what happened at Shop Talk for your teams back in the office, my advice would be listen
• 12:33
  to the podcast as soon as it releases, which usually Release it within 24 hours after it happening, after we record it live on stage and then put the transcript through ChatGPT and say summarize this for me and send
• 12:44
  it out to your teams like, hey, here's what you missed at Shop Talk.
• 12:48
  Like you said, it's a great way to congeal everything that's happened at, you know, at the show for the past three days.
• 12:53
  And you get a real insight into the personalities, too, of everyone that has been involved in putting it on.
• 12:58
  And we love doing it, too.
• 12:59
  I think it's probably our, you know, fourth or fifth time now that we've done this with the Shop Talk team as well.
• 13:05
  So you might.
• 13:05
  You might have to edit out Chris's dad jokes in the chat GPT transcript that gets exported.
• 13:10
  So just a heads up for that.
• 13:12
  Just don't copy and paste.
• 13:13
  Never copy and paste.
• 13:14
  Actually, I get a little salty in that, too.
• 13:16
  I've.
• 13:17
  I should get edited for my bluntness, if anything, and more so than my dad jokes.
• 13:21
  All right.
• 13:22
  Right.
• 13:22
  Well, that was fun.
• 13:23
  Yeah, that was a good episode.
• 13:25
  And I don't think.
• 13:25
  I don't think our fans will be, you know, upset by me saying this at all, but I think you're such a ranker.
• 13:31
  An I right back at you.
• 13:33
  Right back at.
• 13:33
  I'm definitely a ranker.
• 13:34
  All right, we hope you are headed to Shop Talk and that you found our episode a little helpful today.
• 13:40
  And as always, if you have any other thoughts that you want to leave as we put this content out on social media or any other recommendations for anyone in attendance at Shop Talk this year, please don't hesitate to
• 13:51
  share it on social media.
• 13:52
  Let us know what we forget.
• 13:54
  And until next time, man, be careful out there.