Walmart's associates and tech are working smarter every second. Our associates are leveraging technology more than ever before. We're creating a better customer and associate experience. And, we're removing friction. A grocery delivery arrives 17 minutes after checkout, timed to the minute. An associate finds the exact item a customer needs, without even leaving the aisle. You see a better shopping experience. What you don’t see is the innovation running in the background that my team is proud to be part of delivering: ✅ Algorithms that predict arrival windows before you even hit “order” ✅ Digital twins that catch a store freezer failure before it happens ✅ GenAI tools that guide better interactions ✅ RFID + AR systems that give associates superpowers on the sales floor Read more here: https://walmrt.us/44UEh2W When I think about where retail is headed - and where Walmart is going - it’s clear we’re at a major inflection point. Technology has always shaped how we serve customers, run our business and support our people. But what’s happening now with AI - especially agentic AI - is something different. It’s not just another tool. It’s a fundamental shift in how Walmart operates. Over the past year, we’ve been rapidly building and deploying AI agents at scale. Now, we’re moving from a collection of tools to a unified agentic framework - built to empower everyone across Walmart: 🛒 Sparky: Our customer-facing agent, already live and learning - helping people plan, shop, and discover with ease. 👥 Associate Agent: A single, intuitive interface for schedules, insights, and support - designed to save time and reduce friction. 🤝 Partner Agent (Marty): Helping sellers, advertisers, and suppliers manage their work with Walmart more easily than ever. 💻 Developer Agent: Accelerating how we build, test, and deploy across the enterprise. We’ve reached a defining moment - where years of foundational work have come together to power a transformation of how Walmart runs, serves and grows. Learn more: https://walmrt.us/44UEh2W For enterprise shippers, pool distribution isn’t just a way to cut costs, it’s a strategic unlock. At Warp, we’ve built a modern pool distribution model that goes far beyond consolidation. It’s about giving you control, precision, and real-time visibility across your entire supply chain. Here’s what that looks like: ▪️Lower costs by consolidating fragmented LTL into optimized truckloads, reducing spend by up to 35%. ▪️Deliver with precision, hitting narrow delivery windows like Monday morning shelf resets or just-in-time for peak sales hours. ▪️Reduce damage and returns by bypassing high-friction terminals and cutting down on handoffs. ▪️Stay in control with live tracking, dynamic routing, and full transparency from DC to store. For large enterprises, this isn’t just logistics. It’s how you unlock agility, protect your brand, and move faster than the competition. Curious what it could look like for your network? Let’s talk: https://lnkd.in/giY6RyXF #LogisticsRevolution #SupplyChainExcellence #EnterpriseSolutions #PoolDistribution #CostOptimization #OperationalEfficiency If you’ve never had a tour of an Amazon fulfillment center, I encourage you to do one. I’ve visited a few over the years and am always amazed. I recently visited one of the Charlotte FCs which opened in 2019. What changed from my previous FC tours: 🔺 Way more robotics. The Kiva devices (the robots Amzn bought in 2012 for <$1B) are now fully integrated at least at the Charlotte location. 750,000 Kiva-like robots (renamed Hercules) are now in operation at the FCs. At the Charlotte facility I visited, humans no longer walk to put items on shelves or pull them off. The robots move to stationary people at work stations, who place items on the shelves (that sit atop the Hercules/Kiva movers) and pull them off. All this raises an important question about the future of work and companies. There seemed to me far fewer workers than in the past which is clearly great for Amazon (Amazon’s own site says that each facility has about 1-2k employees) but this a big question mark for the displacement of workers. Ultimately, if the workforce shrinks due to robotics, do we tax the robots? 🔺 The employee comment board is no longer a dry-erase board but is now digitized and called “my voice” (which btw uses the Firefox browser, not Google or Microsoft). It still has great comments that are specific to the venue for managers to respond to. This is a great lesson for other companies: listen to your employees! What didn’t change: 🔻 People are still unpacking boxes and putting items in boxes for shipment. While Amazon has robots that can do all of this, they didn’t appear to be widespread. Speed was definitely a theme that came through, but some Amazon CX challenges were evident: 🙁 It’s unclear if item level information affects the pick algorithm (eg you can buy an item from one of many sellers but I'm not sure what you receive is the one that was shipped by the seller or someone else); this has always been a gripe of big brands. 🙁 It’s unclear if there is strict monitoring of aged or even returned inventory. Products (including returns marked for resale) seem to come from sort centers and nothing in this facility suggested there was any auditing of individual items before they were shelved (which is why consumers seem to get used products at times).  🙁 There is no way to know if a pack slip made its way into a box. I’ve noticed this as an issue when I’ve received gifts over the years and the recipient has no idea who sent the package. Even when you call Amazon customer service, they rarely have access to the database that identifies who sent a package; this suggests that the warehouse shipping labels for whatever reason don’t have more information on who is the shipper or Amazon account that made the order. I could be mistaken but I’m not sure why I’ve had multiple misses on this scenario otherwise. What are your impressions of the Amazon fulfillment centers?  We were fortunate for Coresight Research to be invited by Zebra Technologies to attend its recent ZONE 2025 Customer Conference. The conference this year centered on the frontline worker. A couple of key observations: * Zebra classified its Modern Store concept into three categories: elevated customer experience, optimized inventory and engaged associates * Its “Frontline AI Enablers” include hard-to-accomplish technologies under the hood such as a shelf and product localizer, a product recognizer and feature extractor * The company added clarity to its broad product line with technologies for transforming the employee experience (task management, worker communication, and inventory visibility) and operations (actionable intelligence, forecasting and analysis, scheduling and timekeeping) Our take: Zebra possesses a compelling combination of hardware (wearables and mobile computers), the seamless integration of AI and a  broad software portfolio to tie it all together. #retailtech #retailtechnology #frontline #associateenablement Lessons from Kroger's Automated Fulfillment Closures in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Florida Kroger is closing automated fulfillment facilities in Wisconsin, Maryland, and Florida as part of a strategy to become profitable in e-commerce. The sites may have been unable to accommodate demand, especially in areas where Kroger lacks a presence. But is there a middle ground between large automated centers and in-store fulfillment? #RetailStrategy #Ecommerce #Kroger #SupplyChain #Automation #Retail Here are some interesting stories from the world of retail for Wednesday, November 18: 🛠️ The Home Depot has cut its full-year profit forecast and missed Wall Street's earnings expectations for the third straight quarter as it saw weaker home improvement demand. 🚚 Kroger will close some e-commerce fulfillment centers and expand partnerships with delivery companies, a shift in its digital strategy. The chain will result in impairment charges of $2.6 billion. 📱 China's PDD Holdings beat forecasts on Tuesday with a 14% rise in third-quarter adjusted earnings, a sign that its steep discounts and heavy marketing spending bolstered demand in its home market. 🎯 Target's third‑quarter results today are expected to lay bare the retailer’s struggles amid mounting economic uncertainty. Target has not reported any same‑store sales growth this year. 🏈  Academy Sports + Outdoors has opened five new locations to wrap up the year, expanding its presence in Arkansas, Indiana and Texas. Academy will have opened 24 total new locations by the end of fiscal 2025. 🚚 Old Navy is offering same-day deliveries via DoorDash to shoppers nationwide. Through the delivery app shoppers can order products from more than 1,000 Old Navy locations. 📦 Target has opened a sortation center that will enable next-day delivery of online orders in the Cleveland metro area. The goal of the Cleveland pilot is to determine long-term viability of a Shipt-only sortation center. 🍸 A new lawsuit claims that some of Costco's Kirkland-brand tequilas are misrepresented. The suit alleges that certain Kirkland tequilas, marketed as 100% de Agave, contain non-agave alcohol. ⛳️ Topgolf Callaway Brands has agreed to sell a 60% stake in its Topgolf and Toptracer business to private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners in a deal that values the business at about $1.1 billion. 🥩 Tyson Foods has agreed to stop claiming it will reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and will also no longer market its beef products as climate-friendly. 👕 PVH Corp Chief Financial Officer Zac Coughlin is leaving the apparel retailer to take the CFO spot at SiriusXM. Melissa Stone, a 20-year PVH veteran will take on his duties temporarily. 🥖 Panera Bread has unveiled a turnaround strategy to reverse years of traffic declines. The plan includes improving the quality of ingredients, reinvesting in labor and leaning into a barbell menu strategy. 📺 Best Buy begins its Black Friday sale Thursday, November 20 - more than a week before the official date of Black Friday. #retail #retailnews #economy #DailyRetailNews Now is an ideal time for retailers to rethink their supply chain strategies. How do you get closer to the customer? Advance Auto Parts is looking to cut distribution centers, streamline operations, and expand regional locations so they can get the right products to the right customers more quickly. New CEO Shane O'Kelly has a clear mission. Trained at The Home Depot, he draws on a successful supply chain history. As he put it: “Consolidating the supply chain to create the right part in the right place is an absolute linchpin of what we’re doing." This is a smart strategy. In a world of increased volatility, the best way to win is to work backwards from customer demand, and find out how to solve it as quickly as possible. Time is money, and shorter/faster supply chains can make retailers much more profitable. As Walmart demonstrated with its "Remix" strategy, the savings from reducing DCs can vastly exceed any incremental costs from last mile, particularly with a good last mile orchestration partner. If I were advising Advance Auto Parts, I would encourage them to upgrade their last-mile partners, technology for tracking/visibility, and inventory management. And fortunately, in 2025, there are a number of outstanding companies that can do just that! https://lnkd.in/e4Dnd4mg We're always looking for ways to improve safety. Nicholas Campbell, our Director of Safe Design, recently led a review at one of our fulfillment centers focused on pick carts. By collaborating with Engineering, Design, Operations, and Process Improvement teams, data-driven analysis and structured problem-solving methods were used to identify potential opportunities and things we might be able to do better, including updating our training experiences. We’re also working with our cross-functional partners to identify broader design standards that will help streamline solutions across our supply chain.  This work showcases proactive, collaborative safety and supports smoother operations for our associates. I'm proud of the way the team is focused on constant improvement and working safely every day. #TeamWalmart #Safety #StriveForExcellence