Commerce Riff with Sri & PVSB - June 16, 2026

PVSB 0:01

June 16th, 2026, and this is the Commerce Rift, brought to you by the CPG guys. Ten minutes of the news stories that matter in commerce this week. I'm your co-host, PBSB. I'm joined as always by Papa Raj, the father of Popstars, co-founder of Think Boo Consulting. Shree, how are you doing? I'm doing great, Peter.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Very excited that we're headed to Can Lions in less than a week. Should be awesome. We got an amazing program. And a month later, we got the Cornell OmniChannel Media Program. Can't wait. Lots of great sponsors, participants.

PVSB 0:33

Absolutely, Sri. Couldn't be more excited about the big venue. So many things going on at the CPG guys' residence. We're recording lots of episodes and we're meeting lots of people. So if you're in Cannes, drop us a line, let us know. Let's see if we can connect while we're there. Let's kick things off with a story of executive changes. Once again, Bayer today announced leadership changes with its consumer health division to accelerate growth, strengthen commercial execution, and further enhance speed of decision making. These changes reflect the company's commitment to continuously adapt and advance its road to billions, aimed at helping billions of people live healthier lives. As part of these changes, Bayer has appointed new global leaders across the marketing, insights and analytics, and commercial operations functions, and named a new consumer health president for the United States, its largest consumer health market. Here are the appointments. It includes Samantha Vivi, appointed Global Chief Marketing Officer, Consumer Health. She'll lead global brand building, marketing, and consumer strategy. She joins the global consumer health leadership team, and she'll be based out of Whipney, New Jersey. Of course, you know, Sam's a good friend of the CPG guys. She's going to be at La Residencerie. She'll be at the Women in Commerce Media reception, the happy hour on Wednesday afternoon. So please stop by. We can congratulate Sam as she's elevated from a North America role into a global role. Analia De La Fuente, appointed Global Chief Data Officer, Consumer Health. She'll lead insights in analytics globally, advance the company's data-driven capabilities, and she will join the global consumer health leadership team. She's out of Basel, Switzerland. And of course, our friend Dave Tomasi, he's appointed global chief commercial officer for consumer health. He'll lead global commercial operations and business performance across all markets, remains on the global consumer health leadership team, having previously served, as I mentioned, as the president of the U.S. Consumer Health Team, he's out of New Jersey. And lastly, Trevor Thrun, appointed president of U.S. Consumer Health. He will lead Bayer's largest consumer health market. He'll join the U.S. country leadership team. And of course, previously vice president and general manager for the U.S. Upper Respiratory category, also based out of the U.S. office in Whipany, New Jersey. Says Julio Triana, member of the Bayer Board of Management and President Consumer Health, quote, these leadership changes mark an important step in strengthening our ability to best serve our consumers and customers in a dynamic marketplace by bringing together deep expertise in brand building, commercial execution, and consumer focus backed by data and insights, we are sharpening our focus on what matters most, helping billions of people around the globe live healthier lives with the most trusted self-care solutions. We aim it to build an organization that is faster and even better positioned to reach more consumers and deliver on our strategic priorities. I'm convinced these leadership changes will help accelerate growth, strengthen customer and consumer focus, and unlock the full potential of data and artificial intelligence to build trusted brands, ultimately advancing our road to billion strategy. Over to you, Sri. So fought off the morning newsbeat.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yeah, you heard it right, Peter. Drone Life reports at Walmart in its alphabet owned drone delivery partner wing, plan to add a whopping seven new markets to the network. By the way, in Arkansas now you can actually receive drone delivery in many parts. Memphis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Fairy, and Salt Lake City. The company had previously announced that we're expanding to Orlando, Tampa, Charlotte, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and Miami. Drone Deliveries here. According to the story, the additions pushed the partnership toward nearly 20 U.S. markets support a previously announced plan to build out more than 270 locations and reach over 40 million Americans by 2027. This follows early phases of that plan, which began when the partners launched their first major Houston expansion in January 2026. Wing, the story announced, has completed well over 1 million commercial deliveries. The company pairs its FAA permissions, lightweight delivery drones with Walmart's retail footprint to run routes already operating in the DFW Dallas Fort Worth, Critic Houston, and Metro Atlanta. Wing's drones cruise at speeds up to 60 miles per hour and use it tethered to lower packages directly to a yard or driveway in as less 30 minutes. And here is our dear friend Kevin Coop's view. Remarkable the degree to which Walmart has been able to accelerate its own delivery program, while Amazon, which sort of stalled the ball rolling when Jeff Bezos announced the initiative in 2013 on 60 minutes, has been unable to get airborne to anywhere near the same extent. I would imagine that Amazon will be able to make up for that loss of momentum. But for now, Walmart certainly is a commanding lead with thousands of stores that can use as base stations for short distance delivery flights. I think, Peter, you have something with the department store. Let's get at it.

PVSB 5:32

Yeah, of course, we're talking about Coles based out of uh Wisconsin, right? From our friends at Retail Dive, they report joining other major retailers with summer sales. Coles is hosting deal days from June 23rd to June 28th. Hmm, while we're in Cannes Street. It looks like there's gonna be shopping while we're across the across the pond. The department store said in a Wednesday press release: during the event, the retailer is pricing hundreds of items below $20 and offering free shipping on all online orders. Shoppers can save on products across categories, including apparel, shoes, beauty, home goods, back to school essentials, and outdoor toys. Shoppers will earn $10 in Kohl's cash for every $50 spent on qualifying products. The retailer is also holding Kohl's daily deals offer each day in stores, on its website, and through its app. Cole's courting shoppers seeking discounts from dorm room essentials, school supplies, and summer wardrobe upgrades. The department store moved its summer sale to June. Last year, its four-day summer cyber deals event launched in July, one day prior to Amazon's prime day. Meanwhile, other major retailers this year are also rolling out other summer sales earlier. Amazon recently announced its prime day sale. It will take place between June 23rd and June 26th. Following that change, Walmart and Target each announced summer sales on or around those same dates. Cole is competing for consumers as it tries to reverse declines. In Q1, the retailers' net sales dipped by 1.7% year over year, while comps decreased 1.1%. The company's losses narrowed by $1 million from a year prior to $14 million. Cole's Q1 sales have plunged over 27% since 2019. Wow. With volume down an eye-watering amount according to an earlier global data report. Kohl's is currently executing on a long-term turnaround strategy, which in part includes providing undeniable value per company memo from earlier this year. In addition to its earlier summer sale, Kohl's focused on affordability. In February, the company introduced a deal bar, a hub where shoppers can find products priced below $10 on in all of its stores. Wow, Shree, let's uh close it out, shall you?

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Yeah, and we're going over to Schnook's supermarkets, where our dear friend Tom Henry, who's the CIO CTO, who I call the absolute smartest technologist that exists in this retail and CPG industry on planet Earth. And so let's talk about the fresh sector inside a grocery store. Schnooks wants grocery shoppers to know that quality is top of mind, especially for its perishable items, as traditional grocers look to regain their footing against larger rivals and good grocery shoppers in the key fresh categories. Confidence in the fresh guarantee, you heard it, Peter, fresh guarantee comes from the proprietary sourcing programs and expert in store execution happening behind the scenes every single day. We are proud to put our name on a guarantee this strong because our teams do the daily work to earn our customers trust. Customers must have a copy of the receipt that is a week or less old in order to qualify for the freshest guarantee. Schnook's highlighted several initiatives that it says enhance the quality and freshness of its products. The grocer owns a bakery plant and floral design center, which supplies entire stove fleet, the chains butcher's car, and hand trim meats while its produce department triple inspects fruits and vegetables as a quality control measure. Several major grocery chains also offer customers freshness guarantees, including safe, stop and shop. Last year, Uber rolled out a freshness guarantee, then chose a full review and a refund for eligible items. The move by Schnux, which runs 112 shows across the Midwest, comes at a time when mass retailers have gained ground in fresh sales, according to data compiled by Sarcana. Last July, for an Alex Bartman's report, traditional brochures accounted for 46% of consumer spending on fresh fruits and vegetables down 5% points from 2019. On mass and club show shares climbed 4 percentage points to 33%.

PVSB 9:31

Take us home, Peter. Tree, that's a wrap on this week's Commerce Rift. Before we go, make sure you've caught up on our most recent episodes of the CPG Guys featuring Doug Vandeveld, Chief Growth Officer at WK Kellogg's and Newell Brand CEO, Chris Peterson. They're conversations you won't want to miss. And next up, episode 600 with Tony Rogers, the Chief Marketing Officer of Dollar General. If any of this sparked a thought, drop it in the comments, leave us an email, we read all of it. And if you're not already following us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, well, now is the time.