Commerce Riff with Sri & PVSB - May 12, 2026

SPEAKER_01 0:01

It's May 12th, 2026, and this is the Commerce Riff, brought to you by the CPG guys. Ten minutes of the news stories that matter most in commerce this week. I'm your co-host, PVSB, and I'm joined as always by Papa Raj, the father of pop stars, co-founder of Think Blue Consulting.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Shree, how's the week treating you can't complain, Peter? We were at the Gold House Gala last night. It was busy on Sunday night. I also want to wish a belated happy Mother's Day to all the moms in our industry. You guys are the bedrock. Thank you to the moms of our children, Kavida and Zara, respectively. What an important date that is. It also happens to be my mother's birthday, May 10th, as well as my nephew V's birthday, my younger brother's son. So a momentous weekend for the Raj family. How about you? What were Mother's Day's plans? What'd you guys do?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Well, uh heading over to the Madison Beach Hotel for a lovely brunch by the ocean. Should be good. Shree as this episode goes to air. We will have just attended Monday evening's Amazon Upfront at the Beacon Theater. Guess what? You're going to hear our recap of that coming soon to this very podcast. All right, let's get into it. Four stories this week that cut across the full spectrum. A regional grocer making a big bet on performance-based promotions, a storied serial maker handing its keys to a new operator, a legacy food giant spending its way back to relevance in the QuickCommerce juggernaut that keeps setting records, even when it misses on revenue. Let's start with a story that is squarely in the wheelhouse of everyone in this audience who thinks about digital commerce, CPG brand investment at retail and the architecture of how savings get delivered at scale. Giant Eagle, a Pittsburgh-based regional grocer with more than 200 stores across western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, and Indiana's named Ibotta as exclusive digital promotions partner. We've had quite a number of people from Ibotta on our podcast in the past. Full stop. Can you believe that, Shree? Not one of many. Exclusive. John Eagle has joined the Ibotta Performance Network, and Ibotta's technology will now power every digital reward across the chain supermarket and digital platforms. This is a meaningful move for a few reasons. First, the strategic framing. Gine Eagle has been executing what it calls, because it matters, business strategy, a multi-year plan to deliver better everyday value and modernize the shopping experience. Plugging into Ibotta is not a tactical add-on. It's a core plank of that value platform. Second, the CPG implication. Ibotta's network gives participating retailers access to eight times more national CPG offers than leading competitors. And for brands, the performance-based model is significant. You pay when a verified sale is made, not when an impression is served. That's a big difference. For any CPG market or managing trade investment at Giant Eagle, this is a structural shift in how digital promotions get executed and measured. Third, the network effect. Giant Eagle now sits alongside Walmart, Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber as an Ibotta Performance Network publisher. Think about what that means from an audience perspective. A brand running through the IPN can reach consumers across formats, channels, and occasions through one integrated platform. That's a significant consolidation of the promotional stack. The CPG lens exclusivity and digital promotions is a double-edged sword. For giant eagle shoppers, it should mean a more curated, more relevant offer gallery with Ibotas technology doing the curation. For brands, it means one pipe, one measurement methodology, one source of truth on redemption at this chain. The question to watch how quickly does giant eagle digital promotional engagement grow? And how does that translate into incrementality for CPG advertisers?

SPEAKER_00 3:51

Sri over to you, Peter, thank you so much. First thing I'm going to say is Brian Leech has clearly built a powerhouse. What I love is the performance-based outcomes, which very few have. Crazy if you thought about it. Well done, Brian Leach indeed. And I got an interesting one for you, Peter, because let's talk General Mills. On the same week, the company's trading near a 52-week low. Stock is about nearly a third of its peak in the$90 range about three years ago. Management made a significant leadership move that deserve discussion. We cover executive promotions weekly on the RIF. We have a new one for you, which is closer to my heart. General Moses promoted Dana McNabb to Chief Operating Officer Effective June 1, 2026. She'll continue to report to Chairman and CEO Jeff Harmony and will join the board of directors. Her remit actually expands substantially from North America leader to, in addition to her current leadership, she gets all of General Moses' operating segments, international, food service, plus the digital and technology innovation, technology and quality, strategy and growth, supply chain teams. That is a significant consolidation of operational authority under one executive. First of all, being an alma model, let me wish her congratulations and continued success. The weight of the world on the turnaround is now on this role, as it's pretty clear, joining the board of directors. Maybe she's the next CEO, but oh wait and watch. You know, don't want to speculate here. Wall Street is clearly watching. The stock price is nearly a third of its peak, and that's over 20 billion in market cap diluted. I said 20 billion, Peter. Dana is a 27-year company veteran. She started a general career in Canada in 1999, worth noting for Canadian listeners in Peter's alma mother country, as he claims every time they win a hockey medal or a curling medal. She has held senior roles across US, Serial, Europe, and Australia. Global marketing for senior partners worldwide, chief strategy and growth officer before Zuning, the North America retail seat in 2024. Of course, publicly declared compensation packages we talk about here in the RIF under promotions, reflection elevation, a million-dollar base salary, crush incentive target of 150% of salary and a 4 million annual long-term equity incentives. The company targeted substantial retention OSE awards to CFO Koki Bruce, Chief Digital and Technology Officer Heinrich Montemayo, signaling that leadership stability is a board-level priority right now, obviously given the company performance. I wish all the best and I'd like to see the ship turn out. We can disclosure I have stock as well and I'd like to see it perform. I need it to perform. Three years is a long time to see change. I've been gone for two of those, and I wonder, Peter, how much longer it will take to correct the course of this ship. Three years is, again, I'm going to say it again, a long time, but it's time to dig in. Is it a management issue? Or clearly, by relying on management, we're past that at this point because we just talked about incentives being given. Is it a portfolio issue? Is it something else in the ecosystem? Has consumers traditionally changed the way they eat breakfast, cereal, and snacks? GLP1 is here. Something is off the charts. And um, Antonio, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Shri, I think it's interesting times going on in Minneapolis. All right, let's talk Kraft Heinz, because this is a company in the middle of a genuine identity reset. And Q1 2026 gave us the clearest picture yet of what the reset looks like in practice. Marketing investment rose ready for the history, 37% year over year in Q1. Wow, Todd Kaplan has got pretty big pockets right now. That's not a rounding error. CEO Steve Callahan, who came in earlier this year and paused the company's plans to split into two entities, has committed to marketing spend of at least 5.5% of revenue for the full year. That's even dry powder to push higher if the macro environment cooperates. The company has approximately$600 million set aside to improve product superiority, pricing, marketing, sales, and RD. The bulk focused on the US. The business results, well, net sales were up 0.8% in Q1, modest, but in the right direction. Organic sales were down 0.4%. The company reaffirmed guidance calling for organic net sales to decline between 1.5 and 3.5% for the full year, driven by macro volatility, inflation, and consumer confidence pressures. Not unfamiliar in the CPG space right now, Shri, Callahan was direct about the consumer environment, noting that shoppers are running out of money toward the end of the month and that Kraft Heinz is responding with price cuts on select items in smaller packs. Talk about running out of money at the end of the month. My gas bill from the beginning of April to the end of April just skyrocketed, Stri. What is the marketing investment? Where's it going? Well, CFO Andre Maciel flagged that the initial priority is to win big categories, sauces, cream cheese, mac and cheese, and hydration. But the signal is the portfolio is broadly eligible for spend acceleration on the innovation side. Power Mac, protein fiber-packed version of Kraft Mac and Cheese, or as we in Canada like to call it Kraft Dinner, launched in March into 35,000 stores. Caprice on Hydrate, a functional sports beverage, is slotted for Q2. A lactose-free Philadelphia cream cheese is expected later in the year. Ho ho, how about that? The media strategy shift is equally notable. Kraft Heinz has become the first official global condiment partner of the NFL through a five-year deal that is an anchor partnership that will drive reach and cultural relevance across a massive platform. More broadly, Calin described a shift towards what he called higher return brand media and a narrowing of media partnerships to those with highest impact. The result, return on ad spend, has improved by eight percentage points globally. It's nice, but what really matters is the incrementality. We know that's true. The CPG Land, while Craft Heights is making a very deliberate wager that spending through the cycle rather than cutting marketing when volumes are soft is the path to brand health. This is not a new thesis, but it is a disciplined one, and Kayline is backing it with real dollars. The risk is execution. Can the portfolio produce the innovation velocity and media effectiveness the investment demands? Watch the PowerMax sellout data and the Q2 Caprice on launch as early indicators. Shri, close us out, would you?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Peter, the whole world grew up with craft mac and cheese and um, you know, a secret guilty pleasure to the day. Sometimes I'll make it with a bunch of vegetables and throw in protein powder. So nothing better than covering craft here. And I have Doordash next. For those of you listening in, we had Vasily Samolis earlier in the year from DoorDash. Love working with DoorDash. They will be part of the Cornell Retail Media Education Program July 27th to 31st. Which, of course, if you want to know more, just ping one of us, Peter or me. You can LinkedIn message us. It's free at cptguzz.com, contact at cptguzz.com, reach us at cptguzz.com. So I want to talk about how the market looks at a fast-growing company like DoorDash, which clearly it is, and what QuickCommerce platform business actually looks like at scale. The top line numbers revenue hit$4 billion in Q1 up 33% year over year. Total orders rose 27% to$933 billion for the quarter. That's a lot of orders, Peter. And the marketplace gross order value reached$31.6 billion and up 37% year over year. Adjust the BitTel grew 28% to$754 million. Congratulations. Street had borrowed. On the bottom line, gap net income that should be able to DoorDash former stockholders came in at$184 million, down 5% year over year. The engagement stories are going to be more important than the revenue line, Dash Pass and other membership programs across DoorDash, Delivery U and Both. It records sign-ups in the quarter. Monthly active users reached an all-time high, audit frequencies going here. The driver Q2 got guidance of$32.4 to dollars.$33.4 billion came in well above the$28 billion consensus. The market is looking through the short-term mission pricing in the trajectory. One headwind worth noting manual flag that winter storms in the quarter created roughly a 1% drag on year-over-year golf growth. So the underlying demand picture is even cleaner than the headline numbers suggest. CPG and retail media lands store dashes scale in grocery and retailers are substantial enough to matter as an advertising platform, as I mentioned. Yet Basili Samolis earlier in March gave a complete decomposition of how the RMN works. When monthly active users are on an all-time high and Dash Pass membership is accelerating, the audience available to CPG brands running ads through GorDash's ecosystem grows with it. For brands investing in QuickCommerce, whether through promoted placement, Dash Pass exclusive offers or sponsored product ads, the reach and frequency opportunities expanding quarter over quarter. And with giant eagle now in the iBottom network alongside Goldash, the promotional stack across QuickTomas and traditional growth is grosser beginning to interconnect in the most interesting ways, Peter.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Thank you, Shree. That's a wrap on this week's Commerce Riff. Reminder to check out our recent conversations with John Fitzgerald, Senior Director of Growth and Mad Tree Brewing, plus Kim Cox and Richard Pereira from Nielsen IQ. If anything we covered this week sparks a thought, well, drop it in the comments, send us an email, we read them all. And if you're not following us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube yet, well, now's the time. We'll see you next week.