The Lempert Report LIVE

Cardi B Whipshots, Robot Reindeers, Coin Challenge

December 13, 2021 Phil Lempert Episode 13
The Lempert Report LIVE
Cardi B Whipshots, Robot Reindeers, Coin Challenge
Show Notes Transcript

On today’s episode we talk the reindeers are coming, Quaker’s new coin challenge to fight hunger, a new dollar store format, how c-stores are changing and yet another celeb long shot. Our Lempert Report is focused on the next iteration of health care and how its going to change hospitals and clinics and on bullseye – it’s all celebrity endorsements. 

Phil:

Welcome to tThe Lempert Report Live. Today's episode, we're gonna talk about the reindeers who are coming Quaker's new coin challenge that fights hunger, a new dollar store format, how sea stores are changing. And yet another celebrity long shot in the food world. Our Lempert Report is focused on the next iteration of healthcare and how it's gonna change hospitals and clinics. And on bullseye today, it's all celebrity endorsements. We would love for you to add your insights during the broadcast in the chat. And we'll take those at the end of the broadcast, but wait, just so you know, with that, we've got about a 22nd delay on Facebook and on LinkedIn live. So be sure to type your comments in before the end of the broadcast. If you wait till then we might not be able to get'em. So don't wait till the last minute we bring you our unique insights on grocery retail, sustainability, eCommerce, new product reviews on and on and on, and certainly about consumer trends, Sally, what's going on.?

Sally:

Hi Phil. This year, Savemart based in Modesto, California is doing something really fun for the holidays. It's their second year in a row, but they've expanded it. Now. They are offering delivery by these cute robots that, uh, look like reindeers and they will play, uh, holiday songs for you as well. They

Phil:

Don't look like reindeers<laugh> they, they, they look like they look like a lot of the robotics that we've seen before, you know, square things that, you know, we're painted to look like a goofy reindeer<laugh>

Sally:

Well, BA hum bug<laugh> BA I think kids, I think my kids would really Loveless this because you know, one of the other things that they're offering is you can order these ginger bread making kits and these, these different ho cute holiday gifts. So I think my kids would really like it. If I had a robot, uh, come up to our house and play holiday music and bring them a Christmas gift like that. Uh, unfortunately we don't have Savemart here in Tennessee.

Phil:

Yeah. Well, I love, I love the idea and Starship technologies are the ones who are doing it for Savemart. I love the idea is that they're actually playing music, the holiday music as they make deliveries. That's just so smart because what it really does is it humanizes this whole experience. And what we hear from people constantly, whether it's drones, whether it's robots like this, that they're dehumanizing. And by just adding that music, it to it, um, it is so smart. I hope they, they come back to us with some results of what it was like this year from a consumer standpoint. Um, and also what I, um, I guess I applaud is each of the reindeers, um, are named, they have Rudolph Linson comic Cupid, dancer, Dasher, Donner, PR, and Vixen. So we are humanizing our robots. What else do we got?

Sally:

Quaker is also, uh, running a really pool holiday campaign. They are partnering with, um, with feeding America and, um, they also are, uh, Quaker is the official oatmeal sponsor for the NFL. And so they're working with some NFL celebrities and what they're doing is promoting, uh, shoppers their, uh, their oatmeal cans and collecting change around their house. And then they can take that change to a coin star location, and they can opt to donate that to feeding America, which is great because we're seeing so much food insecurity right now. And apparently$1 can, uh, provide 10 meals. So we're looking at a commitment of them, uh, hoping to donate$125,000 this year

Phil:

And that's coming out of Quaker's budget. Yes. Um, and what you and I, as consumers donate is over and above that. And I love the fact that there's this partnership going on between retailers, between NFL Quaker and Coinstar getting involved. And Coinstar, I'm sure is not taking a commission on, on this. And also, I mean, Quaker in their materials are very clear. It doesn't have to be a Quaker oatmeal box or oatmeal container, obviously, you know, they want it to be, but they're just saying, take whatever container you've got, take your spare change. We also know that there's a coin shortage going on in the country. So hopefully this will help. I love this. I think that this is so smart, um, of Quaker. I think it's so good for our community. Um, I love this and, uh, it remind me of, you know, the old piggy banks that people had. Um, certainly kids had'em, but, you know, I remember, you know, growing up, uh, my family had a, a coin jar as well. Just bring that to your local soup market, uh, go to the coin star machine and it gets donated right to feeding America and feeding. America's done such a great job during the pandemic. They serve over 200 food banks, 60,000 food pantries across the us. Um, and today we've got 38 million people who are facing hunger. So we all have to chip in and, uh, the least we can do is coins. I mean, when I, when I read this, I have, um, you're gonna laugh at, but I actually have like three Tupperware things. I don't have anything else full of coins. Um, I have never liked to have coins in my pocket, uh, because they jingle and make noise, uh, shame on me for idiosyncrasies there. Um, so I always take whatever change I have. So I've got three of these big Tupperware things full of coins. I'm gonna bring it to coin star and while I'm there, get some Quaker oatmeal as well. So what else?

Sally:

Well, dollar general, we, we talked about last week about dollar tree and about how they were raising their prices. Now this week, we're hearing about dollar general and this new store store format they have, um, under the brand name, pop shelf, um, they are opening more of these, these stores hoping to have about a thousand locations by the end of 2025, and what's unique and makes it different from the regular do dollar general store is that they are, they're targeting the suburban woman who has a household income of 50,000 to$125,000 a year. And they're focusing more on home decor gifts, party supplies, uh, not as much on the food Ida items, but these, these items that are home goods, that they will also frequently change to keep, keep, to keep turnover. Very, very interesting.

Phil:

And, and also it's this whole you search and discover mm-hmm<affirmative>, you know, strategy the dollars always had. And what's interesting to note is the average dollar store now, uh, their customer has about a$40,000 income. So if they can get it to 50, to 125,000, they get all these new customers. Um, it could really be really, uh, the average square foot in the, these new stores are 9,000 square foot. So it's interesting to see how dollar who owns this marketplace now is really looking to expand. And I think expansion is always critical, uh, because if you don't expand, you basically fall backward and you die. Uh, so good for them for, for doing this and another store format. That's making changes. Who's that?

Sally:

Well, that's the convenience stores. And this is really interesting because what what's happening is we're seeing convenience stores, um, that are, um, that are positioning themselves more to suit their local, their local shoppers rather than one style format that, that fits across the board. Um, as a result of the pandemic, we saw a lot less people using the convenient store to fill up on gas, get morning coffee. Now they, they, they need to go for their basics. So this is a great opera opportunity for these types of stores to, to expand what they're offering, um, and to particularly focus on their local needs.

Phil:

And also when we look at the C store market, uh, certainly during the pandemic at rose, it's now at about 255 billion, uh, but during the, the pandemic, um, their average basket size increased by 18%. Uh, so to your point, people are using convenience stores more than ever before for a whole variety of products, um, whether it's be local and also during the pandemic, we saw them really step up as it relates to prepared foods. And there's some convenience stores that are out there like sheets, for example, uh, who for the past decade has focused on, uh, prepared foods, doing it really well, really smart, getting people to eat there and then converting during the pandemic to more takeout. Um, I'm really watching this whole C store category very closely because as we're seeing more C stores put in the electric car chargers, um, what we're seeing is the attraction of new consumers to C stores who typically haven't gone there, uh, C stores, people might have gone to a seven 11 for a slurpy for coffee in the morning and so on, but you put in those electric car chargers and it brings in a whole new audience of Tesla owners, if you would, uh, at least here in California and who knows what they're gonna want and how they're gonna be able to push, to see store merchandising to a whole new level.

Sally:

Yes. And, and also with these convenient stores, one of the ones that, that, uh, that we just saw the image up for Foxtrot, we just talked about a couple of weeks ago, how they're one of the companies that is embracing this corner market idea, um, and bringing in some of these, um, smaller brands and startups that you see on Instagram, um, putting, putting those products in their stores, ones that you would, that wouldn't normally make it in the big retailer, uh, on their shelves.

Phil:

One thing that I didn't know until I read this article, um, and I guess I sort of knew it, it really didn't have the fact, but 60% of oil convenience stores in the country are independently owned. So we always talk about Fox drop. We talk about seven 11, we talk about sheets, you know, all these chains that, that are there, but 60% of all the convenience stores are locally owned, independent owned. So they're able to your earlier point really reach out to their local communities and get a lot of the food offerings, um, that perhaps seven 11 has just passed by. So when we look at celebrities and we're gonna talk a lot about celebrity endorsements today on food, the good, the bad and the ugly, uh, here's one, um, I'm not sure how you would classify whether this is good, bad, or ugly. What do you think?

Sally:

Well, Phil, I've been working with you for a long time, and I know sometimes how you feel about these celebrity endorsed products, but I have a feeling you're gonna like this one. Um, this one is, uh, hiphop icon, Cardi B<laugh> no, and she's got a vodka infused vegan whip cream and comes in a variety of flavors like flavors like caramel and mocha. And, you know, something that I didn't know that in reading about this is that vegan alcohol is difficult to find. And there aren't that many brands that are actually making vegan alcohol.

Phil:

I don't, I don't understand that. Um, if, if I look at vodka in particular, vodka is either made from grain or from potatoes and, and now other things, what would make it not vegan? I'm not, I'm not sure of that. Well,

Sally:

There are things there are ingredients such as gelatin, um, hen, um, ISIN glass, which is, uh, derived from fish bladders. So that, that makes it not vegan. Um, I had no idea

Phil:

<laugh> about this. No, I don't. I, I didn't

Sally:

Either a lot of alcohol, alcohol, um, products have these ingredients.

Phil:

Wow. So maybe the next trend for 2022 is gonna be that we're gonna start to see a lot of these liquor companies mark their bottles, um, vegan mm-hmm<affirmative> because I think we're highlighting something that the average consumer and probably the average retailer isn't even aware of. I mean, I wasn't aware of it, but I'm not a vodka drinker. Um, here here's what bothers me about this whip shots. That's that's the brand name? Um, a couple things. Number one, Cardi B's name isn't even on the package. Mm-hmm<affirmative> so that, that's curious to me, um, number one, um, number two is a can ready whip for that's 13 ounces is three to$4. Ready whip also has a vegan ready whip that's made with almond milk. Non dairy six ounces is 3 49. So Cardi B's whip shots, uh, 50 milliliters, which is 1.7 ounces. Tiny is 5 99. Ounces is 1399 and 12.68 ounces is 1999. I'm not sure that, um, I'm not sure that I do it. And also it's a stretch for Cardi B to be vegan or be promoting an owning a, a vegan brand is a bit of a stretch. Now when she was pregnant, um, she did, um, consider herself to be vegan. She introduced more plant-based foods into her diet, um, during her pregnancy, her first pregnancy, but she's not a vegan. So to me, it really, you know, is this just about money? Yeah, I think it's just about money<laugh>

Sally:

Well, also if you're pregnant, um, vegan alcohol would probably be out of the question

Phil:

Anyway.<laugh> yeah, exactly. You're right. You're right. And, and also the whole idea of a, of a, you know, a vegan vodka laced Whipp cream doesn't do, I'm not a whipped cream person. I, I have to admit that. So maybe that's why, but if any of our viewers, if you're whipped cream people, you know, put in the chat, would you buy this or are you gonna stick with ready whip? Um, and, and you just like the idea of it. And, and I think, you know, people use whipped cream for a lot of things, certainly on ice cream on pumpkin pie. Uh, but also on, um, oh, uh, Irish coffee. So would you put, uh, an, a vodka induced flavored whip cream on your Irish coffee? Tell me that if you're an I Irish coffee, uh, user, uh, thanks Ali. Today. I limp report every single patient that heads to an R WJ Barnabas health facility will soon be screened for social determinants of health. And if needed referred to service for ongoing support, this is groundbreaking for medicine for all of healthcare. As we typically ignore the social and environmental factors in a patient's life, including the access to healthy food, safe housing and transportation that can ultimately impact their health big time, the program called else beyond the hospital, or H B T H. Well, what, and why do people have to always have these acronyms? I don't get'em, we'll be the first end to end universally applied culturally tailored and fully integrated SDO H program in the nation. Barry Astros, the president and CEO of Barnabas said, and announcement what defines our health is so much greater than genetics or clinical care. 80% of all health outcomes are due to social behavioral and environmental factors that are the social determinants of health. The timely interventions made possible by health beyond the hospital will create a spot that will positively impact the wellbeing of our patients and all of those caring for patients across our community care providers will be able to use the technology from both partners to tailor a recommendation of resources that a patient needs. And ePrescribe those resources connect'em directly to support such as the federal snap program. Health systems often target their H D H efforts on patients with the lowest incomes or who are frequently utilizer of the healthcare system. Deanna min Vincent corporate, senior VP of social impact and community investment at Barnabas. Now expands the thought. She shares an example, our questions focused, not on just whether someone can afford food, but also a good nutrition. Are you eating fruits and vegetables? How many sugary drinks do you have a day? For example, they also ask questions about social isolation, substance abuse, intimate partner, violence, and housing needs such as Rodin, infestations, or mold. She says the program is bill to allow patients to answer questions from the privacy of their mobile device or in a conversation with a medical professional, depending on how they feel the most comfortable. This is what holistic health is all about. Well done on lost in the soup market. I interviewed Spencer price. Who's the co-founder and CEO of Hola, the taste intelligence company that uses AI to redefine personalization and to increase in-store efficiencies that create bigger basket sizes. Here's a bit of what he had to say for the full interview. Check it out on supermarket guru.com. So let's take a box of Cheerios. So when, when I look at a box of Cheerios, um, you're, you're pulling, um, hundreds or thousands of attributes of that product if I understand properly. So you're looking at nutrition, you're looking at adding milk, you're looking at putting it in a bowl. You're, you're doing all those things. And then taking that, um, information and doing what with it

Spencer:

Precisely we're taking that, that information and a whole bunch more, including your household habits, dietary restrictions, your taste preferences, cravings. You're likely to have what you might be running out of. And of course, looking at the distinct Cheerios, you've selected relative to all the other options that are out there. And what we're using that information for is to understand what the best complimentary product might be to suggest to go with that Cheerios. And that's based on what's already in your cart. So if you've already added milk, we're probably not gonna surface in your face a whole bunch of other milk. Instead, we might be showing you things like banana that you might want to add to your cereal, but if we can glean from your browsing behavior, your past purchase history, all without any personally identifiable information, what it is you might be likeliest to enjoy. In addition to what's in your cart and the product you're looking at in this case, Cheerios, it might be banana. It might be cinnamon. Um, it could be a whole variety of things. And our goal is to understand that for each unique shopper and present you with the best possible options to make it as easy as possible to products to

Phil:

This week's new product review is on yet another canned cold brewed coffee, but this one has a difference. A Eliza, which translate to Oasis is an electrolyte infused coffee. That's designed to keep you focused, but here's the difference. It actually tastes good. The electrolytes are there to avoid the dehydration that many caffeine Laden beverages have, which leads to that caffeine crash za gets a score of 90. This flavor, black coffee has only 10 calories and is sugar and dairy free as is there other flavors O milk latte and Kaka mocha, zero fat, zero cholesterol, zero sugars with only two grams of carbs and a hundred milligrams of sodium love that they show right on the label that contains 200 milligrams of caffeine. They also donate 1% for the planet. I wish everybody did that. And it's low acid to boot. It's about 3 99 to 4 99, depending on where you shop. Now, it's time for the bullseye. This week, I came across yet another celebrity endorsement or partnership as these days that it's called Justin Bieber has joined forces with the powerful Tim Horton's chain to create and market wholesome snack, which come in three flavors, chocolate, white fudge sour cream, chocolate chip, and birthday cake waffle. Basically they're donut holes. I'll be up front. And I'll say that I've not had the pleasure of tasting them. So I can't comment on the taste or wholesomeness. In addition to the snack, Tim Horton is also selling B Ebers merchandise, which is co-branded includes tote bags, Fanny packs, and a to selling for 30 to$80. And the merchandise, if you can believe this is actually selling out earlier, we talked about Cardi B's vodka infused whipped cream. What is it about food and celebrities? Some celebrities likely in our te Caprio has been using his money to invest in food companies who value align with his own better for you foods, which are better for the environment, others like George Clooney and Randy Gerber created a tequila brand that sold for 1 billion to Diagio. Now I can't count how many celebrities have invested in, in, or slap their name on liquor and food brands. Whether they be dead or alive, they just love the food business. And most people love celebrities. A recent study found that celebrity endorsements can increase a company sales by an average of 4%. Now 4% could be a lot of incremental sales based on a brand's volume am, but is it time to evaluate just what paying a million dollars or more to the likes of Jennifer Andon to haw smart water, who by the way, got a lot more than that. Just in addition to the stock before they sold to Coca-Cola for$4 billion. Let's remember for every success in food, there are lots of failures. Do you remember Dennis Rodin's lollipops? They were named a sure thing as he always seemed to have a pop in hand or mouth in Crosby's ice cream launched in 1953, he was convinced that his name and smiling face could make his vanilla ice cream, a huge hit, especially based on those snow covered Christmas album covers my favorite, another sure thing from who was at the time, the most famous Italian mega celebrity, Frank Sinatra, he put his face to name on pasta sauce. How could that one miss? Well, it did. And it should be a lesson that even if you're a celebrity in the soup market aisles, you're competing with other celebrities like chef Boyardee, Marie calendar and Tony the tiger for shopper's attention. Notably there is an exception, Paul Newman, who not only had a passion for salad dressing, but committed to forever giving a hundred percent of the profits of Newman's own to charity. Paul cared about the foods he put his face on in the early days when they just had salad dressing, he would demand that one case from every batch be sent to his home. I personally witnessed him opening a case, then unscrewing the cap and taking a swig of salad dressing. He was their primary taste tester and QA. He once told me a story that he loved to share to everyone. He had just bought a Dodge stealth. There was nothing more than a Mitsubishi, 3000 with a Dodge badge on it. He loved to drive fast. As everybody knows, he was pulled over for speeding on the west side highway in Manhattan. When the officer asked him for his license and registration, he looked and recognized Newman's name. And he said, so Newman beam proudly. He said, he was sure he would avoid the ticket for speeding. He then asked the officer, which of his movies he liked the best. The officer quickly gave Paul back. His document swiftly wrote out a ticket muttering that he mistook him for the guy who made the popcorn in salad dressing and walked back to his patrol car, maybe in today's world, as obsessed as we are with celebrities. We ask them to back off, unless you're a hundred percent committed to your food product. We don't want you in the food world, but only if you care about the food you're associated with, do your perfume and car commercials, but stay of our food aisles until you are, as consumers are faced with increasing prices, shortage and nutritional confusion, unless you're helping us, you're hurting us. Sally, what kind of comments do we have today?

Sally:

Well, Phil, uh, Frank DEPA, uh, makes a really good point here, um, that I've been thinking about myself, w with reference to the dollar stores, the dollar general story he says with dollar stores, new format, does that include a change in real estate strategy? Now I have just less than a mile down the road for me, a dollar general. And I live in an area that is recently become, um, uh, is becoming gentrified. Now it's, it's been traditionally a very low income area. So I wonder if that dollar general might transform to a pop shelf store because of what's happening in our community.

Phil:

That's an excellent point. And, and thanks Frank for, for adding that and is I'm sure everybody know, uh, Frank was one of the leadership, uh, for the national grocers association, then the school nutrition association, and if anybody knows retail, and if anybody knows food, it is this guy, Frank dip Pasqua. So Frank, thanks. Any other comments? What about John?

Sally:

Always John, John, um, also would bohi bucks work as a banner for this new dollar store format, which I think is a really cute idea. Yeah. And, and John also says this, this might be the winning comment of the day robot robot reindeer. Nah, that's a mobile ice chest. Hey robot, bring me another beer<laugh> which is, it's a great idea. Yeah,

Phil:

Yeah. John, um, I'm with you, I'm with you, it's, it's just a ice cooler on wheels. Uh, that's all it is. And, and maybe, you know, to point, um, Sally and, and John, you know, maybe if we start to see these smaller, uh, fully robotic delivery service specialize, rather than just being general. Uh, but can you imagine if someone came up with one of these that just delivered beer mm-hmm<affirmative> and, and maybe it goes to the brand, maybe this is a brand strategy, uh, that for those brands that are watching, they should do, you know, maybe for a promotion, what Budweiser should do, and, and we're seeing sales of, of Budweiser go down. Uh, we're also seeing, I just saw a report yesterday that a lot of the, um, uh, you know, small breweries, um, are really having a problem because now the aluminum shortage, the aluminum companies are forcing these small breweries to buy a million cans at a time. And the interview that I heard, uh, from this small brewer said, number one, I don't have the space to put a million cans and I don't have, uh, frankly the, the cash flow to do it. So I think a couple things when we look at these small breweries, I think they're gonna move out of aluminum cans back into bottles, um, where they can just put a label on them versus having the aluminum. Uh, but I would love to see either MillerCoors or Budweiser tests, um, these, um, these delivery services that are just for their brand and just for beer. So John can sit there and he can just talk to his Alexa or his Siri. And he can say, you know, deliver a six pack to me and up comes not a reindeer, but a Clyde Dale horse<laugh>, um, that, that looks like, uh, one of these. So with that, I think we'll close out for today. Uh, thank you so much for joining us on the leper report, LinkedIn and Facebook live, uh, don't forget to visit SP supermarket guru.com. Sign up for our newsletters and until next Thursday at 10:00 AM Pacific 1:00 PM am Easter, have a great week. And we'll talk to you soon.