[00:00:00] Chuck Johnston: The challenge with any enterprise, a retailer, is to be able to articulate the value prop. These successful people will go in and partner with merchants, partner with the supply chain, partner with finance to say, let’s build the case. Let’s understand how much this really is costing us to understand how important it is.
[00:00:21] Chuck Johnston: Because at the end of the day, returns complete with stores, compete with supply chain for. Capital dollars and have to show a return on investment.
[00:00:34] Voiceover: Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights, and real supply chain leadership from across the globe, one conversation at a time.
[00:00:46] Scott W. Luton: Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Luton and special guest host Claudia Freed with you here on Supply Chain Now welcome to today’s live stream. Hey Claudia, how you doing?
[00:00:57] Claudia Freed: I’m doing great. How are you, Scott?
[00:00:59] Scott W. Luton: Wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful. Great to see you here today.
[00:01:01] Scott W. Luton: Great to see you in Dallas about a month ago, which we’ll probably touch on. But, uh, we have got a great show teed up. So folks, this may be, it may be one of my favorite shows of the year. We’re talking about one of my favorite topics and gaining the insights from a true industry legend in Hall of Famer, reverse Logistics and Returns Management.
[00:01:20] Scott W. Luton: Folks, it’s the dark side of global supply chain as my dear friend, our dear friend Antonio Sciarotta has always referred to it, but it’s almost a trillion dollar industry in the US alone, one that poses tons of opportunities and challenges. For organizations around the world. Now, today, we’re diving into topics such as what’s changed in returns management over the years, whereas tech played an innovative role.
[00:01:43] Scott W. Luton: How can companies get involved in this massive opportunity and why aren’t retailers investing more in this space? All that much more. Claudia, this all sounds like music to my ears, my friend. Big show coming up, huh?
[00:01:57] Claudia Freed: Of course, let’s see. Chuck can bring some gold to our listeners, uh, because not only the what’s in it for me in the returns marketplace, but also looking at the industry of reverse logistics and the trends that are being forecast in terms of growth and opportunity as well.
[00:02:14] Scott W. Luton: Yes. Lots of growth, lots of opportunity, lots of innovation, and those are good things because it’s a, a growing challenge in many parts of the world. And Claudia, given your significant track record of doing big things in the reverse, in the nonprofit space, I’m really looking forward to your perspective and expertise here today.
[00:02:32] Scott W. Luton: Okay, Claudia, are you ready? As I introduced our esteemed guest here today, you ready to go?
[00:02:38] Claudia Freed: I, I am ready to say welcome to not only a fantastic colleague, but a very generous representative of ReturnPro. So let’s bring him on.
[00:02:46] Scott W. Luton: Let’s do it. So our featured guest is currently the Chief Strategy Officer for ReturnPro, a rapidly growing organization that’s one of the leading returns management platforms in industry today.
[00:02:58] Scott W. Luton: Now, prior to that, he oversaw the development. On the operation of the return and repair operations for two of the largest retailers in the world, home Depot and Walmart. How about that? Our guest has been involved in the reverse logistics industry for over 20 years and is considered one of the foremost experts in the field.
[00:03:18] Scott W. Luton: In 2022, our guest rightfully received a lifetime achievement award from the Reverse Logistics Association for its contributions to advancing the reverse. Logistics and returns management industry. With all that said, let’s bring on Chuck Johnston, chief Strategy Officer for ReturnPro. Hey. Hey Chuck. How you doing?
[00:03:37] Scott W. Luton: Hey, how are you doing, Scott? Wonderful. Wonderful. Great to see you. Hi, Chuck. Good seeing you all. So, uh, the three of us I mentioned the Reverse Logistics Association folks, you should go check out the rla.org. By the way, Chuck, Claudia and I, were all in Dallas with, with a bunch of movers and shakers across the space.
[00:03:56] Scott W. Luton: We’ll touch on that in here in a minute. But before we get there, Chuck and Claudia, I got a fun warmup question to share with you both. It’s International Coffee Day, it’s World Vegetarian Day, and I, and I love fried tofu, by the way, if you hadn’t tried it. Hey, don’t sleep on that. Go check it out. It’s national homemade cookie day.
[00:04:15] Scott W. Luton: Oh man. Homemade chocolate chip cookies. But all that aside, because on this day, let’s see, October 1st, back in 1982, the first commercial compact displayer went on sale in Japan. So that begs a question as I stare at a device I had way back in the day when it cost way too much money. What is one cd, Claudia and Chuck that got played millions of times in your car or your home, the gym or whatever.
[00:04:43] Scott W. Luton: And Chuck, we’ll start with you. What comes to mind?
[00:04:47] Chuck Johnston: Um. Probably most often plagued on my part was, uh, Earth, Wind and Fire.
[00:04:52] Scott W. Luton: Okay. Earth, Wind and Fire. I just saw them September. Yeah. Chuck, they’re still touring. I saw them on. I’m so impressed. That’s a good one. Alright, Claudia, how about you?
[00:05:04] Claudia Freed: Funny thing is that in 1982 is when I arrived in the United States from Argentina.
[00:05:08] Scott W. Luton: Wow, okay.
[00:05:09] Claudia Freed: And my, uh, cultural experience was, uh. Girls just wanna have fun. Cindy Lauper.
[00:05:16] Scott W. Luton: Oh, that’s a Hall of Famer. That is a Hall of Famer. Y’all had some good ones there. Alright, so lemme see if I can marry some of mine with some of yours there. So Shake Your Moneymaker by The Black Crowes is one of the early cd.
[00:05:27] Scott W. Luton: I played that to death, the low end theory. A Tribe Called Quest, which is legendary now. And then finally, picture this, driving around in our Chrysler minivan, had braces on sitting the way back. My mom would always play The Judds. Why not me? I know every song in that album and probably can sing it, which I’m not gonna do that to y’all here today, but good times, uh, Chuck and Claudia.
[00:05:52] Scott W. Luton: So we got a lot to get into here today. Yeah. Um, let’s start with this, Chuck. Uh, so you’re a really humble individual and I, I really appreciate that, but you’re a hall of famer in the industry and it’s so great to have you here sharing your observations and expertise with our audience. Great to have you and Claudia, by the way.
[00:06:07] Scott W. Luton: I shared a little bit about your journey, but if you would share a few more highlights from your incredible career thus.
[00:06:16] Chuck Johnston: Well, I mean, I started, went to West Point, so I started in the military. Mm-hmm. And, uh, uh, migrated from that to the defense industry and then decided at one point in time that needed to get outta defense and went to a small company up in Northwest A and stock called Walmart.
[00:06:32] Scott W. Luton: Right.
[00:06:32] Chuck Johnston: And started there is the, and the design and construction of warehousing. So it was, you know, doing mostly forward logistics. Right at the outset of grocery and we are doing a lot of regional distribution centers, but at that time, Walmart had two return centers and it was, I think I’ve told story before, everything was being done on Yellow Notepad.
[00:06:57] Chuck Johnston: Stubby pencil, and then they were just recording and tallying, and then there was a phalanx of finance people that were doing the credit memos, you know, to to all the retailers. And, and as part of the design and construction, there’s gotta be a better way to do this and that. Early 1995 when I was engaging it from the, uh, engineering side, we designed as automated as you could at that time, an automated system with conveyors to try to, to build some efficiencies right in the process.
[00:07:28] Chuck Johnston: And, uh, it was. At that time, there was an opportunity to move and be responsible for operations of that. And I volunteered to go into return. Nobody, nobody wanted returns. I volunteered. Wow. ’cause I always thought it was a very entrepreneurial area, an area that had such an opportunity to, you know, pave way.
[00:07:52] Chuck Johnston: You know, uh, from an industry standpoint and so early on, that’s, you know, kind of what drove me to that, that industry. And then I got involved with, even before Tony, with the, the, the Reverse Logistics Association. I’ve been on the board all 20 years.
[00:08:07] Scott W. Luton: Wow. And,
[00:08:08] Chuck Johnston: and tried to be, uh, an ambassador for the industry.
[00:08:11] Chuck Johnston: Mm-hmm. Uh, because I, I’ve always saw it as a, a very important industry, very underserved. But one, I knew it was, you know, it was gonna grow and, and, uh, expand. And I was blessed in to spend time, a lot of time at Walmart. Retired there, went to Home Depot and did the same thing at Home Depot, and now retired again, and then decided, I, you know.
[00:08:32] Chuck Johnston: I’d go and start with a company which was, uh, TRG, then go TRG, and now return. So I’ve been in the industry a, a tremendous amount of time, but I think, you know, again, if you speak legacy or what you wanna be known for is, is just that the passion I have for the industry and. The ability to get others engaged in it from three PL providers to whoever and hopefully have been a voice to promote the industry and talk about what can be done.
[00:09:03] Chuck Johnston: What’s next.
[00:09:04] Scott W. Luton: Yes, Chuck, you’ve served that mission Well, I would say in, in my, I haven’t known you for 20 plus years, but I think you joined us for the first time four or five years ago, if I’m not mistaken, and in that short time, it’s amazing, the ambassador you’ve been, and Claudia. We heard a lot there from Chuck.
[00:09:20] Scott W. Luton: I wanna go all the way back to the yellow notepads and pencils because a lot of supply chain stuff has gotten done by those tools over the years. But he also spoke about passion. He spoke about, of course, Walmart and Home Depot, which now, thankfully the largely the Chuck and other leadership, they’ve got advanced approaches when it comes to returns management and versus logistics.
[00:09:39] Scott W. Luton: But what’d you hear there from Chuck Claudia?
[00:09:42] Claudia Freed: Uh, a couple of things that are very interesting and I relate and I applaud, uh, your summary of your journey. You have the elements of what is constitutes a visionary soul, a visionary person. You talked about understanding how things work. So from an operational perspective, uh, also your desire to volunteer and step into areas that perhaps are less known.
[00:10:06] Claudia Freed: And looking, looking back now, you see that you have gone through the process of really designing a solution. My hat is off to you. I don’t have one, but if I hand one, it’s really designing from the inside out, and I, I believe that, that that is the spirit that is necessary to make change and to know, innovate, you have to have that spark.
[00:10:28] Claudia Freed: You have to have the knowledge. And at the end, as we all know, it’s all about the letter R. Relationships.
[00:10:36] Scott W. Luton: Yes. Yeah. Yes. Uh, and I bet I didn’t know you went to West Point, uh, Chuck and Clark, that’s a great summary. But I bet your volunteerism was certainly encouraged by your time at West Point. It seems like all the West Point, uh, cadets go and do big things in life.
[00:10:52] Scott W. Luton: Chuck, really quick follow up question before we shift over to what more folks should know about returns and reverse the whole, whole enchilada. Chuck, if you didn’t. Go into, if you didn’t raise your hand and volunteer for the reverse logistics returns management space, what would you have done with the rest of your career?
[00:11:10] Chuck Johnston: Well, the interesting thing is, is I entered the military and I was blessed that we weren’t in any conflicts. The downside of that is we weren’t in any conflicts, and so the mission of the military in my mind, wasn’t necessarily being served. So I ended up getting out. If had things been different, I probably would, would’ve stayed military as a lot of my classmates did.
[00:11:32] Chuck Johnston: But moving into, you know, I always stayed on the engineering side, but I had opportunity to go in the operations and like I said. Returns was just more entrepreneurial. So he’s more, you know, I’m not like, you know, I, I appreciate people like Senator Shamus with our company and others. Uh, move that entrepreneurial spirit that created companies.
[00:11:53] Chuck Johnston: Mm-hmm. I just, you know, within a very enterprise organization, I just saw it as a great path.
[00:11:59] Scott W. Luton: Mm. I, I tell you what, and you mentioned Sender and I think we all know, uh, Sender Shamiss, uh, the CEO of ReturnPro, I guess the founder as well. It is amazing. And Claudia, we had a great time on that tour. At the RLA Leadership event out in Dallas, didn’t we Claudia?
[00:12:15] Scott W. Luton: I, I saw you were, you were in action. You were the front end asking questions. You almost leading the tour yourself? Claudia, huh?
[00:12:22] Claudia Freed: I, I, I, I have a jacket that says, Tour Guide ReturnPro, uh, Sender is a, um, in, in full disclosure, uh, ReturnPro is a donor. To our nonprofit organization near EALGreen, and we are so grateful for that.
[00:12:36] Claudia Freed: And I believe that my enthusiasm really is a reflection of the organization that we saw on that, uh, site visit. Well run happy people dealing with imperfect inventory, creating impact, losing technology. That is what one of the many benefits of being able to go to events organized by organizations like RLA or the National Retail Federation.
[00:13:03] Claudia Freed: So yes. And at the last time I saw Chuck, he was also guiding the tour and making sure everybody left the building.
[00:13:10] Chuck Johnston: Yeah. Hey you, but you know, it’s Claudia, it’s more than being a practitioner. You, you, you gotta be an ambassador and you gotta have passion in this industry. Yeah, yeah. If you don’t. Don’t get into it.
[00:13:22] Chuck Johnston: I mean really don’t get into it. And it is a very nuanced business. Yeah. And as Tony has said, it is the, if you will, the dark underbelly of supply chain. Yes. So if you don’t have passion for it, uh, you probably best serve ghosts somewhere else.
[00:13:37] Scott W. Luton: Well, I’m glad to rub elbows with two business leaders and the two of y’all that have lots of passion for it and are doing big things and you know, we’re trying our best.
[00:13:44] Scott W. Luton: Has a, a bright light into that dark underbelly space because of the opportunity and the challenges that we have. And that’s kinda where we’re gonna go next. Um, here, Chuck. So according to NRF figures, and I should have had this in front of me, but I wanna say about $875 billion Yeah. In returns last year in the US alone, Claudia and Chuck.
[00:14:03] Scott W. Luton: So it’s almost a trillion dollar problem just in the US when it comes to returns. What should given that. And so much more. What should more supply chain professionals and consumers know about the return space, Chuck?
[00:14:17] Chuck Johnston: Well, I, I think the important thing is yeah, the, the NRF records, that number that says it’s 890, but it, it doesn’t tell the whole story.
[00:14:26] Chuck Johnston: Mm-hmm. I mean, you know, what is return to retailer as. Is not necessarily, doesn’t always end up, if you will, in the secondary market, right? There’s a lot of touches, some goes back to stock. I think the biggest challenge we have now is last year was the first time that e-commerce sales or returns outpaced big box returns.
[00:14:49] Chuck Johnston: And it’s a tremendous problem, you know, for retailers in that if you look at it, 60%. And you’ve heard, probably heard the term Boris by line return in store, 60% comes back to the store. So anybody knows retail. Retail space and the way you manage and the planograms is very important and to, to have all these items set up when you get 60% and it’s, it’s lovely to have the extended aisle that e-commerce provides, but then the challenge is, is 60% that’s coming back to your store who’s not traded for those items.
[00:15:22] Chuck Johnston: So what do you do with them and how do you, and that’s where technology can continue to improve. It says, how does a consumer know that? Does that exist in the retail store? But the biggest challenge is, is it’s just when you talk about the costs associated with the returns, anywhere from 20 to $30 to, for the, you know, the average return because of freight and everything else.
[00:15:47] Chuck Johnston: It’s critical for being able to. Have someone who can within your organization, articulate, be able to capture all those costs. ’cause you know, you know, one of the later, you know, I know questions is, is why are people more people investing in it? A lot of ’em don’t understand what the total costs are. You know, my customer service, my returns desk, the movement of product within the store.
[00:16:11] Chuck Johnston: Then they got, it has to go somewhere, and then it’s subsequently processed, and then it goes maybe to the manufacturer. There’s a tremendous amount of cost associated with the reverse supply chain.
[00:16:23] Scott W. Luton: Yes.
[00:16:24] Chuck Johnston: That, uh, forward, people just don’t see and don’t understand.
[00:16:29] Scott W. Luton: Hey, Claudia, on that last point, Chuck’s making’s a good one.
[00:16:31] Scott W. Luton: It reminds me of, uh, an earlier part of my career where I was working with Sysco, the big multi billion dollar food company, right? And we worked with a lot of mom and pop independent restaurants, helping me more successful food products, menu options, planning plates, logistics, holding on yards, and took, and on a similar note, there were so many restaurant owners that didn’t know.
[00:16:54] Scott W. Luton: The true cost of the plate of food that you found on their menus. So they were kind of pricing blind a bit, oftentimes not to pickle anybody. It was just a challenge in the industry. And it seems like there’s a similar challenge in the return side in the industry, kind of to Chuck’s point. But Claudia, what’d you hear there in terms of what more supply chain, pros and cons, consumers gotta know about the return space?
[00:17:15] Claudia Freed: Focusing on the I idea of opportunity, because the market is so diverse, the market is everywhere. Whether you are a distributor or a manufacturer, no one is immune to this issue. So focusing on that, what I am hearing Chuck, uh, describe is this shift between this reverse logistics and returns from a cost center to perhaps becoming ideally a strategic value proposition.
[00:17:42] Chuck Johnston: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:17:43] Claudia Freed: Well then you, would you say that it, that that’s really the, the challenge,
[00:17:47] Chuck Johnston: well, the challenge with any enterprise, a retailer, is to be able to articulate the value prop. Correct. And that’s where it gets, it gets so blurred because of where costs, whose p and l certain activities are on. Right.
[00:18:03] Chuck Johnston: These successful people will go in and partner with merchants, partner with the supply chain, partner with finance to say. Let’s build the case. Let’s understand how much this really is costing us to understand how important it is. Because at the end of the day, returns complete with stores, compete with supply chain for capital dollars, and have to show a return on investment.
[00:18:28] Chuck Johnston: And that’s, you know, a lot of times in the history of returns, that’s why they’ve never gotten a lot of money, is ’cause they can’t articulate the value
[00:18:36] Scott W. Luton: right. Well, you know what? The great opportunity, which we’re gonna talk to later in today’s conversation is. We can now fill in those long equations full of variables with more constants, so we can turn it to your point, your both of y’all’s point from a, um, a, just a cost center to a revenue producer.
[00:18:54] Scott W. Luton: Okay. I, I gotta tell, I gotta tell myself, unlike my significant other, I hate returning. Anything. So I’m probably the oddball in the global, especially e-commerce world, but is there any way, Chuck, to reverse this trend of what some would call entitlement for consumers when it comes to return policies and returns themselves?
[00:19:14] Chuck Johnston: Yeah, unfortunately this is like a mattress in a box because once you let it out, it’s hard to get it back in. If you go in, if you look at like Asia or Japan. Japan runs a 1% return rate because it’s ish. We’ve allowed it. You know, if you look at the surveys out there, anywhere from 70, 80% of consumers say, I will shop a retailer based on free returns, ease of returns.
[00:19:43] Chuck Johnston: Mm-hmm. So now does that mean retailers don’t change? Yeah, they’re, they’re changing, but I call, it’s like what I call boiling the frog. You, you can’t do. Major, um, um, impact of things in the return space, but you know, you can see it where they change return timeframe or if you’re, like with Amazon, if you don’t return the year, I’ll charge you a dollar.
[00:20:06] Chuck Johnston: Some customers are doing restock fees for non, so you’ll see some of those stills, but because. The consumer has spoken and said, I’m going, you know, everybody’s out there for market share. They said, Hey, the returns experience has gotta be good, or I’ll just go to somebody else. Right? And nobody in the industry, they’re not, there’s not this unilateral group that says, Hey, let’s all, let’s all be restrictive on returns.
[00:20:33] Chuck Johnston: There’s nobody out there saying that. ’cause they’re competing for market share and they don’t wanna be that first one to draw the line.
[00:20:41] Claudia Freed: You know, what category of products has the lowest. Amount of return, please. Gardening tools, apparently gardening tools and any purchases that are made intentionally. I was expecting, I like jewelry, I like to wear pretty things, and I was expecting that jewelry was also, uh, a low category, but jewelry has the highest return for ring sizes, really.
[00:21:08] Claudia Freed: So every commodity. That’s another challenge right in the industry, that you’ll have a uneven marketplace, and if the customer is intentional about their purchase, the likelihood of that return diminishes rapidly. That’s why large, bulky items are very difficult, but in terms of household and and consumer products.
[00:21:32] Claudia Freed: Gardening tools. Apparently gardeners are doing the right thing by picking just the right tool. They need that day
[00:21:38] Scott W. Luton: and doing your homework. I love that, Claudia. I saw all the gardeners out there. Thank y’all for being Yes. Great stewards. Uh, in this journey we’re on. I wanna talk about, uh, Chuck, since we’ve got a, a legendary figure here and you’re, and over the 20 years, let’s call it, last 20 years, what has been one of the most significant changes in returns management, would you say?
[00:22:01] Chuck Johnston: Well, the first that comes to mind is the, you know, since Amazon substantially launched in 1999, the growth of e-commerce has probably been the most significant, uh, impact to the reverse space that people have had to adjust to, to, you know, from a financial standpoint, from a supply chain standpoint. But the other is, is that, you know, and, and I know that probably talk about ai, but the ability to manage data on a much better, from a much better perspective with business intelligence tools has really helped the industry forecast returns and do some things to hopefully, uh, mitigate, uh, some of the returns as they collect data from the customers and say, Hey, why did you, you know, why did you return it?
[00:22:50] Scott W. Luton: Hmm, Chuck, that’s a great call out. And Claudia, we talked a lot, a, a good bit when we were all together in Dallas at the early event about returns planning that can, it’s man, it’s, it’s amazing some of the planning activities that are going on in innovation there, technology and otherwise, as Chuck was sharing some of those big changes over the last 20 years.
[00:23:08] Scott W. Luton: What’d you hear there, Claudia?
[00:23:09] Claudia Freed: Some things have stayed the same. Some things are rapidly changing, so the things that have stayed the same, uh, in our world, we run our business and reach students by giving scholarships from inventory donations. One thing that has remained the same is that by and large corporations continue to have is community.
[00:23:32] Claudia Freed: Heart companies still want to do the right thing. With that, you have the umbrella of corporate social responsibility. So some motivations, um, and commitments to the community are steadfast and every large entrepreneur understands that that is how you get far in, in the world of business by having the opportunity to do good.
[00:23:57] Claudia Freed: And I know that that is true for ReturnPro. It’s good for supply chain now and certainly tier at BAL. Uh, what is changing rapidly. We also had. Yellow pads and pencils and faxes. So the speed with which the technology has come at us keeps you on your toes.
[00:24:15] Scott W. Luton: It does. It sure does. And it can keep you close with the customer, right?
[00:24:20] Scott W. Luton: Yeah. And put you in great position to optimize their experience forward or reverse.
[00:24:24] Chuck Johnston: Great
[00:24:24] Scott W. Luton: comment.
[00:24:24] Chuck Johnston: One thing I would, I just would add that Claudia brought to mind is, you know, in the. Current age where EESG reporting was so important. I’d always said Neil know was that the returns network was, you know, was far ahead of the, uh, the environmental sustainability.
[00:24:42] Chuck Johnston: And we talked about circularity sustainability returns has always been that. It’s always been let, let’s figure out how we get it. And then anybody who’s managing returns is always, to Claudia’s point, you’ve gotta look at the nonprofit areas as, as an outlet for that product. Liquidation back to the manufacturer’s partnering to make sure that at, at a minimum there’s a very little going to waste.
[00:25:08] Scott W. Luton: Yes, that’s right. And that’s a tremendous opportunity as well that we’re seeing some great innovation from a proactive standpoint with more circularity being baked into product design and whatnot. Yeah. And from a reactive perspective, we might touch on some of this in a second. Alright, let’s do this really quick, Chuck.
[00:25:24] Scott W. Luton: Despite all the gains we’ve made, what is one of the biggest challenges from a return standpoint that just it continues to persist? What comes to mind?
[00:25:36] Chuck Johnston: Why would, right now, probably the biggest challenge in the reverse is that, you know, returns is there. I mean, you gotta manage it through the partnership with the collaborative approach with manufacturers and retailers.
[00:25:50] Chuck Johnston: What you finding out is a lot more has gotta go to the secondary market and the secondary market. And I’ve always said in, in all these conferences that, hey, there’s so much opportunity for people to. Create a business to be an outlet for this product. My concern right now is that the volume of product is outweighing, is outpacing the outlets.
[00:26:15] Chuck Johnston: If you look at some of the recent changes where companies like Bargain Hunt or CCM in the US have gone bankrupt, so that that outlet has not, you know, but it’s created a vacuum. So there’s a lot. There’s people like bin stores and others that are creating out there that create just tremendous opportunities for those next entrepreneurs to come up with is how do you help?
[00:26:40] Chuck Johnston: Manufacturers and and retailers manage this process?
[00:26:43] Scott W. Luton: Yes, that’s good stuff there, Chuck. The, the Ree economy, which is kind of the secondary market plays in, that’s been one of the cool things to see. It seems like the appetite from your average consumer to use remade, remanufactured resold stuff’s been growing and growing, but to Chuck’s point, so have been the providers and there’s an equilibrium we’ve got to arrive at as an industry.
[00:27:05] Scott W. Luton: Claudia, your quick comment there.
[00:27:08] Claudia Freed: Would agree as well. And there’s another sort of blind spot in terms of this imbalance. There’s an entire backlash in some industries about insurance. Three pls holding, holding on to products and stuff that sit in warehouses, you know, 10 trailer loads of a particular commodity, so is in abundant marketplace.
[00:27:29] Claudia Freed: You, you just have to know where to look and then know what value you can add to that solution.
[00:27:35] Scott W. Luton: That’s right. That is right. Good stuff. Claudia and Chuck, let’s talk more about innovation, right? We’ve, we’ve kind of wallowed a bit into some of the challenges and we’re, and that we’re not done yet, but I wanna talk about some of the innovation because what you find that at ReturnPro from that great facility tour, you and I took Claudia to many, many other places.
[00:27:53] Scott W. Luton: We have so many new players that are driving innovation and a lot of ’em are bringing technology and more and more technology. So Chuck, how do you see technology improving the cost impact of returns now and into the future?
[00:28:05] Chuck Johnston: I think the biggest impact, and again speaking from a ReturnPro standpoint, is that the ability to create an algorithm that can look all the way to, at the consumer first decision point, to do a return as to where the best path for this.
[00:28:24] Chuck Johnston: Needs to be, you know, you can look at it and say, Hey, it’s on rtv. We can return to vendor. It goes this way. But particularly since more and more is, is be going to the secondary market, intelligent algorithms that can make that decision at the point of the consumer. Initiating return. That’s why you’re seeing a lot more people doing to keep it because they have algorithms out there that, you know, act as like an ERP that take all the elements of cost and say, look it, you know, well this is just a loss, or even send it back.
[00:28:59] Chuck Johnston: But then they’re using the data. To manage it. So again, as you know, you talk about fraud is to make sure you start qualifying returners. So if you’re a habitual returner, that you can track that and, you know, you can do some things through your algorithms, through your customer service to better manage, uh, that process.
[00:29:19] Scott W. Luton: Yep. Man, we could spend a whole hour, I think, on that last response there, but Claudia, uh, your thoughts,
[00:29:25] Claudia Freed: I would agree with Chuck in terms of. The role of technologies, particularly what we are doing here at EAL, there are two things in our space because we remember charitable donations are made one step before the landfill.
[00:29:39] Claudia Freed: So we are dealing with the return of the return that so quite imperfect product. There are two things that we need. What is it and what condition is it in? So we are now partnering with Oracle, speaking of tremendous partners. At ael, we are piloting the use of what is called model context protocol cps.
[00:30:02] Claudia Freed: That’s kind of an agent. It’s an AI technology that by using computer visual with taking a photo, it checks that item. It tells us what it is. It tells me whether or not we have it in inventory and what condition I have it, and whether I have room enough on that bin to put that item. So we are piloting that AI solution here at EAL.
[00:30:24] Chuck Johnston: Outstanding. Well, Claudia, and the other thing is there’s a lot, it’s amazing how many people don’t understand when you look at the charity side, nonprofit,
[00:30:34] Voiceover: right
[00:30:34] Chuck Johnston: There is, from a government standpoint, there is an extended tax credit that companies can benefit in the process of donation. I would tell you there’s not many companies that have that factored in their algorithm that says, Hey, this is a path that you as a, as a retail or a manufacturer can take advantage of.
[00:30:54] Scott W. Luton: So folks, if you wanna learn more about any of that stuff, an opportunity, reach out to Claudia or Chuck I bet. But either one of ’em could, could educate you there ’cause it’s a great opportunity. I want to pick back up on what Claudia mentioned about AI though. So Chuck, I’ve been calling this the golden age of supply chain tech.
[00:31:10] Scott W. Luton: ’cause in my belief, in my belief, it is right now maybe the greater golden, ch golden age. Maybe next year or something. Who knows? It is amazing what we’re seeing modern. Technology doing, including ai. However, at the same time an interesting paradox, we see consternation and frustration with teams where maybe the leadership said, oh, I need to be doing something with AI too, and throw it on defense with no business case, no direction.
[00:31:38] Scott W. Luton: So we’re seeing both, but how are you seeing the AI artificial intelligence impact the return space?
[00:31:45] Chuck Johnston: Well, the first thing is this for practitioners like ourselves with, you know, things like` ChatGPT, Gamma, Lovable, the ability to take a concept, convert it and create a a software solution has. Yeah.
[00:32:03] Chuck Johnston: Significantly reduced the time involved with that. Now in the, the conference we had in Dallas, when you, you talked to the retailers, we talked about it earlier, is that not a lot of ’em are using ai. I think third parties are using AI significantly because it helps reduce their costs, the time to develop software solutions.
[00:32:25] Chuck Johnston: But AI in terms of managing fraud with the ability to. Image recognition and do some things in terms of calculating the value prop for moving stuff, AI is really gonna help in that and streamline that part of the ReturnProcess, in my opinion.
[00:32:44] Scott W. Luton: Yeah, no doubt. And I think either you said it or someone else said it here.
[00:32:48] Scott W. Luton: And a conversation I had in recent weeks. Hey, do what you do best, right? If you’re a world class three point shooter, stick to shooting three pointers and let other folks crash the boards or what have you. And the analogy there is, you know, if you are the world’s best retailer, hey, stick to doing that and delighting your customers there and bringing in experts to do other things with innovative technologies.
[00:33:11] Scott W. Luton: Claudia, your quick comment before I keep moving.
[00:33:13] Claudia Freed: Uh. Three things when you are considering AI to Chuck Chuck’s point. And don’t just think about it as one more thing that everyone is doing. Make sure that you know three things. Number one, what problem are you trying to solve? Pick the right tool, whether it is machine learning, uh, language model, MCP, an agent.
[00:33:36] Claudia Freed: Pick your tool and also make sure your data infrastructure can handle ai.
[00:33:43] Scott W. Luton: Yeah. Yeah. Excellent advice. Data, data, data. That’s the new oil, as they say. Alright, really quick, speaking of technology, I wanna, if y’all like this conversation thus far, I wanna invite you to one of our next conversations because our next edition of our monthly leadership series called The Bridge, well, we’re welcoming in the one only de doll who’s doing some really big things in the industry and in tech and in circularity.
[00:34:07] Scott W. Luton: Deborah’s gonna be sharing critical ways that we can all optimize our ability to drive. Digital transformation. So come join us on October 21st and we’re gonna be dropping a link. Chuck and Claudia, I had a really interesting sit down with the one and only Rich Bulger. Y’all probably both are familiar with him.
[00:34:24] Scott W. Luton: Author of Go Circular. So folks, go check out this book. Great word. Oh,
[00:34:28] Claudia Freed: show and tell.
[00:34:29] Scott W. Luton: Oh, you’ve got your masterclass master. I do. Peter. Peter delivered. Okay.
[00:34:34] Claudia Freed: Wow. Very, um, kind of recommended.
[00:34:38] Scott W. Luton: Definitely. So, rich made what some might call a counterintuitive argument in our little chat. And we’re gonna, actually, we’re gonna be publishing this soon.
[00:34:45] Scott W. Luton: It’s part of a podcast. That we need more returns, not less, more returns. So Chuck, when the returns process can be baked into a true circular supply chain, it can not only delight customers as we’ve been talking about, but it can be a revenue generator, is what Rich was sharing your thoughts.
[00:35:04] Chuck Johnston: Well, I love Rich, but I would probably have to disagree with him on this point.
[00:35:09] Chuck Johnston: And from the perspective is that in the reality. You don’t make money in returns, you mitigate you, you mitigate loss at, at the end of the day. I mean, transportation companies are making money. That’s, you know, fine. But as a retailer, as a manufacturer, you’re not, um, practitioners are, because that’s the only way you stay in business.
[00:35:31] Chuck Johnston: I think what, where Rich is speaking from a circularity standpoint mm-hmm. Is that. If you look at it and say, Hey, on a blended basis, returns are 16.9%. That means that there’s 80, you know, whatever that is, 83.1%, that doesn’t come back. That consumers are not bound by the same restrictions that retailer manufacturers are, and they’re, there’s a disposal effort on that 86%.
[00:35:59] Chuck Johnston: That is not controlled. So to Rich’s point, from a circularity standpoint, the more of that you could get back into the, the returns process stream where people understand the process and are managing it effectively. Our degree more returns is, is not on the, uh, playbook of any retailer or manufacturer that I’m aware of.
[00:36:23] Scott W. Luton: Well, you know, it, it could have be, it could have been me, uh, the carrier losing things in translation. But we’ll have Chuck and Rich and Claudia join us for a show coming up. And, and before I get Claudia’s take on this, folks, you’ve gotta go check out all things Circular, great podcast at Rich and Damien, and.
[00:36:40] Scott W. Luton: Vic and the team are leading. So go check that out. Claudia, your thoughts? More returns, less returns? I can, I can see especially in, you know, rich has done this in the smartphone space, right? Right. And some industries may, may really be in a better position where more returns can maybe produce revenue. I don’t know.
[00:36:58] Scott W. Luton: Uh, Claudia, your thoughts?
[00:37:00] Claudia Freed: Well, there is an interesting dialogue about. More or less returns from whichever point you look at it. Right? But if we look at what is happening in Europe regarding policy and the fact that it’s, it, it, there is an introduction of the Circular Economy Act. I wrote it down so I will get it correctly.
[00:37:20] Claudia Freed: The Circular Economy Act in 2026, it’s coming up and as we know, many European businesses are subject to highly, um, a more progressive, if you will, regulatory positions. In that particular scenario, they want more returns as chap said, because Europe is looking for things like raw materials. Europe is looking to reduce the number of landfills.
[00:37:45] Claudia Freed: So in that sense, if we keep an eye on what is happening at the regulatory policy level, we will see that there will be an alignment with what the rich is. Anticipating. So it’s something for us to consider.
[00:37:58] Chuck Johnston: Yeah, and a lot of companies, Claudia, offer take back on particular products like your cell phone companies offer take back to get those back into commerce for the purpose of extracting the iliums, the right, the, the value, uh, prop.
[00:38:13] Chuck Johnston: But nobody wants more canoes.
[00:38:18] Claudia Freed: Unless, unless you’re here. Yeah. We want them. There
[00:38:20] Scott W. Luton: we go. There we go. We’ll talk, we’ll touch on that in a second. Uh, Chuck, I tell you, you are the master of using analogies. I’m still, I wrote down Claudia the mattress in a box. Yeah. That that, em, that is such a great, we’ve all may have gotten a metrics delivered to us in a box, and you’re right.
[00:38:38] Scott W. Luton: Once that thing is out, it ain’t going back in, so I’m gonna have to steal that one from you. Right,
[00:38:42] Claudia Freed: right,
[00:38:42] Scott W. Luton: right. All right, so we’ve been talking a lot. Uh, again, folks, y’all should go. If you love the reverse space. If you love return space, y’all really go check out r la.org, which is now part of the NRF family.
[00:38:55] Scott W. Luton: You won’t find a better. Repository of reverse and and returns management leadership. So check out rla.org. So when we were at Chuck and Claudia at the very recent RLA Private Leadership Conference in Dallas, great time last month. Terrific gathering ton of reverse leaders in the room. One of the dominant themes, Chuck in Claudia, and it was in Escap.
[00:39:17] Scott W. Luton: Was returns fraud. It, it’s growing. It’s getting more complex. Bad actors are doing innovative things. Unfortunately, I wish they’d turned their attention to doing good things, but it is what it is. Chuck, how do you see retailers and manufacturers impacting this growing and more challenging problem?
[00:39:34] Chuck Johnston: A lot of, you know, to your point a a as we had, we had the conversation with das current NRF data.
[00:39:41] Chuck Johnston: Is that $103 billion is how the, what they encapsulate as. Fraudulent returns. Now that’s made up of. You know, retail theft, which is, you know, is tough. One of the stats that I read, I was, you know, sharing is that 40% of consumers have admitted that they do a fraudulent return. That, you know, it speaks to some other things, but yes, that we probably need to fix as a, as a country.
[00:40:11] Chuck Johnston: But in what, what you’re seeing is a lot of companies are doing a lot of more, a lot more stuff with data is that they’re looking at returns, you know, from the standpoint of who are their habitual returns. They start categorizing, you know, those returners in terms of who, who is, you know, if you go to like Walmart, if you do a non reeded return.
[00:40:35] Chuck Johnston: I think it currently, you can only do three in 12 months. That limits some of that. But then, then you get, um, like when I was at Depot, we had similar, you know, where you had Reeded, we’ll give you, you know, a, a gift card or whatever it is. But we tracked those. But what was, what we found was happening is that, you know, there, there’s a lot of day laborers outside Home Depot people were giving them each one, one each, and having them go and return it.
[00:41:03] Chuck Johnston: A lot of these folks are smarter than people are willing to put the, uh, time and systems into charter track. Will AI help? Yeah, absolutely. Being able to do more at the return point with imaging and, and try to, but it still doesn’t. If you wanna. Have a fraudulent return. It doesn’t necessarily mean the thing I took a picture of is the thing I put in the box.
[00:41:26] Chuck Johnston: Right? It is still always, always concern. So more data management, more AI tools, more again, tools to try to mitigate that. And you know, some things are, yeah, not to get political, but if you’re in a state that allows $900,000 in theft before you prosecute. You know, you somehow you gotta change some of that, that thought process to, to mitigate, um, you know, the, the crime syndicates too.
[00:41:54] Scott W. Luton: Right. Well, I gotta go back, Claudia, to one of the first things Chuck shared that 40% of consumers admit to, you know, fraudulent returns. That is such a surprising. Surprising figure, but your thoughts, Claudia, what’d you hear there from Chuck?
[00:42:11] Claudia Freed: What I found fascinating as well from our leadership summit, uh, in Dallas, is that the use of data analytics to not only study the mechanics of the return, you know, where are they returning the sort, the value of the item or the condition.
[00:42:29] Claudia Freed: But what I found fascinating, Chuck, was the comment about analyzing the consumer behavior. If you are a frequent returner, if you are frequently returning to a pattern of stores that reveals that you really are engaged in, in fraud, now retailers have access to more data about what type of refund fund they give you.
[00:42:54] Claudia Freed: Are they going to give you an instant refund or are they going to give you a refund? In 30 days, are they going to give you a cook coupon? And that is where some of the behavioral aspect, because we can’t talk about the ethics in the consumer, uh, world, but we can enforce more positive behavior, I would say.
[00:43:16] Scott W. Luton: Yes. Yeah. We’re gonna have to, uh, is my, is my, uh, prediction because, uh, I tell you there, uh, but at, at the same time. The consumer is gonna do what we allow them to do. It’s kind of, you know, one of the points that we’re making here. Yeah. So the other
[00:43:31] Chuck Johnston: thing, Scott, I would add is there’s, you know, speaking of our Fred Rich, you know, he was out, uh, in Europe and he visited a company Breezy that does, is doing digital id.
[00:43:41] Chuck Johnston: You know, in the industry there’s always been companies like Incom that have done serial number reporting. There’s always been this push. For RFID, there’s a lot of things that you can do in that, in from a technology standpoint to track it at the point of sale, to manage it at the point of return. So you can limit some of this so that if it is retail theft and you didn’t go through the POS, you can track that and identify it at the point of return.
[00:44:08] Chuck Johnston: Mm-hmm.
[00:44:09] Scott W. Luton: Yes, that’s right. Lot. It’s amazing the technology we’re seeing. More and more in the reverse space. And by the way, quick shout out to our friends at Clarity, which is a cool startup that Claudia, Chuck and I, and, and all the tour attendees saw some of their technology in action, which was really, and I could have my, my wires crossed, but it was really focused on attacking the fraud that comes in Manu original manufacturer packaging way upstream.
[00:44:35] Scott W. Luton: Is that right, Chuck?
[00:44:36] Chuck Johnston: Yeah, it can do, you know, once you build that template into that, that system and, uh, again, another, uh, you know, if you talk about industry pioneers, what Senator Shamas is, is doing and he’s look, you know, working with, uh, Andy Rubin and others in the industry to say, this is a solution that can help.
[00:44:57] Chuck Johnston: With what is today, $103 billion
[00:45:01] Scott W. Luton: issue. We’re gonna keep our figure on the pulse. I gotta keep up. I’ll tell you, this is a fast moving space. I’m so glad I’ve got Chuck and Claudia here to help it make sense to slow people like myself. But a big thing is coming in the returns in reverse space, a really quick folks, Amazon.
[00:45:16] Scott W. Luton: Reshaped 2025 is a great conference coming up in November out in Seattle. Uh, I’ll be there on the boots, on ground interviewing movers and shakers like Chuck and Claudia, come join us and we’re gonna drop a link so you can do just that. Um, okay, let’s see here. I wish we had a couple more hours with You’all both, and I’m having such a great time.
[00:45:35] Scott W. Luton: I feel like I’m earning a degree in all things reverse here with these two titans. Chuck, as we start to wind down though, I wanna ask you this. I got two, two more questions for you then we’re gonna make sure we touch on ReturnPro and EALGreen. Chuck, why aren’t more, why aren’t we seeing more retail investment in the return space?
[00:45:56] Chuck Johnston: Uh, the challenge has always been, and, and again, I was blessed with companies that were really focused on it, but even for companies that are focused on it, when they have to go in. And you know, part of the challenge you face is that in the retail industry, buyers are evaluated on the initial margin, not maintain margin returns impact the maintain margin side of it.
[00:46:19] Chuck Johnston: The challenge is, is. To have someone who’s an ambassador for this in the company. You know, like Tony had asked how many VPs are there is somebody who’s got a seat at the table that can articulate right, what are the costs? What is it impacting? Is it, you know, initial margin’s fine, but what does maintain margin?
[00:46:37] Chuck Johnston: ’cause that’s what goes in the bottom line is how is it impacting us? Be able to put together a return on investment that you can then. Promote within the company to make sure that you can get, if you have a seat to take when you can get allocated dollars to improve the process. That’s always been the challenge, uh, for a lot of companies.
[00:47:00] Scott W. Luton: So whether it’s Chuck or Rich or Tony or we heard Gartner analysts talking about this symposium. We need to Chuck’s point, we need to see more ambassadors and formal education and visibility. So that we will see some more investments and we need to make, I, I would argue, uh, I’m not sure if y’all agree with me.
[00:47:19] Scott W. Luton: Yeah. We need to create, you know, we’ve seen a, an explosion of supply chain management programs. I think we’re over like two 50 now, just in North America in the last 25 years or so. That’s a wonderful thing. And as I go out and meet students, I already know what supply chain is. I mean, they’re lead, they’re years ahead of where we were, you know, decades ago.
[00:47:39] Scott W. Luton: We gotta see the same. Evolution take place from reverse logistics and returns management space. I would argue Claudia Ambassadors, more formal education, some more designated leadership. So with all of that and a lot more so we can get to more investment dollars in this growing challenge. Your thoughts, Claudia?
[00:47:58] Claudia Freed: When I talk to Rich at the summit and Peter Evans as well, we discussed the need for having. Uh, board of directors as well become aware. So when you have a corporation where the governance is aware of what is going on, and for those of us in my generation, our generation. As we think about transferring knowledge and technology and, and know-how, is also transferring that desire to advocate, to be that ambassador.
[00:48:27] Claudia Freed: We’ve always called them an inside champion like we have in this community, those in this realm and those outside the room supporting each other. Speaking about the benefits of having a solution, avoiding waste, understanding that the revers logistics market. Talk about, we didn’t even touch about platforms that are emerging.
[00:48:51] Claudia Freed: So software entrepreneurs are really getting into putting together the marketplace, which just. Makes this a solution that it’s more accessible to everyone who needs it.
[00:49:03] Chuck Johnston: Yes, and I would tell you, Scott, I, it’s good to see we’re seeing programs. Major supply chain programs, Michigan State, Penn State University, Arkansas, wherever it is, east Carolina, all with curriculum, not degrees, but curriculum that is focused on return space.
[00:49:22] Chuck Johnston: Haven’t seen that in the past. That’s good because the next generation of people, right, are gonna now see it and what we should start mentoring people on that to get into this industry to really drive it.
[00:49:34] Scott W. Luton: Yes. We got a bright future. I’m really excited about where we’re going and it, and it’s, it’s really needed.
[00:49:40] Scott W. Luton: We gotta keep innovating and bringing more people into the reverse side of things. Chuck, if Beyond Reading Rich, Rich’s Rich Bulger’s book Going Circular: The Evolution of Reverse Logistics Into a Competitive Weapon. So beyond reading that. There’s other companies and, and organizations and leaders out there that wanna get involved.
[00:50:02] Scott W. Luton: They wanna find a way to incorporate and find some revenue and, and help solve problems in the reverse logistics and returns management space. What would be your advice there, Chuck?
[00:50:11] Chuck Johnston: There’s a lot of really good practitioners. In the third party space down, speaking for returns, we have an extensive background and knowledge and history and returns.
[00:50:23] Chuck Johnston: There’s companies like us that you reach out to that to find a solution in terms of what your needs are. And there’s a lot of offerings. It may not be the whole gamut. It may be a section to that that, but the other side is more and more, you know, there’s the NRF is now taking on the mantle. Of what was RLA.
[00:50:41] Chuck Johnston: That gives it a lot more a larger voice. Just encourage folks that you know, if you’re a retailer, you’re attending NRF. Get over the NRF REV to understand more about the space. What can the space do? Who are the people out there that are practitioners of it that can help you and just reach out?
[00:51:01] Scott W. Luton: Love that.
[00:51:02] Scott W. Luton: Get educated folks. This is not the returns and reverse space that it was in 2000, no, even 2015. It’s changing, moving, innovating fast. Let me ask you this, Chuck, you mentioned ReturnPro and you mentioned a little bit about what the organization does. How can folks connect with you in the ReturnPro?
[00:51:21] Chuck Johnston: Well, one, you can go out to the ReturnPro, uh, website and that will, you can request a demo if you know, if you wanna reach out direct, cjohnston@returnpro.com.
[00:51:34] Chuck Johnston: Reach out. I mean, I’m more than happy and one of the things I. You know, in the, my 20 years plus of this is the ability, the blessing I’ve had to be able to mentor people in the industry, to advise people in the industry, uh, not from a self-serving standpoint, but just help educate because the more we educate, the better the industry’s gonna be.
[00:51:56] Scott W. Luton: Outstanding. I got one more thing before we shift gears and get Claudia to tell us about EALGreen. Chuck brought resources folks, and we love sharing resources. We’re gonna drop in this link there. The ReturnPro team surveyed over 500 retail leaders to uncover the expectations and the strategies shaping holiday season 2025.
[00:52:16] Scott W. Luton: You can download your free copy of the returns report 2025 Holiday Edition. Right there. In fact, we’ve got the, uh, research there from ReturnPro. We’ve got the Amazon Business Reshaped 2025 event. Come join us in Seattle and then we’ve got all the way back to Deborah Doll and that upcoming edition of the Bridge.
[00:52:36] Scott W. Luton: You don’t wanna miss that either. One click away. Okay. Claudia, we learned about Chuck and ReturnPro and, and a great resource. He his. Let’s talk about your great work at EALGreen, which you’ve been leading for a long time, ever since you and I first met and way before that. How can folks connect with you and support your mission there?
[00:52:55] Claudia Freed: The, the best way is to reach to me personally is on LinkedIn. Just drop me a line or as, as Chuck was gracious and generous to share. You can find me at claudia@ealgreen.org. You can also visit our website and, and if you’re looking for a partner that can enhance the value proposition, whether it is getting some more brownie points on your ESGs with your social impact or with regards to environmental diversion from the landfill.
[00:53:27] Claudia Freed: We make it easy. It doesn’t cost you any money. We manage transportation. We are very, very happy to, uh, count on Sender’s vision and his team with Chuck and Mike and the rest of them in terms of, um, sharing with us resources. Because what we do is that we either, we use it on a college campus to fund a scholarship.
[00:53:49] Claudia Freed: Will we repair it or resell it, or we will recycle and all the revenue. Goes to fund EAL because we’re self funded, we do not get any funding from any other source and create scholarships. I was just looking at, my statistics are on our way to achieve our goal of a thousand students this year. We are, as of today, 739 college students receiving EAL scholarships from returns.
[00:54:16] Claudia Freed: So we make imperfect inventory to have social impact and we are so thrilled to be here with you.
[00:54:23] Scott W. Luton: Love that Claudia, and you’re top ranked. I just know I was on your site earlier today, which doesn’t surprise me, but I think, you know, in the world and the tidal wave of nonprofits, you should know who you’re dealing with and it should be a trusted organization.
[00:54:36] Scott W. Luton: And, uh, let’s see, platinum Transparency 2025 from Candid, top rated nonprofit according to great Nonprofits. Yeah. And Charity Navigator, which I think is Cadillac Rates Your organization a four star nonprofit that is outstanding.
[00:54:50] Chuck Johnston: Yeah. So
[00:54:51] Scott W. Luton: Claudia Free, thank
[00:54:52] Chuck Johnston: you.
[00:54:52] Scott W. Luton: EALGreen and folks, you can learn more at el E-A-L,
[00:54:57] Scott W. Luton: don’t get me wrong, EALGreen.org. Chuck and Claudia, this has been an outstanding conversation. I got one more question though for Claudia. Claudia, Chuck shared a ton of brilliance here today. What was one of your favorite takeaways from today’s conversation?
[00:55:13] Claudia Freed: The, the entrepreneur spirit in this space? I think that when we think about opportunity, it’s not.
[00:55:22] Claudia Freed: Winner takes all. When you are able to see a problem through the lens of its journey, how did the problem start? What are the complications in the middle, and how can you be part of the solution? Chuck highlighted an arc of experience, which I would invite anybody to go and revisit. Not only this podcast, but previous ones.
[00:55:43] Claudia Freed: There’s a wealth of information and it’s just his generous spirit sharing with us. And, uh, I hope that you get a lot of mentees because people can learn a lot.
[00:55:54] Chuck Johnston: Yes. I would say, Scott, in closing, I appreciate you again bringing this, uh, this topic to light, uh, through your, uh, your program. The other side is, is that this is 30 plus years old industry.
[00:56:07] Chuck Johnston: There’s never any better opportunity than get into it now. ’cause as you stated, it’s approaching a trillion dollars. There’s nobody in our industry that has more than 1% market share. Wow. We’re at the table for everybody. All ideas are welcome. There’s a lot of innovation to be had.
[00:56:25] Scott W. Luton: Outstanding. We’re gonna have both of y’all back as we continue and we’ve been trying to shine a light on this for a long time.
[00:56:32] Scott W. Luton: Thanks to our friends at Tony Sciarotta and, and Claudia, you were an early connection in our efforts there in Vegas, way back when we were knocking out like 25 interviews a day and I wrapped up by, I couldn’t even say my. My, my own name, right as we wrapped up those long days back in the day. But anyway, and Chuck, really appreciate your golden ambassadorship.
[00:56:51] Scott W. Luton: We need more leaders like both of y’all. But, uh, certainly Chuck, appreciate your Hall of Fame career and you’re just getting started I bet in so many different ways. Appreciate what you’re doing at ReturnPro. So we start to wrap, uh, Chuck Johnston, chief Strategy Officer at ReturnPro. Folks, you can learn more at returnpro.com.
[00:57:08] Scott W. Luton: Chuck, thanks for being here. Appreciate it, Claudia. It’s
[00:57:12] Chuck Johnston: pro pleasure
[00:57:13] Scott W. Luton: seeing you.
[00:57:13] Claudia Freed: Thank you. Likewise,
[00:57:15] Scott W. Luton: Claudia Freed, CEO at EALGreen. You can learn more at EALGreen.org. Claudia, always a pleasure.
[00:57:23] Claudia Freed: Thank you. Thank you Scott, and the whole team of Supply Chain Now. Thank you so much.
[00:57:26] Scott W. Luton: In here. So folks, you got homework.
[00:57:29] Scott W. Luton: I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I have, but the onus is on you to take one thing. From today’s conversation, Chuck and Claudia shared a truckload, a couple containers loads, maybe take one thing put into practice, right? Deeds, not words. That’s how we’re gonna keep transforming global industry, not leave anyone behind.
[00:57:46] Scott W. Luton: So on behalf of the whole team here, Scott Luden challenging all of you. Do good, give forward, be the change that needed, and we’ll see you next time. Right back here at Supply Chain Now Thanks for bye.
[00:57:56] Voiceover: Join the Supply Chain Now community for more supply chain perspectives, news and innovation, check out supplychainnow.com.
[00:58:03] Voiceover: Subscribe to Supply Chain Now on YouTube and follow and listen to Supply Chain Now wherever you get your podcasts.
