The Supply Chain Buzz is Supply Chain Now’s regular Monday livestream, held at 12n ET each week. This show focuses on some of the leading stories from global supply chain and global business, always with special guests – the most important of which is the live audience!

In this week’s edition of The Buzz, regular co-host Greg White was back after a few weeks away, ready to dig into the trends, the issues, and the opportunities of the moment… everything cool that’s happening in supply chain.

In this livestream, created in collaboration with a live Supply Chain Now audience, Scott and Greg discussed:

• How drought conditions across the U.S. and smaller cattle herds may push up the price of your burgers this summer

• The good news and bad news about inflation, with rates generally falling, but a few key items staying high: food, housing, and transportation services

• Whether a new leader might be emerging in the long-running competition between Amazon and Walmart

Intro/Outro (00:03):

Welcome to Supply Chain. Now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues, the challenges and opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from Those Making Global Business happen right here on supply chain now.

Scott Luton (00:31):

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are, Scott Luton, Greg White with you here on Supply Chain. Now welcome to today’s live stream, Gregory, you are back. Blow the horns. Have a parade. It is Greg White back in our midst. How you doing?

Greg White (00:46):

I’m doing quite well, thank you.

Scott Luton (00:48):

<laugh>, you have been missed. Do you feel missed? Well,

Greg White (00:52):

It feels good to be back. Yeah, I guess missed. Yeah, I feel it feels great to be back. Yeah, it’s good to see you. Good, good, good. Or hear everybody? I can’t see everybody.

Scott Luton (01:01):

<laugh>. Well, welcome back. Of course, not taking anything away from Constantine and Mary, Kate and Kevin, who all filled in. Alison, I think as well, had a great episode with Alison. Yeah. But, uh, great to have you back, Gregory.

Greg White (01:14):

Thank you.

Scott Luton (01:15):

We got a lot to get into today. A lot to get into today. Um, and we see we’ve got already Josh and Angela and, uh, Zelle, uh, Ola, wi Toin. We’ll say hello to everybody in just a minute. But great to have you and everyone else here with us day. So Greg, it is the supply chain Buzz, as you know, a live show that comes at our global supply chain fam every Monday at 12 noon Eastern time. Greg, what do we tend to cover here on the buzz?

Greg White (01:42):

Only everything you need to know about supply chain <laugh>, right? The, I mean, the trends, the issues, the opportunities of the moment, right? So once a week you get to hear about everything cool that’s happening in supply chain.

Scott Luton (01:55):

That is right. Uh, and so, which

Greg White (01:58):

Is mostly you, Scott

Scott Luton (01:59):

<laugh>. But hey folks, we wanna hear from you as well. Uh, so we’d love for you to just like many folks are doing right now, throw your comments, your perspective right there in the chat, and we’ll share that throughout the hour as well. And folks, if you’re listening to the podcast replay, which a lot of folks do, hey, consider joining us live on LinkedIn or YouTube or some other social media channel of your choosing. We’d love for you to be part of the live show every Monday at 12 noon Eastern time. Okay? So Greg, uh, let’s go ahead and share a few resources with folks. We’re we’re big on sharing resources, right?

Greg White (02:35):

Unquestionably. And we got tons of them.

Scott Luton (02:37):

We do, we got tons of stuff to help folks out. Look at those vibrant vegetables. I wish I could grow vegetables like that, Greg, can you? Yeah.

Greg White (02:45):

Uh, no. But Vicky can. And, uh, if I, if we could interview the deer around our house, they could all verify that, that she makes, she really grows fantastic tomatoes. I’d say that’s her

Scott Luton (02:58):

Specialty. Love that. Love that. And hello to Vicky, wherever you may be, uh, the, the controller with two green thumbs, it sounds. Yeah. Hey, so with that said, we dropped over the weekend and we focused it on pollinator week, which just concluded yesterday. So here’s a, did you know Greg? And folks, you’ll have to, you’ll have to dive into, uh, this LinkedIn newsletter. We’ll put the link in the chat so y’all can learn more about what, what makes up pollinated wheat. But Greg, did you know that scientists estimate that about 75% of the world’s all the world’s flowering plants, and about 35% of the world’s food crops are dependent on animal pollinators, not just bees. There’s about 3,500 types of bees species that help pollination. Of course, they’re probably the hardest working pollinator, but there’s all sorts of animals that serve as pollinators. Did you know that, Greg?

Greg White (03:47):

I did not know the all sorts of animals part. I knew that bees, of course. And I guess, uh, that was kind of when, when, uh, the, the post went up about this thing. It was like, what else? Pollinates stuff. <laugh>, right? I mean, all kinds of, I mean, sometimes it’s just kinda a passing glance, literally, like somebody runs into a plant and that somehow pollinates it, right?

Scott Luton (04:09):

That’s right. Crazy. You’re absolutely right. So dogs, deers, bats, um, other insects, uh, all of those folks and a lot more serve as pollinators in some capacity. And it really is. Cuz I think most of the world thinks of bees. And of course bees are the, I don’t know, the 80 20 rule seems to come to my mind, but that might not be nowhere near accurate. But, uh, that’s, but anyway, the greater point is we gotta take care. You know, the bees have gone through in recent years, a lot of turmoil. Yeah. That’s hurting their populations, right?

Greg White (04:40):

Yeah. A lot of the chemicals that we use, uh, for killing other bugs or for fertilizer or whatever, appear to be like knocking down the bee population. So I can tell you here, northwest of Atlanta and in Switzerland, okay? And up north, uh, you know, up north in the northern part of Georgia as well, they are actively cultivating, um, colonies of bees. Are they called a colony? It’s a hive, <laugh>, whatever, you know, big old groups of beef

Scott Luton (05:12):

<laugh>, highly scientific term. Yeah. Folks,

Greg White (05:15):

North Georgia term,

Scott Luton (05:16):

Right? Right. Hey, check out with that said, uh, it goes out, uh, just about every weekend. Usually Saturday or, or Sunday morning. And, uh, it, it, uh, it kind of runs a gamut. A wide, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a weekly variety newsletter, I’ll call it. We cover all kinds of things across. With that said, um, speaking of resources, Greg, we got a lot more work to do this week. So this coming Thursday at 12 noon Eastern time, we’ve got John Lander with Omnia Partners coming to us to talk about revolutionizing your purchasing process in the current market. Greg Procurement’s cool again, right?

Greg White (05:54):

As cool as it’s ever gonna be, you know, I mean, I think, I think, uh, we in supply chain, we can’t reach too high, right? We’ve gotten to the big kids table. Now. The C-Suite even listens to us. I don’t know if, you know, I don’t know if we can say cool yet, but we’re way the heck up there. Yeah. I’m, we’re not, gee, we’re not just geeks anymore, right? <laugh>, we’re not those, those goofy cats in only in shirts with their name tag. Although you don’t underestimate the power of a shirt with a name tag on it, right? I like to keep going around. Um, right. But I, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, there’s, I think companies even, uh, consumers are recognizing the importance of supply chain. So nobody doesn’t know what supply chain is these days.

Scott Luton (06:44):

That’s right.

Greg White (06:45):

That is right.

Scott Luton (06:47):

Uh, so folks join us this Thursday as we dive into some expertise and some, uh, uh, insights on, again, revolutionizing your purchasing process in the current market with John Lander from Omnia Partners. Now, along these lines, Greg, one last thing to share with folks along these lines, Hmm. Is, uh, if you don’t wanna miss sessions like that one or lots for webinars, we’ve had, we’ve had some home run webinars here lately, or some of the exclusive tools and resources that, uh, that come about due to some of these live events. If you don’t wanna miss all that stuff and, and a lot more, join the now community and folks, you can do this. It’s real simple. I think you use the link that, uh, that a man and Catherine are dropping in chat and it’s real, it’s very rigorous. Greg, first name, last name, email, <laugh>, first name, last name, email, that’s as rigorous as it takes to join the now community. Greg, can

Greg White (07:41):

You fog a mirror? <laugh>, if so, and you care about supply chain in anyway, sign up.

Scott Luton (07:48):

That’s right. Sign up and, and we’ve got the link there, folks. You can hit that and you can sign up. Uh, joining about 25,000 other folks that stay in the know, because they’re cool like Greg White, or speaking of Greg T Squared, who I think I referenced on Friday, uh, <laugh>. Yeah.

Greg White (08:08):

He, I think we can say that. Yeah.

Scott Luton (08:10):

He, and he holds down Fort Force on YouTube, but he also is commenting here, he says, we’re no longer the stepchild of business. He’s talking supply chain, right, Greg?

Greg White (08:20):

Yeah, no doubt. The whole organization. Yes. And also, uh, you know, a good follow on, the only place I see him is LinkedIn, Tyrone Thorpe. So,

Scott Luton (08:34):

Right. That Tyrone Thorpe.

Greg White (08:36):

And that’s why the T squared get it.

Scott Luton (08:38):

<laugh>. Tyrone, great to have you here as always. Uh, speaking of, uh, so folks, again, we, we’ve got a link there to join the now community so you don’t miss any of our live events, uh, the tools and resources that come outta all those things. Uh, so join it there. Uh, I wanna welcome in. Uh, AV is with us via LinkedIn. I think I said that right. If I didn’t, please let me know. Great to have you, uh, cyan. You think I got that right? Cyan, uh, Greg,

Greg White (09:05):

That’s a tough one. Uh, the last name is actually Easier. Bought a Chatter bot agi.

Scott Luton (09:11):

Okay. Uh, man, I’m, I’m, I’m impressed. Hey, but regardless, welcome Ton via LinkedIn. Great to have you here. I

Greg White (09:19):

Think that, I think that’s about right.

Scott Luton (09:20):

I think so too.

Greg White (09:21):

Check us on it. Yeah. Try to spell it phonetically for us.

Scott Luton (09:25):

<laugh>, we get it right. Josh Goody is back with us and he’s, he’s talking about the bees and the pollers. He says, Hey, we gotta check the soil health and a water pattern for the color of those peppers. Also, <laugh>, I think he was being maybe sarcastic cause those peppers look so good. Also, he feels the pain about deer eating gardens, as you were just referencing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> a minute ago. Greg, for whatever reason, Josh says they love chives, tulips, and apples fresh off the tree. How about that?

Greg White (09:53):

They do love flowers and the ones they don’t love, it doesn’t stop them from pulling them out of the ground by, you know, trying them right. Pulling them outta the ground and then spitting ’em out on the ground. So even the ones that they don’t take away, you have to replant. That’s

Scott Luton (10:06):

Right. <laugh>. Um, speaking procurement. Leonardo from Procurement Garage. Great to see you here, Leonardo via LinkedIn. Welcome, welcome, welcome and welcome to everyone else that is here with us today for the buzz. We’ve got a lot of stuff to get into here. Uh, alright. So, Greg, are you ready to get to work?

Greg White (10:24):

I believe that I am, yes. All right. I think it’s been long enough that I should be ready to get back to work, don’t you?

Scott Luton (10:30):

<laugh>? I do. Great to have you back. So, yeah, thanks. With that said, um, I want to dive into our first story here today. Remember the old, um, Wendy’s, the, the hamburger franchise, uh, from the eighties? The Where’s the beef ad? Remember that? Oh,

Greg White (10:46):

Yeah. Oh yeah.

Scott Luton (10:47):

It was iconic during the eighties. Yeah, <laugh>. That’s right. Well, let’s talk about where’s the beef? So, according to a story from our friends at supply chain dive, smaller and smaller cattle herds are pushing beef prices higher and higher. Hmm. The smaller herds are primarily due to drought conditions across the country. And of course, consumer beef prices due to these smaller, smaller cattle herds are approaching record level territory that was set during the pandemic. Greg, I’d love to hear your thoughts here.

Greg White (11:19):

I’d love to say it’s time to become a vegetarian, but I’ve tried that and it’s just not working for me. So, <laugh>, I guess it’s time to pay up, isn’t it? I don’t, yeah, I mean, you know, we, we reported a little bit on this some months ago. It may have been a year ago that this was starting to happen. And the same with with farmed crops as well, and that we could expect to see, uh, you know, that we could expect to see the impact on down the road on, um, you know, the center of the plate type items. And, uh, you know, I guess this is the result of, of kind of the en environmental conditions that we’re experiencing in these parts of the world. So, uh, you know, we ride it out until the, until the herds get bigger, um, or we pay more. And, uh, you know, what I I think is really interesting is that it’s not that, that the farmers are profiting so much more, it’s just that, you know, it’s, it’s virtually the same amount of work going into less, fewer, since, I should say, fewer ahead of cattle. Um, so the fixed costs remain the same and drive the price up. And of course, scarcity drives the price up on the market side.

Scott Luton (12:35):

Mm. You know, it’s, it’s really interesting. Um, my brain doesn’t always go to semiconductors when we’re talking beef, but with all the ground being broken in various places across the world, but certainly some of the mega sites that have been announced here in the States and all the water it takes to run those facilities, man, where’s it gonna come from? We’ve, we’ve, we’ve certainly talked about that too. Where’s it all gonna come from? You know?

Greg White (13:02):

Yep. Yeah. I mean, well, you know, the good news is we won’t run out of water. Right? Water does not escape the, it does not escape. The atmosphere gets constantly recycled through the air and through the ground. So we might run out of clean water, but we will not run out of water. What happens is the areas that are arid shift around the planet. So, you know, there was a time allegedly even when the Sahara Desert was lush, really.

Scott Luton (13:30):

Right.

Greg White (13:31):

Allegedly <laugh>

Scott Luton (13:34):

Not

Greg White (13:34):

A geologist. And unlike an unlike economist, I’m not Right. As often as a geologist is.

Scott Luton (13:43):

Oh, that’s great. Cause our next story is all about the, so stay tuned folks. Boy. Um, but geology Yeah, you’re, you’re bringing me flashbacks of my, um, I think geology was a big part of our, my seventh grade science curriculum that I struggled throughout. So, uh, but good stuff there. And I always appreciate you bringing the good news. Hey, speaking of, so you know, Greg, just to recap, uh, y’all check out the story via supply chain dye. We dropped the link in the chat as well. So, Greg, curious as we’re talking beef, what is your favorite cut? Uh, uh, steak cut.

Greg White (14:15):

Uh, well, my, um, my favorite cut is porterhouse. Okay. Okay. I mean, as those are 20 ounces minimum. And now with the thickness that they love to cut ’em for, I dunno to be impressive, 35 ounces. Mm. Right. Approaching, approaching three pounds. I don’t eat ’em very often, so absent that, a, a really great tenderloin. Tenderloin is a great, usually called a filet. Yep. Um, and I love a, uh, a KC strip, which is a New York strip on the bone because you get a lot more flavor when the meat’s on the bone man bone. Sorry for the description for all out there,

Scott Luton (14:55):

<laugh>. That sounds delicious. Farm

Greg White (14:57):

Kid. Yeah.

Scott Luton (14:58):

<laugh> and kinda like you though. So I used to love the New York, New York strip growing up. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that was my favorite growing up. And then, uh, when I married Amanda, her family introduced me to really good seared seared ribeye, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> with a nice crust on the outside, that’s really tough to beat. But to your point, we’ve also been eating smaller portions. So really we’ll go by, uh, the, the whole tenderloin, uh, and then we’ll, we’ll, we’ll portion it out to where it’s like five, six ounces mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and that’s plenty. A nice, a nice five or six ounce steak is kind of what we have, uh, evolved to. Greg.

Greg White (15:32):

The main reason you would want to cut a tenderloin thicker is to get, you know, give you more temperature options. Right. Because if you cut a steak really thin, like they do in Europe, as I’ve experienced painfully over the last month Mm. Um, it’s really hard to cook it medium rare. Right. Right. Which is my, just my opinion, the only way to cook a steak.

Scott Luton (15:54):

Yes. Um, all right, so now that everybody is, is extremely hungry here on this Monday, June, right.

Greg White (16:00):

Or gross out, depending on your right. My culinary choices.

Scott Luton (16:04):

Um, a couple quick comments here. So, T-Square, thank you Clara Pellar. Going back to where’s the beef? That was Clara Pellar, the actor, uh, actress. Oh, she owned that line. And to his point, it’s been applicable ever since 2018. Good point. Good point. Now, gene Pple, uh, gene Pledger, Gino is back with us. Gino, hope this finds you well. He says demand moves around to chicken and pork when one protein gets outta line. That’s a great call out. Uh, Greg, uh, just last month or so, I think we’re both big fans of Costco. Costco and, and some other, um, similar retailers were were giving reporting that was all pulled up to the government level. And one of the things that they, Costco was reporting was to Gino’s point, uh, uh, more and more chickens were being, chickens been bought rather than, uh, beef, which, uh, due to the, the, the higher pricing. So it’s a great call out there. Yeah. At Gino, I think

Greg White (16:57):

It’s important to understand too, that beef, as I was just sort of alluding to, it’s very regional, north America, south America, Australia, Italy, pretty much Italy, <laugh> in Europe. And, and by the way, you can get a good, you can get good meat in Italy. Yep. Um, but not a lot of other places. Pork is very prominent in continental Europe. Yep. Right. Um, so, you know, it’s, it’s a regional dish, you know, vast regions, admittedly. But this isn’t a problem for a lot of places on the planet. That’s right. You know, to Gene’s point, pork is the primary, it’s the primary dish in a lot of, uh, European countries, especially the Germanic ones. Mm. And I ain’t lying that sausage is good. <laugh>.

Scott Luton (17:46):

So Jeff says, Hey, it looks like a good run for lab grown beef, maybe. So Jeff, maybe. So we’ll see. Uh, and Sayad great to see you here as well as Kaisha Welcome, welcome. Great to see you here as well. Look forward to your perspective. Okay, Greg, we gotta keep, uh, keep driving here. So, as I promised, we touched on geology a minute ago, and I, I don’t think either one of us are gonna be confused for geologists. Neither one of us may be confused for economists, nevertheless, in our, in the second story here today. Speaking of spending more at the store, which we’ve been doing for a couple years now, just about everything. Yeah. Well, here’s a little pseudo good news I’m gonna call it. Prices aren’t going up as fast as they have been. So, according to cnbc, the country’s inflation rate in may annualized rate of 4% came in at its lowest annual rate in more than two years. Mm-hmm. But a few line items are running much higher than that 4%, uh, over this time of year ago, food, which comes in at 6.7%, housing or shelter as they call it here, 8% transportation services, 10.2%. Greg, your thoughts here?

Greg White (18:54):

Yeah, the transportation services confused me because, I mean, freight, I don’t know if that’s part of the metric, honestly. Mm-hmm. Freight has been crashing and you’ve been seeing a lot about it in the press and social media and that sort of thing. So that one surprised me. You know, the other, uh, unfortunate truth is that’s just for the us. So again, having been in Europe, inflation is 16.8% Wow. In the uk. So, um, and you know, and I think the other thing we have to acknowledge here is that it sounds like the way that it gets presented, it almost sounds like inflation is going down. It’s not, it’s only accelerating at a slower rate. Right? Right. Whereas it was in the 10, 11% range, um, now it’s only, now prices are only going up y year over year by 4%. So what cost you a buck last year cost you a dollar four this year, by the way, based on the rule of 72. Right. That means in 18 years, the price of everything will double at 4% inflation rate. Mm. So, um, and of course, everything has practically doubled because of the rate that that things have been at since what, 20 early 20, 21. Mm.

Greg White (20:18):

Um, so we’re kind of rolling off some of the early dramatic inflation that we experienced in 2021 back when we were talking about the price of chicken wings going through the roof, which they did, and have managed to stay there. Right, right. And, you know, and another thing I think we have to acknowledge here is that the calculation for, uh, inflation has been, I don’t know how else to say it, but manipulated. Mm. So that it doesn’t look as egregious as it is. And in fact, if you look at inflation relative to the core inflation, um, measures of the previous incredibly cataclysmic inflation event we had in the eighties, um, the rate is much, much higher and had in, even in the states gotten at one point based on the, that old metric to about 16%. Hmm. So, um, and, and I think everyone sort of intuitively knows that because, I mean, you look at things like eggs and chicken wings and other things that have gone up by a significant amount. Um, and you can see that it’s gone up by more than the five or seven or even 9% that, that they were reporting. Yes.

Scott Luton (21:29):

You know, I’ve got a, one of my favorite breakfast bars, uh, as all strolling through the store, and I put my hand on the box to grab it. Uh, si $672. Greg, I, I decided to leave those breakfast bars <laugh> on the shelf. Okay. I might be exaggerating by a dollar or two,

Greg White (21:44):

But it felt like that, didn’t it?

Scott Luton (21:45):

It did. Oh gosh.

Greg White (21:48):

I know, um, Vicky and I, I must, I should be ashamed to admit this, but we were caught in the same ba as you were and we had to dive into someplace, just kind of get outta the weather, cuz there was one microburst after another and it was a Taco Bell, so I ate a chalupa. Does that sound right? Sounds

Scott Luton (22:08):

Good

Greg White (22:09):

To me. Really? Taco shell thing, it was $4 and 59 cents. I mean, it wasn’t that long ago that you could get your entire meal at Taco Bell for $4 and 59 cents. Right. It’s, it’s just insanity. What pr you know how prices have gone up. It

Scott Luton (22:26):

Is. You’re right. Uh, all right, I gotta bring in Josh’s comment here, <laugh>. So on Greg’s point, lies, lies and Sat statistics comes to mind when politicians talk about inflation, right. Metrics. That’s

Greg White (22:39):

Right. Thank you for quoting the great Samuel Clemmens. <laugh>, mark Twain.

Scott Luton (22:44):

<laugh>. Love it. Alright. Right.

Greg White (22:47):

There’s lies. Then. More statistics. <laugh>,

Scott Luton (22:51):

Uh, speaking of, I wanna share one more opportunity to move right along. Uh, so Greg and I are hosting a live stream on July 11th. It ju it feels so strange to be referencing July dates already, but hey, that’s where we are. July 11th. We’re gonna be talking about Navigate successfully navigating retail peak season five key strategies for shippers and key carriers with our friends from Vector and Coyote. So y’all join us for that, Greg. That should be a, a great, uh, session, don’t you think?

Greg White (23:21):

Yeah, of course. I mean, anytime we have anybody from Vector on, that’s always fun just because of the breadth of what they do and their, their, you know, give give forward strategy. Um, and of course Coyote is, you know, big. They’re big. That’s right. So we’re gonna get to get a really broad perspective on, on the marketplace there.

Scott Luton (23:42):

Excellent. Y’all join us there on July 11th. We’ve got a link right there in the chat to do just that. Uh, Josh says, uh, the party pack at Taco Bell used to be 12 bucks, now it’s over 25 bucks. What, what in the world? I

Greg White (23:56):

Cannot believe it. First of all, I hate Taco Bell. Sorry. Anyone who loves it, I hate it. And every time I take a bite of it, I regret it, but, um, and I just can’t see people continuing to return to fast food. Mm. When you could get something good for the roughly the same price. Right. Right. It’s gonna have to turn around. I

Scott Luton (24:19):

Think it will. I think it will.

Greg White (24:21):

I’d say it’s the price of beef, but it has been scientifically proven that their food is not beef. So

Scott Luton (24:27):

<laugh>. Oh boy. All right. So moving right along on that note, uh, this is an interesting, uh, story, uh, that hit my radar here over the weekend, Greg. And this is something we’ve been, we’ve really enjoyed talking about for a couple years now. Uh, this article here from our friends at, uh, Axios talks about, uh, a familiar theme for many of our listeners mm-hmm. The ongoing e-commerce battle mm-hmm. Between Walmart and Amazon. Now, according to this article there, from our friends with Axios, they seem to think Walmart is approaching a tipping point in terms of that battle and might just be gaining the upper hand. I think that’s, uh, I would agree with that. Now, Walmart has made big gains, as is pointed out in the article in automation, really in lots of different areas across enterprise. And that combined with, it’s of course one of his big advantages. Its large physical footprint combined with big surges and bopus popularity. Right. Be, uh, buy online pickup in store. Yeah. Or just maybe, uh, just outside of store sometimes all of those things is what Isri, uh, uh, giving way to the tide shifting faster in Walmart’s favor. Greg, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts here.

Greg White (25:44):

<laugh>. It makes me chuckle a little bit. You know, remember when everyone was afraid of Walmart coming into their community and, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever they hated about Walmart. Um, and now it’s like the world is pulling for Walmart, right? Because they’re the underdog to Amazon. You know, it’s still the largest retailer on the planet. Right? And it’s only in e-commerce where they even, even remotely need to catch up because they are a far bigger retail organization than Amazon. Right. Um, but it is interesting. I mean, if you think about this, what was it? Was it 2019? They bought Jet? Mm. Um, which wasn’t a big, it, it was mostly for the mechanism of Jet because they weren’t that big of an e-commerce retailer then. And they have turned that into something really, really venerable. I don’t know if you do, uh, Walmart, I mean walmart.com or whatever, but I have a, an American Express card where I get a free Walmart plus.

Scott Luton (26:46):

Okay.

Greg White (26:48):

Um, a free Walmart plus membership, which means it’s nothing compared to the 120 or 140 bucks a year you pay for Amazon, uh, prime Yeah. Nowadays. And, um, it somehow feels better the, to, I can’t believe I’m saying this cause, but, but it somehow feels better to shop Walmart because Walmart is an established retailer. When I compare the reasons that Walmart does private label versus the reason Amazon does private label Walmart finds where the value is not represented by the cost of a, you know, jar of pickles or whatever. And then they create a great value jar of pickles, which are substantially the same pickles without all the excess marketing costs. Yeah. And save their customers money. And Amazon poaches their, you know, their most popular and highly profitable items on, on their site and makes them Amazon basically stealing business for their own pri profit, not for the good of their customer.

Greg White (27:51):

And that’s, that’s a philosophical difference that has been well documented. Um, and, and so somehow, um, dealing with the largest retailer on, you know, in the world makes you feel like you’re pulling for the underdog when you do it online. Right. It is nice to be able to pick the stuff up to get it that day if you want. I mean, go get it yourself that day. Yeah. Order it. And then if you’re driving by a store, which you almost can’t throw a rock and not hit a Walmart store in the us, um, you know, you can just drop in and grab the stuff and go, and they are very efficient.

Scott Luton (28:27):

Yep. You know, one, one other thing that this article pointed out, and y’all can check it out, I think we’ve dropped a link there in the chat, y’all check it out for yourselves. Um, the drone battle, right? Drone delivery, um, that’s probably one of the more surprising things. Now we, we, of course we’ve interviewed Walmart executives and we’ve spoken about some of the big gains they’ve made in drone delivery. But I would’ve thought, I would’ve thought that by now Amazon would’ve made up more ground. But we’re talking, if I, if I got these numbers right, Greg, uh, 10,000 deliveries last year for Walmart drone deliveries and like a hundred for Amazon. Right. And the, and, and for what I’ve read in other research, uh, some of the areas that Amazon is, is trying to work out at drone delivery, or maybe two, three households are, are eligible for drone delivery.

Scott Luton (29:15):

So they’re not even be able to take advantage of, of just sheer numbers and experimentation. Your, your thoughts, uh, when it comes to drone delivery and do you see that Greg, you know, out of, out of, out of all the different ways that, um, Walmart and Amazon, you know, they’re doing a lot of things similar, right? Like a driver program we talked about, uh right. And then they’re doing some things unique. What do you think in terms of what Walmart is doing? What’s one thing that you think is a really big differentiator as it seeks to gain more ground? Amazon?

Greg White (29:45):

Uh, well, I can speak from real life experience. One, we interviewed their head of end-to-end delivery. And I think that’s a really, really fascinating program where they can, they can provide the services that the transportation services not only for you if you are a vendor of Walmart to deliver with real efficiency because they’re pooling orders from multiple vendors, but also on the other end because it’s end to end to deliver the goods on your behalf. Um, I think there’s a lot of, uh, there’s a lot of efficiencies there because their, you know, their stores are inherently where the demand is. Yeah. Because they put them, they scientifically place their stores where they were surrounded by their shoppers or potential shoppers. So their delivery efficiencies are substantial there. And this end-to-end delivery opportunity that they have is, is really fantastic. So, you know, I invested in Free Spirits, the, um, non-alcoholic spirits company, right?

Greg White (30:46):

Yeah. So we talked, we actually talked with the folks at Walmart about both bringing the goods in and delivering them not just to on behalf of Walmart, but, uh, free Spirits is in, um, total Wine and Kroger and all that sort of thing, but fulfilling those orders from, from their facilities for all of that sort of thing. So now they’re competing with, you know, not just Amazon, but all the other tiers of, and other types of three pls and, and e-commerce fulfillment organizations. I, it’s a really, really, uh, it’s a really, really good, um, methodology. On the other hand, Scott never underestimate Amazon. And I, I would, I would argue, I, I wouldn’t argue this, I would speculate that if Amazon is only lightly dabbling in drone delivery, they know something that maybe, maybe Walmart or we don’t, that’s a good point, right? Cause they are, uh, ruthlessly efficient when it comes to what’s coming in the future. And, you know, and that sort of thing. I mean, let’s face it, this was a company that started selling a few books online, right? <laugh> and now is one of the largest retailers and one of the largest logistics organizations in the entire planet. Mm. So

Scott Luton (32:10):

That’s a great point.

Greg White (32:11):

Um, it’s really hard to count them out. So my first question if I were investigating this on Walmart’s behalf, would be to say, what do they know that we don’t? Yep. Um, and it’s just possible that Walmart is right, and Amazon or, or, you know, the, this article, I think it’s, it’s premise is that, that Walmart is ahead of Amazon on these things. That’s also possible. Yeah. I mean, Walmart also pretty ruthlessly efficient. <laugh> <laugh>.

Scott Luton (32:39):

Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah. Um, hey folks, what’s your take? Uh, if you’re vendors to both these organizations or if your customers, I’d love to get your take. Like Natalie’s here, Greg and Natalie, great to have you here, as always. She says, looking forward to reading the article, of course. But as a vendor of both companies, Natalie says, I don’t see this to be true, and I don’t see, where’s my Walmart order on the neighborhood chat. Mm-hmm. Amazon all the time. And she also says, Walmart and Bopus, you know, pick up, uh, buy online, pick up in store. That’s why there’s no comments. And, you know, that’s a good, good chat. But they, um, really, you know, as, as, as folks are getting out, thankfully, right? Thankfully, and they’re able to leverage that, it’s become really popular. Really popular. And so no doubt that’s a big trend that Walmart is writing. Uh, to Natalie’s point, Greg, uh, I I love Natalie’s comment there from the vendor side of things, not Yeah. You know, cause what we’ve been chatting more, a little more about, uh, with the exception of your most recent investment, I’d love to talk more about, but we’ve been talking maybe on more on the consumer side, the customer side. Any, any final thoughts in terms of what suppliers might be seeing from either organization?

Greg White (33:52):

Um, ruthless efficiency, you can expect <laugh> from both, both of them. I think there’s more of a, and I, I’d put this to Natalie too. I think there’s more of a partnership kind of solution oriented stance by Walmart. They used to be ruthless and miserable to work with, just like Amazon, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, and there are other retailers that take that, that position in dealing with their suppliers. Um, but I think that’s probably a difference that, that I expect to see. Certainly you get a lot more engagement. Again, just looking at the Free Spirits example, um, closely collaborating with the category managers and logistics people at Walmart, Amazon, it’s more of a, you know, it’s more of a transactional relationship, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you’re just selling your stuff on Amazon as a vendor and just not, not quite the personal touch there. Yep. Right.

Scott Luton (34:49):

Um, so, uh, I wanna, but so we’re, we’re talk about ruthlessly efficient. We are way ahead of schedule, so we’re gonna give some folks a little bit of their time back. But I’m glad, Greg, now that you’re back with us after your European travels last three or four weeks you mentioned, and it’s public knowledge now. So I think we can talk about it. You mentioned a recent investment you made. Uh, tell us a little bit more, uh, and, and folks, this is gonna be a little shameless plug, but I find this <laugh> intriguing, uh, both the, the, the product itself as well as Greg’s, um, uh, I, I’ll call it, for lack of a better phrase, rationale. Yeah. Uh, for where the market’s going. So tell us more about this.

Greg White (35:26):

So it’s, uh, so I’ll describe the company really quickly, and then why, um, it was both shocking and fascinating to me that there is opportunity here. So it’s called Free Spirits, the Free Spirits Company. And it’s, um, non-alcoholic spirits made for mixing into cocktails. I can tell you that you don’t wanna sit down with a non-alcoholic bourbon and sip it next to your bottle of Eagle rare, because while evaluating the, evaluating the investment, I did that very thing. And I was like, yeah, I’ll take Eagle rare every time, <laugh>. But, um, it is remarkably similar. And, and, um, and this is the dynamic that is changing is that Gen Y millennials and Gen Z are drinking less and less. They’re getting their buzz a little bit different way these days. <laugh>. Um, apparently when you’re on shrooms and I non-alcoholic cocktail, no, I’m just kidding.

Greg White (36:23):

Um, no, but, you know, but a lot of people are trying to moderate their drinking. A lot of people have quit drinking, but still want the social, or even the flavor experience of cocktails. In fact, the c e o, uh, Mylan Martin was in the ad game. He was at one of the biggest advertising agencies in the country, which if you’ve ever seen Mad Men, I mean, you know, you know, it’s lunch with a couple martinis and that kinda thing. And he just kind of tired of that. And yet, um, there, you know, the flavor aspect of it was very enticing to him. And the, um, and the social aspect of it, it’s almost reverse stigmatized, right? Where, you know, some people would look down their nose at people who do drink, people who do drink would look down their nose at somebody having a glass of water while everyone else is having a, you know, having a cocktail.

Greg White (37:14):

Right? So it allows you to both have that experience and, and be inside the cultural norms, uh, of, of anything. Um, and what, what has been found is that like our generation, gen X is also, um, taking a drink off, is what a lot of people call it. So, um, you know, they’ll have a couple Manhattans and then you can have a Free Spirits Manhattan, which I have had. And because, you know, it’s mixed, it, it tastes remarkably similar. And it’s, and it’s another way instead of, you know, having to take a timeout like the, what is that, A Crown Royal commercial, right. And drink a bottle of water, you, of course you should do that as well. Anyway, um, you know, I compulsively drink water <laugh>, but it allows you to kind of continue, continue enjoying without, um, you know, what overdoing it with the buzz mm-hmm.

Greg White (38:10):

And the buzz <laugh>. And, uh, and it’s been fascinating. The market is growing like crazy. Um, um, spirits are very hard to do, but, um, you know, the company’s been really diligent about making it a really, really good experience. So my, uh, a good example, my favorite tequila is clo rapto. They come in those really nice white bottles that look like a lamp. Yep. Um, and, um, the tequila, the free spirits tequila tastes remarkably like that. And in a margarita, you would never even know the difference because it even simulates the bite that you get from an alcoholic, alcoholic beverages. They use spices and active ingredients Hmm. Na natural ingredients too to, uh, to do that. And then the stuff is flooded with B vitamins and things like that to, you know, give you that ki the energy without the crash of a, of a depressant like alcohol is. Hmm. Um, so yeah, I mean, I have to tell you, I did not get it at first. Yeah. And there are a lot of people who don’t get it and I think there will be a lot of people who never get it. Um, but it’s kind, you know, it’s kind of fun to do every once in a while. Love it. Yeah. I mean, you don’t have to quit drinking, right, right. It’s just another way option. Yeah. It’s just another way

Scott Luton (39:31):

Healthy option.

Greg White (39:32):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (39:33):

Um, alright, so folks can learn more. Greg, the name of the company again is

Greg White (39:38):

Free Spirits. The Free Spirits Company. Free Spirits. Yeah. If you’re, I mean, if you wanna follow it on LinkedIn or social media, it’s usually T f SSC or the Free Spirits Company.

Scott Luton (39:49):

Okay. Awesome. We look forward to learning a lot more. I’ve gotta get a couple of bottles of, cuz they, they, from what I saw as you announced it made it public. They had, um, as I ventured over to the, the website, the, the various products that came with recipes, all this stuff hol from holiday drinks to you, you name it. Uh, yeah. So we’re gonna have to do some experimenting.

Greg White (40:09):

I think that’s a great idea. Then. Look, think about this. Anytime it’s cocktail time, right. You and I could just sit here and drink cocktails the whole time.

Scott Luton (40:18):

That’s right. Well, you know, as, as we’ve talked about, uh, maybe not on the show, but behind the scenes, uh, who is that famous, uh, member of the Rat Pack? Dean Martin? Yes. So it’s, I’ve read in a couple different places that it’s been rumored, you know, cuz he would do his routines, whether he was singing or doing standup comedy or whatever Yeah. With a small glass. And what most people assumed was he the burden, bourbon or whiskey or something like that. But it’s long been alleged that in many cases that was apple juice and it was just part of his act. How about that? So,

Greg White (40:52):

Uh, it is also true, and that is true in many cases, not in every case, <laugh>, my, uh, grandmother was a big Dean Martin fan, and she could verify from his breath that he was <laugh> talking to him at some Hinde or something like that. Um, um, but even the great David Lee Roth, when he would chug a bottle of Jack Daniels, uh, about half the time that was tea.

Scott Luton (41:18):

Interesting.

Greg White (41:19):

So

Scott Luton (41:20):

Interesting.

Greg White (41:21):

Um, yeah,

Scott Luton (41:22):

I bet that’s not the only interesting thing about David Lee Roth back in the days. I bet they could write some stories. I bet they have. No,

Greg White (41:28):

They have. Yeah.

Scott Luton (41:29):

<laugh>. All right. So Greg, man, a very efficient buzz today. Really great to have you back. Uh, we’ve got, uh, as we’ve laid, started to lay out, not only do we have, uh, big shows just around the corner, July, Greg July is jam packed. We’ve got a ton of, uh, live webinars and live, live streams that you’re not gonna wanna miss. And Greg, the easiest way for folks, and again, I’m gonna share this little, little, uh, tool here, the easiest way folks, to not miss any of this stuff, even if you can’t make the live event, if you sign up to be part of our Now community, you’ll be able to access on demand very easily, easily. And of course, also get the tools and resources that a lot of those shows offer from, uh, some of our partners there. So check it out. We dropped a link, uh, uh, for easy registration as part of the now community, and definitely wanna share that with all of y’all here, Greg. Uh, it’s easy to miss things, right? Uh, and it’s even easier to take advantage of little tools like this so you don’t miss, uh, things here at Supply Chain now, right?

Greg White (42:33):

Yeah. And I, I think what, um, you know, one of the things I think we ought to share, let’s share it now, Scott, is that one of the things we wanna do with this community is create valuable offerings and engagement opportunities for you. So, um, so this will get you informed so that you’re, you know, when we’re doing a show or when, you know, when we’ve got a sponsor, um, doing a webinar or anything like that, it, it, I assume, doesn’t it get you on the, with that said, yeah.

Greg White (43:02):

Yeah. I mean, and to me that’s worth, it’s worth it, that one thing, <laugh>. Um, but the other thing that that does is a a is as we build that community, we wanna build other offerings. So we’re gonna bring it, we’re gonna start doing some things that are in addition to the shows like research and analysis and, and, and possibly some more in-depth news. We’re gonna do some, um, educational things that we’ll share, some of which ultimately down the road will be only for our subscribers. Mm-hmm. Right? Um, but right now, uh, I mean, it’s a great opportunity to get connected with us and, um, just kind of follow us as we add some of these additional bits of information. Remember, remember, our goal is to, is to elevate the entire practice of supply chain and procurement and all of that. And so everything that we do going forward will be more than just the shows and more than just sharing the stories of people in the industry, but also the topics of the day like we do on this. Um, some of our opinions, which are not very strong, we don’t have very strong opinions at all. We, Scott, oh boy. Knowledge, expertise, that of some of the, you’ve seen many seen the exceptional practitioners through shows, um, and help impart knowledge to you. Or, you know, what, if there is something you’d like to see in terms of a community offering, please, please reach out.

Scott Luton (44:31):

Excellent. I’m glad you mentioned all of that. Uh, we are definitely entering an exciting new chapter where, just like you put it, it’s about lifting the, in the, the craft as we’ve used that word. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you used that word prior. Lifting the whole craft, doing industry, doing supply chain management, doing leadership better and not leaving anyone behind. So folks stay tuned for a lot more to come and, uh, again, the easy step is to join the now community so you don’t miss a thing. Okay. Greg, I got 1245. I’m fighting the urge to dive into seven or eight more things, but I gotta, I wanna touch on one thing before take off.

Greg White (45:10):

I was gonna say, I hope you pick one. Yeah,

Scott Luton (45:12):

Yeah. I’m gonna pick, I’m gonna pick one, actually, I’m gonna pick two. So Greg, uh, I’ve asked you this internally co you know, on our team call on Friday, you shared a little bit about this, but I don’t think you’ve had a chance to share with our, uh, our buzz and our supply chain now, global fam. What is one, uh, your, your pickier, either your favorite, one of your favorite ex uh, experiences as part of traveling and seeing, uh, Europe, uh, over the last month or so, or a tip, a suggestion for folks that may be gearing up for their own trip and maybe they’ve got something in their blind spot that you, uh, can share that would help them make, have a better experience? Your pick, Greg?

Greg White (45:53):

Uh, well, one, um, yeah, boy, uh, one thing is <laugh> embrace the, uh, vast, especially in Switzerland and Germany and France and Italy, embrace the vast, uh, transportation network. I mean, you, you can buy this thing for instance in Switzerland called Swiss Pass. And you, you wave, you know, you wave your pass, you can get onto, um, something as, as light as a bus or you can get on what’s called the Glacier Express, which is about an 800 round trip.

Scott Luton (46:30):

Wow.

Greg White (46:30):

And, and that’s paid for. So I got a 15 day ticket, it was like 400 or 500 bucks. Um, and, and I probably saved $2,000 doing that. Wow. Um, and some of these, they’re called panoramic trains in Switzerland. So the windows go all the way into the roof and you just ride around, literally. Look, you can look at glaciers and lakes and rivers. They take incredibly scenic roots. Um, don’t miss that, particularly in Switzerland and northern Italy and, um, the east side of France, I can only speak to those from this trip because of that. Hmm. Um, so embrace that. The other is be prepared for, um, be prepared for two things. Cigarette smoke, <laugh>, they still smoke in incredibly, I cannot believe it, but they still smoke so incredibly in, in particularly Germanic countries, but all over Europe. Hmm. So be prepared for that.

Greg White (47:33):

That will be one of your most lasting memories. And every city will have dozens of cranes. You gotta remember, a lot of these buildings were built a thousand or 2000 years ago, and there is always something under construction. So, um, you’ll have to take your pictures judiciously. Right. And, and a good editing package to cut those, you know, some of those cranes out will be good, but you cannot overestimate the beauty of the Alps. Mm. And the, um, overwhelming vastness, hugeness of glaciers. So we went to the Matterhorn, uh, which is, uh, near Erma Switzerland and walked into a glacier. And we were millions of years below the top. I mean, that’s the way they said it. <laugh>, right. Cause the, the stuff on the bottom where we were walking ha had obviously been being packed down for millions of years. So, um, and, and, and you know, as they tell you this, fortunately you’re walking out, when they told us this, you’re below about three or 400 feet of ice and snow in some of these glaciers. So we weren’t even on the top peak, the Matterhorn at, um, you know, at that point we were in a glacier at the kind of the next peak down. Um, and it, uh, when they tell you that you’re glad you’re on the way out.

Scott Luton (48:59):

I bet, man. But it’s,

Greg White (49:02):

It is truly amazing. And it is, um, the higher you get. So we got to about 13,000 feet. The higher you get, the more it looks like another planet as you’re kinda seeing the landscape. Um, and you can see the constant shifting of the land up there. Even these giant mountains have huge boulders and small pebbles and everything in between on the way up because they are constantly being, you know, hit by rain and snow and wind and heat and, and all of that sort of thing. And even these giant stones, right. Sticking out of the ground, uh, are eroded and um, and broken apart and, you know, in various places. Man, it’s just fascinating to see. Fascinating.

Scott Luton (49:46):

Wow. Okay. So stay tuned for a lot more from Greg’s journey, but great to have you back. Greg. Really enjoyed the buzz here today. Yeah. Uh, looking forward to good. Get a good buzz. Uh, looking forward to, uh, <laugh>. A very busy, very busy, uh, next five weeks in particular. And I bet August isn’t gonna slow down much. So folks, stay tuned. We great to have y’all to be part of this journey and look forward to sharing a lot more, um, really in inspiring, helpful, uh, thought leadership and our practitioner perspective and expertise in the weeks around the corner. Alright. So big thanks to all of y’all for joining up today. Uh, thanks for all that you submitted and, and shared. Big thanks to Catherine and Amanda for helping to make, uh, production happen day in and day out. Greg, always a pleasure.

Greg White (50:37):

Likewise. Yeah, it’s good to

Scott Luton (50:38):

Be back. It is good to be back. Great to have you back. But folks, hey, take something shared here today. Put it into action, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> deeds, not words. And on behalf of our entire team here at Supply Chain now, Scott Luton challenging you to do good, to give forward and to be the change. And we’ll see you next time, right back here at Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.

Greg White (50:59):

Thanks

Intro/Outro (50:59):

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