March 16, 2025 • 40 mins
When we sat down with Jeff Clapper, President and CEO of 8th & Walton, we knew we'd get insights on supplier training – but our conversation revealed something much more profound about the evolving retail landscape.
From its origins teaching suppliers about Walmart's culture and systems to today's comprehensive support services, 8th & Walton has witnessed and adapted to dramatic shifts in what suppliers need to succeed. Jeff shares how the organization now balances urgent operational training with strategic education that prevents problems before they occur.
The transition from legacy data systems like DSS to new platforms like Scintilla represents both challenge and opportunity. While these systems offer unprecedented visibility into consumer behavior, they demand constant learning from suppliers who can't afford to fall behind. As Jeff aptly describes, success requires being an "aggressive student" of retail – recognizing that yesterday's expertise quickly becomes obsolete in this fast-moving environment.
Jeff shares about 8th Walton's journey to becoming a certified B Corporation, demonstrating that business growth and positive impact aren't mutually exclusive. Jeff's perspective on "scaling values" rather than just scaling revenue offers a refreshing counterpoint to traditional retail metrics. This philosophy aligns perfectly with the emerging trend of consumers preferring brands that demonstrate ethical practices and sustainability.
The conversation culminates with Jeff's preview of the upcoming "Consumer Impact" event in Bentonville, bringing together impact-minded brands to share best practices in sustainable retail. It's a tangible example of how the supplier community is evolving beyond transactions to create meaningful change.
Whether you're a seasoned Walmart supplier or just beginning your retail journey, this episode offers valuable perspective on navigating today's complex retail environment while building a business that makes a positive difference.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello and welcome to the Retail Journey podcast.
I'm one of your hosts, charlesGreathouse.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And I am James Harris , and today we're talking to
Jeff Clapper.
Jeff is the president and CEOof 8th Walton, and 8th Walton is
a supplier educationorganization.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
That's right, all right.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Thanks for having me.
Welcome to the retail journey.
Yeah, glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Thanks guys.
Yeah, jeff, first question.
So where is 8th Walton located?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I just got to know.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, you know that's an excellent question.
There's actually a buildingthat kindly branded at the
intersection of 8th and Waltonand people assume that is where
we are.
In fact we're at the Ledger indowntown Bentonville now.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Perfect, so not 8th and Walton.
So if you're looking for Jeffand you're at 8th and Walton, if
it's signed 8th and Walton andyou're inside, then you know
you're at the Ledger.
If you happen to be at theintersection of those streets,
you're not, but historicallypretty close to that's right.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
yeah, in fact we we used to have some, you know,
kind of collaborative stuff andyou know where the office was
for many years and it was just ablock away from there and we
would occasionally get a callfrom someone who's like I'm at
eighth and walton so where areyou?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
where are you?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
like you're, you're very close but you're not close.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I can't remember if you were there yet um when I was
doing, but I used to lease,sublease space from eighth and
walton, my first office was wasin eighth and walton, long
history, long, long time.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And you're the significant uh retailer located
at eighth and walton today.
But I believe, yeah, uh, theannouncement is actually
happening to the day of thisrecording of the official
opening of the new home officecampus.
So is there a rebrand of fifthand jay?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
no, yeah, you know, we've talked about it and
thought about it.
There's there.
We've spent a lot of timebuilding a great brand around
the name and uh.
So it'll be like an easter egg.
You know, if you know, you knowif you know, you know where the
name?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
that's great.
Well, and a lot of what you donow is virtual, is it not?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
yeah, yeah so much of our training is through zoom,
uh and and virtual and uh.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It's worked out really well for the whole team
so, and I know aethon walton hasbeen around for a long time.
Probably a lot of locals knowwhat it is.
But assuming they don't, orthere's somebody listening from
out of town what?
What is aethon walton?
What has it been historically?
What are you moving into?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it started off.
You know, like you said, earlyon, education for Walmart
suppliers.
So anybody who had businesswith Walmart and you know the
history, you know this as wellas why don't you answer James?
No, yeah.
So it started off.
A couple of people recognizethat Walmart suppliers needed to
(02:45):
know more about working withWalmart and being a successful
partner and collaborator withthe company, and so they started
off teaching things likehistory and values and culture
how do you be a good supplier byknowing that customer and how
they think and operate and thenpretty quickly recognized a
little bit more tactically, butreally important was just to
understand the systems, the datathat was available and teaching
(03:07):
the team.
So, you know, going back almost20 years ago, a lot of those
suppliers just needed to learnyou know how do I get sales data
, supply chain data, all of thatand so it was early on.
It was Retail Inc and DSS andsome of those systems and then
Pour one out for DSS.
Yeah, exactly Another yeahexactly another, yeah, another,
(03:28):
uh, another bygone system.
So, um, you know, and I alwayssay, like that's really to
walmart's credit, they're sodynamic, they continue to evolve
and grow, and they're they'rethey're never like resting on
their laurels what's worked inthe past, let's continue to
improve, you know.
And so that means suppliers arealong for that ride also
charles shares this all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
The dss was probably one of the major unlocks that
made walmart a national grocer.
Yeah, uh, just the sharing ofthat data in near real time.
Yeah, it was really far aheadof its time when it was
developed and launchedabsolutely, and now with uh
scintilla from that dataventures group.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You've got digital landscapes, you've got some
insight activation, you've gotshopper behavior.
These are insights and datacapabilities that have been
completely unavailable to theretail network in the past.
So I'm excited to see how thatushers in the next era of data
(04:27):
utilization in this space.
You know, to be acoast-to-coast grocer was the
unknown, unprecedented thing ofthe 90s that Walmart
accomplished, you know, here in2025, that next unknown,
unprecedented thing.
I'm excited to see how thatdata plays a significant role.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
No, that's cool, that's right on.
Sometimes I think of thecomparison to Google selling
advertising and that obviouslyhas been its core product for a
long time.
And they said, hey, if weprovide great analytics and
great data and essentially makeit free and we show people that
when you put a dollar in thisend of the machine in
advertising and it produces $10in sales over here, that's a
(05:09):
good thing.
If we could spend you knowthat's a good spend and you know
you'll feel encouraged,compelled, to spend more of that
.
That's a good ROI.
But again they made the dataand the analytics free.
So that you could justifyspending the advertising, and I
think it's going to beinteresting to see how it shakes
out with the strategy of we'regoing to monetize the ads and
the data you know like.
Where will that shake out?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, even the free data is improved
with the basic stuff as well.
But yeah, behind that chartersubscription is a whole
different level of unlock thatin the past wasn't available at
all.
The super large cpgs tend toget a little bit closer to it by
(05:54):
combining all of the differentavailable resources in the
market, but the mid-tier andsmaller have never been able to,
and I actually think thatthere's a significant unlock for
them when it comes to arelatively nominal investment
with Walmart to get charter data.
That gives you a very deep,very rich perspective on your
(06:15):
customer, how they're evolving,how people are finding you
online, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And if a supplier does have a campaign on Walmart
Connect, there actually is quitea bit of free data that comes
along with that.
Very similar to the Googlemodel.
You just get a lot more if youincorporate charter in with it.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
No, but I think your point's well made.
There's a very new wave of thisdata use of decision.
Retail media, frankly, 10 yearsago was an edge case.
It is a fundamental core of CPGtoday.
(06:56):
So to think what's 10 yearsfrom now look like is a fun
thought exercise.
We're not going to take thewhole journey today.
You can't see that far into thefuture.
The retail journey, you know,is one that involves right now
and about the next 18 months.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
And a few minutes along the way, but this podcast
is not going to go for a full 18months.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
No, I mean the three of us.
Yeah, the three of us sittinghere.
Yeah, we'll have to circle backin 18 months and see where we
were right.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, I like that.
Yeah, yeah.
So that's.
We talked a little bit aboutwhat where 8-1-1 came from.
Where are you today?
What's new, what's different?
If somebody was familiar with,maybe 10 years ago, what the
training options were.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
What's a reintroduction for them today?
Yeah, I mean, we still offer alot of training to a lot of
suppliers, particularly whenthey're and at this point this
is many suppliers, are they'reand at this point this is many
suppliers they'rewell-established with Walmart at
this point, so they know wehave these people in these roles
and here are topics or classesthat are going to be relevant
and helpful to the people inthose desks, on those desks.
And then the other thing that'skind of evolved from just the
(07:58):
last several years now is justrecognizing that some suppliers
are either it's amazing, youguys know this well too.
There are some suppliers Iwould consider large companies
$100 million, $200 million ayear in revenue just from
Walmart, and no one has Walmarton their business card at that
company.
They're successful, they'vebeen in for decades, but to have
(08:22):
a little bit more expertise orguidance or instruction on how
to support Walmart as a customercould go a long way for a
company of that size.
And so that's one example.
And then on the other side ofit, sometimes we're hearing from
a company where it's maybe thepresident or VP of sales.
They just got a yes and ofcourse that's an exciting time,
and then they're all like oh,shoot Now what do we do?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
What does this mean?
Yeah, yeah, like the third wisequestion to ask.
Usually, you end up finding outwhat it means and where your
assumptions were wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, it's good to be proactive.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's right yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
And you know, I'm sure in what you guys do it's
like well, better to addressthis earlier than later.
It's been interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
The full service brokerage side of high impact
analytics is only a couple ofyears old.
It's becoming the largestportion of our business.
I think it's because we'vefocused so long on those things
that are just tactical rubber onthe road.
Very good at setting items upthe way that they're supposed to
be.
Very good at stewardinginventory management, seeing
(09:27):
when something's going to be outbefore it's out, seeing where
inventory is not flowing throughfulfillment centers or DCs
where it's supposed to be.
In this digital world, all thecontent scores that need to be
in place for a customer to evenfind your item page, let alone
convert on that item page.
All of these different aspectsare just very fundamental that
(09:48):
keep changing, keep evolving andthey have to be there for your
sales team to be successful.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Table stakes.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
You can enter and get by, but we're more about the
thrive.
What's it take to actually be areally good partner to your
merchant?
What's it take to be able to umsustain everyday low cost in a
way that uh allows you to helpWalmart continue to deliver
(10:19):
against everyday low price?
And that takes some foresight.
That takes planning.
It takes intentional costremoval through your entire
network.
There's been a lot more timespent upstream, coaching
manufacturers through where theyhave waste and they need to
(10:40):
remove that waste, than I feellike there was in years past.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
One of our core messages is that year two in
distribution is harder than yearone and year three is harder
than both of them combined.
If you're going to continue togrow not only your brand, but
the category that you're in,which is the ultimate goal.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
The category is the thing that matters, not just
whether or not your item is onthe shelf.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Of course that's something anybody who's selling
a thing wants their thing.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Walmart, the most effective retail platform on the
planet, but to stay there, yougot to be doing something with
the merchant stewards, which iscustomer trust.
And what's happening to thecategory yeah A company?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
we've worked with for several years uh, their head of
sales has a great uh, has agreat metaphor for what you've
just said, which is it's not abaseball game where you're
guaranteed nine innings.
It's a boxing match, you know,and you could drop at the end of
the first round I like that.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, isn't that great.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, right, yeah, and you describe that first you
think, oh wow, the work is done.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
He knows no, it's not , you're just more tired.
Yeah, you're both sweatingalready.
Yeah, you got some blood.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, oh gosh yeah, I don't think it's as abusive of
a relationship, as that metaphoralways breaks somewhere.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
The work is definitely yeah yeah, that's
great.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, you got to keep fighting, you got to keep
working for it.
Yeah, well, what are some ofthe topics when it comes to
training that you're seeing ahigh awareness of, and people
you know pulling down the doorlike we got it, we got to have
this.
And then perhaps are there somewhere there seems to be a low
awareness but a high need.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah, you know, I think, a couple different
questions in there or topics.
You know, one that isconsistently, you know, of need
is hey, my CFO just called.
We're getting all kinds ofdeductions.
Help us figure this out.
And so here are some classesthat are going to help you
understand the cause and reallyget to that.
(12:35):
And what I like about theapproach on all of this, in
terms of just teaching andtrying to help problem solve, is
, like you know, try to get tothe root cause.
We don't want you to just haveto take aspirin the rest of your
life.
If you can avoid it, let'sfigure out why it's happening.
So, whether it's on aconsultative basis or on a
training basis, really trying tohelp you understand what's
behind these charges ordeductions so that you don't
(12:56):
have to keep fighting them inperpetuity.
That's not always avoidable.
There are certain things thatare part of how it works, but
sometimes there are some keythings you can unlock.
Then it's like, oh, thesedeductions have gone away.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, um, so that's always fun yeah, um, it's much
easier to prevent one than toget it back.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, we just talked about cutting costs out of the
system and that, yeah, that is,that is a way you don't need to
bear that expense.
Let's right, let's get it rightthe first time, right, right
yeah, and so those are.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
That's a common topic still, um, of course.
Uh, illuminate a lot ofsuppliers just trying to figure
out.
Okay, what happened to dss.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I did this for years and you know we're a.
We're a blast from the pastright now, because this is being
recorded in january, where itis still that, but it's
scintilla by the time thisepisode releases.
Thank you, yes, I got you righton the cusp.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I appreciate the nod.
Speaking to the future, yeah,right, okay, well, no, I'm glad
you mentioned that.
So Scintilla, formerly known asformerly known as, yes, yeah,
so that's.
Another key topic is justunderstanding supply.
You know, for suppliers tocontinue to be good partners,
they have to have the data thatthey you know Walmart has
(14:03):
provided, and so so, helpingthem understand new systems and
how to use it, that's animportant topic.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Still, it's a very new platform very new data on
the charter side and the basicside.
It's kind of new, but certainlythe way you access it is new.
Dss wasn't new.
It's very much the same and yetyou were still doing training
for DSS.
Do you expect there to be anend for the need for it for
(14:32):
training for scintilla?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
well, I mean, I'm in my head.
I have, like my pre-teen, youknow, kind of flip answer which
would well have suppliersstopped hiring new people who
have never worked on new people,of course yeah, there's always
some churn supplier teams shift,someone leaves, someone new
comes in, someone gets promoted,whatever.
It is a wonderful career path,which means it's a step.
Yeah, and the new person we hadwe had someone who consistently
(14:58):
bought a block of training fromus every year for his team.
You know this was a well-knownbrand and he said every time I
get a new person on my team, Isay congratulations, you just
won a trip to take severalclasses with Ethan Watson.
Nice, because it was, like yousaid, a new person on the team.
Someone got promoted, movedaway, whatever it was.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
When you think about it, organizations can only do so
many things.
Well, right.
So a brand company or a privatebrand company, they're going to
do that really well it doesn'tmean they're good at training
for basic skills.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
That's exactly it.
They're not.
I mean, and they probably havesome good HR people, but even
there, those HR people are notnecessarily Walmart experts, or
they have some really capable,knowledgeable Walmart people,
but they're busy doing their dayjob.
How much time can I take?
Furthermore, can I give thatperson a consistent
understanding?
Is it?
Are we going to teach them Athrough Z?
Are we just going to kind ofspot check certain things that I
(15:50):
happen to know and am Iteaching them the right stuff?
Am I teaching them bad habits?
All of that Right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
That's for the relevance of it.
Yeah, I like that as a way ofstewarding a cohesive training
program with Dave and Walton.
What are some of the thingsthat people should probably be
spending more time on training?
And you see the results fromthose that see it.
But, aren't commonly first ofmind.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, from those that see it um, um, commonly, first
of mine, yeah, you know, I thinkone of the things we talk about
with suppliers and and this isyou know, they're sort of like
what should you learn?
And then, what do you think youwant to learn?
And I mean from anentrepreneurial, entrepreneurial
perspective.
You're always kind of like,well, this would be in your best
interest, but you have asked meabout deductions, so that's
what I'm going to offer you, andso your question is a great one
.
I mean, there are topics youknow, you guys are probably
(16:43):
familiar with, like importantversus urgent yep and there are
some topics retail airs on theurgent exactly all day, every
day exactly, and so, in terms ofdemand for what we teach, it's
almost always an urgent issueand I'm like if we could have
taught you how to set your itemsup correctly on the front side,
we wouldn't be having tourgently teach you about how to
fix it.
Yeah, so you know, I think, uh,I think that I come back around
(17:07):
to the question.
I think, um, that is anythingthat we would say that's
important.
Um, it's just a lot tougher tosell those classes, frankly,
because people are like, yeah,yeah, yeah, I know that's
important, but right now, do itone day.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, what about in the omni or digital space?
Are you guys doing much in thatrealm?
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yes, it is that definitely leans more towards
and you guys know this well, I'msure.
It's such a wide and variablespace right now and so it's.
It doesn't lend itself a coupleof factors.
It doesn't lend itself as wellto training on a system like
like Scintilla and I've caughtmyself where it.
(17:49):
You know it is, that platformis changing consistently but
it's kind of headed down a path,but it's so much more sort of
dynamic and meandering, and soyou know, from one month to the
next that class could take atotally different direction.
And we just told someone thatyou're going to learn these
things in this class and thenthe next month, actually, what
you need to know, these thingshave changed.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And because the content score guides are
different by category, they getupdated.
The algorithm gets updatedmultiple times a year.
There's a lot of factors.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Available tools to drive growth with Walmart
Connect are constantly evolving,growing, and which ones work
really well, frankly, evolvewith that and all of that speaks
to the value of what you all doand I think, anybody who's here
being an aggressive student ofWalmart that can provide that
value back to a supplier.
(18:37):
That's really important.
You know and you know.
And then, to your detriment, ifsomeone left a career with a
supplier or with Walmart andsaid I know this thing and I
don't have to keep studying it,you did, yeah, you did.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
You did know last week.
I love that An aggressivestudent.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
That's what.
That's the language we useinternally.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
That's the word right there, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Progressive student.
That's the language we useinternally.
That's the word right there.
We have specific meetings everyweek to talk about.
What are you learning right now?
To make sure we're continuouslylearning about Walmart, because
we've got and same with you all.
You've people who've done thisfor a long time, but in two
weeks that could be totallyirrelevant.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Not only could it be it happens At an almost alarming
rate as things keep evolving.
We've got new systems we werejust talking about one of the
private brand systems forsubmitting all of these details
and it takes a lot of.
There's a lot of nuance, calledpro spec, and there's a new
system coming within the nextsix months.
(19:35):
So it's okay great.
We definitely need to know howto do this, and soon.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
We won't need to know at all.
It's going to be a brand newsystem, right?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
right.
And guess what?
On day one in the new system wewill need to be proficient.
Yeah, because it's the systemyou get to use there's not an
overlap period, and so there isdefinitely a language of Walmart
systems that we've found.
So we find we're pretty fast atinterpreting and you kind of
(20:04):
block off that week and you sendat least one person to go
entirely deep.
Your job this week is let's gofind out, document, help each
other, and then we learn.
We call it the hive here.
That's our hive mindset, whereone person is an expert first,
and then there's a few, and thenwe all have that skill set in
(20:24):
our toolbox.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
That's good.
Yeah, it's really important,yeah, and if you don't do that,
I think you guys could probablyappreciate.
Also, frankly, when thingschange, sometimes you have more
notice or chance to prepare andsometimes you don't, and then we
end up looking like jerks,honestly, where someone on the
outside is like I thought youguys knew this stuff and you're
like, well, it just changed 20minutes ago.
(20:46):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Well, it's fun Kind of our histories.
Here You're telling James likeyou know this James because,
James has quite a bit of history, with 8th Walton helping
develop some retail.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It was a major launching hub for me.
When I started the business,first I was employed and I kind
of did it for about a year and Ibuilt up three clients and then
met the original founders of8th Walton and they said, well,
we need a trainer and we needsome content written and we need
some.
I said, all right, I add thesetogether, I can step out.
And then we had a referral.
(21:20):
So probably my next 10, 12.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So a huge part of you quitting your day job, so to
speak.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
And high impact happening 8th and.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Walton, the origin story.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
We still have clients that I met in an 8th and Walton
training in 2010.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
That's awesome, that is so cool, which I love that
you know the the retail linkneed from a training perspective
and this sort of constantchanging.
I also have experienced thereality of retail link
constantly training.
I used to train all of theincoming merchants, whether it's
I did some internship programtraining, I did some MBA program
(21:58):
, but the it's been through alot of different names but the
buyer training program, merchanttraining program, merchant
leadership program there's adozen more examples.
But I did retailing trainingand I remember showing up one
time to teach how to use RetailInc I'm the expert here and it
was the day they did a majorupdate on Retail Inc and so the
(22:23):
screen was entirely differentthan it was the day before when,
I did my final prep I was like,all right, yeah, we're ready
for the training tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
We have some facilitators Sure enough?
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Nope, not today.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
We have some team members who I'm sure can share
your pain on that.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
And it's always more intuitive eventually.
Eventually, you land on like,okay, I see what you did there,
but in front of a room of 30 newin their career associates.
It's a little bit more likeImagine if they paid to be there
, that would hit me, that's true.
Like Imagine, if they paid tobe there, that would hit me
sometimes.
That's true.
They didn't pay me anything tobe there.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Be in a room as the only instructor.
20, sometimes 30 people.
And about half of it was walkingaround while people.
I'm a hands-on learner believer.
You learn more doing thanthinking and I'd have to catch
myself every single time whensomebody would ask a question
Maybe I didn't understand theway they were saying it, or
(23:19):
maybe it was just a new thingand I'd open my mouth to say I
don't know, and that's somethingyou can't really say when
somebody's paying for you totell them, like you're supposed
to know, you're supposed to knowthat's true.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, you know it's such a good point and that
actually that exact phrase issomething we talk about on our
team also, because back to beinglike an aggressive learner or
student like you can't learnuntil you say I don't know, yeah
, yeah, right.
So the first step of learningis just to say I don't know, I
knew, I didn't know, but I justwasn't going to vocalize that in
the you know, yeah, yeah.
(23:51):
And then and then, at the sametime, you know you're there,
you're building trust with yourstudents or whoever you're
working with, and part of trustis to say, like I have
limitations, this is somethingnew and I need to learn it.
It's like, oh, but you've paidme to have this knowledge.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
It would have been a little insecurity of me in my
20s too.
That's just honest.
So I believe you all are doingmore in the consultative realm.
Um, you want to share a littlebit about that.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, kind of touched on it a bit, but
but really, like I said, umfocusing on behind the scenes.
So we're not, uh, you know,like repping, brokering,
anything like that.
It's companies that havebusiness with Walmart already.
It could be for many, manyyears, it could be just new Um,
but trying still in the, in the,in the through the lens of
(24:38):
education.
So we're glad to show you whatwe're doing, how we're doing it
at any point, and sometimes itjust makes sense in their
business to say like, can youguys do this for a little while
until, um, until we have people?
in place or we have more clarityon who's going to do what we.
We don't want to mess up ordrop the ball for Walmart.
Ultimately, we want to do thisourselves, and so you know, it's
kind of an in-between solutionthere.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I feel like that makes sense, especially when we
talked about a training topicthat someone really needs, but
they don't know that they need.
It's helpful to be able to bein a position to articulate why
you need it, without simplybeing the one selling the
training Spot on.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, 100%, you know, and one of the things like what
that we've done for many yearsis just kind of a Q and A
service.
It's very light and it's likeit's a hotline, basically, and
it's like hey, I'm stuck, Ican't figure this out.
You got to talk to somebody,yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yeah, it's like otherwise you're spiraling by
yourself Counseling.
Yeah, I'm wondering why it'sticking.
If it's only you, I can't tellyou how many times there's just
uh.
There's a slack channel.
We have called I actually needhelp and it is used every week
and every day.
Their uh systems just go down,yeah, and then come back up, but
(25:49):
when it's down and you don'tknow that it's down, yeah it's
your fault yeah but then whenyou know that, okay, it's down
for everyone, right, deep breath, move on about your day, find
something else to do to beproductive and move on.
So I love a hotline, so yeahyeah, it's, it's so true and
it's.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
You know, sometimes we're talking to a supplier and
saying it's not just you, yeahyeah, sometimes there's a lot of
comfort in hearing thatsometimes, yeah, you can.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You can read the body language it's exactly that, so
a little bit of a pivot here.
Aethon Walton is a B Corp.
Yeah, do you want to explainwhat that is to us?
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Sure, Thank you, I love talking about this.
So, yeah, we got certified.
We're in our third year as a BCorp.
At the time we were only thesecond B Corp in all of Arkansas
and it's a designation.
It's a rigorous screeningprocess.
(26:45):
The short I can't.
I'm going to force myself totalk about it briefly.
Essentially, it's like usingbusiness as a force for good.
So you know, we still have todo all the things that any
business does to be viableRevenue, profit, take care of
your team, that kind of thing.
You have to deliver a productat a value or whatever, and we
have certain requirements onourselves.
And there's a nonprofit bodythat certifies B Corps called B
(27:08):
Lab, and so we have to meetcertain standards.
We went through a 200 questionscreening process.
Then we had to back up and showeverything that we checked the
box for Like, yeah, exactly, Dowe have a good policy for
maternity leave or parentalleave?
How do we take care of benefits,transparency with our team,
(27:30):
environmental impact?
If we were a product company,it could be ethical sourcing.
It really kind of runs thespread.
As a, you know, less physicalbusiness, it's a little bit
easier in some respects, but atthe end of the day.
It's just like are we reallytrying to use our business to do
more than just make money?
Can we do that, and do that ina way that has a positive impact
(27:51):
on the broader community?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Well, you're definitely on the front edge of
that, being the second companyin the state.
Do you know how many B Corpsthere are in Arkansas?
Now, I know there are.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I do know there are several working towards it.
It's rigorous.
I mean, it was a full year oflike a pretty, you know,
intentional effort to get tothat.
You fill out this questionnaireand you have to get all of the
documentation lined up and then,once they pick up your
application and say like we'reactually ready to review this,
(28:23):
Um, then we go back and forth.
They say we need more detail onthis.
Uh, you know, one of the piecesis we give a sizable amount of
our of our money to nonprofitsand charities.
Um, so you're just backing allthat up.
There's a lot of back and forth.
It's an audit.
They actually call it an audit.
It's friendly, but it's anaudit.
Can any audit be friendly?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
No, so it's rigorous and I know there are several
other companies going throughthat effort now and yeah, you
know, one of the other funthings is just kind of building
more of the community around thebig corp space.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Well, I mean, you're clearly passionate about the
using business for good.
Do you have an event coming uppretty?
Soon, that's kind of that sametheme I do.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, no, I, you know , and I think for a lot of it, I
think you guys are probablyhave a similar mindset and sort
of your hearts are in the sameplace, like, okay, I want to
take care of my family, I wantto take care of the team here,
but like, can we do more?
Yeah, then just take home apaycheck.
That's good, right, and we haveto do that.
That's necessary that'snecessary and good, but like,
can we also try to do more?
(29:25):
Because you know life is shortand we're only here once, yeah,
yeah.
So that that was kind of thedriver.
For me is like, okay, what canwe?
Can we do more than just takehome money?
Yeah, Um, and the event thatwe're building is actually going
to be here at the ledger inBentonville in September and
we're pulling together uh impactminded, uh product companies.
They may be B corps, they maynot be um brands that you would
(29:48):
know that are B corp uh Cabot,Danone, uh Nespresso, uh, Danone
, Nespresso, Vital Farms,Tillamook.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
If you see a, b with a circle on it, it's not a
product.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
And really the idea is for change to happen, for
positive environmental changeand ethical practices and all of
that.
We really believe that thechange happens where consumers
make a choice, like am I goingto buy flour from the guy who
treats his employees likegarbage or am I going to buy it
from the guy who I know takescare of his people?
(30:22):
And if I see those two thingssitting next to each other on
the shelf and I'm like you knowwhat?
The prices are pretty close andthis guy's like I know that he
cares about his people that isgoing to affect my change or to
impact my choice, and so butit's harder to do that, like we
said, because you have to make aprofit and do these things.
And so the idea is we want togive all those B Corp kinds of
(30:44):
companies or impact-mindedcompanies a space to connect
with each other and learn fromeach other.
We changed our packaging.
How did that go?
What went well, what didn't?
We changed our sourcing toreduce concerns of bad labor
practices.
Some things went well, somethings didn't but learning from
each other, creating an eventwhere they can learn from each
other.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
And there's a, there's a inclination maybe to
say about that, like running abusiness that doesn't fail is
hard enough.
Yes, this is all extra.
Yes, and our, our last podcast,um, uh, the guest reminded us
that, uh, that, uh, culture,each strategy for breakfast.
So if your people feel like I'mdoing something that, yeah,
I've got to do, I've got toprovide for my family, I've got
(31:25):
to pay my rent, my mortgage, butI'm also contributing to
something that's larger than me,larger than 100%, that starts
to build its own momentum, thatmaybe takes away some of the
extra effort or the pain Forsure.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
I saw a real.
This has really stuck with me,uh, in a book and it was about
there's so much discussion likehow do I scale up this business?
You know again like I've gotthis idea, I'm gonna get money,
I'm building the business andit's all about like growing the
scaling's, the new synergy it'slike yeah, yeah, and it's like
scale, scale too much and andand the.
Just the nugget that has stuckwith me was like how do you
scale, scale values?
(32:03):
And I was like that is a muchharder and more important and
more valuable question.
Frankly, you know, I mean 30years from now, what is high
impact going to look like?
I think that comes down to yourability to scale the values of
the organization, not just therevenue or the profit.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
We talk about that all the time in leadership
meetings.
This week we did a quarterlymeeting.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
We used the entrepreneurial operating system
EOS to help organize and keepthings in structure, and part of
that is a 10-year vision, andwe actually talked about why we
intentionally removed a dollartarget.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Because what we?
Speaker 1 (32:40):
care more about is who we're becoming, not the
revenue associated with it.
If we're doing these things, ifwe are a premier destination
for suppliers to come alongsidewith high impact to thrive at
Walmart and Sam's Club, therevenue will take care of itself
.
If we're creating value, that'sa non-issue.
(33:01):
And frankly our focus isn't justtrying to hit a dollar, it's
it's the impact, and oursactually states with a positive
impact on the local and globalcommunity, because we're moving
further upstream into a lot ofthese manufacturers, as there's
opportunities for walmart towork more directly with these
manufacturers.
(33:21):
We're finding those that dotreat their people.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah that's really cool.
It's very different um I, Ihave to say you know again kind
of candidly for the last severalyears, and we use something
very I mean it is eos.
But just like if you, if Icalled in and adapted yeah, if I
called in an actual eos person.
I'd be like that is an insult,but no, but it's.
I mean I read the book and somuch good stuff and so we've
(33:44):
implemented like 95 of it, butanyway I like the, uh, the
disclosure, yeah, yeah but forfor several years, like kind of
my own 10-year thing, has nothad numbers and and it's kind of
like, oh, it's bugged me.
And it's interesting to hear yousay that.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
You've come at it the other way and said, no,
actually we've intentionallyleft that out this time yeah
right, I mean I don't think weever wanted our the, the vision,
to be a dollar amount, right,but it is a principle of eos
that your 10-year target is adollar right so now we're at 99
implemented.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
That's funny you know , I think it somehow it like is
it more inspiring to have a hardnumber or less?
I mean, yeah, budget cycle.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, there are folks out there, merchants out there,
that are going to fight as hardas they can to get a number as
low as possible so that they areable to, as deeply as possible,
(34:52):
guarantee success of gettingover that number.
I was the opposite kind ofmerchant where it's like great,
yeah, bring it on.
Um, oh, we need to hit more.
Yeah, bring it on and bring someresources with it yeah, I'm
gonna remember this when we havea feature discussion.
Uh, for the next quarter, I gota couple ideas.
I've been noodling how isfuture charles gonna lap this?
(35:13):
I don't know.
I feel like he's pretty smart.
He's gonna figure it out.
Current charles can't worryabout it.
Let's let future charles figureout how to lap this budget
number.
And I always went for the likelet's, let's just go now.
Whether or not that was goodfor my, my soul, I don't know.
Yeah, have I made more eyecontact with other humans in the
(35:36):
more recent years?
Maybe, but I do think there's a.
There's a level of callingyourself to a higher standard
and in environments where thenumbers are the key driver of
that, then call yourself up.
It's public.
It was in a news article.
Creighton Kuiper, who is nowleading Home, said that he's
(36:00):
going to double the homebusiness.
To double the home businessLike you don't go and say you're
going to double an entiredivision of Walmart without a
pretty deep conviction and thetenacity to say and I'm pretty
sure the article said it like no, we don't.
It's like we have the exactplan, but this is not going to
(36:20):
happen if we don't go set amarker out there that says it's
important.
I think it's the same as the jetacquisition for Walmart.
Is e-commerce worth a $3.2billion acquisition?
I don't know, but we're goingto go find out and we're serious
about it, and I think that thatwas a huge moment in what is
(36:42):
now becoming a huge part of ofthe business at Walmart.
So I think I'm not anti numberin any way.
I love numbers.
I'm a data nerd, but it's lessabout the, the data itself.
It's about empowering decisions.
It's about bringing the rightthing when you show up and then,
(37:02):
at the end of the day, you havethe psychological safety to go
fail fast, to fail forward, tolearn as you are progressing
towards an objective thatrequires something a bit beyond
yourself.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah, yeah, sorry so, speaking of failing, we're
about there on time so we'regonna, we're gonna get to the
lightning.
And the first question isbiggest failure that you've
learned the most from?
That is maybe made you who youare today in some way.
Oh my gosh.
And we can stay with business,we don't have to.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Oh my gosh, yeah, then we'd need a lot of
lightning In marriage.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
You might want to lay down Family Right, right, right
.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Man, even in business , I feel like you can learn so
much from the failures.
They're so painful, it's awful,but, um, you know, we, we
really uh.
Several years ago we tried togrow the business really
aggressively and and I was justuh, I was, I was young and my
ego got the better of me and,like you were talking about, who
cares what I'm going to have toanniversary next year, and I
(38:11):
think for me just a little bitmore sensibility about growing
the business.
This ties back to a lot of whatwe were talking about Growing
the business to be what I wantit to be and not letting my ego
(38:32):
drive the ship is maybe the bestway to package that.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
If that's okay, I love that Absolutely.
What's on your reading list?
Speaker 3 (38:36):
I just started a great book I'm maybe halfway
almost halfway in.
I got for Christmas from mywife.
My wife is a professional bookbuyer and so we have to buy each
other books for Christmas, andit's the worst.
Yeah because she's gonna buy agreat book.
Yes she knows every book andlike she's like oh, this book
will be out and I can get anadvanced reader on it.
(39:03):
And she gives me a book calledsuper communicators by charles
duhigg and it just like dissectsI mean you don't stop and think
about breathing, right, likeyou're just sitting here
breathing, and but it dissectsconversation in a way that I've
never like slowed down to thinkabout and I'm like I am blocking
time just to read this bookright now because I love it so
(39:24):
much.
It's beautiful.
So, yeah, check it out.
I think I blocking time just toread this book right now
because I love it so much.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
It's beautiful.
So, yeah, check it out.
I think I am going to have toread that one.
Yeah, sure, and then just newin a new year.
Now what, looking back on lastyear, what was kind of a key
takeaway, key, aha.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
We, probably we started working on the event
that I mentioned.
It's going to be calledConsumer Impact.
That'll be here in september.
Um, and really just saying,because it was something we've
been talking about for severalyears just recognizing, like
bringing together impact-mindedbrands in bentonville to talk
about retail and supply chainand their business and
everything, and just like we'redoing this and maybe it's not
(40:01):
like an aha, but so much as likehere we go, here we go.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
We're doing this.
Yeah, yeah, that's fun.
Yeah, new things are new.
Things are fun forentrepreneurs.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Yeah, and I and and and and.
You know it's like sometimesyou have a couple of things
where you're like I tried thatand it didn't work.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
I tried that and it didn Well, jeff, I appreciate
your time.
This has been a greatconversation and overdue, oh
yeah, for sure.
It was great to be with youguys, absolutely, and thank you
for listening or watching onYouTube.
Feel free to like, subscribeand we'll see you back here next
(40:44):
time, thanks.
Hello and welcome to the Retail Journey podcast.
I'm one of your hosts, charlesGreathouse.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And I am James Harris , and today we're talking to
Jeff Clapper.
Jeff is the president and CEOof 8th Walton, and 8th Walton is
a supplier educationorganization.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
That's right, all right.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Thanks for having me.
Welcome to the retail journey.
Yeah, glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Thanks guys.
Yeah, jeff, first question.
So where is 8th Walton located?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I just got to know.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yeah, you know that's an excellent question.
There's actually a buildingthat kindly branded at the
intersection of 8th and Waltonand people assume that is where
we are.
In fact we're at the Ledger indowntown Bentonville now.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Perfect, so not 8th and Walton.
So if you're looking for Jeffand you're at 8th and Walton, if
it's signed 8th and Walton andyou're inside, then you know
you're at the Ledger.
If you happen to be at theintersection of those streets,
you're not, but historicallypretty close to that's right.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
yeah, in fact we we used to have some, you know,
kind of collaborative stuff andyou know where the office was
for many years and it was just ablock away from there and we
would occasionally get a callfrom someone who's like I'm at
eighth and walton so where areyou?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
where are you?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
like you're, you're very close but you're not close.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
I can't remember if you were there yet um when I was
doing, but I used to lease,sublease space from eighth and
walton, my first office was wasin eighth and walton, long
history, long, long time.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
And you're the significant uh retailer located
at eighth and walton today.
But I believe, yeah, uh, theannouncement is actually
happening to the day of thisrecording of the official
opening of the new home officecampus.
So is there a rebrand of fifthand jay?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
no, yeah, you know, we've talked about it and
thought about it.
There's there.
We've spent a lot of timebuilding a great brand around
the name and uh.
So it'll be like an easter egg.
You know, if you know, you knowif you know, you know where the
name?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
that's great.
Well, and a lot of what you donow is virtual, is it not?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
yeah, yeah so much of our training is through zoom,
uh and and virtual and uh.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It's worked out really well for the whole team
so, and I know aethon walton hasbeen around for a long time.
Probably a lot of locals knowwhat it is.
But assuming they don't, orthere's somebody listening from
out of town what?
What is aethon walton?
What has it been historically?
What are you moving into?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it started off.
You know, like you said, earlyon, education for Walmart
suppliers.
So anybody who had businesswith Walmart and you know the
history, you know this as wellas why don't you answer James?
No, yeah.
So it started off.
A couple of people recognizethat Walmart suppliers needed to
(02:45):
know more about working withWalmart and being a successful
partner and collaborator withthe company, and so they started
off teaching things likehistory and values and culture
how do you be a good supplier byknowing that customer and how
they think and operate and thenpretty quickly recognized a
little bit more tactically, butreally important was just to
understand the systems, the datathat was available and teaching
(03:07):
the team.
So, you know, going back almost20 years ago, a lot of those
suppliers just needed to learnyou know how do I get sales data
, supply chain data, all of thatand so it was early on.
It was Retail Inc and DSS andsome of those systems and then
Pour one out for DSS.
Yeah, exactly Another yeahexactly another, yeah, another,
(03:28):
uh, another bygone system.
So, um, you know, and I alwayssay, like that's really to
walmart's credit, they're sodynamic, they continue to evolve
and grow, and they're they'rethey're never like resting on
their laurels what's worked inthe past, let's continue to
improve, you know.
And so that means suppliers arealong for that ride also
charles shares this all the time.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
The dss was probably one of the major unlocks that
made walmart a national grocer.
Yeah, uh, just the sharing ofthat data in near real time.
Yeah, it was really far aheadof its time when it was
developed and launchedabsolutely, and now with uh
scintilla from that dataventures group.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You've got digital landscapes, you've got some
insight activation, you've gotshopper behavior.
These are insights and datacapabilities that have been
completely unavailable to theretail network in the past.
So I'm excited to see how thatushers in the next era of data
(04:27):
utilization in this space.
You know, to be acoast-to-coast grocer was the
unknown, unprecedented thing ofthe 90s that Walmart
accomplished, you know, here in2025, that next unknown,
unprecedented thing.
I'm excited to see how thatdata plays a significant role.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
No, that's cool, that's right on.
Sometimes I think of thecomparison to Google selling
advertising and that obviouslyhas been its core product for a
long time.
And they said, hey, if weprovide great analytics and
great data and essentially makeit free and we show people that
when you put a dollar in thisend of the machine in
advertising and it produces $10in sales over here, that's a
(05:09):
good thing.
If we could spend you knowthat's a good spend and you know
you'll feel encouraged,compelled, to spend more of that
.
That's a good ROI.
But again they made the dataand the analytics free.
So that you could justifyspending the advertising, and I
think it's going to beinteresting to see how it shakes
out with the strategy of we'regoing to monetize the ads and
the data you know like.
Where will that shake out?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, even the free data is improved
with the basic stuff as well.
But yeah, behind that chartersubscription is a whole
different level of unlock thatin the past wasn't available at
all.
The super large cpgs tend toget a little bit closer to it by
(05:54):
combining all of the differentavailable resources in the
market, but the mid-tier andsmaller have never been able to,
and I actually think thatthere's a significant unlock for
them when it comes to arelatively nominal investment
with Walmart to get charter data.
That gives you a very deep,very rich perspective on your
(06:15):
customer, how they're evolving,how people are finding you
online, so on and so forth.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And if a supplier does have a campaign on Walmart
Connect, there actually is quitea bit of free data that comes
along with that.
Very similar to the Googlemodel.
You just get a lot more if youincorporate charter in with it.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
No, but I think your point's well made.
There's a very new wave of thisdata use of decision.
Retail media, frankly, 10 yearsago was an edge case.
It is a fundamental core of CPGtoday.
(06:56):
So to think what's 10 yearsfrom now look like is a fun
thought exercise.
We're not going to take thewhole journey today.
You can't see that far into thefuture.
The retail journey, you know,is one that involves right now
and about the next 18 months.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
And a few minutes along the way, but this podcast
is not going to go for a full 18months.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
No, I mean the three of us.
Yeah, the three of us sittinghere.
Yeah, we'll have to circle backin 18 months and see where we
were right.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Yeah, I like that.
Yeah, yeah.
So that's.
We talked a little bit aboutwhat where 8-1-1 came from.
Where are you today?
What's new, what's different?
If somebody was familiar with,maybe 10 years ago, what the
training options were.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
What's a reintroduction for them today?
Yeah, I mean, we still offer alot of training to a lot of
suppliers, particularly whenthey're and at this point this
is many suppliers, are they'reand at this point this is many
suppliers they'rewell-established with Walmart at
this point, so they know wehave these people in these roles
and here are topics or classesthat are going to be relevant
and helpful to the people inthose desks, on those desks.
And then the other thing that'skind of evolved from just the
(07:58):
last several years now is justrecognizing that some suppliers
are either it's amazing, youguys know this well too.
There are some suppliers Iwould consider large companies
$100 million, $200 million ayear in revenue just from
Walmart, and no one has Walmarton their business card at that
company.
They're successful, they'vebeen in for decades, but to have
(08:22):
a little bit more expertise orguidance or instruction on how
to support Walmart as a customercould go a long way for a
company of that size.
And so that's one example.
And then on the other side ofit, sometimes we're hearing from
a company where it's maybe thepresident or VP of sales.
They just got a yes and ofcourse that's an exciting time,
and then they're all like oh,shoot Now what do we do?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
What does this mean?
Yeah, yeah, like the third wisequestion to ask.
Usually, you end up finding outwhat it means and where your
assumptions were wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Yeah, it's good to be proactive.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's right yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
And you know, I'm sure in what you guys do it's
like well, better to addressthis earlier than later.
It's been interesting.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
The full service brokerage side of high impact
analytics is only a couple ofyears old.
It's becoming the largestportion of our business.
I think it's because we'vefocused so long on those things
that are just tactical rubber onthe road.
Very good at setting items upthe way that they're supposed to
be.
Very good at stewardinginventory management, seeing
(09:27):
when something's going to be outbefore it's out, seeing where
inventory is not flowing throughfulfillment centers or DCs
where it's supposed to be.
In this digital world, all thecontent scores that need to be
in place for a customer to evenfind your item page, let alone
convert on that item page.
All of these different aspectsare just very fundamental that
(09:48):
keep changing, keep evolving andthey have to be there for your
sales team to be successful.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Table stakes.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
You can enter and get by, but we're more about the
thrive.
What's it take to actually be areally good partner to your
merchant?
What's it take to be able to umsustain everyday low cost in a
way that uh allows you to helpWalmart continue to deliver
(10:19):
against everyday low price?
And that takes some foresight.
That takes planning.
It takes intentional costremoval through your entire
network.
There's been a lot more timespent upstream, coaching
manufacturers through where theyhave waste and they need to
(10:40):
remove that waste, than I feellike there was in years past.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
One of our core messages is that year two in
distribution is harder than yearone and year three is harder
than both of them combined.
If you're going to continue togrow not only your brand, but
the category that you're in,which is the ultimate goal.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
The category is the thing that matters, not just
whether or not your item is onthe shelf.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Of course that's something anybody who's selling
a thing wants their thing.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Walmart, the most effective retail platform on the
planet, but to stay there, yougot to be doing something with
the merchant stewards, which iscustomer trust.
And what's happening to thecategory yeah A company?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
we've worked with for several years uh, their head of
sales has a great uh, has agreat metaphor for what you've
just said, which is it's not abaseball game where you're
guaranteed nine innings.
It's a boxing match, you know,and you could drop at the end of
the first round I like that.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Yeah, isn't that great.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, right, yeah, and you describe that first you
think, oh wow, the work is done.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
He knows no, it's not , you're just more tired.
Yeah, you're both sweatingalready.
Yeah, you got some blood.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, oh gosh yeah, I don't think it's as abusive of
a relationship, as that metaphoralways breaks somewhere.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
The work is definitely yeah yeah, that's
great.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, you got to keep fighting, you got to keep
working for it.
Yeah, well, what are some ofthe topics when it comes to
training that you're seeing ahigh awareness of, and people
you know pulling down the doorlike we got it, we got to have
this.
And then perhaps are there somewhere there seems to be a low
awareness but a high need.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yeah, you know, I think, a couple different
questions in there or topics.
You know, one that isconsistently, you know, of need
is hey, my CFO just called.
We're getting all kinds ofdeductions.
Help us figure this out.
And so here are some classesthat are going to help you
understand the cause and reallyget to that.
(12:35):
And what I like about theapproach on all of this, in
terms of just teaching andtrying to help problem solve, is
, like you know, try to get tothe root cause.
We don't want you to just haveto take aspirin the rest of your
life.
If you can avoid it, let'sfigure out why it's happening.
So, whether it's on aconsultative basis or on a
training basis, really trying tohelp you understand what's
behind these charges ordeductions so that you don't
(12:56):
have to keep fighting them inperpetuity.
That's not always avoidable.
There are certain things thatare part of how it works, but
sometimes there are some keythings you can unlock.
Then it's like, oh, thesedeductions have gone away.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, um, so that's always fun yeah, um, it's much
easier to prevent one than toget it back.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, we just talked about cutting costs out of the
system and that, yeah, that is,that is a way you don't need to
bear that expense.
Let's right, let's get it rightthe first time, right, right
yeah, and so those are.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
That's a common topic still, um, of course.
Uh, illuminate a lot ofsuppliers just trying to figure
out.
Okay, what happened to dss.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I did this for years and you know we're a.
We're a blast from the pastright now, because this is being
recorded in january, where itis still that, but it's
scintilla by the time thisepisode releases.
Thank you, yes, I got you righton the cusp.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
I appreciate the nod.
Speaking to the future, yeah,right, okay, well, no, I'm glad
you mentioned that.
So Scintilla, formerly known asformerly known as, yes, yeah,
so that's.
Another key topic is justunderstanding supply.
You know, for suppliers tocontinue to be good partners,
they have to have the data thatthey you know Walmart has
(14:03):
provided, and so so, helpingthem understand new systems and
how to use it, that's animportant topic.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Still, it's a very new platform very new data on
the charter side and the basicside.
It's kind of new, but certainlythe way you access it is new.
Dss wasn't new.
It's very much the same and yetyou were still doing training
for DSS.
Do you expect there to be anend for the need for it for
(14:32):
training for scintilla?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
well, I mean, I'm in my head.
I have, like my pre-teen, youknow, kind of flip answer which
would well have suppliersstopped hiring new people who
have never worked on new people,of course yeah, there's always
some churn supplier teams shift,someone leaves, someone new
comes in, someone gets promoted,whatever.
It is a wonderful career path,which means it's a step.
Yeah, and the new person we hadwe had someone who consistently
(14:58):
bought a block of training fromus every year for his team.
You know this was a well-knownbrand and he said every time I
get a new person on my team, Isay congratulations, you just
won a trip to take severalclasses with Ethan Watson.
Nice, because it was, like yousaid, a new person on the team.
Someone got promoted, movedaway, whatever it was.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
When you think about it, organizations can only do so
many things.
Well, right.
So a brand company or a privatebrand company, they're going to
do that really well it doesn'tmean they're good at training
for basic skills.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
That's exactly it.
They're not.
I mean, and they probably havesome good HR people, but even
there, those HR people are notnecessarily Walmart experts, or
they have some really capable,knowledgeable Walmart people,
but they're busy doing their dayjob.
How much time can I take?
Furthermore, can I give thatperson a consistent
understanding?
Is it?
Are we going to teach them Athrough Z?
Are we just going to kind ofspot check certain things that I
(15:50):
happen to know and am Iteaching them the right stuff?
Am I teaching them bad habits?
All of that Right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
That's for the relevance of it.
Yeah, I like that as a way ofstewarding a cohesive training
program with Dave and Walton.
What are some of the thingsthat people should probably be
spending more time on training?
And you see the results fromthose that see it.
But, aren't commonly first ofmind.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Yeah, from those that see it um, um, commonly, first
of mine, yeah, you know, I thinkone of the things we talk about
with suppliers and and this isyou know, they're sort of like
what should you learn?
And then, what do you think youwant to learn?
And I mean from anentrepreneurial, entrepreneurial
perspective.
You're always kind of like,well, this would be in your best
interest, but you have asked meabout deductions, so that's
what I'm going to offer you, andso your question is a great one
.
I mean, there are topics youknow, you guys are probably
(16:43):
familiar with, like importantversus urgent yep and there are
some topics retail airs on theurgent exactly all day, every
day exactly, and so, in terms ofdemand for what we teach, it's
almost always an urgent issueand I'm like if we could have
taught you how to set your itemsup correctly on the front side,
we wouldn't be having tourgently teach you about how to
fix it.
Yeah, so you know, I think, uh,I think that I come back around
(17:07):
to the question.
I think, um, that is anythingthat we would say that's
important.
Um, it's just a lot tougher tosell those classes, frankly,
because people are like, yeah,yeah, yeah, I know that's
important, but right now, do itone day.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Yeah, what about in the omni or digital space?
Are you guys doing much in thatrealm?
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yes, it is that definitely leans more towards
and you guys know this well, I'msure.
It's such a wide and variablespace right now and so it's.
It doesn't lend itself a coupleof factors.
It doesn't lend itself as wellto training on a system like
like Scintilla and I've caughtmyself where it.
(17:49):
You know it is, that platformis changing consistently but
it's kind of headed down a path,but it's so much more sort of
dynamic and meandering, and soyou know, from one month to the
next that class could take atotally different direction.
And we just told someone thatyou're going to learn these
things in this class and thenthe next month, actually, what
you need to know, these thingshave changed.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
And because the content score guides are
different by category, they getupdated.
The algorithm gets updatedmultiple times a year.
There's a lot of factors.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Available tools to drive growth with Walmart
Connect are constantly evolving,growing, and which ones work
really well, frankly, evolvewith that and all of that speaks
to the value of what you all doand I think, anybody who's here
being an aggressive student ofWalmart that can provide that
value back to a supplier.
(18:37):
That's really important.
You know and you know.
And then, to your detriment, ifsomeone left a career with a
supplier or with Walmart andsaid I know this thing and I
don't have to keep studying it,you did, yeah, you did.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
You did know last week.
I love that An aggressivestudent.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
That's what.
That's the language we useinternally.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
That's the word right there, yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Progressive student.
That's the language we useinternally.
That's the word right there.
We have specific meetings everyweek to talk about.
What are you learning right now?
To make sure we're continuouslylearning about Walmart, because
we've got and same with you all.
You've people who've done thisfor a long time, but in two
weeks that could be totallyirrelevant.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Not only could it be it happens At an almost alarming
rate as things keep evolving.
We've got new systems we werejust talking about one of the
private brand systems forsubmitting all of these details
and it takes a lot of.
There's a lot of nuance, calledpro spec, and there's a new
system coming within the nextsix months.
(19:35):
So it's okay great.
We definitely need to know howto do this, and soon.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
We won't need to know at all.
It's going to be a brand newsystem, right?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
right.
And guess what?
On day one in the new system wewill need to be proficient.
Yeah, because it's the systemyou get to use there's not an
overlap period, and so there isdefinitely a language of Walmart
systems that we've found.
So we find we're pretty fast atinterpreting and you kind of
(20:04):
block off that week and you sendat least one person to go
entirely deep.
Your job this week is let's gofind out, document, help each
other, and then we learn.
We call it the hive here.
That's our hive mindset, whereone person is an expert first,
and then there's a few, and thenwe all have that skill set in
(20:24):
our toolbox.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
That's good.
Yeah, it's really important,yeah, and if you don't do that,
I think you guys could probablyappreciate.
Also, frankly, when thingschange, sometimes you have more
notice or chance to prepare andsometimes you don't, and then we
end up looking like jerks,honestly, where someone on the
outside is like I thought youguys knew this stuff and you're
like, well, it just changed 20minutes ago.
(20:46):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Well, it's fun Kind of our histories.
Here You're telling James likeyou know this James because,
James has quite a bit of history, with 8th Walton helping
develop some retail.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
It was a major launching hub for me.
When I started the business,first I was employed and I kind
of did it for about a year and Ibuilt up three clients and then
met the original founders of8th Walton and they said, well,
we need a trainer and we needsome content written and we need
some.
I said, all right, I add thesetogether, I can step out.
And then we had a referral.
(21:20):
So probably my next 10, 12.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So a huge part of you quitting your day job, so to
speak.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
And high impact happening 8th and.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Walton, the origin story.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
We still have clients that I met in an 8th and Walton
training in 2010.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
That's awesome, that is so cool, which I love that
you know the the retail linkneed from a training perspective
and this sort of constantchanging.
I also have experienced thereality of retail link
constantly training.
I used to train all of theincoming merchants, whether it's
I did some internship programtraining, I did some MBA program
(21:58):
, but the it's been through alot of different names but the
buyer training program, merchanttraining program, merchant
leadership program there's adozen more examples.
But I did retailing trainingand I remember showing up one
time to teach how to use RetailInc I'm the expert here and it
was the day they did a majorupdate on Retail Inc and so the
(22:23):
screen was entirely differentthan it was the day before when,
I did my final prep I was like,all right, yeah, we're ready
for the training tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
We have some facilitators Sure enough?
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Nope, not today.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
We have some team members who I'm sure can share
your pain on that.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
And it's always more intuitive eventually.
Eventually, you land on like,okay, I see what you did there,
but in front of a room of 30 newin their career associates.
It's a little bit more likeImagine if they paid to be there
, that would hit me, that's true.
Like Imagine, if they paid tobe there, that would hit me
sometimes.
That's true.
They didn't pay me anything tobe there.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Be in a room as the only instructor.
20, sometimes 30 people.
And about half of it was walkingaround while people.
I'm a hands-on learner believer.
You learn more doing thanthinking and I'd have to catch
myself every single time whensomebody would ask a question
Maybe I didn't understand theway they were saying it, or
(23:19):
maybe it was just a new thingand I'd open my mouth to say I
don't know, and that's somethingyou can't really say when
somebody's paying for you totell them, like you're supposed
to know, you're supposed to knowthat's true.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, you know it's such a good point and that
actually that exact phrase issomething we talk about on our
team also, because back to beinglike an aggressive learner or
student like you can't learnuntil you say I don't know, yeah
, yeah, right.
So the first step of learningis just to say I don't know, I
knew, I didn't know, but I justwasn't going to vocalize that in
the you know, yeah, yeah.
(23:51):
And then and then, at the sametime, you know you're there,
you're building trust with yourstudents or whoever you're
working with, and part of trustis to say, like I have
limitations, this is somethingnew and I need to learn it.
It's like, oh, but you've paidme to have this knowledge.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
It would have been a little insecurity of me in my
20s too.
That's just honest.
So I believe you all are doingmore in the consultative realm.
Um, you want to share a littlebit about that.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, kind of touched on it a bit, but
but really, like I said, umfocusing on behind the scenes.
So we're not, uh, you know,like repping, brokering,
anything like that.
It's companies that havebusiness with Walmart already.
It could be for many, manyyears, it could be just new Um,
but trying still in the, in the,in the through the lens of
(24:38):
education.
So we're glad to show you whatwe're doing, how we're doing it
at any point, and sometimes itjust makes sense in their
business to say like, can youguys do this for a little while
until, um, until we have people?
in place or we have more clarityon who's going to do what we.
We don't want to mess up ordrop the ball for Walmart.
Ultimately, we want to do thisourselves, and so you know, it's
kind of an in-between solutionthere.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I feel like that makes sense, especially when we
talked about a training topicthat someone really needs, but
they don't know that they need.
It's helpful to be able to bein a position to articulate why
you need it, without simplybeing the one selling the
training Spot on.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
Yeah, 100%, you know, and one of the things like what
that we've done for many yearsis just kind of a Q and A
service.
It's very light and it's likeit's a hotline, basically, and
it's like hey, I'm stuck, Ican't figure this out.
You got to talk to somebody,yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yeah, it's like otherwise you're spiraling by
yourself Counseling.
Yeah, I'm wondering why it'sticking.
If it's only you, I can't tellyou how many times there's just
uh.
There's a slack channel.
We have called I actually needhelp and it is used every week
and every day.
Their uh systems just go down,yeah, and then come back up, but
(25:49):
when it's down and you don'tknow that it's down, yeah it's
your fault yeah but then whenyou know that, okay, it's down
for everyone, right, deep breath, move on about your day, find
something else to do to beproductive and move on.
So I love a hotline, so yeahyeah, it's, it's so true and
it's.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
You know, sometimes we're talking to a supplier and
saying it's not just you, yeahyeah, sometimes there's a lot of
comfort in hearing thatsometimes, yeah, you can.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
You can read the body language it's exactly that, so
a little bit of a pivot here.
Aethon Walton is a B Corp.
Yeah, do you want to explainwhat that is to us?
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Sure, Thank you, I love talking about this.
So, yeah, we got certified.
We're in our third year as a BCorp.
At the time we were only thesecond B Corp in all of Arkansas
and it's a designation.
It's a rigorous screeningprocess.
(26:45):
The short I can't.
I'm going to force myself totalk about it briefly.
Essentially, it's like usingbusiness as a force for good.
So you know, we still have todo all the things that any
business does to be viableRevenue, profit, take care of
your team, that kind of thing.
You have to deliver a productat a value or whatever, and we
have certain requirements onourselves.
And there's a nonprofit bodythat certifies B Corps called B
(27:08):
Lab, and so we have to meetcertain standards.
We went through a 200 questionscreening process.
Then we had to back up and showeverything that we checked the
box for Like, yeah, exactly, Dowe have a good policy for
maternity leave or parentalleave?
How do we take care of benefits,transparency with our team,
(27:30):
environmental impact?
If we were a product company,it could be ethical sourcing.
It really kind of runs thespread.
As a, you know, less physicalbusiness, it's a little bit
easier in some respects, but atthe end of the day.
It's just like are we reallytrying to use our business to do
more than just make money?
Can we do that, and do that ina way that has a positive impact
(27:51):
on the broader community?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Well, you're definitely on the front edge of
that, being the second companyin the state.
Do you know how many B Corpsthere are in Arkansas?
Now, I know there are.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
I do know there are several working towards it.
It's rigorous.
I mean, it was a full year oflike a pretty, you know,
intentional effort to get tothat.
You fill out this questionnaireand you have to get all of the
documentation lined up and then,once they pick up your
application and say like we'reactually ready to review this,
(28:23):
Um, then we go back and forth.
They say we need more detail onthis.
Uh, you know, one of the piecesis we give a sizable amount of
our of our money to nonprofitsand charities.
Um, so you're just backing allthat up.
There's a lot of back and forth.
It's an audit.
They actually call it an audit.
It's friendly, but it's anaudit.
Can any audit be friendly?
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
No, so it's rigorous and I know there are several
other companies going throughthat effort now and yeah, you
know, one of the other funthings is just kind of building
more of the community around thebig corp space.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Well, I mean, you're clearly passionate about the
using business for good.
Do you have an event coming uppretty?
Soon, that's kind of that sametheme I do.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah, no, I, you know , and I think for a lot of it, I
think you guys are probablyhave a similar mindset and sort
of your hearts are in the sameplace, like, okay, I want to
take care of my family, I wantto take care of the team here,
but like, can we do more?
Yeah, then just take home apaycheck.
That's good, right, and we haveto do that.
That's necessary that'snecessary and good, but like,
can we also try to do more?
(29:25):
Because you know life is shortand we're only here once, yeah,
yeah.
So that that was kind of thedriver.
For me is like, okay, what canwe?
Can we do more than just takehome money?
Yeah, Um, and the event thatwe're building is actually going
to be here at the ledger inBentonville in September and
we're pulling together uh impactminded, uh product companies.
They may be B corps, they maynot be um brands that you would
(29:48):
know that are B corp uh Cabot,Danone, uh Nespresso, uh, Danone
, Nespresso, Vital Farms,Tillamook.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
If you see a, b with a circle on it, it's not a
product.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
And really the idea is for change to happen, for
positive environmental changeand ethical practices and all of
that.
We really believe that thechange happens where consumers
make a choice, like am I goingto buy flour from the guy who
treats his employees likegarbage or am I going to buy it
from the guy who I know takescare of his people?
(30:22):
And if I see those two thingssitting next to each other on
the shelf and I'm like you knowwhat?
The prices are pretty close andthis guy's like I know that he
cares about his people that isgoing to affect my change or to
impact my choice, and so butit's harder to do that, like we
said, because you have to make aprofit and do these things.
And so the idea is we want togive all those B Corp kinds of
(30:44):
companies or impact-mindedcompanies a space to connect
with each other and learn fromeach other.
We changed our packaging.
How did that go?
What went well, what didn't?
We changed our sourcing toreduce concerns of bad labor
practices.
Some things went well, somethings didn't but learning from
each other, creating an eventwhere they can learn from each
other.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
And there's a, there's a inclination maybe to
say about that, like running abusiness that doesn't fail is
hard enough.
Yes, this is all extra.
Yes, and our, our last podcast,um, uh, the guest reminded us
that, uh, that, uh, culture,each strategy for breakfast.
So if your people feel like I'mdoing something that, yeah,
I've got to do, I've got toprovide for my family, I've got
(31:25):
to pay my rent, my mortgage, butI'm also contributing to
something that's larger than me,larger than 100%, that starts
to build its own momentum, thatmaybe takes away some of the
extra effort or the pain Forsure.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
I saw a real.
This has really stuck with me,uh, in a book and it was about
there's so much discussion likehow do I scale up this business?
You know again like I've gotthis idea, I'm gonna get money,
I'm building the business andit's all about like growing the
scaling's, the new synergy it'slike yeah, yeah, and it's like
scale, scale too much and andand the.
Just the nugget that has stuckwith me was like how do you
scale, scale values?
(32:03):
And I was like that is a muchharder and more important and
more valuable question.
Frankly, you know, I mean 30years from now, what is high
impact going to look like?
I think that comes down to yourability to scale the values of
the organization, not just therevenue or the profit.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
We talk about that all the time in leadership
meetings.
This week we did a quarterlymeeting.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
We used the entrepreneurial operating system
EOS to help organize and keepthings in structure, and part of
that is a 10-year vision, andwe actually talked about why we
intentionally removed a dollartarget.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Because what we?
Speaker 1 (32:40):
care more about is who we're becoming, not the
revenue associated with it.
If we're doing these things, ifwe are a premier destination
for suppliers to come alongsidewith high impact to thrive at
Walmart and Sam's Club, therevenue will take care of itself
.
If we're creating value, that'sa non-issue.
(33:01):
And frankly our focus isn't justtrying to hit a dollar, it's
it's the impact, and oursactually states with a positive
impact on the local and globalcommunity, because we're moving
further upstream into a lot ofthese manufacturers, as there's
opportunities for walmart towork more directly with these
manufacturers.
(33:21):
We're finding those that dotreat their people.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah that's really cool.
It's very different um I, Ihave to say you know again kind
of candidly for the last severalyears, and we use something
very I mean it is eos.
But just like if you, if Icalled in and adapted yeah, if I
called in an actual eos person.
I'd be like that is an insult,but no, but it's.
I mean I read the book and somuch good stuff and so we've
(33:44):
implemented like 95 of it, butanyway I like the, uh, the
disclosure, yeah, yeah but forfor several years, like kind of
my own 10-year thing, has nothad numbers and and it's kind of
like, oh, it's bugged me.
And it's interesting to hear yousay that.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
You've come at it the other way and said, no,
actually we've intentionallyleft that out this time yeah
right, I mean I don't think weever wanted our the, the vision,
to be a dollar amount, right,but it is a principle of eos
that your 10-year target is adollar right so now we're at 99
implemented.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
That's funny you know , I think it somehow it like is
it more inspiring to have a hardnumber or less?
I mean, yeah, budget cycle.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yeah, there are folks out there, merchants out there,
that are going to fight as hardas they can to get a number as
low as possible so that they areable to, as deeply as possible,
(34:52):
guarantee success of gettingover that number.
I was the opposite kind ofmerchant where it's like great,
yeah, bring it on.
Um, oh, we need to hit more.
Yeah, bring it on and bring someresources with it yeah, I'm
gonna remember this when we havea feature discussion.
Uh, for the next quarter, I gota couple ideas.
I've been noodling how isfuture charles gonna lap this?
(35:13):
I don't know.
I feel like he's pretty smart.
He's gonna figure it out.
Current charles can't worryabout it.
Let's let future charles figureout how to lap this budget
number.
And I always went for the likelet's, let's just go now.
Whether or not that was goodfor my, my soul, I don't know.
Yeah, have I made more eyecontact with other humans in the
(35:36):
more recent years?
Maybe, but I do think there's a.
There's a level of callingyourself to a higher standard
and in environments where thenumbers are the key driver of
that, then call yourself up.
It's public.
It was in a news article.
Creighton Kuiper, who is nowleading Home, said that he's
(36:00):
going to double the homebusiness.
To double the home businessLike you don't go and say you're
going to double an entiredivision of Walmart without a
pretty deep conviction and thetenacity to say and I'm pretty
sure the article said it like no, we don't.
It's like we have the exactplan, but this is not going to
(36:20):
happen if we don't go set amarker out there that says it's
important.
I think it's the same as the jetacquisition for Walmart.
Is e-commerce worth a $3.2billion acquisition?
I don't know, but we're goingto go find out and we're serious
about it, and I think that thatwas a huge moment in what is
(36:42):
now becoming a huge part of ofthe business at Walmart.
So I think I'm not anti numberin any way.
I love numbers.
I'm a data nerd, but it's lessabout the, the data itself.
It's about empowering decisions.
It's about bringing the rightthing when you show up and then,
(37:02):
at the end of the day, you havethe psychological safety to go
fail fast, to fail forward, tolearn as you are progressing
towards an objective thatrequires something a bit beyond
yourself.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah, yeah, sorry so, speaking of failing, we're
about there on time so we'regonna, we're gonna get to the
lightning.
And the first question isbiggest failure that you've
learned the most from?
That is maybe made you who youare today in some way.
Oh my gosh.
And we can stay with business,we don't have to.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Oh my gosh, yeah, then we'd need a lot of
lightning In marriage.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
You might want to lay down Family Right, right, right
.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
Man, even in business , I feel like you can learn so
much from the failures.
They're so painful, it's awful,but, um, you know, we, we
really uh.
Several years ago we tried togrow the business really
aggressively and and I was justuh, I was, I was young and my
ego got the better of me and,like you were talking about, who
cares what I'm going to have toanniversary next year, and I
(38:11):
think for me just a little bitmore sensibility about growing
the business.
This ties back to a lot of whatwe were talking about Growing
the business to be what I wantit to be and not letting my ego
(38:32):
drive the ship is maybe the bestway to package that.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
If that's okay, I love that Absolutely.
What's on your reading list?
Speaker 3 (38:36):
I just started a great book I'm maybe halfway
almost halfway in.
I got for Christmas from mywife.
My wife is a professional bookbuyer and so we have to buy each
other books for Christmas, andit's the worst.
Yeah because she's gonna buy agreat book.
Yes she knows every book andlike she's like oh, this book
will be out and I can get anadvanced reader on it.
(39:03):
And she gives me a book calledsuper communicators by charles
duhigg and it just like dissectsI mean you don't stop and think
about breathing, right, likeyou're just sitting here
breathing, and but it dissectsconversation in a way that I've
never like slowed down to thinkabout and I'm like I am blocking
time just to read this bookright now because I love it so
(39:24):
much.
It's beautiful.
So, yeah, check it out.
I think I blocking time just toread this book right now
because I love it so much.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
It's beautiful.
So, yeah, check it out.
I think I am going to have toread that one.
Yeah, sure, and then just newin a new year.
Now what, looking back on lastyear, what was kind of a key
takeaway, key, aha.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
We, probably we started working on the event
that I mentioned.
It's going to be calledConsumer Impact.
That'll be here in september.
Um, and really just saying,because it was something we've
been talking about for severalyears just recognizing, like
bringing together impact-mindedbrands in bentonville to talk
about retail and supply chainand their business and
everything, and just like we'redoing this and maybe it's not
(40:01):
like an aha, but so much as likehere we go, here we go.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
We're doing this.
Yeah, yeah, that's fun.
Yeah, new things are new.
Things are fun forentrepreneurs.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
Yeah, and I and and and and.
You know it's like sometimesyou have a couple of things
where you're like I tried thatand it didn't work.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
I tried that and it didn Well, jeff, I appreciate
your time.
This has been a greatconversation and overdue, oh
yeah, for sure.
It was great to be with youguys, absolutely, and thank you
for listening or watching onYouTube.
Feel free to like, subscribeand we'll see you back here next
(40:44):
time, thanks.
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