Asda’s Adaptive Line, JLP’s H1, AI Carts at Morrisons, 5 Things Friday UK with Simone Oloman

Five Things Friday (UK) with the incredible Simone Oloman —

• Adaptive fashion at Asda

• JLP’s H1 turnaround plan

• AI trolleys at Morrisons

• Barbour × FARM Rio

• Oxford Street car‑free day

This week we break down five UK retail stories shaping the Golden Quarter: George at Asda’s 28‑piece adaptive clothing line (inspired by the late Nicky Newman), John Lewis Partnership’s H1 results and investment push, Instacart’s Caper smart trolleys landing at Morrisons, Barbour’s joyful collab with FARM Rio, and Oxford Street going traffic‑free on Sunday 21 September (12–8).

Chapters

00:00 Cold open

00:10 Welcome & volume note

01:37 Story 1 – George at Asda: adaptive clothing (inspired by Nicky Newman)

04:02 Story 2 – John Lewis Partnership H1 results & investment

07:03 Story 3 – Morrisons x Instacart: AI smart trolleys (Caper Carts)

09:03 Story 4 – Barbour x FARM Rio collaboration

11:49 Story 5 – Oxford Street traffic-free day (Sun 21 Sep, 12–8)

12:54 Week ahead & sign-off

Links & sources

Requested sources (credited)- Asda – Adaptive clothing range (press release): https://corporate.asda.com/newsroom/2025/08/09/new-george-at-asda-adaptive-clothing-range-honours-legacy-of-nicky-newman- John Lewis Partnership – Half‑Year Results 2025/26 (official PDF): https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/content/dam/cws/pdfs/Juniper/HYR2025/JLP-Half-Year-Results-2025-26.pdf- Instacart & Morrisons – AI shopping trolleys (press release): https://investors.instacart.com/news-releases/news-release-details/instacart-and-morrisons-bring-ai-powered-shopping-trolleys-uk- Barbour × FARM Rio – collection page: https://farmrio.uk/collections/barbour-farm-rio?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22739867213&gbraid=0AAAAAqwOh7SWH-U6wP_HlnLlKJv7T42Go&gclid=CjwKCAjwiY_GBhBEEiwAFaghvkqYhKTWY4Pqn-CPlKL0aY-NSzPOwEIdwgYLrDhBUunQXqz1DXqEIRoC7jwQAvD_BwE- Nicky Newman – Instagram post referenced: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN7uPz1jf6-/Asda adaptive:- https://corporate.asda.com/newsroom/2025/08/09/new-george-at-asda-adaptive-clothing-range-honours-legacy-of-nicky-newman- https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2025/09/asda-george-adaptive-clothing/John Lewis H1:- https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/britains-john-lewis-track-full-year-profit-growth-2025-09-11/- https://www.ft.com/content/23e3ed3e-1055-47b2-a967-2a994e61a6caMorrisons x Instacart:- https://www.instacart.com/company/pressreleases/instacart-and-morrisons-bring-ai-powered-shopping-trolleys-to-the-uk/- https://chainstoreage.com/morrisons-launch-first-uk-pilot-instacart-smart-cartsBarbour x FARM Rio:- https://www.barbour.com/us/farm-rio.htmlOxford Street 21 Sep:- https://www.london.gov.uk/media-centre/mayors-press-release/mayor-invites-londoners-to-experience-oxford-street-like-youve-never-seen-it-before-as-street-is-transformed-and-made-traffic-free-for-landmark-event- https://tfl.gov.uk/status-updates/major-works-and-events/oxford-street-traffic-free-eventWaitrose BCC & awards:- https://www.johnlewispartnership.media/news/waitrose/07042025/waitrose-becomes-first-supermarket-to-set-new-benchmark-for-better-chicken-welfare-standards- https://thegrocergoldawards.co.uk/live/en/page/winners-2025

HostsAlex — helps organisations that sell to the retail industry stay relevant with credible thought leadership.

Co‑host: Simone Oloman — co‑founder & CEO, Need It For Tonight (NIFT).

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We’ve re‑balanced the intro music to align with broadcast loudness targets (see notes below).

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's Friday. Welcome to five things Friday
with myself and the fabulous Simone.
Hello Simone, How are you doing?I'm good.

(00:20):
I always find myself dancing to that music.
I've. Got to apologise to like the
listeners because I've listened to a couple of shows during the
summer where we've had differenteditors edit them and so we're
literally blowing. People are having to take their
headphones out because it comes in so loud.
But anyway, we will correct that.
My name's Alex, I help organisations that sell to the

(00:43):
beautiful retail industry acrossthe globe stay relevant with
their thought leadership and I'mjoined by my wonderful Co host
Simone. Hi, my name's Simone, I'm the Co
founder and CEO of Need it for Tonight, also known as Nerf.
They always say the easiest way to describe us is kind of like
delivery, but for fashion. Fantastic.
So for those of you who it's your first time maybe listening

(01:06):
and we've appeared on your Spotify or Apple podcast feed,
we look at the top five news stories in the UK, specifically
focused on the UK. And today, we're going to start
off with a phenomenal story withyou, Simone.
We are today I wanted to shine alight on something actually
really genuinely meaningful happening in retail.

(01:27):
So Georgia Asda is launching a new 28 piece collection of
adaptive clothing for adults designed specifically for people
with additional needs. As you can see, and it's
properly considered it's function first design that
includes things like clothing that works around feeding or
treatment tubes, metal free zipsfor MRI use, they've got

(01:51):
discrete pockets for Stormer bags, and lots of other
thoughtful details that I guess should have existed years ago.
But what makes this launch so powerful is who it's inspired
by. And so the range honours the
legacy of Nicky Newman, who was a breast cancer campaigner who
sadly passed away in 2023. Before she died, she posted on

(02:12):
Instagram asking if any brand would work with her to create
adaptive clothing that was actually stylish and also
affordable because prior to that, she'd spent £90 in a
jumper that had met her needs. And yeah, she knew that her
community couldn't keep doing that.
So she wasn't just advocating for herself, you know, she was
listening to thousands of othersin treatment who couldn't find

(02:34):
anything that fit their bodies and their budgets.
So George, as does delivered on that ask.
So yeah, kudos. I love it.
Listen, mainstream media, sorry,mainstream supermarkets, grocers
need to be doing more of this. And fantastic Asda is leading
the way in that. And apologies if the others have

(02:55):
done it and we just missed it because I, I have to say that
because maybe they, they did do a line and we and we and we just
missed it. So fantastic.
A really lovely way to start off.
Now we've spoken about John Lewis for so many different
reasons. They've just released their half
year results and interestingly enough, or if you remember, I
mentioned that something like 40% of their revenue will come

(03:16):
from property. And on their website, I didn't
realise there's a John Lewis Partnerships property website
where it talks about what they're going to do.
But anyway, they've just posted their half year results.
Fascinating if you like picture of the British retail landscape.
Despite reporting a loss of £34 million before tax, the company
but Waitrose and John Lewis are projecting full year profit

(03:40):
growth. And it actually makes sense
because when you think about it,the numbers, the sales hit 6.2
billion, which is up 4% year on year.
Both Waitrose and John Lewis outperformed their markets with
satisfaction, hitting record highs again, fantastic.
I can understand that. And the thing that really caught

(04:00):
my attention with this is the fact that they're front loading
their investment and putting 191,000,000 lbs into store
upgrade. Really welcome.
And technology, I'm sorry. That's what they've done in just
the first half with even more plan before the golden quarter,
which I think again will lend because people love, you know,

(04:22):
go to do a little Christmas shopping, JLP or Waitrose.
In Waitrose, it's specifically strong because their sales
topped £4 billion for the first time in the half year and that's
a 6% increase. So it when you think about it
and given all the stuff that we talk about doom and gloom,
they're seeing 9% more customersthan they were two years ago,

(04:45):
which again, kudos to them for doing that.
And they've become the first UK supermarket because we all love
our chicken to have a better chicken commitment.
And they won the Grocer of the year gold award for customer
service. So it feels like, you know, this
is a retailer, they're getting the brands to come in, they're
going through the transformationof the store.

(05:06):
They've got a £53 million operating loss, but that's the
investment that they're putting into their business because
they're still growing, they're still selling, customers are
still coming in, but they're rebuilding, if you like, from a
lot of their stores. And they obviously bought back
that famous never knowingly undersold promise, which I think

(05:28):
has lent itself to the customer sentiment stores.
So yeah, that's it. That's John Lewis for me.
And I think we're going to, well, no, I don't think I know
we're going to stay with me and we're actually planned focused
on grocery. But this is a really, I mean,
obviously Morrison's have watched the retail podcast, the
NRF, because I interviewed actually it was Chop talk or

(05:51):
NRF. It was NRF, the first UK grocer
to go with Insta guy. And you were saying, well, what
is Instacart? Instacart is a trolley with
technology built in for you to be able to scan the items that
you're putting into your trolleythat comes with it with an LED
screen at the front. That sort of it can be used for

(06:12):
lots of different use cases, butit's a really clever way to
deploy retail media if you don'twant to put screens around your
score in the US. Instacart is a media company,
not necessarily a retail tech for grocers.
Because what they're focusing and what they're saying is, is
they've created an ecosystem of advertisers who want to

(06:34):
advertise in retailers, but theydon't necessarily just want to
advertise in one retailer. They want to advertise in all of
them. And so Instacart promises, take
out trolleys. They've all got digital screens.
Yes, the customer gets some benefit because they can do
things like wayfinding, they cando things like product price,
look up, look at promotions, butit becomes this little hub as

(06:56):
you walk around. Now, I don't know if that's what
Morrison's shoppers want, havingAI, AI powered shopping
trolleys, but from an industry perspective, it's the shape of
things to come. So super interesting.
I think moving on to yourself with another fabulous story.
Very excited to see how that pans up with Morrison's.
But yes, so I wanted to talk about Barber.

(07:19):
Barber is making moves and what they do very well is collapse.
As you can see. One of them is incredible, is
farm real, very unexpected. It's a 24 piece collection.
I have to say that it's available.
I need it for tonight. Can't not say it.
I love it if I if I, I don't know if there's a man farm Rio,

(07:40):
but it's so cool. But it is like you can see that
it's, you know, obviously it's Brazilian meats, British.
Quintessential countryside. Yeah.
But what I love is that, you know, it's still, they still
respect the DNA. You can still see that kind of
wax cotton with, with the jacket, with the jackets and

(08:00):
those kind of like tartan linings, but with the twist.
You know, they've got some of the pieces are reversible.
You know, it's nice. Like when you, I mean, there's
one of them that I'm obsessed with and it's like a nice wax
jacket, but then it has this collar.
I don't know where it is, but even this one here on the left
is really nice because you've got this one, the nice deep
burgundy kind of standard to extract it.

(08:21):
Then you've got this beautiful farm wheel print on the pocket.
Then I think the back of that isreally nice.
But why I think it works is thatit's it's relevance through
through difference. And Barbara have been very good
at choosing really carefully whothey've partnered with.
I know they did one with Ghani before, but I think what's great
is suddenly someone who never saw themselves in a Barbara.

(08:42):
It's like, wait, hang on a minute.
Which is kind of me. I'm not really a I'm.
Well, I do like Barbara, but I don't really.
Yeah, but. You're not going to go out and
buy. One right.
This is in my wish list. I love that also as well.
I think doing limited pieces hasthat kind of drop culture.
Get it before it's gone high. But yeah, I love it.

(09:03):
I just like that it's still Barbara under the hood, you
know, still really great quality, built to last.
The craft doesn't change. Yeah, I just thought it was that
high hybrid identity done right.I really love it and I think
it's just a really great way fortraditional brands to stay
relevant and tap into new audiences.
So yeah, I. Love it.

(09:24):
Yeah, I agree. Look, timeless British heritage
meets Brazilian tropical vibrance.
And I think, you know, what a great example of the
multicultural world that we livein and this need for people to
have this sort of, you know, vibrance from, from this new
age, which family are doing phenomenally well, right?
Going from strength to strength,meeting this whole world.

(09:45):
So I, I totally what a what a really cool yeah, collaboration.
OK, moving on last minute OxfordSt shutting down Sunday 21st.
Whether or not you like the Mayor of London, that's totally
irrelevant. I think it's, it's, it's great
for Oxford St. We're all I'm I'm a fan of
Oxford Street and Reading St. I think it's a fantastic

(10:05):
shopping destination and the fact that they're going to make
it traffic free for the day, I mean, it's a shame.
It's a Sunday. I'd love to, you know, do a week
kind of people. They put the licence in.
And so it's especially this weekwhen I'm trying to get from
Oxford St up to Houston, the traffic's there anyway because
people say, Oh my God, it's going to cause chaos with

(10:25):
traffic. It's there anyway.
And especially with the train strike, it was anyway, but I
think they're going to it's a mini festival, right.
So they're just wanting to people to come out to hang out
and and enjoy the experience to see what Oxford Street will be
like. So Sunday 21st between 12:00 and
8:00, get yourself down to Oxford Street.
So Simone, with that, have you got a busy week planned?

(10:49):
Yes, well, busy week. We're at the end of the week.
It's been a busy week. Next week is also going to be a
busy week. It's relentless coming back from
the summer. It feels like, Oh my God,
September is going to be a big month.
We've got a couple of major conferences coming up, which we
will see if we'll be there or not.
Yeah. Well, with that, thank you so
much. Until next week, have a lovely

(11:10):
week. Wonderful.
Thanks, Alec. Take.
Care bye.