Start your week with Brittain Ladd
On Monday at 10 a.m. EDT, Grace Sharkey and I will again interview one of our favorite guests: outspoken independent consultant Brittain Ladd. The depth of Ladd’s expertise is impressive and spans companies and topics throughout the retail space and far beyond.
On his prior The Stockout appearance, his Starbucks comments were prescient. Ladd described the company as being “in a world of hurt” and said its board had appointed the wrong CEO. It instead needed an executive who can improve the customer experience. Not long after, Starbucks appointed Brian Niccol, the former head of Chipotle, as CEO. That resulted in an immediate bounce in the share price.
(Chart: Barchart.com Inc.)
Ladd also has plenty of strong thoughts on Kroger’s potential acquisition of Albertsons. In a recent LinkedIn post, he pokes numerous holes in Kroger’s argument that the deal is not anticompetitive. Ladd doubts customers would see any relief in retail prices and doesn’t think that C&S Wholesale Grocers will be a strong competitor. In short, he did the Federal Trade Commission’s homework for them.
Ladd follows e-commerce companies closely as well. Expect him to share his views on Amazon, Shein and Temu as well as the implications for the parcel carriers. He will also tell you what’s wrong with Whole Foods Market.
The show will be available live on FreightWaves.com at 10 Monday and on The Stockout YouTube channel thereafter.
FreightWaves and SONAR have hurricanes covered
I encourage supply chain professionals to take advantage of a free trial of SONAR that is available until Oct. 18. All that’s required is filling out the form here.
After signing up for the free trial, I encourage users to check out Tony Mulvey’s article, which goes through which SONAR datasets provide the most insight into the degree of regional disruption caused by Hurricane Milton.
The markets that will most clearly be impacted are those near where the storm made landfall. In our truckload data, the Lakeland granularities (e.g., VOTRI.LAL) include Tampa and Central Florida. In our rail intermodal data, the Tampa granularities (e.g., ORAIL.TPA) cover that region.
While the impact to those areas is critical, many supply chain professionals need instead to see how the locations and lanes where they have operations are being impacted. After signing up for the SONAR free trial, SONAR Customer Success – which can be reached at cs@gosonar.com – can show you how to find that.
Refrigerated carriers are reluctant to send equipment and drivers into Central Florida, rejecting 41% of inbound tenders. (Chart: SONAR)
After reviewing all your most relevant locations, I recommend coming back to FreightWaves.com for additional commentary on the freight market and the latest updates.
Currently, there is a debate whether Hurricane Milton will be impactful enough to tighten the freight market. Zach Strickland says in his latest article that it might.
Not out of the woods following the International Longshoremen’s Association returning to work: 10 ports remains closed following Hurricane Milton.
Hurricanes shut down railroads as the carriers move assets out of harm’s way and take time to inspect/repair tracks before service resumes. The impact of Hurricane Helene may turn out to be an extreme case. The Norfolk Southern line into Asheville, North Carolina, is set to be closed for at least three months.
Warehouses and distribution centers in Milton’s path, including for Amazon, Publix and Walmart, were recalibrating ahead of landfall.
The Stockout show featuring EAIGLE
(Image: FWTV)
On Monday’s The Stockout show, Grace Sharkey and I interviewed Amir Hoss, founder and CEO of EAIGLE (pronounced Eagle-AI). EAIGLE provides an AI and computer vision solution in logistics yards, including those utilized by retailers, CPG companies, manufacturers and transportation companies. In fact, Hoss did the interview live from the active logistics yard of a Toronto-based CPG company.
Leveraging low-cost security cameras that companies already have in place, EAIGLE offers proprietary software and algorithms that interpret collected images and recommend efficiency-improving actions. A typical result is streamlining necessary but menial tasks, which allows employees to focus on responsibilities that require more brainpower.
Watch the episode here and click here for the full The Stockout playlist.
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