Hello Omni Talk Fans! It's time to get your $10 Walmart wine and head into the weekend.

This week the grocery industry stole the show. We've got Uber doing delivery for Albertsons and Costco, Instacart trying to defend their position offering automated fulfillment for grocers, and more checkout-free and convenience store openings than we can keep track of.

We cover it all in this week's Fast Five which you can listen to by clicking the feature above or this link below

Take Me To The Fast Five

In the latest edition of the Omni Talk Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer & Retail Group, and Takeoff Anne Mezzenga and guest hosts David Ritter and Kristin Kohler Burrows of the A&M Consumer & Retail Group discuss:

-Uber announcing partnerships with both Albertsons and Costco sending the Fast Five team into a debate about what this means for the grocery delivery ecosystem and grocers moving away from Instacart.

-Foxtrot’s ambitious expansion plans and some ideas on how they should consider differentiating themselves in their new markets, from deploying checkout-free tech to going all-in on Momofuku-led concepts.

-The nuance in the stream of recent cashier-less checkout headlines, including the latest two stores from AiFi at Morrisons and Loop Neighborhood Stores, and what retailers should be considering when exploring these initiatives.

-thredUP’s Resale-As-A-Service (RAAS) 360 commerce platform debuting with Madewell this week and A&M’s expert advice for retailers trying to figure out their own resale strategy.

-Bite Ninja blowing up Anne’s LinkedIn DM’s and also revolutionizing the QSR labor industry with a platform that allows gig workers to take orders remotely at the drive-thru.

The team also talked about Ulta opening in Target, increasing its one-stop-shop allure, and resulting in a poll of the most random collection of products the team has purchased in one trip to a big box store. Hint: It includes 50 lbs. of crawfish, chocolate chips, and reading glasses. All that plus the Olympic squads Dave and Kristin wish they could join in Tokyo this week.

To learn more about the A&M Consumer & Retail Group, visit:

http://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/industries/retail/retail

Kristin can be reached at: kburrows@alvarezandmarsal.com

David can be reached at: dritter@alvarezandmarsal.com

To learn more about Takeoff, visit: www.takeoff.com/

Happy Olympics spectating, and as always,

Be careful out there,

-- Anne, Chris and the entire Omni Talk team

P.S. Did you catch the latest Women's Retail Collective Podcast with EyeBuyDirect CEO Sunny Jiang? She's about to take the e-commerce retailer and its 3 million customers into the omni-channel world and you'll want to hear all about how she plans to do it. Click the feature below to listen now!