by Brittain Ladd | Aug 10, 2020 | Delivery, E-Commerce, No Retreat, No Surrender, Retail
People can die from any number of ways including accidents, which can kill them quickly, or from diseases which can kill them slowly. In the articles I write, I often state that a company can die. Most companies don’t die quickly, they die slowly; sometimes over...
by Brittain Ladd | Aug 3, 2020 | E-Commerce, Grocery, No Retreat, No Surrender, Retail
Articles about Instacart continue to appear in the press but for all the wrong reasons. The most recent articles outline that Instacart workers are losing money because bots are being used by some Instacart workers to snatch the most lucrative orders within...
by Brittain Ladd | Jul 10, 2020 | Articles, Delivery, E-Commerce, Grocery, Retail
I had the pleasure of recently speaking with Louis Borders, the founder of Borders bookstores, and the first heavily-automated online grocery retailer, Webvan. I didn’t just interview Borders and ask him the same questions he’s already been asked hundreds...
by Brittain Ladd | Jun 19, 2020 | Articles, E-Commerce, Grocery, Retail
Retail sales in 2020 are expected to reach $5 trillion dollars and by 2023, retail sales globally are estimated to reach $30 trillion U.S. dollars. Retail is big business. Inspired by a desire to reimagine retail as we know it, Ali Ahmed, Tigran Shahverdyan and Emad...
by Brittain Ladd | Jun 17, 2020 | Articles, E-Commerce, Grocery, Retail
On June 16, 2017, Amazon announced that they had acquired Whole Foods for $13.4B. I was not surprised at the announcement as I had made such a recommendation in this 2013 research paper. Amazon has owned Whole Foods for three years. Was the acquisition worth it? Has...
by Brittain Ladd | Apr 5, 2020 | Articles, Autonomous Vehicles, E-Commerce, Grocery
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers in the United States were focused on remodeling their stores and improving the in-store experience for customers. Supposed retail experts and grocery analysts argued vociferously that the only way for retailers to be able to...
