Ever wondered how technology is revolutionizing the retail industry? Get ready to discover the transformative power of retail tech innovations you can discover at the NWA Tech Summit, an event designed to keep businesses at the cutting edge of technology.
We sat down with some of the leaders behind the event to bring you a sneak peak at what you may hear (and potentially see) at the summit from as Sam's Club's burger making robot to Tyson's robotic arm, and of course the autonomous bots at Walmart Store 100. Tune in and get a taste of the exciting innovations shaping the retail universe!
Buckle up for an exciting journey through the digital and physical aspects of retail technology, and discover how it's changing the way we shop and work!
RetailWire is the retail industry's premier source for news, analysis, and discussion. With a focus on the latest trends, technology, and consumer behavior, RetailWire provides a platform for industry experts and thought leaders to share their insights and perspectives. Whether you're a retailer, supplier, or service provider, RetailWire is your go-to destination for staying informed and ahead of the curve.
Be sure to leave us a comment and let us know what you think. You might even hear your comment read on the next episode!
To learn more, or to join our Daily Discussions, visit RetailWire.com.
Ever wondered how technology is revolutionizing the retail industry? Get ready to discover the transformative power of retail tech innovations you can discover at the NWA Tech Summit, an event designed to keep businesses at the cutting edge of technology.
We sat down with some of the leaders behind the event to bring you a sneak peak at what you may hear (and potentially see) at the summit from as Sam's Club's burger making robot to Tyson's robotic arm, and of course the autonomous bots at Walmart Store 100. Tune in and get a taste of the exciting innovations shaping the retail universe!
Buckle up for an exciting journey through the digital and physical aspects of retail technology, and discover how it's changing the way we shop and work!
RetailWire is the retail industry's premier source for news, analysis, and discussion. With a focus on the latest trends, technology, and consumer behavior, RetailWire provides a platform for industry experts and thought leaders to share their insights and perspectives. Whether you're a retailer, supplier, or service provider, RetailWire is your go-to destination for staying informed and ahead of the curve.
Be sure to leave us a comment and let us know what you think. You might even hear your comment read on the next episode!
To learn more, or to join our Daily Discussions, visit RetailWire.com.
The Northwest Arca-Saw Tech Summit. This is a big event, but how long has it been going on and what really sparked the idea to get it started?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the NWA Tech Summit is 10 years old this year, and so it started with a group of small business owners who really wanted to stay ahead of the tech curve.
Speaker 2:They wanted to discuss trends, do a little bit of forecasting as to what was coming down the pike, and since then it's just kind of exploded year over year, to go from depending on the myth and lore that you believe two to 300 at the very first one to now we're anticipating over 2000 registered attendees for this year.
Speaker 2:So it's a homegrown project. It's always been here in Bendville as part of the Chamber of Commerce and it just keeps growing and has really transformed into something more than just a small business focus, because we engage with all the major local enterprise companies that were born and raised here so Walmart, tyson, jb Hunt and the University of Arkansas and then we interact with a lot of the tech companies, including retail tech companies that are here because of those big employers, so everyone from Salesforce to Microsoft, ibm and Google, and then some new faces this year, including, like Dunhumbie, and actually Metta is one of our brand new sponsors this year. So we just continue to grow and it's so much fun to get to showcase Northwest Arkansas as a tech hub, the rivals Silicon Valley and New York City, and that really retail tech is king here as well.
Speaker 1:On the retail side of it. I know there's a retail innovation track. Is that something that Scott is heading up?
Speaker 3:So I'm supporting being involved in it, and I'm particularly excited about it because, if you're from a retail background, you get to see every day what an exciting and kind of compelling way in which technology is evolving and changing the retail community.
Speaker 3:And while this is a tech summit, it probably won't shock anybody that Northwest Arkansas has a pretty strong root in retailing as well. And not only does technology have an exciting impact on the customer, on the customer experience, but it also enhances the worker experience. It's the person who supports you in a store or in a Sam's Club, in a distribution center, truck drivers. There's so many things, so many elements of retail that are positively impacted by technology. And then one kind of overarching aspect is the role that our official intelligence is playing and is stating that going to play in our lives. In many ways, our official intelligence is going to enhance a lot of different aspects of retail. So, even though this summit is really about technology in the broader context, if you're from a retail background, this is an exciting time to see the ways that technology is impacting the retail business.
Speaker 1:What are some of those major themes that you've seen and what would people expect at the conference, especially the retail track?
Speaker 2:So when you look at some of the retail tech that's thriving here, one of our keynote sessions is going to be led by Tim Simmons, who is VP at Sam's Club.
Speaker 2:I believe he leads their product work, and what Tim is going to talk about is some of the automation that you're seeing rolled out at Sam's Club and specifically, machinery that I don't think they've deployed nationally yet, but everything from automated scrubbers. So what used to be the Zamboni-like machine that someone would drive around Sam's Club to clean the floors now goes on its own Drives, fully autonomous. For those of us who know what it is like, I stare and watch with complete terror at the way some children dart in front of it. But it's immensely smart. It knows when to stop, it knows when to go. It is doing some really cool things behind the scenes. They even announced I don't know if you called it earlier this year they had built an automated hamburger machine which is really funny that, of all the things to build, it's just so cool that at Sam's Club this machine can churn out burgers and build them.
Speaker 2:And so when you think like retail innovation in terms of like actual tech hardware, that's not something that might immediately come to mind with Walmart and Sam's Club, but they're leading the way in some really interesting products and solutions that they're developing In our own backyard here. I know one of the things that we'll talk about at the summit is a little bit of what's going on at Store 100. There's a space where what they're called alphabots. They are about maybe a couple feet wide by a couple feet tall. They're fully autonomous little robots that zoom around and pick up inventory to fill orders that are placed for pickup and orders that are placed for delivery, so that these bots are zooming around with sort of a sectioned off inventory area so that workers aren't out on the floor walking around all day. But these bots can just zoom around and zip back through this charging station, get recharged and then pick up all these items.
Speaker 2:It is a wonder to sit there and look at it because it's just so big and so massive in its scope, with all these different autonomous bots now crashing into each other, moving in different directions, picking up these items. It's really cool to see, and it's not just Walmart either. Tyson has Tyson brought out a robotic arm that was showing how it works, sort of to help sort of move chicken items. Lots of these companies here are really engaging in some cutting edge tech that you just wouldn't associate with Walmart being retail. Tyson gets labeled as just chicken, jb Hunt just gets labeled as trucking. I mean, all of them are experimenting and playing around with autonomous vehicles now and electric vehicles, and so it's really cutting edge tech from companies that might not always be associated with the cutting edge Most people have become acquainted with OpenAI chat, gbt, which is moving around language, and it can do so much, but it still is digital thing.
Speaker 1:It's just moving text and images, and the stuff you just talked about was moving physical things, rearranging and understanding where to go, how to not run into each other, where to go to charge themselves when they get tired, right? So are you seeing a blend of the two, or what do we expect from the digital and physical?
Speaker 2:You know, that's why we really landed on the title theme that we have for this year, the year of the machines. Because we saw last year in the track that we did on mobility and supply chain, that almost all the solutions were AI driven and automation driven, and we were like man, we should really lean into this, like this is where it looks like it's going. And then January-ish is when, like chat GPT really like started making waves and we were like man, we got to double down on this, like we got to make it the year of the machines. We've like it's going to be big and, sure enough, like every other week, there's been some press release related to AI from every imaginal company.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I'll tell you, things are happening so fast. This recently, this week, you know we talked about how technology can impact the physical elements of retail and make them more efficient. But I've seen this week AI solutions for product content on item detail pages on a website, not only creating that content to begin with and doing it in a very efficient way, but in many cases, optimizing that content so that it is up to date from a seasonality standpoint, so that it is more easily found in search queries on a website or on a mobile app. It helps both the retailer and the brand owner, the person who's built the product, to enhance their copy and tell their story of their product in a way that not only helps the consumer once they've located that product, but makes it easier to find a relevant product or a certain group of products on a website. And just like placement of a product in a physical store is critical to its success, consumers gotta be able to find it. That same thing occurs on a website and on a mobile app, and if you're shopping for something and you can't find it, it doesn't exist to you as a consumer.
Speaker 3:And AI is improving the way that content and how findable a product is in a shopping experience, and that's so critical, particularly in retailers like Walmart and Sam's Club and others that have a nominee channel presence, because in many cases the digital experience isn't just about a digital sale, but in many cases it leads to a sale in a physical store, and that technology is now making easier to find it, and consumers, more and more, are time-starved and the ability to research and buy an item online and then go pick it up in a physical store is a use case that, while it accelerated during the pandemic, it's now kind of settled in as a significant part of how retail transactions are done, and so brand marketers, retailers, product managers all have an important desire to see that work and technology is impacting the digital side in addition to what Chris was just talking about in terms of the physical sides of retailing. So that's kind of exciting.
Speaker 2:And there's a desire to like, blur the line between the two, like with the whole metaverse and augmented reality. You know people from the simplest aspects of like. You know using your cell phone to figure out where your item is in the store instead of wandering like I did that at Lowe's the other day, because anytime I'm in Lowe's I get lost I'm being able to like, figure out on a map like okay, this is what I'm looking for, here's where I go, so I don't have to try to find somebody.
Speaker 2:But, even down to things like just different in-store experiences that blur the line between the physical and digital, which is really gonna continue to get weird and fun and interesting as we blur those lines moving forward.
Speaker 3:It's exciting times to see how technology is positively impacting the shopping experience as well as making the retailer and the brand more efficient and more effective in the consumer needs. We all live through the supply chain issues coming out of the pandemic in the last few years, and that's a use case where AI and other technologies will enhance supply chain planning from factory through the distribution chain to a store shelf and into consumers homes in ways that hopefully will make that a thing of the past going forward, because every person, every organization, has a component of that supply chain is now gonna be more effective in what they do because of where technology is headed.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, there's a lot happening and it's blowing my mind, but more so than that struggle to learn and keep up, there's a fear of missing out, a FOMO how do you help those who are overwhelmed? And Fear of missing out? And just there's too much information right now.
Speaker 3:Okay, I tell you, I think that's part of why the summit is so important, because being a student, learning, listening, hearing from people who are on the cutting edge of some of these technologies, I think is how you start to answer that question. No matter what role you play in the technology space broadly or in retail Specifically, you've got to be a student, you've got to listen, you got to attend events like this one, where you hear people that are on the cutting edge of what's happening, and at least kind of keep your your knowledge level and your opportunity to kind of see Leaders in that space and then just continue to learn, and I think it's one of those that you know the true solutions will happen over time. You're gonna have to experiment. Whether you're a consumer, brand, a retailer, part of supply chain, whatever role you play in the broader ecosystem of retail, a Marketer, you've got to, you've got to try things and you've got to learn from people who are doing things well and Just continue to, to watch and see how it can improve your business case.
Speaker 3:Now, one of the things I'll also tell you is, I think if you're a business person, no matter what role you play, you have an obligation, of my view, to challenge Technology people who develop technology with. Here's a business challenge, here's a business problem that we're facing. How can you help me solve that? Because that's when some of the best technology solutions Happen, when they're in response to some sort of business challenge. Either the retailer has, the consumer has, or whoever that might be. And so Get in the game, be involved, learn, ask questions, attend events like this. I think is is the advice I would give folks in our industry.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and I think one of the really Interesting things about the tech summit is it's so accessible. We'll have everybody from high school students and college students all the way up through C-suite level execs and that's. That may sound like too big of an umbrella, but we make a really good effort trying to tell our presenters that you know, we want you to do deep dives but also play in the shallow end of the pool, a bit like we want people to be able to walk away with some some captivating information that they wouldn't have known before, to really help Continue to build a tech pipeline of, you know, kids who are interested in tech, kids who are interested in staying here Locally to pursue a career in tech, rather than moving to to Silicon Valley or to New York City. We want them to think you know, man, if I want to go into AI and automation, I could. I could really look at Tyson Walmart or JB Hunt, and that's the kind of inspirational event that we hope we build, so that I mean people who even just have a low threshold of Personal tech capabilities, like myself included.
Speaker 2:I love the event, I love going to it, even though a lot of conversation will go straight over my head Once we we dive really deep into the weeds, but it's a really cool playground to see like what's cutting edge, what's being deployed and and kind of what's on the horizon, so that everybody can can access it and then build some really Interesting networks and relationships to follow up on. If you have a specific interest, I know that just this week we had a news article that hit where three ignite students which is a program out of our local Bentonville Public Schools three ignite students met up with a University of Arkansas professor last year at the Tech Summit and have been doing work on some projects ever since, and this was the event where they connected and Started the conversation and so we actually we have them coming to present and share about what they've done, because I was like that's too cool a story not to have you guys be on stage. Like that's the kind of thing we want to highlight Among all the other types of presentations.
Speaker 1:That's so fun. Yeah yeah, I see how there's this vision beyond just Making a commercial Conference. Is that what I'm hearing? There's a deeper layer.
Speaker 2:There's, there's a couple lanes that we try to operate in. You know, because we're part of the Chamber of Commerce, we really take pride in In economically developing the area by showcasing this region by you know, by looking at our audience the fact that, for example, microsoft or or Google, like they've got teams of people who live here. They'll come to the conference, but they're also going to bring in speakers from probably the coasts or another major metropolitan area, and so they'll come in and see this place, maybe even for the first time. We love being able to showcase Northwest Arkansas as a place where innovators can thrive and where technologists can remote work or Move and, and you know, build a business, grow a business, because that's that's a beautiful story of like Walmart, tyson and JB Hunt. They are, whether or not they look like it, they are all now technology companies and they all got their start right here. And there's even some Incredible startups following in their footsteps, like ox. That's a local retail tech company that's booming and growing right here in Northwest Arkansas, and so we're working to do that lane of economic development. We're working to improve, like, access and equity when it comes to tech, so that students, educators, entrepreneurs, active-duty military and veterans can all apply for complementary tickets to come.
Speaker 2:We know that those groups tend to look for careers in tech. They want to find out the skills that they need, or maybe how to reskill, an upskill, for some jobs in tech. And so we do some of that workforce development by putting them in touch with these potential employers, showing them what, what they need to know, to, to keep their skills current. And then, beyond that, there's a lot of networking that happens among these businesses, where companies will rub elbows at this conference, share a stage, share drinking, some food, and just new collaborations are born, and so we do a little bit of all those things which makes it so much fun of a playground to play in. And now, scott, you've experienced it. I'm curious, kind of like what you would say like what are the takeaways of that engagement on a personal level?
Speaker 3:I got to tell you that my experience, not only when I was with Walmart and Sam's Club, but since I've been part of the broader community, is relationship building and just the interaction of folks from across the spectrum of technology and retail tech specifically is where great ideas happen and where relationships are born.
Speaker 3:You gave a great example, but there's countless others and I've seen it. But I think the other thing is is, while our area, our region, is known for retailing, for trucking and for meat production because of the big companies here, now we're being known for so many other things, so many other aspects of retail, as well as the beautiful area that we have. I was on a call with someone just the other day from Chicago and they knew about our mountain biking. They knew about how nice it is down here, how the area is developing, how much recreation there is, and so if you could have both quality of life and exciting economic development activity that's going on, that's kind of a neat thing and part of what I think Chris and the team get to kind of showcase by having folks come here from other parts of the country and see our area and participate in the summit as well.
Speaker 2:And, like all good marketing, content is king. We take great pride in that. We get the best speakers, the best leaders in the area and beyond. Like this year it's going to be I think our highest ranking person from Walmart is going to be the Chief Product Officer, john Alphornis. We've got some incredible other speakers that just when you go to a conference, you may see some B or C list technologists, maybe one or two A listers, but here, like the depth of tech in Northwest Arkansas and the wide range they have to pull from to bring in speakers is just astronomical. We have some great content that, if for nothing else, if you are coming to learn about tech, you're going to get your fill.
Speaker 1:Indeed, that's so exciting. There was something you said about major retailers or basically technology companies. Now, and at the core of it still is people centric, like the actual retail industry is one of the most people oriented businesses. But traditionally people would say, well, I don't want to get into retail because I'm not really a people person and I'm like you know. I tried working at a store when I was younger. I just don't like people. And now there's room and almost a necessity to bring in people who aren't the necessarily the outgoing people person, the salespeople.
Speaker 3:I got to tell you that it's interesting how retailing has evolved because, to your point, in many cases, if you had a customer facing role and you weren't a people person, one would question whether retailing was the right career. The thing and I taught retailing for a period of time at Texas A&M and one of the things we told students there is there's not really an area of interest or career growth or an opportunity that retailing doesn't somehow touch, and I can recall when David Glass was the CEO of Walmart, him talking about in a meeting that you could have so many different careers within a retail organization like Walmart and that, to your kind of to your point, is, no matter what role you play, you could be an engineer, you can be a supply chain person, you can be a coder, you can be a marketer, you can be someone who loves to be in front of people, you can be someone who prefers not. There are so many different areas that you can play a role within retailing and obviously spent my entire adult adult life involved in retailing and love it. But part of what's so neat is the number of people I've encountered, including myself, for whom retailing was going to be a temporary.
Speaker 3:I'm just going to do this till I get out of college or till I solve this problem or that problem in my, in my life and then fell in love with it and stayed with it, and I think that's that's the neat thing about retailing broadly is the career, and particularly now as technology is enabling so many different new career paths that are still tied back to retailing. It's a fun time and and it's an exciting time and you can just have so many different careers within retailing. If you're not a people person, it's still okay. If you can contribute another way, I'm pretty sure we want you involved in the industry and and this is this is a great this event is a great way to kind of find some of those opportunities for you as a professional.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think there are a lot of people who are at that spot in their career where they may be looking for a change, or also just younger students going. I don't really know what I want to do. Retail has all these components. It's not just moving product anymore.
Speaker 3:Yeah, one of my favorite things that I've heard Doug Mcmillan say a couple times in public settings recently and I hope I get this quote exactly right.
Speaker 3:But he viewed Walmart as tech enabled but people let and yeah that's one of the recurring themes that I think is is concerns people. As technology and the evolution of technology a bad thing? Does it eliminate jobs? No, first of all, it's a tool to help run a business and help serve customers, but it feels very likely that it will create more jobs than in eliminates in. Those jobs will be far more exciting, compelling career choices for people from across the different spectrums and different walks of life and I think that's some of the things that the people will see at this event is there's so many different ways in which technology will positively impact that that the career opportunities that will stem from it. As part of why I'm so excited that Chris and the team have high school students, college students and they have a broad community people attending, because the ideas and the, the career inspiration, as well as the technology inspiration that comes out of an event like this is just so very powerful.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, Do you have any examples of technology that is going to be demoed?
Speaker 2:For tech that's going to be demoed. I don't know okay so we can.
Speaker 2:We can talk about what I hope people will bring to the event, because we've had conversations about it One, one really cool piece of technology that I'd love to see on display. I'm going to be talking to Dr Jung at the Institute for integrative and innovative research, IQ Darth University of Arkansas. If you don't know Dr Jung, she she has this amazing piece of biomechanical tech that's essentially a prosthesis that you can get if you've lost your arm or your hand, and while that's not a new technology, what's so different about hers and she recently, I believe, put it in the first patient here in Arkansas is that it actually restores some form of sensation with it, which is wild to think that that is like some of the tech that you. It sounds crazy for me to be asking people I'm like bring the hand with you, like bring the hand.
Speaker 2:People are going to want to see this, so I know that's. That's one of the things that that we hope to have on display. You know, last year we had robotic dogs. I know that some people are planning on bringing out some, some robotic machinery. Walmart and Sam's Club actually hadn't named that scrubber.
Speaker 3:And I was like how do you have a robot?
Speaker 2:and not give it a name. And so then it took a couple of emails and they were like OK, I think we finally come down to Samuel Scrub.
Speaker 3:I'm like.
Speaker 2:I'm so on brand for you guys Like that's. I don't know why I even asked.
Speaker 3:Like that's that's perfect.
Speaker 2:But but things like that I know we we hope to have on display. I know Gaddick, one of our really amazing startups that does middle mile delivery with autonomous vehicles. They'll bring out one of their new trucks. They were doing this delivery for Walmart. They just announced recently that they're now doing it with Walmart and Tyson and so if you're in Bentonville driving around, there's a good chance you might see a Gaddick truck without someone sitting in the driver's seat Still, someone sitting in the passenger seat for a while until regulation catches up with our technology and everybody feels comfortable.
Speaker 2:But they should have one of their trucks there on display as well, so that kind of cool tech should definitely be there, aren't the folks?
Speaker 3:from Drone Up going to be.
Speaker 2:I don't think Drone Up is going to be showing off a drone this year. I know that we've got some departments at the university that do everything from Do everything, including drones. It would surprise me if they don't bring some of them out. We did have a drone up drone last year. It's there's just so much cool tech that's in our backyard here and it's been amazing to the like when we put stuff out on LinkedIn and online, who will reach out and claim they've got some some different piece of tech? I got a weird email with a guy who was just two lines and he was like I've retrofitted a semi-autonomous vehicle. You want me to bring it and I'm like what is going on?
Speaker 2:Like I don't want you to bring something that's probably not street legal and show off Like it just concerns me but, people are eager to show off their cool tech toys at this event. It's amazing what you get when you open Pandora's box and say send me what you want to bring.
Speaker 1:I want to see robots In the Ozarks, yeah, yeah let's you never quite know what you're going to get.
Speaker 3:So that's exciting. Yeah, that's really cool.
Speaker 1:What other? Do you have any other notes or anything you'd like to slip in here?
Speaker 2:You know, on every podcast, almost to a fault, I forget to say the dates and where people can get info. So I'll go into my short stump speech. The tech summit happens October 29th through November 1st. We'll kick things off on the 29th in the evening with a welcome celebration at the Amazium, which is a children's museum here in town that we're going to rent out and have some good food and drinks, some personal electric vehicle tech to play with.
Speaker 2:If you've never ridden a one wheel, or if you don't know what one is, you should Google a one wheel and check it out. We're going to have some of those on display. You can try out some people doing stunts on them. We'll have live music, we'll have a drinks and drinks and we'll also have virtual reality. So the drinks and the virtual reality games could be really interesting. Yes, the Six Dimension VR is a company that's local here in town. They'll have a whole game set up for people to play.
Speaker 2:That kicks off the party and then the the conference runs all day Monday, tuesday and Wednesday. We'd love to have you come out. Tickets are available at nwatechsummitcom and if you are a student, educator, entrepreneur or military and veteran, shoot me an email, go to the website, find a way to contact us and we will try to get you a complimentary ticket. Any crazy retail stories that you want to tell Scott, like anything that when we talk tech summit cutting edge tech you've really seen take shape and last like a year or two, that maybe I haven't even been aware of because I just haven't Retail's not always the lane I'm in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know you. You gave that story about robotic order fulfillment in in the micro fulfillment facility over here. What's what's interesting is that it probably won't shock you that companies were pitching that to Walmart years ago, in fact, while I was still there. And what's funny is now there's technology out there that I was under NDA and it's seen and thought was so cool and could never talk about. Now it's out there and it's being used and it's that. But I had to keep that secret for years and that's kind of like, you know, luke Skywalker having to know that Darth Vader was his father but he couldn't say it.
Speaker 2:That's frankly.
Speaker 3:I knew about that, knew it was coming in, and now it's here, it's going to become increasingly mainstream, and so that's, that's been kind of fun. But I'll tell you one other quick story. Before I came to Walmart, I was with a catalog retailer called service merchandise, and when I and while I was there was was right when e-commerce was starting to emerge, and I was fascinated by it, particularly because I was an electronics buyer and electronics was the categories that first really could took off in e-commerce. And when I landed the job with what was then called Walmart online, which is now Walmartcom, I went in and obviously gave notice that service merchandise and the CEO of service merchandise came and called me into his office wanting to know why I was leaving. And I explained to him and and here's the the most important quote is he said you know, scott, this whole internet retailing thing is just a fad. Okay, it's not really going to take off. And, and I don't even know why you're you're leaving us to go and be involved in the, in this, this idea of of internet retailing. You know, and I said, well, respectfully, sir, I think it is, and I think a catalog retailer like service merchandise would be well positioned because think about it they took pictures of every item, they had descriptions of every item, they had the ability to pick, pack and ship individual products and send them to your house. Everything about a catalog retailer was perfect for it to become an internet retailer. And if you're all knowing about retailing, you know service merchandise went chapter 11, then chapter seven got shut down and he bought all the assets of the company, including the name, all those facilities, out of bankruptcy and today he operates service merchandisecom out of his office in in Florida. And so I just occasionally I like to call him up and say I could have saved you a little bit of pain.
Speaker 3:But it's funny to see how, in the context of technology obviously, e-commerce went from being this cutting edge emerging, not sure if it's going to work, not sure if anybody can make a money at it. Yeah, element of retailing to where, nominally now, is that a very viable part of retailing? But people used to talk about it as two separate things Stores and e-commerce, two separate silos, separate things. And now today we're seeing how the two things come together to serve a customer and that's that's kind of great, a great thing to see. But it all started with a? You know, this is the fads got. Well, respectfully, sir, I don't think it is Okay. See how it turned out.
Speaker 2:So you're talking about retail tech fads. I found out some retail tech trivia the other day. Do you know when and who invented the QR code? I do not. Okay, so new sponsor this year. Denso was on the call with me and I didn't know much about Denso. Way back in 1994, denso wave, which was part of Denso as a Japanese automobile manufacturing company, they created the QR code to manage your inventory and so, like I was just stunned that, as he's like explaining to me his company because I didn't know much about him, he's like oh yeah, we created the QR code. I'm like what company can say that? I mean, I figured somebody had to, but I was like that's really awesome.
Speaker 3:But so they thought it was an industrial application, not a consumer application, and now today it's kind of both.
Speaker 2:Well, it went up and then disappeared for a while, and then COVID, when nobody wanted to touch anything. It had its full resurgence and now it's just, it's ubiquitous with everything. Now.
Speaker 3:QR codes everywhere.
Speaker 1:Now the latest kind of global standards are that a can of coke would have a QR code and then it would give all that information, not just a barcode, which is a one line. It also gives you which manufacturing facility the data was made, and they're saving lives. When there's a salmonella outbreak, you get to the checkout and it will go this thing of lettuce.
Speaker 3:It's been flagged.
Speaker 2:It's been flagged.
Speaker 1:You talk about applications of old things. That's yeah. Now it's like an item is recalled. Yeah, it's dangerous. One wheel, by the way, yeah one wheels.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I will be in full body suit by the end of the body cast, by the end of the text on it, on one wheels.
Speaker 1:This is great guys. Thank you for being on the podcast. We will be rooting for it. We'll actually be there, yeah, yeah, capturing some of that great content learning from the presenters, meeting people that are part of this next wave of technology and being growth minded, always learning, yeah.
Speaker 3:That's the way to be in technology broadly and in retail technology specifically. So that's, I think you guys are going to see a lot of it. Your readers will see a lot out of it. I'm really looking forward to it and it's going to be a great time, and it's all here in North West Arkansas, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you, the biggest let down is November 2nd, the day it's all done. The day it's all done. I wake up and I'm like what do I do now?
Speaker 3:Chris is going to be like Santa on December 26th.
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, I gave out all the cool stuff.
Speaker 3:What do I do now? Right, I would go to Florida and relax and buy a new Chris.
Speaker 2:Actually, I got family in Florida. That's where we're going for Christmas. So that's the plan.
Speaker 3:And then start planning next year, then next year.
Speaker 1:Thank, you guys.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you.