Commerce Riff with Sri & PVSB - October 20, 2026

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0:51Sri: That's salesforce.com slash consumer goods. It's October 20th, 2026, and this is the Commerce Rift brought to you by the CPG Guys. 10 minutes of the news stories that matter in commerce this week. I'm your co-host, PBSB. I'm joined as always by Paparaz, the father of pop stars, co-founder of Think Blue Consulting, Sri.

1:13PVSB: How's the fall treating you? false treating me just fine, Peter. But what I'm really concerned about is the state of our CPG industry and retail. We've had so many what are not great announcements in the last, I would say, two, three weeks in terms of results, the future, quarterly EPS being called down. Top of that, we've been in a recessed revenue growth for three, four years with no solve. AI on top of that, people really not understanding that it's about content and it's about the shopper journey and discovery. I'm worried for our industry. Like, I don't want to throw a red flag here, but it's not looking good unless we have a breakthrough moment.

1:52Sri: There's a lot of uncertainty in this industry, Sri, as will be evidenced in our conversations today. Let's get to it. Four stories this week that I think cut to the heart of where commerce is headed. Amazon's pulling the plug on its grocery partnership storefronts. Albertsons Retail Media Arm bringing in a Walmart Connect veteran. KFC trading Pepsi for Coke. And Kimberly Clark navigating a social media firestorm in China. Let's get to it, shall we? Amazon confirmed a grocery dive that it's closing an unspecified number of retailer-specific grocery storefronts on Amazon.com. Partners in the program have included Winn-Dixie, Metropolitan Markins, and Weiss Markets in the U.S., along with grocers in Europe like Morrison's.

2:36Sri: Amazon did not say which partners are affected. So why? Amazon says separate storefronts force shoppers to navigate varying fees, delivery windows, and checkout experiences. In its words, it's simplifying the shopping experience by transitioning from individual grocery partner storefronts to other collaboration opportunities. Shoppers will be guided to the best available grocery options on Amazon's marketplace, and Amazon says it will alert them before any changes happen. So what are those other collaboration opportunities? Retailers acting as hosts for Amazon lockers and return points in their stores, co-locating Amazon operations with their stores or warehouses, and using AWS to power their e-commerce, supply chain, and data analytics.

3:25Sri: Meanwhile, Amazon is ramping up its own grocery business. It offers same-day fresh delivery to more than 2 ,300 U.S. cities and towns, plus parts of Tokyo and London. and says it will expand to more regions in Japan and the UK and enter more countries in the coming months. What's our perspective? Well, Amazon's moving from a storefront-partnered infrastructure provider, and it's putting its own grocery experience in front of the shopper. That means one Amazon-run shelf instead of many retail-branded ones, which is basically how Instacart is operated and quite successfully, I might add. And your visibility there comes down to Amazon's content availability and retail media rules.

4:05Sri: It connects to what we covered last week with Mars' research. The shelf is the algorithm. Amazon is making itself the algorithm for more of grocery. For regional grocers, the question whether Amazon is a partner, a landlord, or a competitor. I know which way I feel, Sri. Over to you.

4:25PVSB: Thank you, Peter. And I have some news on Albertans. I think it's all out in public at this point about Albertans' results. But we're going to talk about a new leader for Albertsons Media Collective. So as we move on to that one, Albertsons confirmed that his name is Steve Shee, Vice President of Operations and Strategy for the Albertsons Media Collective. Shee most recently served as Walmart Connects, Head of Advertising and Revenue Operations. And Albertsons says his 20-plus year career has been defined by building high-performing teams, transforming operating models, and using technology to help companies scale.

4:55PVSB: The timing matters. She announced the move on LinkedIn on October 5th, the same day the company confirmed that Brian Monahan, the senior vice president who led the media collective for just over a year, had left. Chief Marketing Officer Emily Turner has taken the helm as Albertsons continues consolidating his internal departments. She will head up the annual operating plan and execution of the company's three-year strategic plan for Albertsons Media Collective. That actually launched at the start of last year in an effort to cut$1.5 billion in costs. He will also advance revenue operations aimed at strengthening performance, delivering long-term value for advertisers' customers, as well as their partners.

5:34PVSB: Here's our take. This is a higher from the operations side, not the sales side. Retail media networks are moving from the land-grab phase into the run-it-like-a-business phase with operating plans, revenue operations, and cost discipline. In our take here, they're responding to the industry's ask for, what am I getting back for the dollars I invest? and the talent is flowing out of Walmart Connect left and right. Sean Tinelli, who we recently had on the show from Dollar General Media Network, also came up through Walmart Connect, where he led the pantry business. And of course, you all know Austin Leonard, who heads Dollar General Media Network, is ex-Sams.

6:09PVSB: Walmart's playbook is being exported across the country for brands. Expect more rigor from every network on measurement, packaging, pricing, and be ready to negotiate with networks that are under pressure to show returns. You got a fun one, man. Let's do this.

6:24Sri: Yes, Sri, let's go back to a familiar space for both you and me. The beverage aisle, or rather the fountain, because the Wall Street Journal reports a big move in a very old rivalry. KFC said it struck a deal with Coca-Cola to be its beverage provider at thousands of U.S. restaurants, with the switch starting in January. It is a blowed long time supplier PepsiCo, whose share fell Thursday after the journal first reported on the talks. Some contacts to keep the headline in proportion. PepsiCo will still supply many markets for KFC International, the much bigger arm of the chain, and Pepsi will continue to serve Taco Bell.

7:03Sri: But KFC is one of the biggest sellers of Pepsi among U.S. restaurant chains, according to Beverage Digest. Its U.S. restaurants carry Pepsi, Starry, Mountain Dew, and Aquafina. And PepsiCo owned KFC until it spun off the restaurant division in 1997, as I know you know, Sri. It lands at a tough time. CEO Ramon La Guarta has said PepsiCo isn't competing well in soft drinks, including its signature Pepsi brand. Mountain Dew is slumped as energy drinks rise. PepsiCo has also lost Marriott Hotels and the Costco food court recently. though it did add Subway. Our lens? Beverage is a high-margin corner of the restaurant business, and chains are treating it that way.

7:48Sri: KFC has launched its own line of sparkling lemonades, Bubba refreshers, and shakes at some locations, and is chasing younger consumers who want novelty drinks. So the fountain contract is no longer just about price and pouring rights. The suppliers who win are the ones who co-create the menu. Pepsi did this with Mountain Dew, Baja Blast, and Taco Bell, which has generated billions of dollars in sales. KFC hasn't put that much emphasis on the beverages. If that changes, the supplier with the best innovation partnership will get the account. Sheree closes out.

8:25PVSB: Thank you so much, Peter. And I've got another unfortunate, not the best results to report here, and it has to do with Kimberly Clark and sales declines. Let's close with that story, which is a useful counterpart to last week's record segment that we had on the Riff. The Wall Street Journal reports that Kimberly Clark is feeling the effects of a social media firestorm in China. So let's see what that is. Kimberly Clark forecast a third quarter sales decline and backed its outlook for the year. The trigger was a social media firestorm of sorts in China this past summer with allegations that its diapers contain formamide, a solvent used in a number of manufacturing processes.

9:03PVSB: In August, the company lowered its organic sales growth forecast for the year, said the attention heard second-quarter sales and warned the headwinds could continue to dent sales and profits in the near term. The numbers, the Huggies maker expects third-quarter sales of$4.13 billion, down from$4.15 billion a year ago, with an organic sales decline of 1.3 % and an EPS per share of$1.70. While both are above Wall Street estimates, analysts polled by FactSet expected sales of$4.09 billion and adjusted earnings of 1.58 a share. The stock ticked up 3.1%,$202.50 in free market trading that day. But here's our take.

9:42PVSB: Last week, it was Racket posting 12 straight quarters of double-digit growth in China by going all in on social commerce. Please go and listen to that episode. It's pretty profound on the tactics that they use. Those things are coming to America someday. This week, it's Kimberly Clark showing the other edge of the same world. The platforms where a brand can build a business can also turn into a rumor, can also turn that rumor into a sales problem in a matter of weeks. That's where creators come in. Arthur Leopold, who's on our show, co-founder and CEO of Agentio, runs a business actually built on connecting brands with the appropriate creators that are contextual to you.

10:19PVSB: and the lesson applies here. The creators who tell your story when things are going well and the ones whose audience listen when something doesn't go as well. Build those relationships and your response muscle before you need them as Kimberly Clark has recently learned. Closes up, Peter.

10:35Sri: That's a wrap on this week's Commerce Riff. A quick reminder to catch up on our recent episodes. We've had two great conversations you don't want to miss, as Sheree mentioned, Arthur Leopold, co-founder and CEO of Argentio and Sean Tinnelly of Dollar General Media Network. Both are essential listening to anyone thinking about how brands win with creators and retail media. Links are in the show notes. If anything we covered today sparks a thought, drop it in the comments. We read them all. And if you're not following us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, well, now is the time.

11:05Sri: We'll see you next week.

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