Shownotes
In this live interview recorded from the VusionGroup Podcast Studio at NRF 2025, Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga sit down with Todd Garner, SVP and Chief Product Officer at Sam's Club. Todd delves into the cutting-edge technologies powering retail innovation, including the success of scan-and-go and computer vision, as well as its digital-first Grapevine concept store.
Key Moments:
- 0:50 – Todd Garner shares his career journey from the military to retail leadership.
- 3:20 – Insights on the Chief Product Officer role and its impact at Sam's Club.
- 4:50 – How Sam's Club uses design thinking to solve member and associate pain points.
- 5:30 – Scan-and-go technology and the introduction of computer vision at scale.
- 8:40 – A closer look at the digital-first Grapevine concept store innovations.
- 10:00 – Todd’s strategies for maximizing value from NRF 2025 and finding the right partners.
#samsclub #nrf2025 #retailindustry
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Transcripts
Hello, everyone.
Chris Walton:This is Omnitalk Retail.
Chris Walton:I'm Chris Walton.
Anne Mazinga:And I'm Anne Mazinga.
Chris Walton: e coming to you live from NRF: Chris Walton:Come on in, say hi.
Chris Walton:Check out their cool tech.
Chris Walton:Come by, say hi to us.
Chris Walton:I'm sure Anne would love to see you.
Chris Walton:I would probably love to see you too.
Anne Mazinga:I.
Anne Mazinga:I would.
Anne Mazinga:Obviously, I always do.
Anne Mazinga:Chris, on the other hand, he might, he might give you the cold shoulder.
Chris Walton:No, I don't know.
Chris Walton:But you got to watch the animal.
Chris Walton:She's got those headphones in.
Chris Walton:You don't want to come and knock it.
Todd Garner:All right, don't.
Chris Walton:All right.
Chris Walton:But joining us today without waiting any longer to introduce the person in between the two of us is Todd Garner, the SVP and Chief Product Officer at Sam's Club.
Todd Garner:Great to be with you, omnitalk.
Todd Garner:Thank you, Todd.
Anne Mazinga:Thanks for your patience with us today and thanks for just sharing so much with us.
Anne Mazinga:As we're getting ready to come on today, I'd love for you to do that with our audience at home.
Anne Mazinga:Tell us a little, tell them a little bit about you, your background and your role at Sam's.
Todd Garner:Yeah, absolutely.
Todd Garner:I've had, I've had quite the journey, actually.
Todd Garner:I would call it an eclectic background that brought me to this place.
Todd Garner:That's right, eclectic.
Anne Mazinga:Tell us more.
Todd Garner:Yeah, I started out in the military actually.
Todd Garner:I think I might have watched some fighter pilot movie one too many times.
Todd Garner:Thought I wanted to be a fighter pilot.
Todd Garner:So I actually started out in the Air Force where actually I didn't fly.
Todd Garner:What I actually did was all about contracting and acquisitions.
Todd Garner:So that's kind of the business side of the Air Force is the way to think about that.
Todd Garner:Absolutely incredible opportunity.
Todd Garner:And really talked about impact act and things like that.
Todd Garner:But it was a great experience and a great way of starting my career.
Todd Garner:But I think it is worth noting, technically, my career started in Muscatine, Iowa, at a Walmart super center in the electronics and garden center.
Todd Garner:I mean, that's really the real foundation.
Anne Mazinga:Electronics and garden.
Todd Garner:Well, I mean, you know, I spread myself out of both.
Todd Garner:You got to get the sunlight and electronics right.
Anne Mazinga:That's like multi dimensional talents.
Chris Walton:We're talking about high school, college.
Todd Garner:This was high school.
Anne Mazinga:You can fit, fix a computer and tell me why my plants died.
Todd Garner:I can at least sell you a computer and tell you why the plants died.
Todd Garner:Yeah, absolutely.
Todd Garner:Absolutely.
Anne Mazinga:Well, let's talk a little bit about your role now.
Anne Mazinga:At Sam's.
Anne Mazinga:What are you doing there?
Todd Garner:Well, it's been a good journey getting up to here.
Todd Garner:I mean, I actually had several.
Todd Garner:I had a product stop, I had a consulting stop where I learned a lot about strategy and then even stopped over at Starbucks before I got here where I could learn more about retail, more about operations and more about products.
Todd Garner:But it all ultimately led me to Sam's Club, which is a fantastic place to be.
Anne Mazinga:Yeah, we hear that.
Todd Garner:Yeah, it's true.
Todd Garner:Hey, we're differentiating retail out there and we're doing it through experiences, which is really cool.
Chris Walton:Well, we don't call you the most innovative retailer out there for nothing, my friend.
Chris Walton:But.
Chris Walton:But you know, to that point, I think you are the third chief product officer in a row that we've had on our show.
Chris Walton:Right, Ann?
Chris Walton:I think going back, I think if I'm keeping count, which I always do, keeping track, keeping score at home, you're the third chief product officer.
Chris Walton:We've had you guys take a really interesting approach to that role.
Chris Walton:Can you explain that for the audience?
Chris Walton:What is so unique about the CPO role at Sam's Club?
Todd Garner:Well, first and foremost, the Sam's Club strategy is all about differentiating an experience and building trust.
Todd Garner:And when you think about what the chief product role is, it's really all about building trust.
Todd Garner:It's all about delivering an experience that differentiates us from every retailer.
Todd Garner:And the chief product officer is actually the role that's responsible for doing that.
Todd Garner:Our job is to create these fantastic experiences that solve the biggest pain points for both our members and our associates.
Todd Garner:And what makes this role so cool is that we are basically vertically integrated and across the entire spectrum.
Todd Garner:That means supply chain, that means in club with our associates.
Todd Garner:That means that we're talking about omni commerce and marketing and we're even talking about merchandising.
Todd Garner:Making sure we have the right assortment that's out there as well.
Chris Walton:Ding, ding, ding.
Chris Walton:The whole purview.
Chris Walton:That's the thing.
Chris Walton:That's the key thing here, folks.
Chris Walton:That's the key thing about the role.
Chris Walton:He's got the whole purview.
Todd Garner:Absolutely.
Anne Mazinga:Okay, you are fresh off the stage.
Todd Garner:Yep.
Anne Mazinga:Yeah.
Anne Mazinga:What did you talk to everybody in the audience about?
Anne Mazinga:What was something that you maybe hope somebody listening took away from your session just a little bit ago?
Todd Garner:I hope it's the importance of experiences.
Todd Garner:I hope it's about how you can be a people led tech powered company because they're both equally important.
Anne Mazinga:Yeah, you gotta elaborate on that a little bit because I'm not used to a product officer.
Anne Mazinga:I'm used to hearing that from like a marketing officer, but a product officer talking about experiences.
Anne Mazinga:So tell us a little bit more elaborate.
Todd Garner:Well, let me explain the people led, tech powered thing first.
Todd Garner:So people led, right.
Todd Garner:If you think about it, our associates, our employees, they're the gatekeepers of the experience, of the culture, and of the connections that you can build.
Todd Garner:And that's a true differentiating experience.
Todd Garner:But when you think about tech powered, the question is, how can we take that technology and apply it both for our associates and for our members to solve their pain points?
Todd Garner:Because if you can do that, what you're gonna do is you're gonna get better insights, you're gonna remove friction out of the system, you're going to up level capabilities and you're going to deliver an experience that's truly great.
Todd Garner:Like, let me give you two examples.
Anne Mazinga:Yeah, do it.
Todd Garner:Sam's Club, we've got scan and go.
Todd Garner:This is a retailer that at scale across 600 chains, you can now check out without ever going to a register.
Todd Garner:But here's what's interesting about that.
Todd Garner:We solved a major pain point, but then we realized actually what we did is we moved the pain point downstream, right Then it went to exit because people were queuing up in an exit.
Todd Garner:Anybody that's been to a Sam's Club, you got to sign, sign up or queue up, ultimately get your receipt checked and then you exit.
Todd Garner:It's a little frustrating.
Todd Garner:And we saw that.
Todd Garner:So being member focused, what we did was we actually said, how can we solve that problem now?
Todd Garner:Great, you solve the register with scan and go.
Todd Garner:How can you actually solve exit?
Todd Garner:So then we got to deploy computer vision at scale again, across all of our chain, we got to deploy computer vision to automatically take a picture of a basket and verify the transaction.
Todd Garner:So as long as you paid for your goods, now at scale, you can leave the club without ever stopping, without ever queuing, without ever having to go to a register.
Todd Garner:It's a cool problem.
Anne Mazinga:Can I ask you a question, like, as a, as somebody working on your team.
Todd Garner:Yeah.
Anne Mazinga:How does, how do you, how does that come up where it's like, oh, we did scan and go.
Anne Mazinga:It's awesome.
Anne Mazinga:Now we have a problem at exit.
Anne Mazinga:Like, what is the process of taking that feedback that you're getting, I'm imagining from the store associates to like you doing something like computer vision to eliminate that problem?
Todd Garner:Well, here's what I'd say.
Todd Garner:You got to start with intentionality.
Todd Garner:If you don't have a member, centric culture.
Todd Garner:If you don't have something where you're constantly focused on what is the experience of our associates, of our members, you won't get there.
Todd Garner:So it starts with intentionality.
Todd Garner:We apply something we call design thinking.
Todd Garner:And for folks that aren't familiar with that, design thinking is this.
Todd Garner:It's this human centric, iterative approach that starts with a deep understanding and a deep empathy.
Todd Garner:Right.
Todd Garner:You've got to know the context, you got to know the experience, you got to know the process that they're in.
Todd Garner:And when you have a focus like that, all of a sudden, you can unlock a lot of additional insights.
Todd Garner:But it doesn't stop there.
Todd Garner:You also have to be open to the feedback.
Todd Garner:You have to be constantly looking, doing product reviews, and you have to be collecting the feedback.
Todd Garner:It's a true statement.
Todd Garner:In every single one of our associate applications, and we've got over 10 of them, there is a common place where you can click to provide feedback.
Todd Garner:And that feedback does not go to a black hole.
Todd Garner:It goes directly to my team, it goes directly to engineers, and it goes directly to our business partners.
Todd Garner:So we've got multiple different ways that we can make sure that we're connected to the member, we're getting the feedback, and we understand what's going on.
Anne Mazinga:Wow.
Chris Walton:Todd, how many iterations do you think you went through before you finally got the right gate at the end of that exit experience?
Chris Walton:I'm just curious.
Todd Garner:Well, look, we're still iterating.
Chris Walton:Ballparking.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Todd Garner:Right.
Todd Garner:We're still iterating.
Chris Walton:Answer, my friend.
Todd Garner:Good answer.
Todd Garner:I don't know.
Todd Garner:I mean, we probably went through 10 plus iterations, continuing to figure out not only just the technology, but the experience.
Todd Garner:Right.
Todd Garner:Because it's both.
Todd Garner:It's not technology alone.
Todd Garner:It's technology in service of the experience.
Todd Garner:And that's why it's so critical that we stay focused on those outcomes.
Todd Garner:Right.
Chris Walton:And just for the audience perspective, too, what.
Chris Walton:What percentage transactions are going through the Scan and Go app now?
Todd Garner:Yeah, we've actually got 75%.
Todd Garner:Well, through the Scan and Go.
Todd Garner:Sorry?
Todd Garner:Through the Scan and go, it's one in one in three.
Chris Walton:Still 30%.
Chris Walton:Okay.
Chris Walton:Yeah.
Todd Garner:But of that frictionless exit, that's the 75%.
Chris Walton:Wow.
Todd Garner:So we've now been able to reduce the friction of 75% of our members, and we've seen empirically it drives better results.
Todd Garner:Right.
Chris Walton:Because that applies to everybody.
Chris Walton:Right.
Chris Walton:Exit process applies to everybody.
Todd Garner:Overall, 20% faster exit and 20% fast or better customer service.
Chris Walton:That's really cool.
Chris Walton:Especially in today's day and age.
Chris Walton:Focus on, shrink.
Todd Garner:And just don't forget your time either.
Chris Walton:Yes.
Chris Walton:And that's important.
Chris Walton:Time is my money.
Anne Mazinga:I don't like.
Anne Mazinga:I don't like a highlighter.
Anne Mazinga:Being in charge of my afternoon.
Anne Mazinga:I will say that much.
Todd Garner:Well said.
Chris Walton:All right, so I'll put you on the spot a little bit here.
Chris Walton:So your role, like we said, it's really unique.
Chris Walton:You have the full purview as you look to 20, 25.
Chris Walton:I'm curious, where do you expect more of your time to be centered around?
Chris Walton:Do you expect it to be more on the customer facing side of product or more on the employee side of product to improve their lives and their productivity?
Todd Garner:I don't know that you're gonna like my answer, but it's a real one.
Todd Garner:It's an and.
Todd Garner:It's an and you can't have either because what you're finding now is this environment, yes, is becoming more technologically dependent, but it's also becoming more systemic.
Todd Garner:And that means that the systems, it's an ecosystem and things are connected across the entire thing.
Todd Garner:And so if you let one drop, you're gonna find that it has an impact across something else.
Todd Garner:If the associate tools get impacted, then all of a sudden the online experience is going to be impacted as well.
Todd Garner:And so our goal is to continue to figure out what are the key problems across all four of those areas and then keep improving them.
Todd Garner:And it's why we've got those four different areas so that we can look at the end to end experience.
Chris Walton:Are you kidding me?
Chris Walton:That's a great answer.
Chris Walton:That's a great answer.
Chris Walton:No, because it's kind of a trick question.
Chris Walton:At the end of the day, you improve either one, it helps the other side, without a doubt.
Anne Mazinga:Okay, last question.
Anne Mazinga:I want to know.
Anne Mazinga:Tell us a little bit about what's going on in Grapevine, Texas, these days.
Anne Mazinga:And I want to know exactly what your team did to make that store come alive and how soon Chris and I can come down and see it.
Todd Garner:Grapevine's an exciting story.
Todd Garner:So actually, Grapevine was a club that was impacted by a natural disaster.
Anne Mazinga:Okay.
Todd Garner:And when we reopened it, when we rebuilt it, we made an intentional decision that we wanted this to be the first digital, first club.
Todd Garner:And so what we're talking about is this is a club that does not have registers at the front end.
Anne Mazinga:Yeah.
Todd Garner:The people are using scan and go to actually exit.
Todd Garner:And we pulled that digital theme through everything.
Todd Garner:So.
Todd Garner:So we're trying to figure out what does that experience look like?
Todd Garner:Because we Know that if we can take the technology and again we can power our people led philosophy, you're going to deliver a much better experience.
Todd Garner:So you're going to see an altered cafe where it's scan and go for the cafe and you can pick up the food when you're ready.
Todd Garner:You're going to see the cashierless front end.
Todd Garner:You're going to see things like computer vision, receiving in the back.
Todd Garner:You of course have your inventory intelligence where we're using our autonomous cleaners to go up and down the aisles, take pictures of items and then they can check in stock rates, location, price, sign, accuracy.
Todd Garner:And so our members have given us permission at this club to go a little bit further and really test out what the experience could be.
Todd Garner:So we're excited about it and we're continuing to evolve there too.
Chris Walton:Yeah, you're the best concept store retailer out there, bar none, in our opinion.
Chris Walton:So sorry.
Chris Walton:Lastly.
Chris Walton:So you're at nrf.
Todd Garner:Yeah.
Chris Walton:What tips and tricks do you have as a retail executive?
Chris Walton:Us having been former retail executives ourselves, having attended the show ourselves, there's different approaches, different strategies to get the most out of the show.
Chris Walton:What do you recommend for people?
Todd Garner:You know, I think it starts by looking inward.
Todd Garner:I think it starts by your question about, you know, how do you find these problems, figure out what problems are pressing.
Todd Garner:There's probably thousands of vendors here, right?
Todd Garner:Yeah.
Todd Garner:And that means there's thousands of people that are solving different problems and those problems may or may not be right for you and your business.
Todd Garner:So if you actually do the work beforehand and you say, where are we seeing the most friction?
Todd Garner:What's getting in the way of our corporate strategy, then you can really dial in what you're looking for and you can come here and you can find partners that will complement your existing suite and actually make an impact.
Chris Walton:So if I say that another way, so you say your recommendation would be.
Todd Garner:Be intentional with why you're here 100%.
Chris Walton:And then also in that intention, look for new partners as well that you maybe haven't been acclimated towards as much as in the past versus like existing partners or both.
Todd Garner:No, I mean, it's both.
Todd Garner:But like the key is it's not about the partner, it's about the problem, it's about the member, it's about the associate, it's about the experience.
Todd Garner:Great point.
Todd Garner:And so what you're doing is you're looking for somebody that complements your suite, your skill set, your company that can deliver an outcome.
Todd Garner:You know the old saying in product, right?
Todd Garner:Outcomes over output, and that's the goal.
Todd Garner:Who can help you achieve the outcomes that are most important to your business model?
Chris Walton:Right.
Anne Mazinga:Well, Todd, thank you.
Anne Mazinga:This was the most fun that we've had in a transformed meat locker recording studio.
Todd Garner:I'm gonna come back and make sure I held that title.
Todd Garner:Yes, all right.
Anne Mazinga:I know.
Chris Walton:Because you're welcome back anytime.
Anne Mazinga:Tomorrow's a big day, too.
Anne Mazinga: the Fusion group booth number: Anne Mazinga:Come stop by.
Anne Mazinga:Chris and I will be here all day today, tomorrow and Tuesday.
Anne Mazinga:And until next time, be careful out there.