Retail in America

About Retail in America

RETAIL IN AMERICA is a conversation about running stores and leading people. Ron Thurston talks with the executives, founders, and frontline retailers shaping where the industry goes next: what they're building, what they got wrong, and what it takes to grow a business at store level. Retail leadership, store operations, customer experience, culture, and the technology underneath it. Season 3 is about the human edge of selling — how the best retailers win with people, presence, and craft. Ron Thurston is an NRF Retail Voice, a Top 100 Retail Technology Influencer, a ReThink Retail Top Retail Expert, and a two-time #1 bestselling author. New episodes regularly.

Publisher

Ron Thurston

Category

business · business · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

28 Mar 2022

Latest episode

3 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

57 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   3 Nov 2026

   Noise Is the New Secondhand Smoke with Bill Schiffmiller and Michael Piskosz

   Retail has spent thirty years perfecting what a store looks like and what it smells like. Nobody owns what it sounds like. Bill Schiffmiller led accessibility at Apple before founding LSHGen — Lifelong Sound Health for Every Generation. Michael Piskosz is an audiologist whose work runs past hearing loss into sensory overload, auditory fatigue, and what sound does to human performance. The three of us co-hosted an event in New York this summer called Noise in Retail, and the conversation hasn't stopped since. Most of the noise we absorb all day isn't noise we made or asked for — which is Bill's point about secondhand smoke. Michael walks an associate's day hour by hour, from the alarm to the fourth rotation of the same playlist to the headache at 8:30 that nobody can explain. Then the harder question: retail has always believed louder means energy and energy means sales. Can anyone actually correlate it? The idea worth the whole episode is presenteeism — people on the floor, taking orders, talking to customers, and not working anywhere near 100%. Retail measures absenteeism because it's easy to count. Presenteeism is what happens first. In this episode: Why 70 decibels of siren and 70 decibels of white noise aren't the same thing Who owns sound in a store, and why the answer is currently nobody Why Bill turned down an Apple store opening over its acoustics An eight-hour shift, hour by hour The business case: not what it costs, what it saves "Smoking or non-smoking," applied to noise What a store manager can do tomorrow without spending anything Presenteeism: what happens before someone stops showing up Find Bill and Michael: lshgen.com (https://www.lshgen.com/) Bill Schiffmiller on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/billschiffmiller/) Michael Piskosz on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-piskosz-4338641b8/) Find Ron: ronthurston.com (https://www.ronthurston.com/)

2. 

   20 Oct 2026

   Prompt Local: How One Word Changes Who Gets Found, with Dax Dasilva from Lightspeed

   If AI decides who gets found, what happens to the independent store with the best people in town? New research Lightspeed commissioned from Vaer AI found that AI recommends big retailers over local businesses 9 out of 10 times. More than half of shoppers have already used AI to help decide what to buy. For a lot of people, the first store they visit is now a chat window, and it shows the big names first. Dax Dasilva founded Lightspeed in Montreal in 2005 to help independent businesses compete with bigger ones. Today it powers retail and hospitality businesses in more than 100 countries. He also founded Age of Union, a nonprofit alliance protecting threatened ecosystems around the world, and wrote Age of Union and Echoes from Eden. Dax explains why AI shopping assistants lean toward national chains, and why the gap gets wider the more specific a shopper's search gets. His advice for shoppers is simple: add "independent," "local" or "locally owned" to the prompt. "Remember that your prompt matters." For store owners, he's just as practical. Twenty years ago, a great location, great products and great people were enough. Today an owner has to be an expert in social media, merchandising, loyalty, omnichannel and now AI search, often after getting into the business "because you love bikes." His advice: pick one channel where you can show your expertise, whether that's content, reviews, a blog or an online showroom, and own it. Then let AI agents take on the back-office work, "like co-managers for you in your business," so owners can get back to curation, customers and community. Looking ahead to NRF's Big Show, Dax wants the industry talking about discoverability. "Small business is the engine of the economy. They can't be cut out by AI and the model makers." The one thing you can do: Next time you ask AI where to shop, ask "Where can I buy this from an independent business near me?" Prompt local. In this episode: What Lightspeed does, and why Dax built it for independent retailers From the Apple Store to the age of AI: 20 years of retail change Why agentic AI matters most for small retailers The research: AI picks national chains 9 out of 10 times Why the gap widens the closer a shopper gets to buying Content, reviews and social: what stores can control From SEO to AEO: getting found by AI instead of search engines One thing a small retailer can do this week Five years out: third spaces and the store as a gathering place Age of Union, Echoes from Eden and the ROI on nature The conversation the industry should be having at NRF Prompt Local research: https://www.lightspeedhq.com/ai-retail-guide-teaser/ Find Dax: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daxdasilva/ lightspeedhq.com (https://www.lightspeedhq.com/) Age of Union: https://ageofunion.com/ Find Ron: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rthurston/ Disclosure: This episode is part of a paid partnership with Lightspeed.

3. 

   13 Oct 2026

   Stop Saying AI: How to Stand Out Among 500 Vendors, with Vicki Cantrell

   Every January, hundreds of solution providers walk into the Javits Center to sell to retailers. Most don't understand how a retailer actually buys. Most retailers don't understand how a vendor has to sell. Vicki Cantrell has sat in almost every seat in this industry. She was CIO at Gucci Group and Giorgio Armani, the person tech vendors had to sell to. She was COO at Tory Burch through 300% global growth, then at Shop.org and the NRF, where the Big Show grew 50% on her watch. Then she crossed the table to Aptos, selling to retailers. Ron and Vicki met in 2010 at Tory Burch. He was a district manager and she was an executive, and they've stayed friends ever since. Vicki's diagnosis is that the old models are broken. Technology moves faster than ever, and decision-making hasn't kept up. RFPs are now written by AI on both sides, so every vendor looks like they do everything. In her words, the RFP has always been "a CYA document." Her biggest takeaway from a recent session with retailers and vendors is blunt: take the word AI out of everything. Everything has AI now. A retailer can read a vendor's whole homepage and still not know what the vendor does. Talk about the business problem you solve, not the technology behind it. The word "needs to go away way faster than the word omnichannel did." There is good news too. Both sides now share the same challenge, because neither knows how to navigate what's coming. That is pulling retailers and vendors into the same room and getting them to help each other. "When you put two people in a room who share the same challenges, they immediately feel safe, seen, heard." The episode closes on the VIP Awards. Vicki explains why January 2026 felt different, and why everyone who walks in for the first time calls the night a reunion. She also covers what's new for 2027: expanded categories that include the store, and nominations built around real partnerships and the results they produced. Nominations close Friday, October 16. The VIP Awards gala is Friday, January 8, 2027, at Gotham Hall in New York City, the Friday before NRF's Big Show. In this episode: What vendors never understand about a retail executive's day, and what retailers miss about vendors Why buying for the store means winning over 80% of the workforce "Who should I talk to?" Why the title matters less than who can help you navigate Why today's buying models, from RFPs to redlines, no longer work How retailers can sort through 500 vendors Take the word AI out of everything How AI is making the industry more human Fear, acceptance and AI at every level of the workforce Inside the VIP Awards: the reunion, the long game, and what's new for 2027 How to submit a last-minute nomination Nominate: https://vendorsinpartnership.com/pages/nomination-hub Find Vicki: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickicantrell/ Find Ron: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rthurston/ Disclosure: Ron is a nominee in the 2027 VIP Awards.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.8 / 5

20 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

20 ratings

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Guest appearances

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