
The Modern Retail Podcast
The Modern Retail Podcast is a podcast about all the ways the retail industry is changing and modernizing. Every Saturday, senior reporters Gabi Barkho and Melissa Daniels break down the latest retail headlines and interview executives about what it takes to keep up in today’s retail landscape, diving deep into growth strategies, brand autopsies, economic changes and more
Show episodes

Touchland gets acquired, what's gone wrong with Target & the secret sauce behind brand pop culture collaborations
On this week’s Modern Retail Podcast, senior reporters Melissa Daniels and Gabriela Barkho discuss the acquisition of sanitizer brand Touchland. The startup was bought by Church & Dwight, the personal care group that owns Nair and Arm & Hammer, in an $880 million deal. The staff also discusses the rise and fall of Targ

Tariffs hit Mattel, M&A news from Skechers and DoorDash and a look at Mother's Day flower delivery with Bouqs
On this week’s Modern Retail podcast, senior reporters Gabriela Barkho and Melissa Daniels discuss the rising challenges toy companies are facing in planning for inventory under Trump’s China tariffs. As Mattel executives said in the company’s quarterly earnings this week, the Barbie maker is trying to future-proof its
On this week’s episode, senior reporters Gabriela Barkho and Melissa Daniels get into the shakeup hitting telehealth platforms following the FDA’s crackdown on compounded GLP-1 medications — and what new deals between pharmaceutical companies and platforms like Hims & Hers mean for the future of weight-loss prescriptio

M&A slowdown, Walmart's beauty play and how a U.S. manufacturing boom could create a more circular economy
This week on the Modern Retail Podcast, senior reporters Gabriela Barkho and Melissa Daniels kick things off with a discussion about how mergers and acquisitions in the retail space are going on pause amid widespread uncertainty. Industry watchers are closely monitoring the situation, and some consumer brand investors

Luxury earnings, behind-the-scenes at Chinese factories, and the unexpected industries that tariffs are hitting hard
On this week's Modern Retail podcast, senior reporters Gabriela Barkho and Melissa Daniels dive into the ins and outs of LVMH's earnings that showed first-quarter sales in the U.S. dropped by 3%. And they discuss how brands and consumers are responding to the rash of videos from alleged Chinese manufacturing hubs that

Modern Retail Podcast: Marketers sound off on tariffs and retail strategies, plus how Hanna Andersson built its loyalty program
On this week's episode of the Modern Retail Podcast, the staff is going deep into modern marketing strategies. First up, executive editor Anna Hensel and senior reporter Gabriela Barkho talk about what was top of mind for executives at the Modern Retail Marketing Summit. Tariffs -- and how to respond to them -- were a