How Coborn’s COO David Best Plans to Innovate Grocery Shopping | Live at FMI 2025

02/03/25 • 12 min

🎙 Omni Talk Retail Live at FMI 2025: Coborn’s COO David Best on Grocery Innovation 🎙

Join Chris Walton & Anne Mezzenga as they speak with David Best, President & COO of Coborn’s, about how the regional grocer is innovating through food service, customer experience, and store operations live from the Simbe Podcast Studio at FMI 2025.

⏳ Key Moments:

00:00 - Introduction: Live from FMI 2025 with Coborn’s

01:30 - David’s Background and Journey from Target to Coborn’s

03:45 - How Coborn’s Competes with National Grocery Chains

06:20 - Expanding Meal Solutions & Food Service in Grocery

09:15 - The Upcoming Coborn’s Flagship Store in Plymouth, MN

11:50 - How Coborn’s Leverages AI & Automation for Store Efficiency

14:30 - Growth Strategies: Liquor, Pet Supplies, and Home Improvement

17:10 - Technology Investments & Customer-Centric Innovations

19:45 - Defining Success for Coborn’s in 2025 & Beyond

💡 Discover how Coborn’s is shaping the future of independent grocery retail—Subscribe for more insights!

#fmi #coborns #grocery #retailtrends #retailstrategy

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

🎙 Omni Talk Retail Live at FMI 2025: Coborn’s COO David Best on Grocery Innovation 🎙

⏳ Key Moments:

00:00 - Introduction: Live from FMI 2025 with Coborn’s

01:30 - David’s Background and Journey from Target to Coborn’s

03:45 - How Coborn’s Competes with National Grocery Chains

06:20 - Expanding Meal Solutions & Food Service in Grocery

09:15 - The Upcoming Coborn’s Flagship Store in Plymouth, MN

11:50 - How Coborn’s Leverages AI & Automation for Store Efficiency

14:30 - Growth Strategies: Liquor, Pet Supplies, and Home Improvement

17:10 - Technology Investments & Customer-Centric Innovations

19:45 - Defining Success for Coborn’s in 2025 & Beyond

💡 Discover how Coborn’s is shaping the future of independent grocery retail—Subscribe for more insights!

#fmi #coborns #grocery #retailtrends #retailstrategy

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Previous Episode

How Simbe Robotics is Impacting Grocery Stores with Automated Intelligence Gathering | FMI 2025

🎙 Omni Talk Retail Live at FMI 2025: Benjamin Bond on Retail Automation with Simbe Robotics 🎙

Join Chris Walton & Anne Mezzenga as they speak with Benjamin Bond, VP of Strategy & Business Development at Simbe Robotics, about how automation and AI are transforming grocery retail.

⏳ Key Moments:

00:00 - Introduction: Live from FMI 2025 with Simbe Robotics

01:30 - Benjamin’s Background and Role at Simbe

03:20 - The Impact of AI & Automation on Retail

06:00 - Key Benefits of Using Tally for Inventory Management

09:15 - Understanding T-Spot and Multi-Modal Data Capture

11:30 - Best Practices for Implementing Robotics in Stores

14:00 - Future Trends in Retail Automation and Technology

17:50 - How Simbe Supports Retailers with Accurate Data & Insights

💡 Explore how Simbe Robotics is leading the charge in retail innovation—Subscribe now!

#grocery #robotics #fmi #retailtrends #retailstrategy

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Next Episode

Crypto BuyBuy Babies, More Walgreens Woes & Walmart Takes Same-Day Rx Nationwide | Fast Five

In this week’s Omni Talk Retail Fast Five news roundup, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Simbe, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, and Scratch Event DJs, Shoptalk’s VP of Original Content & Strategy, Ben Miller, joined Chris and Anne to discuss:

CVS Health’s new app rollout (Source)
Beyond buying back BuyBuy Baby (Source)
Walgreens’ plans to close down 47 of its in-store health clinics in Illinois (Source)
IKEA’s decision to expand its secondhand furniture marketplace in Europe (Source)
And closed with a discussion of whether Walmart+ and Walmart same-day Rx delivery will have the same impact on the pharmacy industry that Walmart+ has had on the grocery business (Source)

There’s all that, plus we announced our February OmniStar (congrats Joe Coll of Macy’s), and Chris and Anne grill Ben on everything from #Tayvoodoo and the Fantastic 4 to what American-made products Ben plans to sneak back home to the UK from Las Vegas in his suitcase.

P.S. Be sure to check out all our other podcasts from the past week here, too: https://omnitalk.blog/category/podcast/

P.P.S. Also be sure to check out our podcast rankings on Apple Podcasts and on Feedspot

Music by hooksounds.com

#RetailNews #WalmartPlus #HealthcareRetail #PharmacyDelivery #RetailTech #RetailInnovation #RetailBusiness #HealthcareTech #RetailIndustry #OmniTalk

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Omni Talk Retail - How Coborn’s COO David Best Plans to Innovate Grocery Shopping | Live at FMI 2025

Transcript

00:00:00.239

Hello, everyone. Welcome back. This is Omnitalk Retail. I'm Chris Walton. And I'm Ann Mazinga. And we are here once again from FMI at the Simbi booth where Simbi and Omnitok are retail single source of truth. And standing between us to give his point of view on the truth as it's happening in grocery is Coburn's president and chief operating officer, David Best. David, welcome to omnitalk. Thank you. It's great to be here. I'm putting long time listener, long time fan.