Retail Disrupted

Modern retail is globally efficient but emotionally bankrupt. Marc-Antoine Barrois, founder of the luxury fragrance house MARC-ANTOINE BARROIS, and architect Antoine Bouillot join Natalie Berg to discuss their shared belief: a store should prioritize emotion over the transaction.
In this episode, they reveal how they design flagship spaces in London, Paris, and New York that deliberately increase dwell time, why sales associates are trained to tell customers to leave without buying, and how they were inspired to create the "IRL is Better" campaign.
📺 Watch on YouTube to see inside Marc-Antoine Barrois stores: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pub_PiUReKA 
We discuss:
▶ Why efficiency has stripped retail of emotion — and how to put it back
▶ The architectural toolkit for deceleration: treasure-hunt layouts, suspended furniture, and materials built to last
▶ Sales advisors, not salespeople: training staff to prioritize connection over conversion
▶ "IRL is Better" — inside the anti-social media campaign that doubled down on real-world intimacy
▶ How handwritten notes and personal emails extend the flagship experience online
ABOUT THE PODCAST
🎙️ Retail Disrupted is a Top 5% Global Podcast with the leaders and disruptors shaping the future of retail. Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg. 
👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted
👉 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/retail-disrupted/id1676107321
👉 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H0TALn63ov2VAIJPNi3FM
👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/
👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

In 1985, two federal prosecutors walked away from their careers and mortgaged their homes to open a pizza restaurant in Beverly Hills. They wound up inventing an entirely new dining category.
Rick Rosenfield, co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen, joins Natalie Berg on Retail Disrupted to share the unfiltered story: the one menu hit that redefined casual dining, the culture that made CPK somewhere people genuinely wanted to work, how it beat the odds to survive bankruptcy and the reinvention chapter that followed.
Rick shares lessons from his new book: The California Pizza Kitchen Story: How Two Federal Prosecutors Changed the Way America Eats Pizza. https://amplifypublishinggroup.com/product/nonfiction/business-and-finance/leadership-and-management/the-california-pizza-kitchen-story/ 
This is a masterclass in innovation, differentiation, and ethical leadership for anyone building a brand, scaling multi-site retail, or navigating private equity-backed growth.
What retail leaders take away:
How two lawyers created upscale casual dining at shopping centers with zero restaurant experience
How BBQ chicken pizza became the brand's defining product
Why CPK became the first national chain to go non-smoking — and what it reveals about culture-led decisions
The private equity warning: what founders lose when new owners sideline the vision
How CPK is diversifying into packaged goods and airport retail to future-proof the brand
Watch this episode on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8WT_w571no&t=790s 
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Rick Rosenfield is a former federal prosecutor and defense attorney. He is the co-founder of California Pizza Kitchen, the restaurant brand that helped redefine how America eats pizza and reshaped modern casual dining.
Before entering the restaurant business, Rosenfield began his legal career at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC, where he worked on cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals. 
In the mid-eighties, Rosenfield and his partner, Larry Flax, made the unconventional decision to leave the law field and open the first California Pizza Kitchen in Beverly Hills. What began as a single restaurant grew into a global brand while maintaining a distinctive culinary vision and culture.
ABOUT THE PODCAST 
🎙️ Retail Disrupted is a Top 5% Global Podcast with the leaders and disruptors shaping the future of retail. Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg.  
👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted 
👉 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/retail-disrupted/id1676107321  
👉 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H0TALn63ov2VAIJPNi3FM  
👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/ 
👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com  


#CaliforniaPizzaKitchen #CPK #RestaurantStrategy #BrandBuilding #RetailDisrupted #RetailPodcast #FoodBrand #FounderStory

The UK's third biggest fashion retailer doesn't own a single store, design a single garment, or hold a single unit of inventory.
Natalie Berg sits down with Olivia May, Partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, to deliver the strategy briefing retail leaders need on the resale revolution.
In this episode:
▶ Why Vinted overtook established names to become the UK's #3 fashion retailer
▶ The data advantage first-hand brands hold over pure-play resale platforms
▶ Why luxury resale is harder to scale than it looks — from retail theft to $78 item processing costs 
▶ Vinted vs Depop: what separates a platform winner from a challenger
▶ The "say-do gap": why the same customer shopping resale is also buying Shein
For retail leaders evaluating their own resale channel — or trying to understand where their margin is going — this episode is for you.
🤝 This episode is sponsored by OC&C Strategy Consultants. https://www.occstrategy.com  
📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN3rfoutHxc 

ABOUT OUR GUEST
Olivia May is a Partner in the Global Retail Practice at OC&C with a particular focus on developing winning strategies and game-changing customer propositions for apparel businesses, marketplaces and digital native brands.
Olivia has over 14 years of experience working closely and collaboratively with retailers and brands to both develop customer-centric strategies and help put them into action in a way that transforms and future-proofs client businesses. In particular, she works closely with platforms, brands and investors looking to participate and win in recommerce markets.
ABOUT RETAIL DISRUPTED
Retail Disrupted is a Top 5% Global Podcast with the leaders and disruptors shaping the future of retail. Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg.
👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted
👉 Subscribe on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/retail-disrupted/id1676107321
👉 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H0TALn63ov2VAIJPNi3FM
👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/
👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

Gregor Ulitzka (President, Europe at Ocado Group) makes the case that online grocery isn't a sprint — it's a decathlon. The path to profitability requires retailers to master logistics, availability, pricing, last-mile, customer experience - the works!
From Ocado's origins as the UK's first pure-play online grocer to a technology platform and solutions business powering e-commerce for some of the world's biggest grocers — this is a masterclass in what it actually takes to make online grocery work.
Gregor and Natalie discuss:
The "detail, detail, detail" principle behind sustainable online grocery profitability
Shifting consumer habits & the 2-hour delivery myth
Global partnerships: from Alcampo to Asda (hot off the press)
In-store solutions vs CFCs: the infrastructure decisions
Where AI genuinely adds value in grocery (and where human beats algorithm every time)
Retail 2036: will AI agents be doing all the grocery shopping for us?
🤝 Today's episode is brought to you by Manhattan Associates https://www.manh.com/ 
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Gregor is president of Europe at the Ocado Group. As the first person to hold this role, he is responsible for the growth and operations of Ocado Solutions across the region. Prior to joining in 2023, Gregor built and scaled the vendor-facing supply chain at Amazon for over 10 years, with his most recent role for the business being director of supply chain and inventory management for Europe.
ABOUT THE PODCAST
🎙️ Retail Disrupted is a Top 5% Global Podcast with the leaders and disruptors shaping the future of retail. Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg. Subscribe:
👉 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted 
👉 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/retail-disrupted/id1676107321  
👉 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5H0TALn63ov2VAIJPNi3FM  
👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/ 
👉 Newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com

Most DTC brands struggle to make the leap from online-only to physical retail. Vuori didn't just make the transition -they're now scaling stores across Europe, Asia, and beyond.
Recorded live at Shoptalk Europe, Global President Ashley Kechter shares the playbook behind the California athleisure brand's retail expansion, international growth, and what's required to scale a modern consumer brand.
Ashley explains why Vuori's stores function as community hubs and customer acquisition engines — not just sales floors — and how international markets act as early-warning systems for product trends before they hit the US.
Key topics covered:
Vuori's brand DNA: how does it stand out in a crowded market?
The "density within markets" approach: clustering stores before diversifying geographically
How e-commerce data in 30 countries pinpoints the next store location
Why international markets are Vuori's trend-forecasting advantage
Balancing global brand consistency with hyper-local community activations
The role of stores in acquiring omnichannel customers who still value the opportunity to "touch and feel" the product
🤝 This episode is sponsored by Manhattan Associates - the unified foundation for global supply chains and commerce.
ABOUT OUR GUEST
As Vuori's Global President, Ashley Kechter is responsible for overseeing the brand's global business strategy, driving the financial process, and overseeing retail, eCommerce, planning and wholesale internationally and domestically. Prior to joining Vuori, Kechter served as global president of eComm, retail, wholesale and International for Fabletics, and previous roles include Chief Business Officer and GM for Banana Republic, and Chief Merchandising Officer and GM of Merch, Planning, eCommerce, Sourcing, Inventory Management, and Product Development at Restoration Hardware. 
ABOUT THE PODCAST
🎙️ Retail Disrupted is a Top 5% Global Podcast with the leaders and disruptors shaping the future of retail. Hosted by retail analyst Natalie Berg. 
👉 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@retaildisrupted
👉 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/retail-disrupted/
👉 Subscribe to our newsletter: https://retaildisrupted.substack.com