Nike’s “most important priority,” he said, is to fix its internal challenges around diversity and inclusion. Do you agree that consumers are generally demanding more than statements of solidarity from brands and retailers around social causes or is racial inequality a unique issue?

Early last month, the National Retail Federation sent a memo to Congress with a list of the priorities that the trade group believed should be in any new stimulus legislation. At the top of that list was liability reform. Do you support the passage of legislation that would limit the liability of employers in cases where workers get sick from COVID-19 on the job?

Retail, as they say, is detail. In today’s retailing world, many of those details go well beyond the fundamentals of buying and selling goods as is clear from reports of Walmart’s annual shareholders’ meeting. Are there retailing and consumer brand executives and companies that you see as examples for how businesses should operate in and out of times of crisis?

Walmart is the biggest retailer on the planet. ThredUP bills itself as the largest online thrift store. Now, the two have announced an online partnership. What will the Walmart and thredUP partnership mean for each company’s business in the short- and long-term?

Amazon is looking to get its once vaunted distribution system back into its pre-pandemic shape and doing so will require pushing its annual Prime Day event from July to September. Will Amazon’s 2020 results be helped or hurt if it moves Prime Day September, and will the decision affect its results beyond this year?

When Walmart acquired Jet.com for $3 billion-plus in 2016, the move raised some eyebrows. Now that Walmart has announced that it is closing Jet.com after less than four years, the question is whether the deal was worth it. Do you think the Jet.com acquisition has paid off for Walmart?

Walmart is noted for performing at a high level when facing down natural disasters and economic tumult, and has remained so as the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the lives of virtually every American. Are you surprised at the size of Walmart’s sales increase during its first quarter?

Since the novel coronavirus pandemic began, low-paying frontline positions in grocery have been recognized by the public as some of the most indispensable and dangerous in the country. As states begin to open more businesses to the public, should the higher wages paid to frontline grocery workers during the pandemic become the standard moving forward?

A massive store base, legendary supply chain capabilities and omnichannel investments have given Walmart a sizable advantage amid the pandemic and appears to position the chain for e-commerce success long after the crisis is over. What can rivals learn from Walmart’s performance during the pandemic?

The founder of online sportswear retailer Fanatics has launched a series of sweepstakes and auctions offering singular, high-ticket experiences as prizes. Walmart is the first retailer to take part. How likely are Fanatics, Walmart and others to gain a business benefit as a result of their participation in the All-In Challenge?

Walmart last week said it was rolling out Express Delivery for “more than 160,000 items” across groceries, general merchandise, electronics and toys categories within two hours for $10. Will Express Delivery offer much appeal to Walmart’s customers during and after the pandemic?

Walmart announced yesterday that it is teaming up with the social media site, Nextdoor, in the launch of a new program that aims to make it easier for people across the country to help others during the COVID-19 outbreak. Will Walmart’s participation in “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” have a lasting effect on its brand equity?

Walmart, which has offered a “senior shopping event” every Tuesday since March 24, announced yesterday that it is going to add a daily pickup hour for vulnerable shoppers at select locations. What strain will Walmart’s designated daily pickup hour put on its store-level and supply chain operations in the locations where it is available?

Jamie Iannone, COO for Walmart’s e-commerce business in the U.S., has been named as the new chief executive officer of eBay. How do you think consumers see eBay as a selling platform at this current moment in history?

Trader Joe’s, H-E-B and ShopRite are standing out for providing transparency about the number of their employees testing positive for coronavirus. The majority of retail is largely keeping such incidents under wraps. How transparent should grocers be about store employees testing positive for COVID-19?

Retailers are starting to open drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites to the public for the first time. Are they ready? What challenges do you expect retailers to face rolling out COVID-19 testing?

Walmart, Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s this past weekend joined many other retailers in limiting the number of customers allowed in stores at one time to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. What other steps can essential stores such as food retailers take to emphasize social distancing in aisles?

Walmart has noticed that newly at-home customers are buying clothes differently since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the U.S. What recent changes in consumer shopping behavior do you expect will become habits when the coronavirus pandemic ends?

Free coffee, donuts and shoes are among the items retailers and brands are bestowing on health professionals for the risks they’re taking combatting the coronavirus pandemic. What advice would you have for retailers and brands around supporting health professionals and other organizations fighting the coronavirus pandemic?

This is a stressful time for retail managers and employees as they go about trying to meet the demands of a frightened public while at the same time dealing with concerns for their own personal health. What should retail management be doing to help store associates and warehouse workers deal with the stress they are under in the current coronavirus emergency?

A bill called the Shop Safe Act of 2020 currently being considered by Congress aims to curb the perennial problem of counterfeit goods being sold through e-commerce marketplaces. How would Amazon and others have to retool their operations if the Shop Safe Act of 2020 becomes law?

Walmart will begin testing a new annual subscription plan as early as next month with features that will eventually go beyond those offered by rival Amazon.com’s Prime program. Is playing a one-upmanship game with Amazon Prime perks a smart strategic move for Walmart?

Walmart has launched a new service — Walmart Fulfillment Services — that stores, picks, packs and ships items ordered from third parties on walmart.com. Will the launch of WFS help Walmart expand its roster of marketplace sellers and draw more consumers to walmart.com?

Walmart came up short for the Christmas selling season. The world’s largest retailer posted sales and earnings that were below Wall Street’s expectations. What do you make of Walmart’s good, not great, 2019 holiday sales performance?

Walmart has announced that it will discontinue its Jetblack personal shopping text service on Feb. 21. The subscription program combined human and artificial intelligence to offer product recommendations to upscale customers. What lessons do you think Walmart learned from its Jetblack experience?

Retailers rose to the top of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s eighteenth annual “Corporate Equality Index” report, which rates workplaces on their policies and treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees. What do you see as the current state of LGBTQ affairs within the retailing industry?

One of Walmart’s big goals for 2020 is to finally become fashionable. Turning around some of its digital fashion e-commerce brands is up near the top of the list of Walmart’s priorities for the year. After Andy Dunn’s departure, ModCloth’s sale and so on, is Walmart still positioned to establish itself as a destination for fashion?

Grocery giant Walmart is implementing an automated, robotic mini-warehouse to help better manage its e-commerce fulfillment. Is Walmart’s plan to expand its pilot of the Alphabot an indication of how important automation will be to other e-commerce grocers?

At a keynote session Sunday at NRF, Walmart U.S.’s new CEO said the first step he took to drive employee satisfaction when leading Sam’s Club was to invest significantly in retention, particularly team leaders. Has it become significantly more important for retailers to retain their senior staff?

Grubhub is exploring its strategic options, including a possible sale, and it appears as though there are plenty of food retailers interested in kicking the tires of the online meal ordering and delivery service. Should Ahold-Delhaize, Albertsons, Kroger, Walmart or some other grocer buy Grubhub?

Walmart has rolled out a self-serve portal that enables advertisers to directly buy on-site search and sponsored product ads on walmart.com through a bid auction-based marketplace. How critical is the introduction of a self-serve ad platform for Walmart’s advertising ambitions?

The past year was a good one for a number of retailers and executives who earned accolades from the press and, in some cases, investors. Which companies would be on your list of candidates to earn the distinction of top retailer of the year for 2019?

Walmart over the last year has quietly introduced “SWAT teams” of remodeling specialists as it steps up its upgrades to 500 U.S. locations annually. Do retailers need a better (i.e., faster) plan for executing remodels given the demands of the marketplace?

This week’s RetailWire Christmas Commercial pits rivals Target and Walmart against each other. What are your critiques of the Christmas spots from Target and Walmart?

Fresh fruit and vegetables are not easy to ship, posing last-mile challenges that can be pricey to address. Yet according to a new study, e-commerce customers are ordering fresh produce nonetheless. How can e-grocers overcome hurdles in providing fresh produce to meet growing customer demand?

The exits of founders and key personnel from acquired tech startups is common. Reasons cited include misalignment of values and vision, personal ambition or interest in other opportunities. How important is it to retain startup founders, co-founders and other key personnel after an acquisition, and for how long?

The 2019 Christmas selling season is off to a fast start, and for a growing number of Americans, researching and buying gifts begins and ends with their smartphones.  Assuming there’s a correlation between mobile app downloads and Christmas selling season success, how should retailers and brands leverage this advance information?

Only a year after launching its Jet City Grocery fresh food delivery service in New York City, Jet.com’s parent company, Walmart, is ending the experiment. What can retailers learn from the Jet City Grocery failure and how might they apply it to their own fresh delivery initiatives?

All signs point to a strong holiday season as Target continues to make gains in apparel and online sales, while improving its inventory management and profitability in the process. What major retailers have the most to lose from Target’s gains?

Grocery now accounts for 56 percent of Walmart’s dollar sales in the U.S., but while grocery drives traffic and incremental sales, it also comes with low margins, particularly when coupled with home delivery, and that has weighed on Walmart’s earnings.  What will it take for Walmart to make general merchandise a greater percentage of its overall sales mix?

A new survey has found that a slight majority of consumers prefer shopping at Walmart (online, in-store or both) versus shopping on Amazon.com. Do you think Amazon has a Prime membership recruitment and retention problem?

Amazon.com just added more perks for Prime. The e-tail giant has dropped the $14.99 monthly charge for grocery deliveries from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods and added free, two-hour grocery deliveries. Will the addition of free grocery deliveries prompt large numbers of Prime members to use the service?

The holiday selling season is six days shorter and will include one less weekend this year. With only 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, compared to 32 days in 2018, some retailers are making adjustments. What sort of adjustments (if any) should retailers make this year for the shorter traditional holiday season?

Amazon’s earnings miss of $4.23 a share in the third quarter, down from $5.75 last year, is being tied to the company’s switch from free two-day shipping for Prime members to next-day delivery. Do you think the math for free next-day delivery adds up to a win for Amazon in the short- or long-term?

Walmart announced yesterday the launch of special early deals for Christmas on walmart.com to get a head start on the selling season, which is six days shorter this year because of when Thanksgiving falls. Will Walmart be rewarded for its decision to start its Christmas sales before Halloween?

Best Buy announced the launch of free next-day delivery on thousands of items that it sells online, with no minimum purchase or membership required. How important is speed of delivery to online sales performance?

CNN reports that it has interviewed 23 current and former employees of Target in recent months who said they actually are bringing home less than they did before the retailer began raising its hourly pay. Do hourly associates have a legitimate grievance in connecting fewer shift hours with recent pay increases or are there other factors at work?

Walmart has announced that it is launching its InHome Delivery program which gives Walmart delivery people access to customers’ garages or homes where they will put refrigerated and frozen products away in refrigerators. What do you expect Walmart to learn in the three initial markets for InHome Delivery?

Walmart announced yesterday that Greg Foran, president and CEO of its U.S. business, is leaving the company and will be replaced by John Furner, who has been the top executive at Sam’s Club since 2017. What do you expect to stay the same and change at Walmart U.S. under the leadership of John Furner?

Walmart has sold its ModCloth business, is looking to spin off its Jetblack personal shopping service and has laid off workers at Bonobos. What is your take on the current state of Walmart’s digital operations?