In Case You Missed It: CDR’s Jeff Woldt Discusses 2021 NACDS Total Store Expo Show Experience with Three NACDS Retail Advisory Board Execs and NACDS’ Jim Whitman

(Top left-right) Chain Drug Review’s Jeff Woldt; Navajo, Inc.’s Mark Deuschle; GSK Consumer Healthcare’s Lisa Paley; NACDS’ Jim Whitman; Mondelez Inernational’s Rick Brindle. The 2021 NACDS Total Store Expo will be held virtually from Aug. 23-25.

Chain Drug Review’s Jeff Woldt discussed the 2021 NACDS Total Store Expo with Rick Brindle, NACDS Retail Advisory Board (RAB) chair and vice president of industry development at Mondelez International; Lisa Paley, NACDS RAB vice chair and general manager of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare; Mark Deuschle, NACDS RAB outreach & business development subcommittee chair and president and CEO of Navajo, Inc.; and Jim Whitman, NACDS’ senior vice president of member programs and services.

The conversation centered on the extensive opportunities that small, mid-sized and large companies will continue to have during this year’s virtual event to collaborate, connect and advance plans to stay agile in the constantly evolving marketplace.

Brindle, Paley, Deuschle and Whitman also detailed the NACDS Market Exchange – a new retailer-friendly platform that will be featured during the 2021 NACDS Total Store Expo and which allows suppliers to keep retailers informed about new trends and innovations in the industry.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE VIDEO FORUM: 2021 NACDS TSE SHOW EXPERIENCE

Mark Deuschle, NACDS RAB outreach & business development subcommittee chair and president and CEO of Navajo, Inc.:

“One thing that hasn’t changed during COVID is that retailers are still anxious to find new goods, new products and to work with good companies. The discovery process has been stunted in many ways as a result of COVID. The hunger and appetite on the retail side is higher than it has ever been. So, whenever a trade association like NACDS brings retailers together, any supplier needs to be prepared to take advantage of that.”

Jim Whitman, NACDS’ senior vice president of member programs and services:

“There is going to be a wider scope of executives that can be involved – from both the retailers and the supplier community – and that runs the gamut from the sales, the marketing, the merchandising, supply chain, digital, e-commerce and category managers and buyers, business development and [more]. Everyone now can be a part of NACDS TSE.

“The industry is ready. They’re ready in the sense that NACDS this whole time has tried to continue to build on the strengths [of NACDS TSE] – and that’s relationships, keeping people informed and staying together.”

Lisa Paley, NACDS RAB vice chair and general manager of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare:

“We are looking forward to being able to come back together with the customers, to do that with a broader audience [and] to continue to focus on some of these continued, shifting dynamics. It’s important to stay with the pace of change that is still happening in the marketplace, and doing that with a broad audience helps both partners – the retailers and the suppliers – to be able to advance plans to continue to stay agile.”

Rick Brindle, NACDS RAB chair and vice president of industry development at Mondelez International:

“We all had the three top objectives in our defense strategy against COVID. Number one, was to keep our folks and our customers safe … Second was business continuity … The final thing was to emerge stronger from COVID than we were before COVID. We learned a great deal about a lot of things within our business … [and] these kinds of events [NACDS Total Store Expo] help us to emerge stronger going into 2022 and exiting 2021.”