Amazon Brings Prime Delivery to Retailer Websites, Starbucks Closes 250 More Stores & Kroger Overhauls Store Uniforms

Hello, everyone. This is OmniTalk Retail. I'm Chris Walton, and you are listening to the Retail Daily Minute, your quickest, fastest breakdown of

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retail news. Today's podcast is brought to you once again with the help and support of R&S Logistics. Are you looking for a fulfillment and distribution partner? That's just right. Well, RNS Logistics is small enough to provide custom solutions and that personal touch, while also still boasting 2 million square feet across 10 locations in the Southeast. With technology that can scale your growing e-commerce operations, visit rswarehousingsolutions.com and get your quote today. And I'm also pleased to introduce Zenline AI because you have likely heard about AI agents a thousand times this year, but are also probably wondering what they can do for you as a retailer. Visit tryzenline.ai to book a call and see how agents can bring you more margin. Today is September 28th, 2026. I arrived back to Minneapolis from Las Vegas and grocery shop late last night and now I am headed out to Nashville this afternoon for Shop Talk Fall. And this morning we've got news on Starbucks' latest round of store closures and Kroger's first store uniform overhaul in a decade. But we begin today with Amazon making another play to become the logistics backbone for all of retail, not just its own marketplace. As of September 24th, U.S. merchants using Amazon's multi-channel fulfillment service, which now sits inside the third-party logistics business Amazon launched back in May, can offer Prime delivery directly on their own websites at no added cost to them or their shoppers. And Prime membership gets verified after checkout, so shoppers don't even need to log into Amazon to get it. Amazon is also rolling out a new preferred pricing program that it says will save sellers 15 to 25% on fulfillment fees for their first six months. And it's launching tools that lets sellers manage their eBay, Shopify, TikTok, and yes, even their Walmart listings and orders right from inside Amazon Seller Central. Amazon is essentially turning Prime from a membership that lives on Amazon.com into a delivery standard that lives everywhere. And it's using free discounts to pull even more inventory into its network. For merchants, the appeal here is obvious. Fast, free shipping and one pool of inventory. But the trade-offs, they're also equally obvious. Every order you roll or route through Amazon, even from your own website, deepens your dependence on a partner that is also your biggest competitor. And it gives Amazon a clearer view of demand across the entire web. And when Walmart sellers can manage their Walmart business from an Amazon dashboard, you know exactly who is trying to become the operating system of e-commerce.

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All right, we are back, and our next story comes from the coffee world, where Starbucks is