McDonald's Sells Drive-Thru Ads, DoorDash Adds Macy's & Returns & Shopify Opens Checkout to AI Agents

[upbeat music] Hello, everyone. This is Omnitalk Retail. I'm Chris Walton, and you are listening to the Retail Daily Minute, your quickest, fastest breakdown of all the day's top 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, R+S Logistics is small enough to provide custom solutions and that personal touch, while also still boasting two 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 1,000 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 October 1st, 2026. Hard to believe, but it's already October, and this morning we've got news on DoorDash's push to put the mall in your pocket and Shopify throwing open its checkout to AI agents. But we begin today for the second day in a row with a McDonald's story. McDonald's is getting into the retail media business, or maybe I should say the drive-through media business. At its Investor Day last week, McDonald's unveiled the McDonald's Media Network, a new advertising arm that will let other companies buy ads across its digital platforms and in restaurant screens. According to USA Today, McDonald's has been piloting the idea since August at 450 company-owned US restaurants, running third-party ads on digital drive-through menu boards after customers finish ordering. And Global Chief Marketing Officer Morgan Flatley says, Flatley, "The goal is to eventually build it into a $1 billion business." On paper, you can see the logic. McDonald's says roughly 85% of the US population visits one of its restaurants at least once a year, and it has about 220 million active loyalty members worldwide. That's the kind of reach and first-party data every commerce media network loves to pitch. And McDonald's is also openly modeling this on Amazon and Walmart, which have turned advertising into some of the most profitable lines on their income statements. But I'd also urge a little caution here. Amazon and Walmart sell the very products being advertised. That's what makes retail media work, because the ad sits right next to the buy button. At the drive-through, the ad shows up after you've already paid, which is why McDonald's itself is calling it, quote, "post-purchase content," end quote. The example McDonald's showed was a Geico ad taking over part of a menu board. That's a lot closer to a digital billboard than true commerce media, and billboard rates are a lot lower than retail media rates. And then, of course, there's the customer. I've never heard anyone in a drive-through say they wish the menu board had more on it. If these ads slow the line down by even a few seconds, there could be a real cost in a business built on speed. A billion dollars at the end of the day looks great on an Investor Day slide, but getting there