In part two of our conversation with Nationwide’s Mike Whitaker, he turns the tables and takes over interviewing duties, putting the spotlight on Nationwide’s communications efforts, the rebranded media center, and more.

Patrick Tam of Google provides data and analysis around consumer shopping trends related to the ongoing pandemic — both from a product and shopping journey perspective. This episode of the Independent Thinking Podcast was first broadcasted during Virtual PrimeTime as a Main Stage session.

In the first of a two-part series, we sit down with the architect of Nationwide Learning Academy Mike Whitaker. In this interview, Whitaker goes into the evolution of NLA as the shift to virtual events takes hold.

Angelia Stewart, President and Co-owner of Jones Light Furniture & Appliances in Stevenson, Alabama, joins the Independent Thinking podcast to talk about the decision to bring AT&T into her small-town Independent retail business and the benefits of being able to offer connected services to her community.

Ahead of Virtual PrimeTime in mid-March, we sat down with Nationwide Marketing Group Sr. Director of Furniture & Bedding Jeff Rose to talk about the latest disruptions in the F&B supply chain, and we get a preview of what’s to come at Virtual PrimeTime and beyond for furniture and bedding retailers.

There’s perhaps no conversation that’s more difficult to have for family-run and independent businesses than the one that involves succession planning. In fact, that’s probably why only 30-ish% of family-owned businesses make it to the second generation of ownership. We sat down with JRM Sales & Management founder and CEO Joe Milevsky to talk succession planning and a whole lot more.

Nationwide Marketing Group recently named John O’Halloran its Sr. Merchant for the appliance team with a special focus on the luxury category. We sat down with John to get the latest on the space, his plans for expansion and more.

Ashley Gorrie, CEO of Nationwide Marketing Group vendor partner Gorrie, shares what retail trends she believes will have the longest impact in a post-COVID world.

We collected a wide swath of questions from you, our listeners, and boiled them down to some of the most-asked-about topics for President and Chief Member Advocate Tom Hickman to address.

Seeing a “store closing” sale pop up in the middle of a pandemic may elicit some sorry thoughts. But for Worcester, MA-based Rotmans, the promotion comes with a catch: They plan to reopen in a few weeks time with a completely reformatted store.

A lot has changed over the past year, and as customers start venturing back into physical stores, special attention must be paid to providing a clean, safe shopping experience. Guardsman, distributors of the COVID killing Monofoil disinfectant, chats about those trends and more.

Nationwide Marketing Group welcomed VP of Furniture & Bedding Mike Derro into the fold in mid-October — right before Virtual PrimeTime. We caught up with Derro recently to get to know him a little better and to understand where he sees the category heading in 2021.

Even as the calendar flips to a new year, the ongoing effects of the global pandemic are still being felt. We sat down with Steve Koenig, VP of Research for the Consumer Technology Association, to talk about the role tech has played in enabling so many businesses and industries to continue operating during this time — and we dive into the first-ever all-digital CES that CTA will host in January.

2020 was a whirlwind year for the custom integration space. Hank Alexander, director of HTSN, reflects on the tech trends that the pandemic helped accelerate, and he looks ahead to an all-digital CES 2021.

The house that Sherman’s built is basically a delivery team’s worst nightmare. But it’s how Paul Sherman, CEO and owner, and Antwaun Banks, delivery manager, train the Sherman’s delivery team before they set foot in a customer’s home.

Previously known as Audio America — a distributor partner for Nationwide Marketing Group — CEO Jonathan Elster talks about the decision to rebrand as Next Level Distribution, what that means for Nationwide’s network of dealers, and how that’ll impact business moving forward.

Product protection programs, while more all-encompassing than warranties, still carry many of the same misconceptions with consumers. We sat down with Nationwide’s director of product protection to talk about how retailers can improve their attachment rates.

How could something as simple as leaving a mint on customers’ newly-delivered mattresses play such a huge role at Knoxville, TN-based The Bed Store? Owner and CEO Roger Cunningham explains how doing “the little things” is at the heart of everything The Bed Store stands for.

Jama Featherson, director of retail at Podium, jumps on the podcast to talk about their recent State of Local Business report. The deep dive, which tracked changes in consumer shopping behaviors in a pre- and post-COVID world, shows just how prevalent texting has become in the path to purchase.

There may be no one who knows what makes a PrimeTime show tick quite like Nationwide Marketing Group VP of Member Experience Melissa Stenson. After closing the books on the first-ever Virtual PrimeTime, she sat down with us talk about the keys to planning a successful virtual event.