Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Makai examines how shelf observation can inform CPG retail briefs, ambassador conversations, and questions for further research.
On October 30, 2026, Retail TouchPoints published an executive viewpoint by Emily Wolf of STONE Strategy & Design about observing shoppers inside Walmart. Wolf argues that watching products meet shoppers in their actual retail setting can reveal questions that packaging reviews and conventional research may leave unresolved.
Wolf is the executive creative director and co-founder of STONE Strategy & Design. Her account puts a practical issue in front of CPG leaders: whether the product story developed away from the store remains clear when someone encounters it among competing products.
The event was the publication of a viewpoint, not a retailer rule change. Its operational relevance comes from Wolf’s recommendation to assess packaging where shoppers encounter it: on the shelf and in digital shopping contexts.
In the Retail TouchPoints article, Wolf says she spent 16 hours observing shoppers inside Walmart. She describes that time as curiosity-driven observation rather than formal research. The account is not a representative sample and cannot establish how common a behavior is or prove that a packaging change will improve sales.
Her recommendation is to complement surveys and other research with context. A package viewed on a presentation page is being evaluated differently from a package surrounded by competitors. Wolf also describes shoppers who may be distracted or buying on someone else’s behalf.
That shifts the question from whether a design looks good in isolation to whether its product identity and message remain legible in the shopping environment. Wolf recommends noticing what people reach for or pass by. Apparent misunderstanding also becomes something to investigate.
For retail-readiness planning, the useful output is a set of questions grounded in what was visible at the shelf. Those questions give research and activation teams something specific to examine together.
At Makai, our view is simple: be warm with people and exacting about execution. A welcoming product trial should make the brand easier to understand. The preparation behind that interaction deserves the same attention as the creative idea.
We have connected brands with people through retail programs and national activations since 1995. Our retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors to drive in-store sales through real conversations and product trials. That makes shelf-level clarity directly relevant to the work we do.
We believe an ambassador conversation should connect with the product shoppers can actually find. If observation raises a question about product recognition, the activation brief has something concrete to address. If it raises a question about differentiation, the product conversation has something concrete to explain.
There is supporting evidence for taking physical interaction seriously. P2PI reports that a Harris Poll and Quad survey of 2,004 U.S. adults found that 85% valued being able to see, touch, or try products before buying for their confidence when shopping in stores. These are reported attitudes rather than measured sales effects.
For us, the business objective remains measurable consumer response and qualified pipeline. Observation belongs upstream of that objective as preparation. It helps frame what the team needs to learn before deciding how to connect a product trial with a purchase opportunity.
This is part of the broader execution work that follows retail placement. Getting onto a shelf and making sense on that shelf deserve separate attention in the marketing plan.
The downstream implication is a sharper brief rather than an assumed need for more people or a larger footprint. As a practical extension of Wolf’s recommendations, activation leaders can bring contextual questions into retail-readiness planning and define how those observations will inform further investigation.
A useful observation brief stays close to what someone can actually see. It separates the visible event from the explanation a team might attach to it. Wolf’s account supports examining the retail setting rather than assuming the presentation-stage evaluation tells the whole story.
That scope can include:
The distinction matters when field notes become a planning input. A shopper passing a product is an observation. A conclusion that the package failed to communicate value is a hypothesis. The research packet supports using shopper research and sales or execution data to investigate that interpretation.
For Makai, the staffing implication is clearer purpose. We run programs coast to coast with local crews and coordinated logistics. Our view is that any observation work added to a brief should have an explicit role alongside the product conversations the activation is designed to deliver.
Makai’s retail demonstrations center on real conversations and product trials. Shelf observation adds a useful planning lens: whether the explanation delivered during the interaction connects with the product shoppers encounter in the retail setting.
Wolf’s viewpoint supports looking at recognition and competitive differentiation in context. Applied to an activation brief, that means identifying which product questions deserve attention during a demonstration. The emphasis stays on making the interaction useful rather than adding more talking points without a clear purpose.
Our position is that the physical experience should help shoppers make sense of the product. An engaging interaction and a clear product explanation belong together. This keeps the conversation tied to the brand’s commercial objective rather than treating participation as the final outcome.
The same planning principle is relevant when product trials share space with buyer conversations. At a trade show, Makai plans and manages spaces intended to attract attention and start conversations. The shelf-specific questions remain retail questions rather than assumptions about every event environment.
Wolf explicitly recommends examining both physical and digital retail contexts. Her field notes also raise a shopper-definition issue: the person selecting a product may be a fulfillment worker or someone shopping for another person. She presents this as an observation from her visit.
The digital context has its own supporting market evidence. Progressive Grocer, citing Brick Meets Click surveys, reported that e-grocery accounted for 20.9% of U.S. grocery spending in the third quarter of 2026.
For Makai, that is a reason to keep the product identity consistent across the planning discussion. A shelf check and a digital recognition check address related questions. Each provides context for a product that may be encountered in different ways.
The practical extension of Wolf’s recommendation is to examine whether the message and package remain recognizable in each setting. Teams can then take any apparent mismatch into further research rather than resolving it through opinion alone.
Observation can define what to investigate. Shopper research can test an interpretation. Sales and execution data can help determine whether a suspected issue is widespread and commercially consequential. Keeping those roles distinct gives the field work a useful place in the decision process.
This matters when a CMO is evaluating Return on Investment. A field note about apparent confusion is a diagnostic input. It should lead to a better-defined question about the activation rather than becoming a substitute for commercial reporting.
Makai’s capabilities extend from permitting to CRM reporting. We also store sampling products and event gear while coordinating nationwide delivery. In our view, the logistics behind a field program and its measurement plan should serve the same clearly stated objective.
Wolf’s account ends with the value of better questions. That is a useful standard for a store visit: a specific uncertainty that can move into the next research discussion or activation brief.
For us, disciplined preparation means leaving room for the shelf to challenge the plan. The creative concept still matters. So does the moment when a shopper has to recognize the product without the presentation that explained it.
As you plan your next retail activation, which assumption about the shopper would your team want to test against the actual shelf before committing the field brief?
Once shelf observations become a retail activation brief, the next step is a live product conversation supported by trained ambassadors and careful execution. Makai runs retail demonstrations for CPG marketers and food and beverage brand managers through product trials and real conversations designed to drive in-store sales.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
