Episode 5 of The Middlemen Podcast dives deeper into the evolving landscape of retail media, continuing the series with a focus on how retailers are adapting and in-housing their technology. The hosts challenge the industry’s habit of labeling every retailer’s offering as a “retail media network,” arguing that most are really single-site publishers rather than true networks. The discussion highlights Costco’s recent launch of its off-site retail media product, noting how this move is significant for club stores, which have traditionally been slower to adopt such capabilities.

The episode explores the slow transition of retailers into digital publishers, emphasizing why display ads never truly worked for most retailers—mainly due to insufficient traffic and the disruption of the shopper journey. Instead, the real breakthrough has come from sponsored search and native ad experiences, which keep shoppers engaged on-site and provide measurable sales lift through closed-loop attribution.

Listeners also get insights into the dispersion of talent from Quotient to various retailers and vendors, the growing importance of ad operations talent, and why press coverage often oversimplifies the complexity of retail media. The conversation closes with a look at the fragmentation of the current landscape and a preview of future trends, including the implications of in-housing and the growing role of first-party data.

If you’re following the rise of retail media and want to understand the forces