The Health and Wellness Golden Rule

By: Cathy Polley, RPh, Vice President, Health & Wellness, FMI & Executive Director, FMI Foundation

We all know the Golden Rule—do unto others as you want others to do unto to you. When it comes to health and wellness in food retail, the Golden Rule has a bit of a twist—take care of employees and they will, in turn, take care of customers. That’s the message I heard loud and clear from FMI Connect presenters at the Health and Wellness Zone, the health and wellness education track and at Learning Lounge workshops. To support this mantra, here are some of the latest trends that follow this health and wellness Golden Rule:  

• Employee Wellness Programs 2.0 – Employee wellness programs are being reinvented and include incentives linked to grocery shopping. For example, some companies are utilizing wellness programs that track employees’ grocery purchases. Through an app, employers can offer employees rewards based on the product categories they shop in or the nutritional score of what they buy. The company can also allow manufacturers to offer targeted promotions through the apps.

• Personalized Customer Engagement – Retailers are learning more about the health and wellness of customers they serve. Stores are doing this by tracking data that drives health and wellness, like nutritional, pharmacy and loyalty data. Using this information, retailers can engage consumers and interact with them at a more personalized level.

• Give the Customer the Knowledge – Food retailers understand that helping customers choose healthier products in the store influences their position as a resource to the customer. For example, Facts Up Front, a program started by FMI and GMA, national and private brands can display certain nutritional facts like calories and saturated fat per serving on the front of their packaging so it is easy for shoppers to see and make more informed decisions.

Our latest Shopping for Health report reinforces the importance of this health and wellness Golden Rule with 80 percent of shoppers saying they put at least some effort into eating a healthy diet. For more information on this trend, visit our health and wellness resources at www.FMI.org/Industry-Topics/Health-Wellness.