Voice of Food Retail Blog

The Boardroom’s Perspective of The Future of Retail

For the fourth year, FMI and Oliver Wyman have teamed up to provide thought leadership on the most pressing issues facing the food retail industry. The annual edition of Boardroom takes readers directly into the C-Suite of food retail companies and ...

Creating a Pillar Around Workforce as Skills Shift Within the Food Retail Industry

We hear from our members all the time that the hiring and retention of employees is top of mind. That, combined with the complexities new technologies are bringing to the future of workforce, is why FMI has identified the future of work as the ...

Standard Time Doesn’t Apply to Crisis Management

This year, FMI created guidelines for asset protection professionals and those charged with business continuity to assist these key personnel in preparing for, responding to, stabilizing and recovering from two distinct and crippling situations: a ...

The Transportation Capacity Challenge of 2018: Structural or Cyclical?

There is one disruptor, however, that might not seem so obvious. A severe capacity shortage in the trucking industry is affecting the flow of food to retail businesses and having a negative impact on the consumer experience. There simply aren’t ...

New FMI Emerge Program and Community Guides New Brands to More Shelf Space

FMI is working to get as many exciting new products to the marketplace as possible with its recently inaugurated Emerge program, designed to break down the barriers for new companies looking for wider grocery distribution and more sales ...

Life in the Fast Lane with Private Brands

Private brands have become full-fledged brands in their own right, as evidenced by 69 percent of consumers saying it’s very or somewhat important to have a good assortment of private brands in food and beverage. These own-brand products continue to ...

A Fresh Look Forward

There’s nothing stale about the fresh category in retail, which is arguably turning the food retail business on its head. It’s the ultimate disruptive category when it comes to competing for share of the business and we dedicated significant ...

Industry Collaboration in the Era of Transformation

Change in the food retail industry is taking place at an astonishing pace and there are no indications it will slow down in the foreseeable future. Most days in retail feel like a high hurdle race in which the hurdles keep getting moved closer and ...

Unifying the Food Retail Industry in 2018

The FMI Foundation worked to unite the food retail industry using three main campaigns: National Family Meals Month™, Unified Voice Protocol and Stir It ...

Health and Wellness: The Heart and Soul of Food Retail

Health and wellness is at the heart of almost every food retail success story this year. Significantly, according to the 2018 Food Retailing Industry Speaks research, industry executives identified the consumer health and wellness proposition (81 ...

2018’s Most Pressing Question - Are You Operational Ready for $100 Billion Food and Beverage Online?

The age of the digitally engaged food shopper has arrived, with each day seeing more shoppers moving from experimenting with online food shopping to fully embracing it. Total digital maturation in online grocery shopping is a mere five to seven ...

Learning Differently in 2018

People learn in different ways. Some of us are visual learners. Others better retain information by hearing things explained. Another group learns best from performing its own research. Some prefer having a hands-on experience and others just want ...

FMI’s 2018 Financial Diversity

Providing the retail food industry with the myriad products and services that FMI offers requires resources—both human and financial capital. To avoid being a one-pronged fork, any well-run business endeavors to diversify its revenue sources and FMI ...

Identifying Emerging Issues to Address Future Opportunities

Unless you’ve been in a coma, kidnapped by aliens or trapped in a sensory deprivation chamber for the last few years, it’s not news that the food industry is experiencing disruption at an unprecedented pace. Challenges and opportunities presented by ...

Why Millennials Are Tired of Being Categorized and Classified

Without a doubt, we are knee deep in the age of radical personalization, with consumers anticipating food retailers’ ability to know and serve each customer’s shopping preferences regarding cost, convenience, taste, experience, health and wellness, ...