Voice of Food Retail Blog

Why the Current Payment Ecosystem Isn’t Keeping Pace

Today, the SPP released a white paper outlining the current scheme of EMVCo acting as the de-facto, standard-setting body for payment card security. Let’s just say it isn’t ...

Photo Friday: Supplier Diversity Committee

The FMI Supplier Diversity Committee met in Washington, DC, this week. The Committee, chaired by James Harris, director, diversity and inclusion and supplier diversity for H-E-B, discussed several issues and initiatives including partnership ...

Resourcing Teams for the Ever-Changing Omnichannel Landscape—Insights from Unilever and Walmart

It’s not often you get to be a fly on the wall of a conversation between a food retailer and supplier, but that is what attendees experienced during a recent Groceryshop 2019 presentation hosted by FMI with presentations from Erin Dress, Walmart ...

‘Engineer the Hazard out of the Equation’ for Workplace Safety

The “founding father” of the concept of inherent safety, Dr. Trevor Kletz, a chemical engineer and process safety expert, said it best, “There's an old saying that if you think safety is expensive, try an accident. Accidents cost a lot of money. And,...

What is the Certified Plant Based Seal?

Plant-based food products are no longer just a trend – they are here to stay in an industry that is growing incrementally each day. FMI’s Power of Meat 2019 report finds that plant-based meat alternatives sales increased 19.2% last year and account ...

Grocery Productivity Numbers to Watch

We’ve been tracking operational benchmarks for more than seven decades, but we’ve now witnessed significant shifts in business investments in the last several years. The number of SKUs might ebb and flow, but we find certainty in how retailers will ...

Mark Your Calendars: Special Days During the Holidays

In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, I encourage you to donate to the FMI Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable organization that supports research and education in the areas of food safety, nutrition, and health. Here are some of our 2019 successes that ...

What is Hospitality?

Without a doubt, our industry is experiencing change and it’s coming at us faster than ever before, but we still have fundamental principles we maintain – hospitable things food retailers are noted for. These identifying factors are service ...

Feds, States and Localities Continue to Tackle Flavored E-cigarettes

Before the 24-hour coverage of the presidential impeachment hearings, the majority of the news this fall surrounded e-cigarettes, their safety, and the many flavors in which they come....

Exploring AI-Voice Assistants and Application in Grocery

Many in the industry can’t hear it yet, but artificial intelligence voice assistances (AI-voice) – on a home-based smart speaker, smartphone or a car dashboard – are on their way to the grocery industry. As they arrive, it will not only accelerate ...

Photo Friday: International Member Visit

This week, FMI hosted international member Auto Mercado, the leading family-owned supermarket in Costa Rica, operating 17 large stores, 19 smaller format stores and one commissary....

Part 2: What is “FedNow” And Why Is It Coming?

On August 5, the Federal Reserve announced that its moving forward with building a real-time gross settlement service (RTGS) called “FedNow.” The announcement was strongly supported by FMI and many other stakeholders in the payments ...

Sustainability Initiatives in Today’s Meat Industry

According to the 2019 Power of Meat Report, eating meat is still the norm with 86% of shoppers classifying themselves as meat eaters, 5% following a vegetarian or vegan diet and 10% describing their eating style as flexitarian (mostly vegetarian ...

3 Factors That Contribute to Dwell Time and How to Solve Them

Long dwell times can strain carrier relationships, increase costs and hurt production. It’s a problem both food retailers and supplier can agree needs to be addressed. That’s why the Trading Partner Alliance (TPA), including both FMI and GMA, ...

Health and Well-Being: The Best Trend for Grocery Store Sales

No matter the food trend consumers desire, food retailers responding to The Food Retailing Industry Speaks 2019 report see consumers’ focus on health and well-being as having a positive impact on their business strategy....