Voice of Food Retail Blog

Empowering the Shopper During Customer Service Week

The customer is always right. That mantra was engrained in me at an early age when I worked at my first food retail job. My employer trained me well; I was empathetic, responsive and exuded a positive attitude – even when a shopper was having a bad ...

Moving from Worry to What Works

As a good-news oriented, lets-find-the-opportunity–here kind of person, it troubles me that the piece of FMI research posed for annually providing a snapshot of the state of the food retail industry tends to focus on concerns and ...

I'm A 25-Year-Old-Grocery-Shopping Boomer?

Have you ever wondered if you shop like your generation? You may find you identify with some their shopping habits, but not every shopper aspect....

Two FMI Gold Plate Winners Collaborate for National Family Meals Month 2018

What do Coborn’s grocery stores and American Heart Association’s (AHA) Healthy For Good ™ program have in common? Both are National Family Meals Month 2017 Gold Plate Award winners!...

5 Food Innovation Trends At Expo East

At Natural Products Expo East last week, it was a pleasure to meet inspiring innovators and entrepreneurs that are raising the bar at food retail today....

Transparency Can Impact the Bottom Line

The Transparency Imperative takes a look at product labeling from the consumer perspective and finds that shoppers increasingly demand transparency, so much so that 75 percent are more likely to switch to a brand that provides more in-depth product ...

The Food Retail Supply Chain Recovers in the Wake of Florence

Over the past week, our members in Hurricane Florence’s path experienced waves of destruction and frustration, but they maintained constant communication with their private sector contacts at FEMA and faster transitioned this natural disaster crisis ...

Find the Next Innovation in Food Retail at Groceryshop

By 2022 - just four years from now – we project consumers will be spending $100 billion on online groceries. That is the equivalent of every U.S. household spending $850 online for food and groceries. Are you and your company ready for ...

In-Store Mobile Phone Use Distracts Shoppers And Increases Sales

Did you know that in-store mobile phone use and actual mobile phone use patterns lead to increased purchases? These are the findings from a recent research study reported in the July 2018 issue of the Journal of Marketing. The study’s authors ...

A Healthy Dose of Optimism with Some Side Orders of Concern

As FMI prepares to release 68th annual edition of The Food Retailing Industry Speaks (Speaks) report, I thought I would give you a preview of what we will be revealing. I am happy to report that the food retail industry is riding a number of ...

Upending the Apple Cart

We can either let others upset our apple carts on their terms, or we can work with our supplier partners to upend our own apple carts in order to see things in new ways, making the needed adjustments to create the more agile marketplace our shoppers ...

Hurricane Florence: What’s the Status of Your Stores?

We need your support to ensure our supply chain can respond and stabilize. As soon as physically possible, please contact FMI via our crisis resources page to alert us on the status of your stores. With this basic information, we can work together ...

Failing to Prepare Equals Preparing to Fail

Preparation is key for a place of business to understand what to do when you don’t know what to do. With frequent training, development of awareness and by forging a relationship with your local police or sheriff office we can minimize the negative ...

Retailers Stay Within the Circle of Trust with Food Safety

Year after year, FMI’s U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends Report shows consumers consistently trust their grocery store when it comes to food safety. This year, 93 percent of shoppers trust their grocery store to ensure the food they purchase is safe. No ...

Hurricane Preparedness and Response Resources

Hurricane and storm season is upon us and the first potential major storm of the years, Florence, is threatening the Eastern coast of the United States. To help our members prepare their stores, associates, supply chains and communities we’ve put ...