Corporate Social Responsibility

State Legislatures Focus on Sustainability in 2023

In the first four months of 2023, FMI has seen the introduction of hundreds of sustainability bills across the nation. These include bills to prohibit per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, polystyrene foam packaging, single-use ...

Photo Friday: Sustainability in the Grocery Store

I recently joined Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) professor and agriculture economist Dr. Ricky Volpe's class on “Food Retail Management.” Along with 45 students, we met with Jonathan Tan from The Ratio Institute, a nonprofit certifying body for ...

When Is the Best Time to Plant a Tree?

Gene-edited food products will soon be making their way onto supermarket shelves, so the time to be preparing staff and customers for the advent of these new biotech enhanced products was twenty months ago. But if you’ve not done that, then right ...

Northgate Market in Cooking Up Change in the Community

Sometimes we don’t really grasp how one program, grounded by a local grocery store, and supported by an entire community, can impact the lives of so many until we get a chance to see that impact firsthand. What an honor when Northgate Gonzalez ...

Are You Market Ready for Gene-Edited Food Products?

The FMI Foundation recently hosted the first in a two-part digital seminar series designed to help FMI members prepare for the market release of gene-edited food products. The discussion featured presentations from three companies involved in ...

Six Imperative Issues Facing the Food Industry in 2023

The articles in this year’s Boardroom volume 8 reflect FMI’s Imperative Issues Framework. Boardroom continues to provide analysis and recommendations through the lens of the food industry's imperative issues – from supply chain and workforce ...

Drumroll Please: Introducing the 2023 Class of FMI Store Manager Awards Nominees

In addition to celebrating the hardworking people who make up our industry, we want to pay special attention to the store managers who are the heartbeat of local supermarkets across the globe. These devoted leaders embody their company’s vision and ...

3 Easy Ways to Jumpstart Your Plans for Supermarket Employee Day 2.22.23

There are more than 40,000 stores that sell food and grocery items in the U.S. alone. Millions of supermarket employees come to work daily to keep shelves stocked and to provide communities with essential services that help them survive and ...

Our Favorite Buzzwords: Unprecedented Disruption

It is heartening to know that together, we can navigate through today’s unpredictable marketplace and chart a course into the future. I’m thrilled to share this short clip with you in preparation for the FMI Midwinter Executive Conference, held ...

Unprecedented Times and the New Demands of Leadership

One of the most popular words invoked over the past 30 months has got to be the term “unprecedented.” As we endeavored to capture the breadth and depth of the pandemic experience, we were told we faced unprecedented challenges, living in ...

The Food Industry Thrives on Diversity

Going to the grocery store is an enriching experience, and it is so in multiple ways. Beyond the abundant variety of food items on every aisle, store associates are often members of the communities their supermarket serves. Representing their ...

When Silence is Not Golden

If we needed a prompt that racism remains one of America’s most critical moral failings, then the recent senseless murder of 10 black grocery shoppers in Buffalo, New York, provided a grim and tragic reminder that this societal blight persists. The ...

Lessons Learned from Trailblazing Grocery Consumer Affairs Professionals

Often, you must look back in order to move forward. I recently had the opportunity to reflect on FMI’s consumer affairs accomplishments over the past several decades with a group of trailblazing grocery consumer affairs professionals that met in ...

Glory to Grocery Do-Gooders: The 2022 Community Uplift Awards

Food retail is not just about stocking shelves and bagging groceries. The work of the industry reaches far beyond the physical parameters of grocery stores and into the very heart of communities they serve. Food retailers go to great lengths to ...

Photo Friday: Consumer Affairs Reunion

More than 20 food retail consumer affairs professionals recently met in Washington, D.C. to share insights from their storied careers. Six of these professionals were recipients of the Esther Peterson Award for customer service and in 2021, FMI ...