Education

Three Trends Worth A Wager

I hope your plans will include joining your industry colleagues and me at FMI Connect where we will reveal and explore the new findings in FMI’s 2016 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends. Among a host of other topics, we will discuss three findings worth ...

And the Store Manager Award Finalists Are…

Each year, I have the pleasure of collecting the nominations for our Store Manager Awards and managing the judging process. Reading through 85 nominations this year was like taking a sneak peek into the lives of these everyday heroes; I was ...

Everyone to the Table!

FMI Connect is that “table,” the platform upon which retailers, manufacturers and suppliers can gather to share information, introduce new ideas, analyze their businesses, track the pulse of the shopper and look for new ways to reach an evolving ...

A Book Review of FMI Connect Keynote Speaker Steve Case’s The Third Wave

With Steve Case, entrepreneur, investor and co-founder of America Online, scheduled to speak in a few weeks at FMI Connect, I picked up his new book for a sneak peek at what words of wisdom a pioneer of the internet might offer today’s food retail ...

Graduating Students Take the Food Industry into the Future

Students delivered their capstone presentations in March, and two teams were selected to deliver again at the mid-April Western Association of Food Chains (WAFC) conference in Honolulu, HI. All of the topics demonstrated the level of innovation and ...

6 Reasons to Take the Supermarket Department Manager Survey

The first-ever Supermarket Department Manager Survey has already garnered more than 1,300 submissions! We have extended the survey deadline to April 25 to ensure we get as many responses as possible, which will give us some fantastic data to ...

Get the Most Out of Free CBX One-on-One Meetings

Do what thousands of attendees and exhibitors did at last year’s FMI Connect Business Exchange (CBX), when more than 1,700 face-to-face meetings took place in the CBX, exhibit booths and private suites in the CBX ...

What the Shopper Is Thinking

One of the most important contributing factors to a company’s success is its ability to spot and act on emerging trends. In the world of food retail, keeping track of evolving consumer behavior and key trends can be overwhelming and that’s why FMI ...

Add to Your Bottom Line With Fresh Prepared

As grocery stores continue to evolve to meet consumer desires, we see the focus shifting to fresh prepared food selections. Many stores already have begun to move their fresh prepared product departments into high-grossing programs that provide the ...

Talking Fresh Foods at FMI Connect

When you attend FMI Connect this year we’ve ensured you will be able to be a part of the current conversation about fresh prepared in food retail. You can ask direct questions of the experts and enjoy the benefit of listening to the questions raised ...

From Grocery Store to Grocerant

Grocery stores are under increasing competitive pressures to add restaurant-style and take-out options, creating a new hybrid, the “grocerant” with its focus on day parts – breakfast, lunch and dinner. At the same time, store managers are searching ...

What Can You Do to Grow and Survive in Today’s Changing Retail Environment?

FMI members are in a highly competitive, low margin business. Success is predicated on constant evaluation of changing market conditions, continual cost reduction and process improvement, along with investments in a variety of growth strategies, to ...

Supermarket Chefs: More than Just a Showdown

We see a great opportunity to increase collaboration across all fresh foods departments at FMI Connect by taking the energy from the previous year’s competitions and transitioning that into a comprehensive learning experience where Supermarket Chefs ...

Give Your Customers a Taste for the World

This year, FMI Connect will help in a way it never has before as it introduces multiple new pavilions to the FMI Expo, providing you with contacts to not just international suppliers that will be at FMI Connect for the first time, but also state-...

FMI Survey’s Recipe for Success: Building Trust and Loyalty While Investing in E-Commerce

A new FMI survey among grocery, retailing, and wholesaling companies explores their operation costs, customer retention strategies, and e-commerce initiatives. The analysis conducted by 210 Analytics and made possible by BMO Harris Bank, FMI’s ...