Research

Our Voice of The Food Industry blog offers commentary from FMI subject matter experts on timely and important topics to the food industry.
  • How to Make Grocery Shopping Easier for Parents

    Aug 28, 2023
    Our latest report in the 2023 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends series focuses on parents and their grocery shopping habits, particularly as they face this busy time of year. The report provides insights for the food industry on how they can better ...
  • A Working Mom’s Grocery Shopping Value Matrix

    Jul 27, 2023
    My friends who know I work for the food industry are always asking me questions about grocery shopping. Many of them, like me, are working moms juggling professional commitments, young children, family obligations and the need to find time for ...
  • How to Handle a Full Plate

    Jul 25, 2023
    While vacationing at the beach, we dined at a famous, local restaurant known for its all-you-can eat fresh seafood. As I waited to fill my plate with fresh shrimp and crab legs, the gentleman in front of me filled his plate beyond what I thought was ...
  • Benchmarking the Food Industry Supply Chain Ecosystem

    Jul 17, 2023
    FMI, in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group, has released the 2023 Supply Chain Benchmarking report, which report provides key quantitative performance metrics, qualitative industry perspectives and actionable insights to enhance supply ...
  • Eyeing Innovation More Broadly for Private Brands

    Jun 8, 2023
    Innovation in the private brands industry is often used to describe new or revamped products. But that seems like a limited look at innovation and its possibilities. I decided to seek out a dictionary definition of innovation after hearing the word ...
  • How Gen Z is Grocery Shopping

    Apr 25, 2023
    As a young Millennial, I find myself wondering how similar, or dissimilar, I am to Gen Z. While only a few years separate us, we are in different stages in life. I am a few years into my career, married, and a homeowner. On the other side, much of ...
  • The State of Meat Remains Strong

    Mar 17, 2023
    Despite rumors of its demise, the state of the meat category in grocery retail remains strong. As shared with the almost 2,000 attendees at the Annual Meat Conference last week in Dallas, the Power of Meat report, conducted by FMI and the Meat ...
  • Drumroll Please: Introducing the 2023 Class of FMI Store Manager Awards Nominees

    Feb 22, 2023
    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 ...
  • Where Food and Technology Meet

    Jan 31, 2023
    While the competition and presentations at FMITech at Midwinter enlightened attendees to the latest and greatest our industry has to offer in technological advancements, the Lunch and Insights presentation by Laurie Demeritt of The Hartman Group ...
  • 3 Easy Ways to Jumpstart Your Plans for Supermarket Employee Day 2.22.23

    Jan 9, 2023
    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 ...
  • Holiday Meal Planning Made Easy

    Dec 22, 2022
    Amidst the holiday hustle and bustle, foodservice at retail can serve as a critical value-add for shoppers with long to-do lists and a desire to spend less time in the kitchen and more time with their loved ...
  • A Holiday Game Plan

    Dec 6, 2022
    In July, I started asking my daughter what she wanted for Christmas. I must not be alone in this because stores are moving up Black Friday, offering deals earlier and my neighbor took down their Halloween decorations and replaced them with holiday ...
  • Thanksgiving, the Consummate Family Meal and Beyond

    Nov 23, 2022
    Thanksgiving is the consummate family meal. It bears all the nutritional, emotional, mental, and social merits that are accrued when we gather at table sharing a common need of physiological substance, and surprisingly discover that our minds and ...
  • A New Opportunity to Put Retail Foodservice on Consumers’ Radar

    Nov 14, 2022
    There is good news on the retail foodservice front, along with a new opportunity to overcome a longtime growth hurdle. First the good news. Foodservice/prepared foods, hit hard during the pandemic, has solidly rebounded in dollars and units and is ...
  • Illustrating the Evolving Grocery Experience

    Nov 8, 2022
    We used to debate whether our industry was going through an evolution or a revolution. Depending on your viewpoint regarding the pace of change and the catalysts for it, there has been one constant: Our industry continues to invest heavily in ...