Research

Our Voice of The Food Industry blog offers commentary from FMI subject matter experts on timely and important topics to the food industry.
  • Health and Well-Being: The Best Trend for Grocery Store Sales

    Nov 18, 2019
    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....
  • Consumers Boost Engagement With Private Brands

    Nov 15, 2019
    Momentum for private brands continues to build, according to the latest FMI report based on IRI data. The 2019 edition of FMI’s Power of Private Brands: From the Consumer finds that food retail private brands are advancing in several ...
  • The Grocery Store Continues to Be A Community Cornerstone

    Nov 12, 2019
    According to The Food Retailing Industry Speaks 2019 report, 93% of grocers who responded to the survey use community support and ties as a service differentiation strategy and 73% see it as successful—the highest of any strategy. These stats make ...
  • Steps to Seamless Omnichannel Shopping

    Nov 7, 2019
    FMI has partnered with FitForCommerce, a boutique consultancy firm specializing in ecommerce and omnichannel retail, on the 2019 Grocery Omnichannel Index. After mystery-shopping 26 U.S. food retailer’s online grocery shopping experiences and ...
  • The Story Behind FMI’s Grocery Industry Benchmarking Research, Now 70 Years Old

    Nov 6, 2019
    This year marks the 70th anniversary of The Food Retailing Industry Speaks report. Throughout the decades, this research has documented important benchmarks and facts and figures of food retailers and wholesalers. The report’s value can be measured ...
  • New Jobs in The Grocery Industry

    Nov 4, 2019
    The Food Retailing Industry Speaks 2019 report asked food retailers to share their plans for labor investments over the next two years. Here are some of the new jobs you can expect to see in the grocery ...
  • How Grocers Are Investing in Technology

    Oct 28, 2019
    The rapid evolution and implementation of technology in food retail can boost performance on the operational side and enhance engagement on the customer-facing front, not to mention the growing role of ecommerce. Let’s look at some of the ways that ...
  • Food Retailers Develop Free Hepatitis A Resource to Protect Public Health

    Oct 25, 2019
    The FMI Food Protection Committee (FPC) published the Hepatitis A Information Guide for Food Retail. This resource aims to protect public health and reduce the likelihood of foodborne illness by answering common questions regarding food safety, ...
  • Speaks 2019: How Can You Benefit?

    Oct 8, 2019
    Based on response to the 2019 The Food Retailing Industry Speaks survey, food retailers are moving forward with proactive strategies to navigate the barriers and embrace new opportunities. As part of this process, food retailers are learning how to ...
  • Speaks 2019: Success Despite or Because of Challenges

    Sep 30, 2019
    What did the 70th version of Speaks reveal? It paints the picture of a resilient industry continuing to address the diverse range of challenges confronting it. Some of the hurdles are old and familiar, such as growing interchange fees and rising ...
  • Loyalty Programs: Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All About You

    Sep 26, 2019
    Thirty years later shoppers are still sharing data with their grocery store, privacy is still a concern, and there is a limit to the willingness of shoppers to share personal information for specific benefits. According to the 2019 U.S. Grocery ...
  • How Is Online Shopping Changing Grocery Shopping?

    Sep 23, 2019
    This year’s U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report takes a deep dive into the growing world of online shopping and explores how the evolving ecommerce world is changing how Americans shop for food and how that may impact food retailers. On the surface, ...
  • Gen Z Shoppers Partner with Grocery Stores on Health and Wellness

    Sep 18, 2019
    Young adulthood is a time of freedom, discovery and charting your path in the world. Eating balanced, healthy meals is normally a low priority during this time. Gen Z, however, couldn’t be more different—they are young adults focused on ...
  • Three Lessons Grocers Can Learn from Starbucks About Foodservice

    Sep 16, 2019
    According to the 2019 Power of Foodservice at Retail report, in a typical week, an average of 4.5 dinners are prepared at home, whether cooked from scratch or using semi/fully prepared items. When preparing dinner, 63% of consumers incorporate time-...
  • Online Shopper Reality and the Limits of Intuition

    Sep 10, 2019
    Since the advent of online grocery shopping, it has just been intuitively assumed that this new channel would take a major bite out of brick-and-mortar grocery traffic and sales. It just felt like a logical assumption that as people more frequently ...