Research

To Speak with One Voice

We refer to this new program as the Unified Voice Protocol and it is FMI’s most recent effort to establish a model approach to proactively perpetuate the environment of trust consumers tell us they enjoy with food retailers and to enhance that trust ...

Grocery Stores Explore More Social Media and Digital Advertising

A couple of years ago, I wrote about how grocery stores used social media with findings from our 2015 Food Retailing Industry Speaks report to make the case that the food retail industry was just beginning to dip their toe in the digital marketing ...

Surprise! Shoppers Expect Retailers to Know the Answer to These Questions

I have found I can usually trust my instincts and intuitions when it comes to knowing what most people think, and when I question my judgment in this regard I tend to rely on my Kentucky roots and the connections I still have there to gauge what ...

Challenges and Opportunities: Is the Food Retail Industry Unique?

Just two short months ago I started at FMI as the director of research. Through my first assignment, releasing the 67th edition of The Food Retailing Industry Speaks (Speaks) report, I quickly became immersed in the exciting and evolving food retail ...

The Unsung Heroes of Local Communities

While I often witness how the stores I frequent are involved in making a difference in our neighborhood, through the awards, I get to glimpse how the oft-unmentioned kindness of grocers throughout the U.S. can change their neighbor’s lives, proving ...

From Customer to Partner

Shoppers are on a quest to become more deeply connected to the food experience, and the retailer is a vital part of facilitating that connection – not just by providing the product, but also by providing the surrounding story about the product....

How Millennial Shopping Habits Relate to U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2017

Two Millennials in FMI’s office, compared their grocery shopping habits to FMI's 2017 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report....

Going the Distance for Consumers – Beyond the Label

Customers are looking for more and more information about the products they buy – the kind of detailed information that will not fit on the package, but can be conveyed electronically. ...

Families Look to Grocers for Help with Easy, Nutritious Meals

Despite these changes, one thing remains the same—families want to eat meals together. Seventy-one percent of parents say that ideally, they would like to eat dinner with their children every single night (Shopping for Health, FMI, 2016). ...

When It Comes to Produce, The Eyes Decide

Power of Produce 2017 finds three-quarter of shoppers plan their produce purchases pre-trip, and an even greater 86 percent of shoppers readily admit unplanned fruits and vegetables purchases frequently end up in their cart. That’s what makes ...

How My Weekly Grocery Shopping Habits Relate to U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends

My weekly trip to the grocery store, usually early on Sunday morning, often makes me wonder about my grocery shopping habits compared to the shopping trends I study and analyze from FMI's 2017 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report....

Buying the Luxury of Time to Think

The luxury of reflection and leisurely consideration is disappearing as we seek to do business in a world requiring us to stay two steps ahead or risk quickly finding ourselves three paces behind. At FMI, we have redoubled our efforts at identifying ...

Get To Know the Organic Food Shopper

I’ve combed through our recent research reports on fresh foods and pulled out some of the topline findings around organic for some specific departments. These findings help form an organic shopper persona that can be important to your business ...

Looking for Sales Growth? Reconsider Your GM & HBC Categories

Progressive Grocer recently reported about new research released during the FMI 2017 Midwinter Executive Conference that outlines the opportunity for grocery stores to increase sales by reconsidering their store’s General Merchandise (GM) and Health ...

The FMI Worry Index Then and Now

Arguably, nothing registers the changes confronting the industry better than the Worry Index feature in The Food Retailing Industry Speaks (Speaks) research. Comparing and contrasting the worry index lists from various years provides a real sense of ...