Research

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 ...

Inside Boardroom: The Importance of Food Safety

In the fifth part of our Q&A series, I spoke with Hilary Thesmar, PhD, RD, CFS, VP of food safety programs at FMI, and Chris Baker, partner in Oliver Wyman’s Retail Practice, on the importance of food safety to our industry. Food safety has always ...

How Should You Be Approaching Healthcare in a Retail Food Setting?

In the fourth part of our series on Boardroom, I spoke with Graegar Smith, principal in Oliver Wyman’s Health & Life Sciences Practice, on retail healthcare and new findings from Oliver Wyman’s survey on consumers’ experiences with alternative sites ...

IdeaXchange: Are we experiencing a grocery revolution or a grocery evolution?

Change comes at a varying pace. Sometimes it is fast and forced; sometimes it is incremental and modulated. When it comes to consumer attitudes about food safety, health and wellness, and desire for more nutritious, economic food options, the food ...

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 ...

How Does Omnichannel Fit into Your Business?

In the second part of our series, I spoke with Chris Baker, Oliver Wyman Partner and North America Retail Practice Co-leader, and Jacqui Martinez, Oliver Wyman Retail Practice Partner, on the emergence of “click-and-collect” and omnichannel retail ...

Sneak Peek Inside the Boardroom

Yesterday I had the pleasure of interviewing the architects of a new collaborative piece of intellectual property that shares insights from some of the leading experts in food retail on a selection of the most critical issues executives must ...

Boardroom: Charting the Changing Food Retail Environment

Boardroom is comprised of original perspectives from leading experts in food retail on a selection of the most critical issues executives must confront in boardrooms across the country and around the world. We are excited to share a series of Q&As ...

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 ...

Grocery Revolution or Evolution

With more shoppers than households, grocery stores are finding ways to set themselves apart in order to grow their business. Differentiation is becoming the new competitive edge. We see this unfolding in FMI’s two annual signature research studies, ...

Grocery Stores Catering to a Food Truck Mentality

In the recent research by FMI/IRI on top trends in fresh, supermarkets are expanding their “Specialty Food Service” by installing sushi stations, charcuteries, juice bars, gourmet chocolate stations, Asian, Mexican, and many other specialty food ...

9 Meat Department Shopping Trends in 2016

The meat department is one of the most important categories for many food retailers. A good meat department can help a store differentiate itself from the competition, and can be a significant driver of sales and foot traffic. The 2016 Power of Meat ...

Helping Consumer Empowerment Become Food Retailer Empowerment

Consumers have always mentally weighed and emotionally entertained multiple factors when making their decisions about the food products they are considering. For years, those variables could easily be summarized in the easy formula of three words; ...

Top Trend in Fresh Foods: Transparency

More than ever before, consumers want to know where there food is from, what is in their food and even how their food will impact their lifestyles over time. The pressure to convey this information is especially relevant to supermarkets’ fresh ...

10 Findings on Fresh Prepared Foods in Grocery Stores

New research from FMI and Technomic, The Sophistication of Supermarket Fresh Prepared Foods, finds that as supermarkets become increasingly skilled in food service, this decision for shoppers becomes more complex. The study details the ...