Research

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 ...

2015 Year in Review: Top Stories in Research and Education

As 2015 comes to a close, we took an opportunity to look back at what sparked our readers’ interest this past year on the Voice of Food Retail blog. We’ll present the top blog posts across categories over the next few days. Thank you for reading and ...

How New Jersey’s Liquor Law Can Be Changed to Reap Economic Growth

Based on the success of the Massachusetts law, as evidenced by the FMI study, New Jersey should enact legislation to increase the amount of liquor licenses that are currently allocated. This will allow for more equity in the marketplace and reduce ...

IdeaXchange: The puzzlement of competition

At a key point in the Rogers and Hammerstein’s classic musical The King and I, King Mongkut of Siam sings of his exasperation in being unable to reconcile various learnings by declaring, “Is a puzzlement!” I know the feeling. And I am hoping the ...

Back by Popular Demand: Surveys on Grocery Financial Leaders and Internal Auditors

In 2012, FMI conducted a survey among its retail financial leaders and internal auditors and presented the results at the 2013 Financial Executive and Internal Auditing Conference. By popular demand, FMI is repeating these studies and requesting ...

Myth or Treat: Correcting Food Retail Misconceptions

The food retail industry is accessible and customer-service-based, which are positive attributes that sometimes make a supermarket a susceptible target for unsolicited criticism. FMI remains your spokesperson on the public relations challenges that ...

New Coordinates on FMI’s Map of Food Retail Worries

Each year, FMI’s The Food Retailing Industry Speaks’ report captures the top concerns confronting the food retail industry in a popular feature called the Worry Index. This list is more than a simple list of current industry issues, as it is also ...

IdeaXchange: Food retailer as marriage counselor

FMI’s U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2015 contains the rather compelling statistic that 83% of U.S. adults report they have at least half the household responsibility for grocery shopping. The fact that 203 million people claim the status of primary ...

Top 5 Stories from FMI So Far This Year

With full inboxes and busy schedules, sometimes we miss things. That’s why it’s good to recap every now and then. With that in mind, here are the top five blog posts from FMI so far in ...

How Do Customers Shop for Produce?

Have you ever had a bird’s-eye view of how people shop the produce aisle? Do they stick to their shopping list, purchase unplanned items, compare prices? What brings them into the store and helps them make a decision on produce once they are in the ...

The “Better-for-You” Business Case: Four Buckets of Insights

The upcoming “Better-For-You” Business case study focuses on building the business case for healthier, lower-calorie foods by demonstrating the financial and marketing benefits from modifying marketing practices and product portfolios. Supermarkets ...

Celebrating National Library Week

Personally, I’ve had the great privilege to oversee the operations of the FMI Information Service for a very long time. Over the years, I’ve come to learn a lot about the food retail industry through the unique, rich resources housed in it and I’ve ...