Research

The Power of Meat 2019

Shoppers are on a power trip when it comes to meat and poultry. And that’s not a bad thing. People continue to enjoy power-packed protein in their diets, usually in the form of meat....

The Category Heavyweight Poised for a Comeback: Frozen Food

The food retailing industry often touts the strength of the perimeter, namely, produce, meat, bakery or deli/prepared foods. But there’s a contender in the ring; a heavyweight that boasts $57 billion in retail sales that’s conditioning for a strong ...

The Boardroom’s Perspective of The Future of Retail

For the fourth year, FMI and Oliver Wyman have teamed up to provide thought leadership on the most pressing issues facing the food retail industry. The annual edition of Boardroom takes readers directly into the C-Suite of food retail companies and ...

Unifying the Food Retail Industry in 2018

The FMI Foundation worked to unite the food retail industry using three main campaigns: National Family Meals Month™, Unified Voice Protocol and Stir It ...

FMI’s 2018 Financial Diversity

Providing the retail food industry with the myriad products and services that FMI offers requires resources—both human and financial capital. To avoid being a one-pronged fork, any well-run business endeavors to diversify its revenue sources and FMI ...

Identifying Emerging Issues to Address Future Opportunities

Unless you’ve been in a coma, kidnapped by aliens or trapped in a sensory deprivation chamber for the last few years, it’s not news that the food industry is experiencing disruption at an unprecedented pace. Challenges and opportunities presented by ...

Exercising Research in 2018

This exercise was easy to do because FMI produces a rich collection of research on consumer trends and food retail operations—a total of 14 reports in 2018. As the voice of food retail, FMI strives to keep the food retail industry abreast of trends ...

FMI’s Strategic X’s and O’s in 2018

What is true for the industry is reflected in the life of its trade association. 2018 has been a year of the need for FMI to pay attention to where we plot our X’s while carefully watching out for those sneaky O’...

How Are Independent Operators Communicating with Shoppers?

Independent grocery store operators need their customer communications to be effective and support their bottom line, but with so many different digital and traditional communications channels, it’s hard to know where to invest time and resources. ...

Grocery Store Digital Communications Trends: The Rise of Email and The Fall of SnapChat

As a digital communications professional I like to take a step back from my day-to-day job of actually doing digital communications and look at FMI’s Food Retailing Industry Speaks with a practitioner’s eye. I like to look at the tactics my fellow ...

Growing Optimism – Tax Law to Boost Food Retailers’ Investments in Stores and Employees

Retailers have another source of optimism: the recent passage of the tax reform law. At the end of 2017, lawmakers passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which lowered the U.S. tax rate for corporations, passthrough entities and individuals. The ...

6 Trends From Kroger That Support Our U.S. Grocery Shopping Trends

As witnesses to national consumer trends affecting the way FMI members cater to their customers, I appreciate chances to learn directly from our members on ways they seize opportunities with shoppers and help set the tone for the future of our ...

Photo Friday: Food Forward

FMI President and CEO Leslie Sarasin recently spoke at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Food Forward event and moderated a discussion on Mapping Consumer Trends with Nicole Davis, senior innovation manager of our brands for Kroger, and ...

The Transparency Imperative: The Foundation of Trust and Loyalty

“Transparency is an imperative for growing consumer trust and loyalty.” These wise words are offered by FMI’s Doug Baker, vice president, industry relations in assessing The Transparency Imperative research study released in September by FMI, with ...

Making Disruption Work for Your Business

Food retailers continue to see opportunities for differentiation as consumer expectations continue to shift and evolve. They have also become increasingly savvy, having to compete with an ever-growing set of rivals. We’re seeing a variety of ...