Research

A Fly on The Wall: A Look at The Food Industry’s Performance

FMI is about to release our 71st annual The Food Retailing Industry Speaks report, which tracks operations and strategic initiatives of the food retail industry. This year’s Speaks report reviews performance for 2019, but it also incorporates ...

A Rollercoaster Ride for The Meat Department in 2020

The past six months has been so “unprecedented” that FMI and NAMI decided to break our trend of annual reports to conduct a The Power of Meat: Midyear 2020 Edition to take a fresh look at what was happening in the meat industry from the shopper’s ...

Why Do Shoppers “Shop Around?”

What is it that drives grocery shoppers to “shop around?” For many grocery shoppers it is private or store brands. Private brands, according to Trends, are a key driver of perceptions that the store meets a shopper’s needs. Grocery stores that ...

A Millennial Declaration to Strengthen Family Meals

At the intersection of health and well-being and food safety, the Family Meals Movement signifies community service, inclusion, respect and a drive to build a brighter future ...

As Shoppers Become Brand Agnostic, What Does That Mean for Private Brands?

Today’s shoppers bring a broad and sophisticated range of criteria with them when making their food shopping decisions. While there still remain occasions and situations where brand is the prime driver (I would never consider any ketchup other than ...

Taking Stock of Where We Are: A Look at the Impact of COVID-19 on Grocery Shopper Habits

For five long months, we have all been experiencing the unprecedented realities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the frustrating truths of supply and the dramatically increased demand for groceries. Once ingrained grocery shopping ...

Confessions of a Leftover Laggard

I admit to being a bit late to the game when it comes to appreciating the benefits and advantages to leftovers. Truth be told, I’ve never liked them. Even as a child, my Mother reported I would roll my eyes and, in my television-influenced ...

Making the Cut: Meat and Poultry Back to the Center of the Plate

Think of today’s selling environment like one of those retail meat cut posters hanging in the butcher shop or meat department. There is a market as a whole, but it is portioned into different sections. Each section has its own features and ...

Are We Eating Healthier During COVID-19?

According to the 2020 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends report, 21% of Gen Z and Millennials report eating much healthier during the COVID-19 pandemic and 27% report eating somewhat healthier during the pandemic. As a Millennial mom I couldn’t help but ...

Moving from Weariness to Well-being

For five months now, requirements in addressing COVID-19 have touched, affected, or changed most every aspect of our lives. Not the least of these is the fact it has reversed a significant food trend; it has driven us from being an eating culture, ...

The Pandemic Has Not Stopped Me from Grocery Shopping In Person

The ongoing pandemic has certainly put a crimp in my style. But I never stopped going to the grocery store. While COVID-19 fears shifted online grocery shopping spending from 14.5% to an astounding 27.9%, according to U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends ...

Variety to Rationalization to Pantry Loading – Are SKUs Poised to Recover Post-Pandemic?

The food supply chain disruption has brought up, once again, the question of just how many products do we really need on grocery ...

A New Look at Shopper Transparency Expectations

The growing power of ecommerce is underscored in FMI’s U.S. Grocery Shopping Trends 2020 (Trends) report. Weekly online grocery spend reported by shoppers soared to 27.9% of all grocery spending in the March/April period of this year, from 14.5% in ...

COVID-19 Has Made Me Lose the Joy of Cooking

Cooking brings me joy! At least that was the case until the pandemic struck. One would think that the absence of an hour-long commute at the end of the workday would make me even more excited to cook dinner. Nope. At the end of the day, I am ...

Grocery’s Ecommerce Evolution during COVID-19

The pandemic has accelerated ecommerce demand, pressuring capabilities and providing invaluable lessons for the future. I am not usually one to make dramatic statements about industry developments, but I have mostly put that aside during this ...