Research

The Power of the Annual Meat Conference

For 15 years, the Power of Meat report has been a highly anticipated part of the Annual Meat Conference. For everyone, 2020 was quite a year and for the meat department that was particularly true. As a result, FMI and NAMI decided to break our ...

Resolutions Re: Solutions for 2021

I found it refreshing to read David Orgel’s recent article How to Be Ready for Anything in 2021 in Drug Store News. It isn’t so much a piece about predictions and resolutions for a new year. It’s more of a preparedness “how-to” for retailers as they ...

Don’t Overlook Foodservice-at-Retail in the Path Forward

Already a hybrid of restaurants and retail, grocery foodservice programs straddle concurrent shopper interest in convenient, high quality, good-tasting, nutritious and safe meals, snacks and drinks. Consumers may not be able to share a utensil at ...

A Private Brands Opportunity With Big Potential

As private brands grow into robust brands in their own right, it’s more important than ever to get the word out to shoppers. That’s why FMI recently explored whether getting store associates more engaged can make a difference. In conducting research ...

2020: The Year of the Food Industry

From the cashiers and stockers to the store managers and executives, the drivers and food processors and pharmacist and nutritionists, to the data analysts, delivery experts and farmers, our industry is filled with true Food Industry Heroes who have ...

Today is Giving Tuesday!

Following closely on the retail-oriented heels of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday provides us with the opportunity to begin the holiday season on a charitable giving note. If you are participating in the ...

The Most Important Communications Tool During COVID-19: Transparency

Every year in The Food Retailing Industry Speaks report we ask food retailers about their communications channels/methods and which they find to be most effective. In a typical year I’d tell you which social media channels food retailers are finding ...

Industry Contributions to Health and Well-being

As noted in The Food Retailing Industry Speaks 2020 (Speaks) report, “the greatest health crisis in 100 years has scrambled just about every facet of food retail, not to mention society in general.” As a result, one guiding imperative resonates ...

New Twists on Retail Differentiation Strategies

Food retailers have been adapting their product and service differentiation strategies. In 2019, they pushed the boundaries to enhance strategies in specific areas. Then, in the pandemic period, they have pivoted on some strategies to accommodate ...

Innovation Takes on New Meaning in Private Brands

When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, many companies temporarily put at least some private brand product innovation on hold to address the crisis. More recently, we’re starting to see a renewed commitment to innovation. Food retailers saw the pandemic ...

Food Retailers Put Technology Front and Center

Consider how technology experimentation has played out in the food retail industry. In recent years, retailers have made progress in fits and starts, going after use cases ranging from better customer experience to improved efficiency. ...

Witnessing the Food Industry

Recently, I was able to share insights gleaned from my experience by speaking at the Retailing Summit hosted by FMI’s newest university member, Texas A&M and the Mays School of Business Center for Retailing Studies. My talk at the virtual event was ...

Who Will (or Will Not) Be Sitting at Your Thanksgiving Table?

As I look at FMI’s most recent U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends COVID-19 Tracker, I see that we are not alone with our dilemma. Nearly a third of Americans are planning to do less this Thanksgiving than in previous years (30%). ...

How Food Retail Ecommerce Got Ready for Prime Time

In hindsight, it’s interesting how food retailers described their ecommerce sophistication a year ago in the FMI Food Retailing Industry Speaks report. Only 4% of responding companies with online sales considered themselves to be very sophisticated ...

Four Common Misconceptions About Food Prices

A number of misconceptions regarding grocery prices regularly permeate both the news and our water cooler conversations. These are due to a combination of outdated ideas that should have been put to rest long ago and high profile “examples” that are ...