Research

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 ...

Taking the Pulse of the Industry, It is Not Just About the Worry (Index)

This year, in analyzing the data from the questions that historically shaped the Worry Index, we found that there were as many factors that contributed positively to sales and profits as there were factors negatively impacting the bottom line. ...

From Private Label to Private Brand

When I started with FMI in 2014, one of the first goals I had was to move the industry from using the term “private label” to “private brand.” With the momentum, innovation and awareness the private brand industry was receiving, it felt like an ...

Total Digital Maturation in Online Grocery Shopping Is Only Five to Seven Years Away

“The Digitally Engaged Food Shopper” report spells out six significant digital imperatives that the industry must deal with to achieve its goal of a seamless and profitable omnichannel model. The imperatives range from “getting the right people in ...

Moving from Worry to What Works

As a good-news oriented, lets-find-the-opportunity–here kind of person, it troubles me that the piece of FMI research posed for annually providing a snapshot of the state of the food retail industry tends to focus on concerns and ...

I'm A 25-Year-Old-Grocery-Shopping Boomer?

Have you ever wondered if you shop like your generation? You may find you identify with some their shopping habits, but not every shopper aspect....